Saturday, January 13, 2007

Parcells hasn't been the answer

Parcells hasn't been the answer
02:07 PM CST on Friday, January 12, 2007

Matt Mosley

Bill Parcells' assistant coaches spent the first part of the week holed up in their offices attempting to avoid eye contact with the head coach.

In other words, it was business as usual at Valley Ranch.

Longtime assistant Mike Zimmer raced out the back door after Bobby Petrino offered him an escape route in Atlanta.

And it's almost startling to see Zimmer being quoted after he and his fellow assistants were, for the most part, silenced four years ago.

At his other coaching stops, Parcells may have earned the right to go out on his own terms.

But not here, where he's basically been a .500 coach.

No matter how many times Jerry Jones talks about how much better shape this team is in than when Bill first arrived, Jones can't hide how disappointed he is that it hasn't translated into playoff wins.

The Bill apologists (spots now available) will point to those three consecutive 5-11 seasons leading up to his arrival and say this team is poised to make a Super Bowl run.

I'm just trying to figure out what they're hanging their hats on.

Is it a soon-to-be 66-year-old head coach who's watched his teams fade in December four straight years?

Or perhaps it's the return of linebacker Greg Ellis, who may become the first player to make a run at Canton by missing eight games due to injury.

No, the biggest indictment of this team is that it suffered another collapse in a season when the NFC was pathetic. Think about it.

If we'd known before the season that the Giants would implode and the Redskins wouldn't even show up, our expectations would've been even higher than they were.

That Bill's rallying cry late in the season was basically "We're not the only ones who suck" is just sad.

You heard players talking about turning things around, but you never got the sense they believed those words. This is a team that didn't appear to have any leadership on defense in the absence of Ellis.

Linebacker Bradie James appointed himself team spokesperson but then proceeded to get exposed on a weekly basis (see Jon Kitna).

And safety Roy Williams might be the biggest name on defense, but he's not wired for leadership – or covering tight ends.

Jerry has said repeatedly that he wants Bill to return for what would amount to a lame-duck season. He says he doesn't see his head coach's year-to-year status as a negative, but I sense he's ready for closure.

Meanwhile, the only thing we've heard from Bill is an angry denial of his reported interest in the Giants' GM job.

Right now, he's trying to decide whether he can leave $5.5 million sitting on the table.

I'm told he's already been contacted by at least one major TV network and he could easily land a consultant's job somewhere. But neither of those options would offer him anything close to what he's earning here.

The longer Bill waits, the fewer replacements Jerry will have to choose from.

And so we wait …