What a football weekend, the Eagles needed some major astrological alignment to work for them, and they needed to win against Dallas to have a chance to get into the post season. They needed Tampa Bay to lose to Oakland playing in Tampa. I had thought that to be not likely, but Oakland did not go quietly into the night, they fought and fought hard, (They have one hell of a punter as well) and pulled off the upset.
The other game we needed was a loss by Chicago. Houston isn’t a pushover but you would figure that the Bears would play with passion for a playoff spot, for the most part they did, but one player, one member of the “team” cost his team big time, Danieal Manning allowed Houston into the game by not doing his job. He had his hand in two plays in a four minute span that lead to 14 points for the Texans. Thanks for the help Houston.
And a big thank you goes out to Peter King’s other Goat of the Week, (Danieal Manning took first honors in that category), drum roll please, wait for it, America’s Team, the Big D, (is that D for dumb, disappointing, disastrous, destructive, dysfunctional, delusional, drubbed or something else?), you know the team that has the weepy eyed QB, he screwed up the field goal attempt a couple of years ago, and this time, he pretty much did the same thing but for a full 60 minutes. Not to pick only on Romo though, the entire team played like cheerleaders. To the Eagles, holy crap! What a game, defense, especially Brian Dawkins, I hope there is enough gas in the tank to keep that up. Great game! Yo Eagles, it’s a lot fun playing a game like that isn’t it? Now get your butts out there and go have some more fun!
Sunday was one of the five worst days in the 49-year history of the Dallas Cowboys. A buddy visiting some Cowboys friends at the team hotel Saturday night came away thinking how divided the team is, and how bad team chemistry is. End result: Philadelphia 44, Dallas 6. And it was every bit as bad, or worse.
I came to this conclusion: The Cowboys are the Yankees, in so many ways. New York has spent more money than every other team in baseball for the past eight years and not won a World Series. Dallas has acquired the most famous talent in all of football since 1997 and not won a playoff game. Twelve years, and counting.
The Cowboys do none of the very basics of football well. It's because they've concentrated on buying players like Terrell Owens, thinking this is fantasy football. Terrell Owens and Roy Williams at receiver and Jason Witten at tight end? Best in football! We'll crush everyone! But that isn't how football works. Dallas should have known when it acquired Williams in midseason that he takes a lot of care and feeding; as one Lions official who worked with Williams for several years told me Sunday, if you ignore Williams, he's going to give up. He takes after Owens in that way. Looked like Williams gave up on a route that resulted in a Tony Romo interception Sunday.
The larger lesson: In football, you can have a few stars, but they'd better be selfless on Sundays. Dallas' stars are consistently stroked by Jones, when sometimes he needs to either stay the heck out of the player-relation business or give the doggish player a boot in the rear.
Let's fix this team. One: Jerry's got to stop taking draft picks and throwing them at stars. First- and third-round picks seemed a bargain to get Williams, but now Dallas has a massive need at left tackle (Flozell Adams looks 53, not 33), guard, safety (Roy Williams was utterly invisible in 2008) and wide receiver. (We'll get to that in a minute.) Jones had a very good personnel man in Jeff Ireland, who left to go with Parcells. He's got another one now in Tom Ciskowski. Let the talent-miners mine for talent instead of hamstringing them.
Two: Cut the 34-year-old baby, Terrell Owens. With T.O. gone, Romo could drop back to pass and look for an open receiver -- not an open receiver with the number 81. You simply can't play football that way, and no matter what Romo says, I know he does it often enough so he makes sure Owens doesn't freak out on the sidelines or during the week. Build a receiving corps around Williams, Witten and Patrick Crayton (who's a decent player if he accepts being a third receiver). The cancerous Owens simply must go for the team to heal.
Three: Order the players to please, please stop saying they're the most talented team in football. Terence Newman, who played like a Bowling Green walk-on trying to cover LeBron James in Philadelphia, said it again Sunday.
Says who? Says the idiotic process of "voting'' for the Pro Bowl? It's an illusion. The most talented team in football doesn't lose a playoff-type game at home to Baltimore, then lose a playoff-type game by 38 to anyone. Perpetuating this myth only drags a team down. Tell the team: "If we were the most talented team in football, we'd be better than 0-6 in the playoffs in the last 10 years.''
Four: Jones is simply being stubborn in not firing Wade Phillips, or at least not hiring someone else and making Phillips the defensive coordinator. "Are we going to change coaches? The answer is no,'' Jones said Sunday night after this debacle. Suit yourself. How, Jerry, can you possibly ask your fans to have confidence in your staff going forward if you bring back a coach who let this team go to seed so quickly?
It won't be easy to fix this team, but Jones is the only one who can make it happen.
Peter King has some very good advice for those Cowboys, the good news is the owner of that team probably won't listen to one bit of it, so we'll be treated to another installment of As the Cow Plops, next season.
Source: The best 16 minutes of the season - Peter King - SI.com
