Could Wade Phillips Be Jobless?
What is going to please Dallas Cowboys owner Jerry Jones this year? Will it be a playoff win or must it be a Super Bowl victory?
Even I was calling for the head of coach Wade Phillips after last year’s disappointing ending. Why? Because the Dallas Cowboys looked uninspired and unprepared for a game against a team it already had beaten twice in the regular season. Players were allowed to go to Mexico–really, he said just do what you want for a few days, rather than preparing for a very important inter-division playoff matchup–and the coaching staff didn’t call the right plays.
Then, this offseason, offensive coordinator Jason Garrett was made the highest-paid non-head coach in the league. If that ain’t reading tea leaves I don’t know what is. So, what will it take to keep Wade on those sidelines?
Will it be a playoff victory or two? Does it need to be a Super Bowl?
With the talent on this team, and the contracts extensions players received during this off season, it is hard to read what Jerry will accept in 2008-09. But the fans are dying for a Super Bowl in this decade. I am dying for a Super Bowl this decade.
If the Cowboys head into the playoffs with success in the regular season similar to this past season, I think that will dictate what Jones will do. See, if the Cowboys go 13-3 or 12-4 again and win the division, Jones isn’t going to swallow a loss in the Championship Game. He might not even accept a Super Bowl loss. However, if the Cowboys make it to the big game I think that will suppress a lot of the angst from the Dave Campo-Bill Parcells Era.
Whose fault was that Giants loss? Was it a culmination of a bunch of errors resulting in the tragedy on the field that day? Or was it truly the coaching staff who failed to prepare a Championship-caliber team?
I think the answer, at least in Jerry’s mind, will come at the end of this season. Win or lose, Wade’s job is truly on the line.
Im a Wade fan, but this team is loaded with all-stars and anything less than a Super Bowl trophy will be a dissapointment. And lets face it, if he cant win it with this team than hell never be able to do it.
June 16th, 2008 at 9:08 amIt kinda sucks for Wade, with him knowing his successor is already in waiting. Dude better put down the doughnuts and win a super bowl this year, or Big Red is gonna do it.
June 16th, 2008 at 9:52 amWho tells his players to go on vacation the week before the biggest game of the year? Honestly?
June 16th, 2008 at 10:03 amWestCoast, there were a lot of us fans who were irritated with that decision, but from what we discovered, it is not unusual. See, the problem is the Cowboys are one of the few teams that gets too much media coverage. So, any step they do, anything that happens, it gets on the news. The reporters and the networks do little research to determine if what they are reporting—such as wade telling players to go on vacation—is unusual. All it would have taken is a few calls to some other decent teams. But nope. ESPN just runs the story and leaves the impression that it was wrong. Wrong or right, it was annoying.
June 16th, 2008 at 12:16 pmI dont think it was because you are the Cowboys that it became well known you were in Mexico. The story broke because Romo was seen with Jessica down there.
June 16th, 2008 at 12:54 pmYeah, do the paparazi follow Derek Anderson or Jason Campbell to the stores? COme on dude. It has everything to do with the Dallas COwboys.
June 16th, 2008 at 1:41 pmWestcoast…
June 16th, 2008 at 2:12 pmYou are so wrong, it is because THEY are Cowboys, what other team gets the media going more than the ‘Boys? T.O. changes phones misses a drug screen (by the way he has NEVER failed a drug test) and ESPN and John Clayton have an orgasm! Jason Witten and his wife were on the same trip, yet Romo is the reason we lost the game. I know it is a BIG IF, but if they beat the Giants it’s a dead issue…check with your own team and see if any players make mistakes, sure they do, but there is so much more B.S. that goes on in DC that the ‘Skins are at the bottom of the food chain. The Cowboys ARE America’s team, let something happen and John Clayton gets paid.
Mike is right. Good job, Mike.
June 16th, 2008 at 3:00 pmIt’s absurd that you’re comparing Tony Romo to Derek Anderson or Jason Campbell. Neither of those quarterbacks went 13-3 and had 13 pro-bowlers on their team (as someone was kind enough to point out recently to me on Riggo’s Rag). Also, none of them had just received a lot of criticism for daring to let his girlfriend watch him play football. It’s not like this came out of nowhere; the press was already acting crazy long before Mexico.
You can’t have it both ways. If you want to be America’s team you have to accept the good with the bad. You have to understand how foolish you’re going to look to run off and party on a bye week before the biggest game of your life. I don’t really blame Romo for that gaffe — he’s young and he was told to get away by his head coach. I blame Wade. He should have known better. He shouldn’t have encouraged his star quarterback to go on vacation with his celebrity wife and he shouldn’t have let them run around without some sort of publicist or PR person to run interference with the media.
June 16th, 2008 at 4:54 pmTulip, as usual, you completely miss the point
June 16th, 2008 at 5:07 pmIf we do not win the Super Bowl this year, our season is an absolute failure, REGARDLESS of everything else we do right during the season! Same holds true for every other team in the league! That has my stance on the difference between success and failure for a LONG time! In fact, it is ALWAYS Super Bowl or Bust in the NFL for every team; Cowboys included!
June 16th, 2008 at 6:40 pmThis is a great example of how you debate by making some random statement without supporting it with any evidence at all. Really, debating you is like debating with a 5 year old.
June 16th, 2008 at 8:35 pmMe: “I think Wade should have known better.”
Dan: “You’re wrong! You missed the point! Oh and you’re banned! And you’re a TULIP! Stinky stinky tooooo-liiiip! Stupid Crapskins!”
Dan, if I’m wrong please enlighten me. What point am I missing? The one on the tip of your head? Back up your assertion with something resembling a fact.
Otherwise…
I’m rubber, you’re glue. Whatever you say bounces off me and sticks to you!
Wow. . .wow. . .I ag. . .. . .I agree . . .*gulp* . . . .I agree with RG. This kind of scrutiny always has and always will come with America’s team. Hell, if a third rate quarterback like Quincy Carter getting cut from the team is *****BREAKING NEWS******, then Romo going to Mexico with Jessica Simpson is a bigger story than the Superbowl! . . . and Wade should have known better. Hell, to be honest, Romo should have known better, but it’s hard to be mad at him when he plays so hard. IMO, they win a Superbowl or next season will be the beginning of the Garrett era.
June 16th, 2008 at 8:57 pmI thought we were talking about Wade Phillips and his chances of keeping his job if the Cowboys fail to win the Super Bowl this year but somehow we got diverted to Mexico with Jessica Simpson, go figure.
Lets get this straight, if you think the Cowboys lost to the Giants in the playoffs because Tony Romo went to Mexico on his off week with Jessica Simpson then you were NOT watching the NFL playoffs last year! What is Brett Favre and the Packers excuse for loosing to the Giants? What would be Tom Brady’s and the Patriots excuse? I would buy into this trip to Mexico theory had the Giants laid an egg in Green Bay but they did NOT. The Cowboys LOST to the Giants, as did the Packers and Patriots because the Giants caught lightning in a bottle. It happens sometimes and it sucks if its not your team doing the catching but get over it. The Giants would have beat the Cowboys whether Romo went to Mexcio or stayed home and practiced. The trip to Mexico had nothing to do with the outcome of that game. Some fans have a hard time accepting the fact that their team lost. They were NOT good enough, but don’t feel alone, fans in New England are still in shock and they don’t have a trip to Mexico to blame it on!
June 17th, 2008 at 6:01 amTO gets attention no matter where he goes. Him being a cowboy really does not increase that too much. I never saw the reason for the cowboys loss being Romo went to Mexico either. I always read it as part of the TEAM went down there.
June 17th, 2008 at 6:58 amCowboysCards,
I think concentration and preparation had a lot to do with the COwboys playoff loss to the Giants, and a slice of that is Romo’s lackadaisical approach. I mean seriously, in all honesty, who goes to Mexico during the time off for one of the biggest games of his life? Now, it did not affect his play so to speak, but it could have affected his preparation.
I put most of the blame on the coaches and how they prepared the team. It wasn’t pretty, and we still almost won the game.
June 17th, 2008 at 8:14 amTulip your banned! You completley missed the boat on this one, I mean your coming out of left field with this one. Get your head out of your anus. RG you get that alot because we dont read what you type. Its just alot easier for us to tell you your banned or your crazy, and convince you your wrong and casue you to write RG vs TLH skits.
June 17th, 2008 at 8:54 amBut other than that your a pretty good guy
tulip, how bout that Fred Davis? the guy is classy, missing his first NFL practice. smoothe one…
June 17th, 2008 at 8:55 amFred Davis was an idiot and I didn’t much care for the “apology” he made a few weeks later either. I’m a little worried about his primadonna attitude. He’s definitely not getting off to a good start. All he needs is a long public holdout for 1st round money to complete my disdain for him. With luck this will eventually be a funny story that he gets past but at the very least it shows his immaturity.
Cowboycards, you’re right. The Cowboys didn’t lose because of the trip to Mexico, but it was a distraction and a coaching mistake that Wade made and we were discussing Wade’s performance. He should have known better.
Personally I think Wade’s probably going to be done because you guys aren’t going to even be able to repeat the performance you had last year.
Oh don’t get me wrong, I think you’ll make the playoffs and probably win the division but I doubt you’ll win 13 games and you definitely won’t have as many pro-bowlers. The odds are against you winning the superbowl (not a slight against your team; it’s just so damn hard and so many things can go wrong: all it takes is one bad game) and I think they’ll probably fire him unless he at least makes it to the superbowl.
Then again, last year around this time I was convinced that Tony Romo was going to be a total bust, so what the hell do I know?
June 17th, 2008 at 12:36 pmI think the Cowboys will have a real hard time replicating last seasons (regular season) results. 13 wins may be a stretch but I will be more satisfied with a playoff win than another 13 or 14 win season with a goose egg in Jan. I think Jerry has backed himself into a corner with Wade. I personally believe he brought Wade in assuming he could keep the boys afloat long enough to hand the reigns to Garrett. Now look what Wade goes and does, 13 wins, a franchise record. Its a bit of a quandry. I am sure Jerry is chomping at the bit to get Garrett under the HC hat but if Wade continues to succeed and perhaps even wins a Super Bowl this coming year, Jerry will have to keep status quo and risk loosing Garrett to another team. Surely Jerry wouldn’t fire his coach after a Super Bowl win. Maybe after two Super Bowl wins in a row but not after the first one!!!
June 17th, 2008 at 12:44 pmWhat if phillips is just holding down the fort until Bill Cowher decides to coach again??
June 17th, 2008 at 12:53 pmOh man Number_9, you just opened up a huge can of worms. Great.
By the way, cards sent. Let me know when you get them. And thank COwboysCards again for them. He’s the man!
June 17th, 2008 at 1:40 pmCowher might now coach again but you have to keep him in mind
June 17th, 2008 at 2:19 pmooops *NOT* Coach again but Its possible. Think about it…he coaches the 3-4 just as good if not better than phillips and we jerry doesnt mind paying the big bucks. Dang I bet no one thought about this one haha
June 17th, 2008 at 2:29 pmand just to let you all know number_9 would endorse a bill cowher coaching regime in 2009….
June 17th, 2008 at 2:32 pmHell no, not another change just promote Garrett to Head Coach and keep Phillips for Defensive coordinator
June 17th, 2008 at 4:39 pmI agree, and WHY? are we talking about a new coach? Why? is everyone questioning Romo still? CowboysCards is right. Wade Phillips WILL NOT make the same mistake again, and lets don’t forget who is really in charge of this offense guys. We should be counting on Garrett for a long time. This offense was really good with the lack of run production last year. Think of what it could be and should be this year. And not to talk bad about Marion Barber, because he didn’t get a lot of carries but we know the Offense is the best we have seen in a long time. If Cowher would come in as a Defensive coordinator maybe, but doesn’t Phillips deserve one more year? Garrett deserves more credit than this crap too, and he will not bow down to offensive coordinator, nor does he deserve a demotion. Tony Romo is still young as is most of this team and the Mexican vacation only happens AFTER the SuperBowl this time. No Lambardi, no Mexican vacation. Count on that!
June 17th, 2008 at 6:55 pmNot to change the subject, but I thought I would share this note I just found on Isaiah Stanback.
Jun 17, 2008 Source: KFFL
June 17th, 2008 at 7:12 pmNews: Cowboys Stanback splitting first-team repetitions
Rob Phillips, of DallasCowboys.com, reports Dallas Cowboys WR Isaiah Stanback has been splitting first-team repetitions at wide receiver behind WR Terrell Owens and WR Patrick Crayton.
We really get to see a NEW WR this year, because we really didn’t get to see him last year because of the pre existing injury from college. How many WR’s make a BIG impact their rookie year anyway? Even if they are healthy? This is something to be excited about. I know a lot of you say I have high expectations, but I have seen personally what this guy is capable of as a reciever. He is a true talent. Maybe not a HUGE impact this year, but his experience by the the time the playoffs roll around COULD be enough to make a difference. I am optimistic that this guy can possibly be the #2 guy we have been looking for, and IF not, a solid #3 WR definately. Wade Phillips and Jason Garrett obviously agree.
June 17th, 2008 at 7:25 pm