After suffering yet another loss, thus all but ending their hopes for playing the Super Bowl in their own building, the Cowboys need to change. They need to change how they cover kicks. They need to change how they call plays. They need to change how they celebrate after they get into the end zone. They need to change their pants every Sunday after the game because they consistently crap themselves(I'm sure a few do. We all know Wade does) But do you get the idea yet? They literally need to change the whole operation from the very top(Jerry Jones) to the very bottom. (perhaps the ball boys?) Their biggest problem though is the general mentality of the team. It's the mentality that Jerry and his hand picked coach have allowed the team to adopt through their words and actions the last few years.
First of all the Cowboys act as if the depth Chart they roll out with in the first week of the Preseason is set in stone and cannot be change at any point during the season. Besides Leonard Davis getting benched for a quarter or two last week, when has a player ever been benched due to bad play in a game or in the middle of the season?
Here's a few examples: While Roy Williams has been very good this season, how in the hell was he starting over Patrick Crayton for the last year and a half? Why wasn't former Safety Roy Williams benched when he was giving up touchdown receptions weekly? Why is Marion Barber starting over Felix Jones? They've only very recently starting going away from Barber(who I believe is our third best RB). He hasn't been the same in 2 years. If John Phillips hadn't blown out his knee, would he have replaced Martellus Bennett? I told Martellus on Twitter after John Phillips suffered his injury that he needed to focus because he should've been bumped by John Phillips on the depth chart. He said that I was "stupid if I thought that" Why? The Cowboys act as if the amount of zeros in their paycheck should or does solidify their spot on the depth chart. And I seriously believe that's what's happening here.
This team is complacent and doesn't feel they have to work to get a win. The coaches should adopt Bo Pelini's philosophy. Perhaps every spot on Nebraska's roster is subject to change any given week and that forces the players to work hard in practice. The Cowboys though, they've got the person who's writing the checks and the person who start them every week telling them how great their stats look, how many Pro Bowl they've been too, how gosh darn talented they are, and weekly, after every loss, Cupcake Phillips is assuring this team that everything will be Ok. And believe me, this trickles down to the players.
Here's a few quotes from the players and Wade following the loss to the Vikings. See if you notice a trend.
Terence Newman : "No, it's not even close to being too late(to make the playoffs). There's still a lot of football games left. Say we lose 2 game and we end up 10-6.... You've got to look at the bright side. "
Roy Williams "We're too good of a football team to be 1-4"
Bradie James "We're doing a lot of good things....There really is a lot of guys making plays." "We've done a lot of winning around here lately"
Gerald Sensabaugh: " We're going to turn this thing around"
Wade Phillips: "We had a lot of opportunities...I think we're playing at a better level than to have only one win"
Did you catch it? The Cowboys is they're always searching for the silver-lining or looking at the bright side. I understand not everything is bad, but there's not enough good to warrant any talk whatsoever. With that said, this is definitely the most somber I've seen/heard the Cowboys at this point in the season. The players said a lot of the right things, as did the Wade and Jerry. They actually seemed like they were fairly accountable. I just don't think they practice what they preach and it's obvious.
Wade said he's going to go "back over it a thousand times and watch the tape a thousand times to see what we can do to improve" Sorry coach, the Cowboys biggest problems aren't the X's and O's. The players don't really care if they lose or not. I'm not sure if the majority of the players feel like losing is a big deal.
We'll see how this team does going forward. The players are lost. They have no idea why they're losing. The coaches don't really know. Some teams fight back and some teams collapse. This is a team that never could fight back after being punched in the mouth.
"There's a feelin' of despair, it's a lot of frustration, it's a lot of everything", said Bradie James. Sounds like a player that's defeated and he's usually the player that speaks for the defense. Wade said, "This team is going to come back fighting, I don't have any doubt about that."
I have doubts because this team has shown in the past that when facing adversity, they just don't have it in them to get tough, stand together, and fight back. And this round of adversity is worse than any this team has seen yet.
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