-
-
-
2008-2009 Regular Season: Postgame -
Expect The Expected?
-
- December 30, 2008 At
1:13 AM EST
- By
Eric M. Scharf
Leading up to this game, half of the nation expected the Cowboys to
settle themselves down just in time to beat the Iggles and rejoin
the semi-elite club known as NFL playoff qualifiers. After all,
qualifying for the playoffs is not nearly as impressive as winning a
playoff game.
Meanwhile, the other half of the nation expected the Cowboys to melt
down into so much of the artificial cheese whiz in which rabid
Iggles fans love to take a bath with their stadium concessions.
The Cowboys knew that if they could count on one fact, it would be
that the Iggles always wear their pride emblazoned across their
jerseys, like a skunk’s tail in full bloom, in every
back-against-the-wall game they play. Hatred of one’s eternal rival,
as well as losing games over the majority of your existence, can do
that to a team like the Iggles (lest any cocky fans forget what life
was like before the Minister of Defense arrived in the City of
Brotherly Hate).
None-the-less, Iggles fans and various other Cowboys haters
everywhere got their collective wish. The Cowboys not only showed up
flat as a snack cracker, they flat out quit. The cheese whiz put on
a better performance.
The Cowboys, to a man, looked completely out of sink from the
starting whistle, with the Iggles throwing everything and the
kitchen sink at their mortal enemy until the final whistle.
America’s Team was getting completely out-hustled to begin the game,
and on the brink of getting completely blown out in the second
quarter, and, yet, they had a single drive, loaded with running
plays, that could have given them hope and momentum, potentially
getting them back in the game.
-
- The Iggles were helpless to stop that
drive until the Cowboys found a familiar way, or giveaway, to end it
for them. This brief upswing was just another tease in a season long
line of blown opportunities.
The Eagles were playing “Kick the Can” with Romo’s already dinged-up
body, resulting in an incredibly painful injury involving torn rib
cartilage. The Cowboys’ O-line was, once again, Oh My God Awful,
but, then, everyone knew they would cave in early and often, after
nearly an entire season of inconsistent and woeful efforts.
-
- “Doomsday” was the nickname for the Cowboys’ defense in the ‘70s,
and it would only be fitting if “Jailbreak” was the nickname for the
Cowboys’ offensive line of 2008.
None-the-less, if out-of-action offensive lineman Kyle Kosier is as
valuable to the continuity of the offensive line as it appears,
then, the Cowboys should vote him as their player of the year and
pray that he can return completely healthy next season.
While the injury certainly affected Romo’s play and continued
participation in the game, he made his own mistakes leading up to
that point as well, almost regardless of his faulty offensive line.
The Tony Romo of 2007, who demonstrated incredible escapability with
the peripheral vision of a running back, would have kicked the
current offensive line to the curb and scrambled like there was no
tomorrow, doing anything he could to buy more time for his
receivers.
-
- The Tony Romo of 2008 spent the majority of the season
determined to stay in the pocket until the very last second,
assuming that one of his more capable receivers would eventually
break free from coverage just in time to make a play, save the day,
and prevent the offensive line from being overexposed.
The Cowboys suffered enough injuries on offense this year to make it
abundantly clear to Romo that he really needed to use every bit of
magic in his bag of tricks to overcome odds that increased game by
game. He, instead, chose to stand firm (in the pocket) in this final
game of the season, and he was rewarded for his efforts with a
wounded body and wounded pride.
Romo has spoken of showing faith in his teammates at various times,
which is admirable and demonstrative of some desperately-needed
leadership qualities. When you review your teammates’ body of work
prior to potentially playing the final game of the season, however,
and your findings repeatedly show inconsistency, poor effort, and
lack of heart, you know, in no uncertain terms, what you must do.
-
- You, objectively, cannot be so irresponsible as to force your
teammates into positions or roles for which they may have been
coached but for which they do not have the stomach to perform.
Further compounding Romo’s pressurized opportunities in this game
were a set of receivers who, outside of a gutsy effort by a gimpy
Jason Witten, were not clawing and fighting through bump-and-run
coverage, breaking loose from double teams, or altering / shortening
their routes to help their quarterback more.
-
- This fact,
unfortunately, just aims back at Romo, and it makes him seem foolish
for watching it happen and not adjusting before eventually getting
himself beaten down.
Again, Romo was thinking admirably, attempting to provide
encouragement to his teammates through (blind) faith, as they are
all paid to perform their assignments no matter what, but as the
Gambler likes to say: “You got to know when to hold 'em (behind that
porous offensive line), know when to fold 'em (behind that sieve),
Know when to walk away (from that swinging door) and know when to
RUN (away from that jailbreak).”
Does anyone remember all of those years that John Elway was the good
soldier, each and every game for Coach Reeves, playing within an
offensive style that was actually strangling him, and, then, within
the last few minutes of most of those games, the wraps came off with
the “simple” request that he “save the day for the entire team.”
-
- Elway did just that, and Romo, as everyone has seen, has many of
those same tools at his disposal. The difference is that Elway
decided, as soon as he was allowed in each game, to ditch blind
faith in his teammates and go to who was getting it done no matter
the play call or the whining star whose number may have been called.
Romo has that same power and self-made opportunity, and, for as much
as Parcells was always in his ear about always making the smart
decision, even Parcells would want Romo to improvise if all else
failed and a play absolutely had to be made. Romo has to give into
the fact that he can make all of the conventional plays and the
improvisational ones as well.
-
- Being a hybrid does not make you bad,
just unique. Bypassing a receiver who drops too many passes is ok to
do. Bypassing a receiver who has not had enough practice time with
you is ok, too. Bypassing a reliable receiver who is simply not open
is alright, as well. Bypassing the opportunity to advance the
football yourself, if need be, to live for another play is
unacceptable to fans and should be unacceptable to any player who
claims he wants to win every single game, every single time.
Romo has to realize that, as much as Jason Garrett wants him to play
within his offensive scheme, if the scheme is crumbling on a
particular play, if the offensive line resembles an amusement park
turn-style, if his receivers cannot seem to get open, and a play
needs to be made, then, Garrett will want him to turn imminent
failure into success through his Elway-like improvisational skills.
What about all of the grand comparisons to Brett Favre? Brett was
the Gunslinger who, while making some impossible throws, did not
always have to leave the pocket, thus, Favre was not the all-out
crazy-legs Gambler (like Tarkenton or Elway – who needed to scramble
and fire the unthinkable pass) . . . but I digress from the cheese
steak nightmare still so fresh in my mind.
The Cowboys’ defense, for all of its forward progress over the
season, ended up no more consistent than the offense, and it showed
as the defense cracked in the first quarter. Pacman Jones was
finally gobbled up by the ghosts that have been chasing him all
season long. Tank Johnson more resembled a Hummer H3 than an M1
Abrams. Anthony Henry was slower than ever, and on and on and on.
The Cowboys’ defense had neither the energy nor the desire (that
grown men should have but that coaches need to enforce) to compete
in this game. Then, again, that is what can happen when you spend
the early part of the game, and the rest of the game, and most of
the season prior to this game defending a short field due to any
number of shortcomings by the offense and not-so-special teams.
As a fan, in a perfect world, any unit of my team (offense, defense,
or special teams) should only be picked on for their own mistakes,
not the mistakes of the unit that preceded them onto the field, but
that is not how competitive sports work, at any level.
Speaking of coaching, this “grown men know what to do”
song-and-dance is only as legitimate as the strength of the
leadership of the organization that would employ grown men. Talk is
cheap. Except for otherworldly performances by your opponent, if you
say something, you better do something to go along with it.
If you coach and practice hard all week for a do-or-die game, that
statement indicates that your entire team is ready to play, with the
right state of mind, a healthy respect for your opponent (on any
given Sunday), and a will to win at all costs. If you, then, play
the game for which you coached and practiced hard all week, and you
choke, make all the wrong adjustments, and sleepwalk your way
through the experience, then, you have made an utterly false claim.
-
- Yes, it really is that simple, that black and white, especially when
you are preparing for a known quantity, a historically bitter rival
– a team you have seen twice-a-year for several decades. You,
accordingly, deserve all of the hate mail you receive in the
following days, weeks, and months for your bold-faced lie.
There is no need to cry about unfair treatment, at this juncture,
and it is fruitless to suggest that “it is just a game,” or, “I just
do not know what happened out there.” Grown men – real grown men -
do not make such excuses. The grown men who are paid to coach these
other grown men now have a lot of time to perform some soul
searching; maybe conjure Elvis if it helps.
-
- And, just like Romo
needs to acknowledge and adjust to what plays and personnel will
help him succeed on-the-fly, so do the coaches need to make those
same adjustments . . . instead of waiting for divine intervention.
“You go first. No, you go first.”
And, yet, for all of the mistakes the coaching staff has made this
year, and they have made plenty, I still struggle with the idea that
coaches in such a high-profile business would knowingly provide
improper guidance and training to their team of grown men, again and
again and again, play after play, and game after game.
-
- No one I know
would want to be publicly associated with such abject failure while
employed by one of the top two most recognized “brands” in
professional sports (with the other being the New York Yankees, of
course). Then, again, maybe I have the answer I seek: if no one I
know would pursue this course of action, that must mean I do not
know anyone on the Cowboys’ coaching staff. If only the answers were
that simple.
The only thing that simple right now is how Dallas Cowboys fans
everywhere have now reached their off-season, where the Dallas
Cowboys organization makes its now-all-too-familiar attempt to
improve its roster of both players and coaches, of both talent and
maturity, of both brain power and cleverness, through free agency,
the draft, enhanced playbooks, and addition-by-subtraction. Good
old-fashioned fear may actually be employed this time as well.
Can the players finally be convinced to buy into the team concept,
can the coaches be convinced to employ clever play-calling no matter
which players are healthy, and can the organization prove to the
fans that America’s Team is back on the right track? The impending
offseason maneuvering will be meaningless, of course, unless the
Cowboys perform to their capabilities and desires during the regular
season.
-
- We, the fans, have several months to see how seriously our
team prepares itself for the 2009-2010 season, and, then, maybe we
will start to see reasons to get our popcorn ready again . . . or we
could all line up to get our blood drained or perform root canals on
each other. Where is that divine intervention when you really need
it?
|
