phillips-coaching-future-in-doubt-after-cowboys-miss-playoffs

Dallas Cowboys’ owner Jerry Jones has repeated several times over the past few days that head coach Wade Phillips will “definitely” be back next year.  He sounds less than convincing, however, and the Cowboys 2008 season—punctuated by an embarrassing 44-6 loss to the Philadelphia Eagles to end the campaign—has been nothing short of an embarrassment on numerous levels.

The Dallas area media has pulled no punches in expressing their disappointment, if not out and out disgust, with what a Dallas Morning News columnist called “the most gutless team in franchise history”.  That column by Jean-Jacques Taylor, entitled “Quitin’ Time”, gives less than a ringing endorsement for bringing Wade Phillips back for the 2009 season:

“Wade Phillips presides over the most gutless team in franchise history. That's his legacy. Forever."

The lopsided loss to Philadelphia with a playoff berth hanging in the balance was bad enough, but the margin of victory made it even more difficult for Cowboys’ supporters to accept:  the 38 point losing margin was the largest since Jerry Jones bought the team in 1989. 

Taylor’s assessment of the team as “gutless” sounds about right in light of the behavior of many Cowboy players after the game.  The mood on the plane back to Dallas was apparently that of an up-beat party, with raucous laughter and joking.  If the team was disappointed by the loss, let alone the entire season, they sure didn’t show it.  Even more embarrassing was the classless finger pointing and name calling in post game comments, with no one wanting to take personal responsibility for the 2008 debacle. 

Tony Romo, who has seen his stock plummet further than the NASDAQ Composite this season,  wouldn’t even take responsibility for the pitiful performance of the offense against the Eagles or his 189 yard, 1 INT, no TDs stat line.  It was the offensive coordinator’s fault for the scheme he was playing in that was at fault, but us “mere mortals” as writers and fans are too dense to understand that:

"They exposed something we do fundamentally offensively. Scheme is a major part of it that the normal fan or writer doesn't understand. If you're put in a really good situation, it really allows your team to be successful a lot. That's why I think some games, it's easy to say, 'Well, he didn't play good.' A lot of it is scheme."

One can hardly imagine any of the Cowboys QBs of the past uttering such a classless comment—the fact that Romo occupies the same position as warriors like Roger Staubach and Troy Aikman, yet he’s more concerned about his social life than he is about winning games and living up to the legacy that these men set.

Terrell Owens for once was on the same page as Romo, though it was in trying to deflect responsibility for the team’s miserable performance away from himself:

"I just feel with the weapons on this team, we just need more opportunities. There needs to be some changes in regard to getting some guys involved, putting guys in position to win. It all starts with the guys calling the plays."

Jones, perhaps realizing that much of the trouble lies in the character challenged personnel he’s signed, emphatically dismissed the notion that a major coaching change would be forthcoming:

“Are we going to change coaches?  The answer is no."

His next comment made his certainty less convincing.  Asked to sum up the season, Jones was the only one in the room with the stones to not blame someone else:

"I am about every way you can to explain about feeling embarrassed. We did not play to what my expectations were this season."

The Cowboys will move into a new $1.1 billion dollar stadium in Arlington for the 2009 season.  To judge from the reaction of the locals, they’re hoping that the roster likewise gets a massive facelift.