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2008-2009 Regular Season: Postgame -
Who Will Stand Up And Lead?
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- September 29, 2008 At
11:58 AM EST
- By
Eric M. Scharf
Most fans probably saw Emmitt say, at the end of the Cowboys / Green
Bay game, that the team has no leaders. He sat there, next to T.O.,
and asked him point-blank: "Who are the leaders on this team?" And,
of course, T.O. would not dare answer that one the way he would have
preferred to respond. And, even if he did, he is not Michael Irvin .
. . just from the leadership standpoint (and this is not to pick on
T.O.).
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- Just follow for a moment: Irvin would get in the faces of the
O-linemen and demand that they dig down deep and find a way to give
Aikman more time to throw to anyone who was open, give Emmitt better
running lanes, and give Moose more time to get out of his block and
out for a nice swing pass or dump off “underneath.”
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- Irvin would get
in the faces of his defensive teammates and challenge them to play
tighter coverage, make faster switches in the secondary before the
plays began, try more stunts up the middle on the D-line, and come
off the corners faster from the “elephant” position (a la Demarcus
Ware).
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- No one, of course, would ever dare challenge Irvin,
especially if he was right, because he always brought 200% effort to
every practice and every game.
None-the-less, if someone can tell me that T.O. or any other player
on the current Cowboys team has done that, can do that, and has been
doing it on a regular basis, then, I stand corrected. That is the
kind of leadership we need on this team. We also need a player who
can get up in front of the podium after the game and really own up
to the mistakes that happened during losses (in a one-and-done
fashion).
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- Pretend Romo got up in front of the media yesterday
evening and said: "Yeah, as much as we stunk up the joint as a team
with our mistakes, and the Skins ran some different things and new
schemes that had us completely confused on offense and defense.
Could we have been more or better prepared? Hind sight is 20 / 20. All I know is I could have done more, the whole team could have done
more, and no one likes losing to a division rival. We are going to
do everything we can to come out swinging against the Bengals,
because we want this bad taste out of our mouths and fast."
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- See? A
few simple, heartfelt statements that do not throw individual
teammates under the bus, that do not upset Jerry or the coaching
staff, and that, most importantly, signal (any kind of signal,
please!) to the fans that the players, on this year’s team, really
are as adversely affected by poor play as we, the fans, have become.
Regarding Bill Cowher, or someone with his intensity, he is going to
have more success with his style once the league agrees to allow you
to DRESS ALL 53 ROSTER SPOTS, rather than just 45. Why does this
make a difference? It allows someone like Cowher to pull a Jimmy
Johnson, an "attention getter," and whack a well-liked player
(in social circles) that is just not
holding up his end of the bargain (in gridiron gains).
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- When players know that there are
8 more players ready and waiting to replace them, it may not make a
gigantic difference, but it will help someone like Cowher, who, if
he chooses to return to coaching, will return to a league that has
even more prima donnas, errr, star players who are unwilling to
listen to the voice of reason, or the voice that signs their
paychecks.
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- This is a fact that exists regardless of whether or not
Bill Cowher could get along with Jerry Jones as well as Bill
Parcells has (and we all know that Bill did far better than anyone
thought he would in the presence of Jerry).
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- It would be a thrill for the Cowboys
(or any team) to have the other Bill . . . but would the
prima players sour too quickly on Cowher?
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- We may see. We shall see. We always
do.
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