COMMENTARY : Cowboys have yet to earn their fans’ trust
BY JEAN-JACQUES TAYLOR
THE DALLAS MORNING NEWS
IRVING, Texas — These Cowboys have not earned the benefit of the doubt from me. Or you. Or anyone.
It doesn’t mean they won’t earn it one day. They just haven’t done it yet.
We can’t assume pedestrian performances during the regular season will automatically result in playoff success. We’ve been fooled each of the past two seasons, so we must believe only what we see with this team.
It would be different if these Cowboys had experienced some postseason success because then you could say the Cowboys start slowly but finish strong.
That, however, is wishful thinking based on what we’ve seen the last few seasons.
Don’t misconstrue the point.
When this team is focused and ready to play, it is without a doubt one of the NFL’s best teams, as evidenced by victories over Green Bay and Philadelphia. But when the coaching staff gets too cute or the Cowboys lack focus, you get last week’s uneven performance in a victory over winless Cincinnati.
Who knows what team you’ll get this week after T. O. spent the early portion of the week explaining why he was crying on the sideline during the Cowboys’ nine-point victory over the Bengals, and Adam Jones’ teammates spent the latter part of the week explaining why his scuffle with his bodyguard won’t be a distraction.
Strangely, the good news for the Cowboys is that they must travel to play Arizona. Actually, the Cowboys will play four of their next five games on the road, which is a good thing considering how many distractions are in Big D these days.
Besides, Dallas is 13-2 in its past 15 road games. No Jerry Jones team has ever had a better stretch of road success. It’s pretty apparent this team loves few things more than shutting up the home team and partying on its field.
Maybe we’ll get a complete performance this week from the Cowboys, who have spent much of the past two weeks whining about the criticism they’ve received and the unfair expectations that engulf them.
No one is asking the Cowboys to apologize for any of their four victories, but a team with 13 Pro Bowl players that won 13 games last season and has such an illustrious history — five Super Bowl victories in eight appearances — gets scrutinized.
There’s absolutely nothing wrong with that. Confident, mature teams handle expectations with no problem because they don’t care what anyone thinks about them.
They silence their critics with their performance. What a novel concept.
The core of this team has made no secret of its desire to win the Super Bowl, so we hold them to that lofty standard, as we should. As I’ve written many times, if they don’t like it, too bad.
The Cowboys of the early 1990 s had players like Emmitt Smith, Michael Irvin and Troy Aikman who became stars because they won titles. These Cowboys have stars like Tony Romo who have made Pro Bowl appearances, accumulated gaudy stats and experienced only regular-season success.
Trust me, there is a difference.
While you must give the Cowboys credit for winning their first NFC East title this millennium in 2007, they also became the first No. 1 seed — ever — to lose in the first round of the playoffs.
Romo is 0-2 as a playoff starter. Wade Phillips is 0-4 as a head coach in the playoffs. No player on this team has ever won a playoff game wearing a Cowboys uniform.
Beating Arizona wouldn’t change any of that, but a complete performance would move the Cowboys one step closer to receiving the benefit of the doubt.
THE DALLAS MORNING NEWS
IRVING, Texas — These Cowboys have not earned the benefit of the doubt from me. Or you. Or anyone.
It doesn’t mean they won’t earn it one day. They just haven’t done it yet.
We can’t assume pedestrian performances during the regular season will automatically result in playoff success. We’ve been fooled each of the past two seasons, so we must believe only what we see with this team.
It would be different if these Cowboys had experienced some postseason success because then you could say the Cowboys start slowly but finish strong.
That, however, is wishful thinking based on what we’ve seen the last few seasons.
Don’t misconstrue the point.
When this team is focused and ready to play, it is without a doubt one of the NFL’s best teams, as evidenced by victories over Green Bay and Philadelphia. But when the coaching staff gets too cute or the Cowboys lack focus, you get last week’s uneven performance in a victory over winless Cincinnati.
Who knows what team you’ll get this week after T. O. spent the early portion of the week explaining why he was crying on the sideline during the Cowboys’ nine-point victory over the Bengals, and Adam Jones’ teammates spent the latter part of the week explaining why his scuffle with his bodyguard won’t be a distraction.
Strangely, the good news for the Cowboys is that they must travel to play Arizona. Actually, the Cowboys will play four of their next five games on the road, which is a good thing considering how many distractions are in Big D these days.
Besides, Dallas is 13-2 in its past 15 road games. No Jerry Jones team has ever had a better stretch of road success. It’s pretty apparent this team loves few things more than shutting up the home team and partying on its field.
Maybe we’ll get a complete performance this week from the Cowboys, who have spent much of the past two weeks whining about the criticism they’ve received and the unfair expectations that engulf them.
No one is asking the Cowboys to apologize for any of their four victories, but a team with 13 Pro Bowl players that won 13 games last season and has such an illustrious history — five Super Bowl victories in eight appearances — gets scrutinized.
There’s absolutely nothing wrong with that. Confident, mature teams handle expectations with no problem because they don’t care what anyone thinks about them.
They silence their critics with their performance. What a novel concept.
The core of this team has made no secret of its desire to win the Super Bowl, so we hold them to that lofty standard, as we should. As I’ve written many times, if they don’t like it, too bad.
The Cowboys of the early 1990 s had players like Emmitt Smith, Michael Irvin and Troy Aikman who became stars because they won titles. These Cowboys have stars like Tony Romo who have made Pro Bowl appearances, accumulated gaudy stats and experienced only regular-season success.
Trust me, there is a difference.
While you must give the Cowboys credit for winning their first NFC East title this millennium in 2007, they also became the first No. 1 seed — ever — to lose in the first round of the playoffs.
Romo is 0-2 as a playoff starter. Wade Phillips is 0-4 as a head coach in the playoffs. No player on this team has ever won a playoff game wearing a Cowboys uniform.
Beating Arizona wouldn’t change any of that, but a complete performance would move the Cowboys one step closer to receiving the benefit of the doubt.
posted by The Gryphon at 9:09 AM
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