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2010-2011 Regular Season: Needs Improvement
Or Meets Expectations?
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- October 30,
2010
At 11:40 PM CST
By Eric M. Scharf
The 2010 NFL season had so much potential and promise to offer
Cowboys fans: the potential for the Cowboys to reach the ultimate
plateau . . . and the promise of a team that seemed dedicated and
focused to that end.
The 2010 NFL season has even more potential and promise to offer
Cowboys fans after six games: the potential for the Cowboys to have
already reached their ultimate plateau in week three against the
Houston Texans . . . and the promise of a team that must deliver
100% mental and physical effort for 60 minutes to win any of their
remaining games until the season is officially over.
Teased And Displeased
The Cowboys mercilessly teased their fans for a little over one
quarter in their 41-35 loss against the New York Giants last Monday
evening.
They delivered the goods (aggression, turnovers, an early lead,
special teams success, and limited penalties) and followed it up
with a colossal collapse after losing Tony Romo to a cracked
clavicle.
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- Romo may return in 8 weeks . . . or
he may wisely beg off this season's mental meltdown and focus on
tuning up for training camp. Everyone would understand if Romo chose
to remain in his physical sling to end the season – rather than his
teammates' mental sling.
The Cowboys are only human, and the loss of Romo was the very last
thing the Cowboys and their fans needed . . . but the visible lack
of leadership – from anyone on the team – in Romo’s absence was even
more disappointing than the loss they simply could not afford.
Fans cannot be faulted for believing the Cowboys’ leadership
problems had been solved at the conclusion of last year’s do-or-die
game in New Orleans.
Fans cannot be faulted for believing the Cowboys’ leadership would
learn from their Minnesota mistakes at the conclusion of last year’s
playoff run.
Fans cannot be faulted for believing the Cowboys’ leadership had
severely regressed over the first five games of the 2010 NFL season.
Fans, however, can be faulted if even one of them was not absolutely
shocked by the lack of a rallying effort immediately after Romo’s
injury – and after Dez Bryant’s splendid punt return for a
touchdown.
The Cowboys are only human, but they simply tanked until a couple
garbage time touchdowns made their game against the Giants
artificially close.
The defense spent much of the game – post Romo – chasing after or
running alongside their opponent . . . rather than triangulating and
tackling for minimal gain.
While Romo’s exit was a real punch to the gut of the entire
organization – from top to bottom – it was also a moment of Vick’s
vapor rub clarity for the Cowboys.
It was that moment – or after Dez’s special teams touchdown – or at
half time . . . when someone should have and may have made the
following statement:
“Everyone would expect us to fold without Tony. Everyone would
understand if we just lost our nerve. The problem is everyone is not
playing this game. Everyone is not fighting for their playoff lives.
Everyone is not facing the specter of another self-defeat. Everyone
is not us. We can either coil up into a ball, or we can fight with
everything we have in our arsenal. Nobody is lining up to throw us a
pity party. We must fight. We have to fight. We have no choice. We
need to stop (making mistakes), or we will continue to drop (further
into the cellar of the NFC East). We need to kick it up a notch for
Kitna.”
Fans may never learn if any kind of statement was made by any
Cowboys coaches or players, and it really does not matter – as the
second half result was a statement unto itself.
A visible “kill or be killed” attitude would have gone a long way
towards generating a stronger gut among reeling Cowboys players –
even if the Cowboys had still lost – and more respect for a Cowboys
team that has been stuck in neutral for much of the season.
Whether fair in the face of Tony’s injury or not, the Cowboys teased
their fans with the missing goods and went missing in action until
it was too late to tease again.
Boys Will Be Boys
The Cowboys finally did it with their latest loss to the Giants.
“Jerry’s Kids” finally sapped more of my energy than my own adorable
and loving children.
My kids (a six year old daughter with a pirate's attitude and a
three and a half year old son who copies her every move) regularly
make me feel like Wade Phillips in the results my efforts render. I
even respond to their issues like a
lethal mix of Jimmy Johnson and Bill Parcells – to no avail.
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Cowboys outperformed my kids while underperforming on Monday Night
football.
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- My son – until recently – was
terrorizing the household with a death-defying disinterest in potty
training.
He has finally begun to catch on. Fans continue to wonder when the
Cowboys are going to catch on.
Fans wish they were empowered to tap the old Circuit City “easy
button” and make all the Cowboys’ mental booboos go away – much like
how my wife and I would deal with our son’s potty training anxiety.
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- Imagine the possibilities. Master
the possibilities.
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- "Excuse me, Mr. Jones. Uh, Mr.
Phillips and Mr. Garrett – could you please step aside? Oh, and
could you toss your playbooks into this burning trash can we brought
along? We have some creative work to do."
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- "Mr. Scandrick? While you seem to
have no problem chasing down and hurting your own teammates in
training camp, we have noticed your regular season tendency to
simply run alongside your opponents . . . all the way into the end
zone. You should spend the remainder of your practice time chasing a
wild pass-catching ostrich. We understand you are the third of three
cornerbacks on the team, but the more often you stop ostrich from
making a reception, the more often you make it onto the field on
game day. We hope this will help you get that pre-season hitch back
in your regular season giddy up."
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- "Mr. Gronkowski – while we
understand rookies make mistakes, you may have missed the ultimate
assignment in allowing your starting quarterback to get
unnecessarily fitted for a shoulder harness. We believe you have
great potential – even with your big time blunder. We have asked
your mother to play quarterback during full contact max protection
drills, and your assignment is to block for her. We believe you will
not miss any further assignments . . . ever."
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- "Mr. Lee - Sean Lee? We know you are
only a rookie, but Bradie James and Keith Brooking would greatly
appreciate it if you could start pulling your own weight and play
more than special teams and a few defensive snaps. How about you
just stop letting your trick knee and hamstring give out all the
time? We will be referring to you as Kid Carpenter until you start
logging some serious time on the base defense."
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- "Mr. Austin – we have here a massive
vat of stickem into which you should thoroughly dunk your receiving
gloves. Roy Williams would have recommended this stuff, but he has
been relatively drop-free this year – and besides – stickem has been
illegal for years."
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- Fans could just imagine the first of
many home-baked training presentations – like the amateur wrestling
videos showing neighborhood kids diving from their rooftops (in full
flying elbow poses) onto other neighborhood kids . . . landing
"safely" onto coil-free mattresses.
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- If only fixing the 2010 Dallas
Cowboys was that simple – just like encouraging and teaching a young
kid how to go to the bathroom on the toilet . . . rather than
anywhere he pleased.
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- The Cowboys – coaches and players –
are no better or different than my son. They have to decide when
they want to get (back) into their big boy underpants.
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- It has been a maddening process for
the entire organization and their fans, but "only you can prevent
forest fires."
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- Only the coaches can coach in
practice, offer up more creative play-calling, and make better
in-game play-calling and personnel adjustments.
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- Only the players can pay attention
in practice, make plays within the game day systems being used, and
make adjustments to their own assignments if they see legitimate
pre-snap / post-snap opportunities.
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- Results are left to chance, but the
coaches and players have always known exactly what is expected of
them – from Jerry Jones to themselves to the fans.
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- Boys will be boys but, at some
point, just like my son the Cowboys simply need to catch on before
it is too late – for any remaining chance at the playoffs and for
any remaining chance at saving some of their own jobs . . . from
Jerry "Jack You Up In The Off-Season" Jones.
Cat Call
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- The Jacksonville Jaguars are on the
prowl at Cowboys Stadium – trying to catch the Cowboys napping for
the fourth game in a row – and hoping to slink away with the fourth
victory of their season.
The Cowboys know exactly what they need to fix. The issues – and
many remain – will only dissolve when the Cowboys have had enough of
them. Wade, Jason, and Joe will make an effort to draw up a solid game
plan against Jacksonville – creative or not, adjusted in-game or
not. The players – led by Keith Brooking and John Kitna – will make
an effort to execute those plays.
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- Everyone knows those efforts must be
as error-proof as possible. Almost any other team would see that as
an unfair disadvantage forced upon them by a perfectionist maniac.
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- The Cowboys are not just any other
team, and they have forced themselves into having to perform
perfectly in pursuit of a potential playoff position – rather than a
pathetic pronouncement on their once-promising 2010 pathway.
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- The season will become "the ultimate
missed assignment" the moment the Cowboys are officially
disqualified from the 2010-2011 playoffs.
The Dallas Cowboys are mentally and physically beaten up. Do they
have anything left in the tank with a new and different kind of
leader at the helm?
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- Some fans want the Cowboys to
soldier on – pleading with them not to give up on a season that
could still possibly-but-barely be Super.
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- Will the Cowboys acquiesce and fight
the good fight until there is nothing left for which to fight – or
will they insert Stephen McGee and other bench warmers to see what
they can do for the future?
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- The Cowboys have no such choice with the
condition of their offensive line – among other positions where they
are suddenly in bad physical shape.
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- Will Dallas show up at Cowboys
Stadium expecting the Jaguars to put on a Puss 'N Boots performance
. . . or expecting Jacksonville to be the latest cats lined up to
scratch their eyes out?
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- Will Jacksonville be just so much
cat food for a pissed off Cowboys contingent? Will the Jaguars carve
up just so much catatonic Cowboy catnip?
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- The Cowboys need improvement – with
the raw talent remaining ready for rapid remolding. Can the Cowboys
finally deliver more than a glimmer of improvement or – to the
dismay of fans everywhere – are they simply meeting newer and lower
expectations?
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- The semester is not yet over. Can
the Cowboys start making the grade and meeting their original
expectations?
We shall see. We always do.
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