There’s no joking about Dallas Cowboys’ expectations
JENNIFER FLOYD ENGEL
jenfloyd@star-telegram.com
What a joker that Coach Wade is, giving himself a catchy nickname a year ago and now dropping this verbal gold.
Mr. Fix It says: "Get the ring finger ready."
You would think he’d be trying to temper already crazy-big Cowboy expectations, focus on winning a playoff game, actually fix this defense. Not Wade Phillips. He can’t help himself.
Got to love a man willing to giggle his way to an ultimatum.
Because while Coach Wade may have been joking, prodded on by a coach chanting likewise in Monday’s luncheon crowd, he said what everybody thinks. He had better deliver on a ring for Owner Jones in February — and, no, they do not make 13-3, bye-week rings — or he is going to be so bleeping fired. And rightfully so.
It is time to embrace the horror. Ring is the expectation.
The Dallas Cowboys are good. No, good is not nearly big enough of a word for how far and away the better they are than the rest of the NFC. They have to be prohibitive favorites to play New England or Indy or whoever the AFC offers up in the Super Bowl.
Do not confuse this with Owner Jones’ delusions of optimism, the days when he used to look at Quincy Carter, Troy Hambrick, et al. and predict 10 wins and be serious. This is not those teams. They have the quarterback and playmakers everywhere else. They have talent — talent that has been unable to put it together — but still talent on defense. They have everything they need, kind of like a year ago, only ratcheted up a level or two thanks to the additions of Adam Jones and Felix Jones and everybody else Jerry Jones tossed big bucks at this off-season.
The danger, of course, is the talent gets wasted, that the year ends without a playoff victory again and everybody is left to fake a smile and pretend like 13 wins and a bye week are good enough, like last January.
Except for Coach Wade, who will be fired for this failure.
He has a lot riding on this season so it is probably good that he thinks the Cowboys can "get the ring finger ready." That said, he may want to jot down a few basic talking points with camp starting Thursday in Oxnard, Calif.
Don’t let them let up in December.
Win a playoff game.
And basically, just don’t screw it up.
Because let’s be real, who is going to challenge these Cowboys? I say this fully realizing tradition for this time of year is to focus on what is wrong/missing/questionable about the local team. So you see lists of obstacles and teams who might be problematic.
These Cowboys are not without flaws but so is the rest of the NFC. My very unscientific, incomplete, non-power NFC rankings are as follow:
1. Dallas Cowboys. Because when Mr. Fix It says "get the ring finger ready," you get the ring finger ready.
2. NY Giants. How does the defending Super Bowl champ end up behind a team they beat along their playoff way? Because they won HOW. Tom Coughlin, in calls to his buddies Bill Parcells and Dan Henning, probably giggles a lot and says things like, "Yeah, I do not know how we did that either. I hope nobody expects us to do it again." Of course, they will be in the playoffs again and unloading Jeremy Shockey on New Orleans helps, but they are still not the team to beat in the East.
3. New Orleans Saints. My Super Bowl pick from a year ago cannot possibly be that bad again. For starters, I am not picking them. So they have that going for them. And, hey, maybe the tattooed jerk will be on best behavior for Sean Payton.
4. Seattle Seahawks. Are those wacky Seahawks with the walrus coach the most non-threatening contender ever or what? They always seem to be in the playoffs — thank you, NFC West — without ever coming across as formidable. So look for them to do what they always do which is win right up until they have to leave Seattle.
5. Washington Redskins. Jason Campbell has potential to be very, very good, thus making this team really good. Although, I do find myself asking: Who is their coach again? And when my husband testily reminds me "It is still Jim Zorn" for the 457th time, I laugh for the 457th time. What in the world were they thinking dusting off this dude? Zorn is the wild card; him and Campbell’s ability to quickly absorb his offense.
It is impossibly hard to lump in any of the NFC Central teams into this considering together they have about 1 1/2 quarterbacks, although, whatever team Brett Favre whines his way onto automatically jumps into the conversation.
As for Philly, a bounce-back pick seemingly everywhere, I think my man Donovan McNabb is on the backside of his career, and he was not exactly crashing Super Bowl after Super Bowl on the upside.
Get the ring finger ready.
Or get ready for Mr. Fix It to get the hand.
jenfloyd@star-telegram.com
What a joker that Coach Wade is, giving himself a catchy nickname a year ago and now dropping this verbal gold.
Mr. Fix It says: "Get the ring finger ready."
You would think he’d be trying to temper already crazy-big Cowboy expectations, focus on winning a playoff game, actually fix this defense. Not Wade Phillips. He can’t help himself.
Got to love a man willing to giggle his way to an ultimatum.
Because while Coach Wade may have been joking, prodded on by a coach chanting likewise in Monday’s luncheon crowd, he said what everybody thinks. He had better deliver on a ring for Owner Jones in February — and, no, they do not make 13-3, bye-week rings — or he is going to be so bleeping fired. And rightfully so.
It is time to embrace the horror. Ring is the expectation.
The Dallas Cowboys are good. No, good is not nearly big enough of a word for how far and away the better they are than the rest of the NFC. They have to be prohibitive favorites to play New England or Indy or whoever the AFC offers up in the Super Bowl.
Do not confuse this with Owner Jones’ delusions of optimism, the days when he used to look at Quincy Carter, Troy Hambrick, et al. and predict 10 wins and be serious. This is not those teams. They have the quarterback and playmakers everywhere else. They have talent — talent that has been unable to put it together — but still talent on defense. They have everything they need, kind of like a year ago, only ratcheted up a level or two thanks to the additions of Adam Jones and Felix Jones and everybody else Jerry Jones tossed big bucks at this off-season.
The danger, of course, is the talent gets wasted, that the year ends without a playoff victory again and everybody is left to fake a smile and pretend like 13 wins and a bye week are good enough, like last January.
Except for Coach Wade, who will be fired for this failure.
He has a lot riding on this season so it is probably good that he thinks the Cowboys can "get the ring finger ready." That said, he may want to jot down a few basic talking points with camp starting Thursday in Oxnard, Calif.
Don’t let them let up in December.
Win a playoff game.
And basically, just don’t screw it up.
Because let’s be real, who is going to challenge these Cowboys? I say this fully realizing tradition for this time of year is to focus on what is wrong/missing/questionable about the local team. So you see lists of obstacles and teams who might be problematic.
These Cowboys are not without flaws but so is the rest of the NFC. My very unscientific, incomplete, non-power NFC rankings are as follow:
1. Dallas Cowboys. Because when Mr. Fix It says "get the ring finger ready," you get the ring finger ready.
2. NY Giants. How does the defending Super Bowl champ end up behind a team they beat along their playoff way? Because they won HOW. Tom Coughlin, in calls to his buddies Bill Parcells and Dan Henning, probably giggles a lot and says things like, "Yeah, I do not know how we did that either. I hope nobody expects us to do it again." Of course, they will be in the playoffs again and unloading Jeremy Shockey on New Orleans helps, but they are still not the team to beat in the East.
3. New Orleans Saints. My Super Bowl pick from a year ago cannot possibly be that bad again. For starters, I am not picking them. So they have that going for them. And, hey, maybe the tattooed jerk will be on best behavior for Sean Payton.
4. Seattle Seahawks. Are those wacky Seahawks with the walrus coach the most non-threatening contender ever or what? They always seem to be in the playoffs — thank you, NFC West — without ever coming across as formidable. So look for them to do what they always do which is win right up until they have to leave Seattle.
5. Washington Redskins. Jason Campbell has potential to be very, very good, thus making this team really good. Although, I do find myself asking: Who is their coach again? And when my husband testily reminds me "It is still Jim Zorn" for the 457th time, I laugh for the 457th time. What in the world were they thinking dusting off this dude? Zorn is the wild card; him and Campbell’s ability to quickly absorb his offense.
It is impossibly hard to lump in any of the NFC Central teams into this considering together they have about 1 1/2 quarterbacks, although, whatever team Brett Favre whines his way onto automatically jumps into the conversation.
As for Philly, a bounce-back pick seemingly everywhere, I think my man Donovan McNabb is on the backside of his career, and he was not exactly crashing Super Bowl after Super Bowl on the upside.
Get the ring finger ready.
Or get ready for Mr. Fix It to get the hand.
posted by The Gryphon at 6:24 PM
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