Cowboys reeking of desperation
by Richard Oliver:
San Antonio Express-News
Something smells in the land of the Tuna.
The breakthrough campaign forecast for the Cowboys has instead become a season on the stink, and what's wafting through the Valley Ranch corridors these days isn't exactly what you'd call rosy optimism.
It reeks of desperation.
Especially in a team setting, the scent of it can assault the senses quicker than a rancher shuffling into the house after taking a shortcut through the barnyard.
How Dallas' locker room reacts in the aftermath will be telling.
Players can tackle the odoriferous mess they're in or recoil from it. The result will play out on the scoreboard soon enough.
A little more than a third of the way through this campaign, the Cowboys are at 3-3 and gasping in the NFC East, at the kind of crossroads that will decide more than Sunday's pivotal showdown.
Coach Bill Parcells chose a new course this week by making a long-awaited switch at quarterback, installing young firebrand Tony Romo ahead of warhorse Drew Bledsoe.
Mark it down as the defining moment of the coach's tenure with Dallas.
If this latest maneuver fails, the next significant change should aim a bit higher than any shotgun snap.
It's the Tuna who should roll.
After all the drafts, free-agent signings and personnel shifts over the past four-plus seasons, Parcells heads to Carolina with only a 28-27 record in Dallas, including one abbreviated playoff run and more starting quarterbacks than big-game victories.
En route to the Hall of Fame, the legendary coach appears stuck in stall and blame. Hired to be a champion, Parcells has too often been Chan Gailey.
Suddenly, it seems he's no Bill Belichick or Charlie Weis. Heck, at this point he's no Sean Payton.
As the pupils have become the masters, the Cowboys have become mediocre again.
It's time to take a hard look at why.
Owner Jerry Jones said Thursday that he feels the impact of it, admitting he's lowered expectations for a season he projected as something special.
"I have to be a realist," the owner said. "I hadn't thought or hoped that we'd be sitting here after the sixth game making these adjustments."
That, he added, "is a step back."
It should also be an alarm bell for Parcells. The man who views accountability as a standard, often waving it before his troops like a signal flag, should be held to the same over the next 10 games.
If he doesn't take these horses to the Super Bowl, perhaps he should go back to betting on others at Saratoga.
Parcells, 65, would have an answer for that today, and it would be a description awfully similar to what that rancher might be scraping off his boots. During his career, the ascribed genius has generally viewed his management skills to be hindered only by the folks carrying out the orders.
In the latter part of his coaching journey, that has usually involved the quarterback position.
The move to the brash Romo has a precedent on Parcells' resume. In 1997, with the New York Jets offense misfiring, the coach yanked Neil O'Donnell, like Bledsoe a Super Bowl graduate, in favor of another unheralded, cocksure thrower named Glenn Foley.
"It's a what-have-you-done-for-me-lately game with him," Foley, a former Boston College overachiever, said later. "That's how he runs it."
By early 1998, Foley was out and retread Vinny Testaverde in. In a stunning resurgence, the former Tampa Bay quarterback amassed 29 touchdowns and only seven interceptions, leading New York to the AFC title game.
Today, Parcells has found his latest Foley, and it has come to this for Cowboys fans: The hope for the future again rests on a question mark.
Just as it did when Parcells brought Testaverde to the Cowboys and later Bledsoe. And just as it didn't when the Cowboys coach failed to aggressively court Drew Brees and Jake Delhomme, among others, last offseason.
As a result, Dallas heads to Carolina today after a move that smacks of desperation.
And, after all this time, that stinks.
San Antonio Express-News
Something smells in the land of the Tuna.
The breakthrough campaign forecast for the Cowboys has instead become a season on the stink, and what's wafting through the Valley Ranch corridors these days isn't exactly what you'd call rosy optimism.
It reeks of desperation.
Especially in a team setting, the scent of it can assault the senses quicker than a rancher shuffling into the house after taking a shortcut through the barnyard.
How Dallas' locker room reacts in the aftermath will be telling.
Players can tackle the odoriferous mess they're in or recoil from it. The result will play out on the scoreboard soon enough.
A little more than a third of the way through this campaign, the Cowboys are at 3-3 and gasping in the NFC East, at the kind of crossroads that will decide more than Sunday's pivotal showdown.
Coach Bill Parcells chose a new course this week by making a long-awaited switch at quarterback, installing young firebrand Tony Romo ahead of warhorse Drew Bledsoe.
Mark it down as the defining moment of the coach's tenure with Dallas.
If this latest maneuver fails, the next significant change should aim a bit higher than any shotgun snap.
It's the Tuna who should roll.
After all the drafts, free-agent signings and personnel shifts over the past four-plus seasons, Parcells heads to Carolina with only a 28-27 record in Dallas, including one abbreviated playoff run and more starting quarterbacks than big-game victories.
En route to the Hall of Fame, the legendary coach appears stuck in stall and blame. Hired to be a champion, Parcells has too often been Chan Gailey.
Suddenly, it seems he's no Bill Belichick or Charlie Weis. Heck, at this point he's no Sean Payton.
As the pupils have become the masters, the Cowboys have become mediocre again.
It's time to take a hard look at why.
Owner Jerry Jones said Thursday that he feels the impact of it, admitting he's lowered expectations for a season he projected as something special.
"I have to be a realist," the owner said. "I hadn't thought or hoped that we'd be sitting here after the sixth game making these adjustments."
That, he added, "is a step back."
It should also be an alarm bell for Parcells. The man who views accountability as a standard, often waving it before his troops like a signal flag, should be held to the same over the next 10 games.
If he doesn't take these horses to the Super Bowl, perhaps he should go back to betting on others at Saratoga.
Parcells, 65, would have an answer for that today, and it would be a description awfully similar to what that rancher might be scraping off his boots. During his career, the ascribed genius has generally viewed his management skills to be hindered only by the folks carrying out the orders.
In the latter part of his coaching journey, that has usually involved the quarterback position.
The move to the brash Romo has a precedent on Parcells' resume. In 1997, with the New York Jets offense misfiring, the coach yanked Neil O'Donnell, like Bledsoe a Super Bowl graduate, in favor of another unheralded, cocksure thrower named Glenn Foley.
"It's a what-have-you-done-for-me-lately game with him," Foley, a former Boston College overachiever, said later. "That's how he runs it."
By early 1998, Foley was out and retread Vinny Testaverde in. In a stunning resurgence, the former Tampa Bay quarterback amassed 29 touchdowns and only seven interceptions, leading New York to the AFC title game.
Today, Parcells has found his latest Foley, and it has come to this for Cowboys fans: The hope for the future again rests on a question mark.
Just as it did when Parcells brought Testaverde to the Cowboys and later Bledsoe. And just as it didn't when the Cowboys coach failed to aggressively court Drew Brees and Jake Delhomme, among others, last offseason.
As a result, Dallas heads to Carolina today after a move that smacks of desperation.
And, after all this time, that stinks.
posted by The Gryphon at 6:52 PM
<< Home