Why The Dallas Cowboys Lack Consistency

The Dallas Cowboys have been missing something for the last 5 years. Consistency! The importance of putting wins back to back and stringing them together to gain momentum, confidence, and most importantly a decent record for the season.  2009 was the last season Dallas was consistently good and before that it was 2007.  So why can’t the Dallas Cowboys be a consistently good team? They have talented group of players who just can’t seem to get it on the same page.  Why?

There are a couple of things that really jump out as being “the problem” to the lack of consistency the Cowboys have been lacking.   Of course, like always, these are debatable depending on your opinion and your own research.

Sept 16, 2012; Seattle, WA, USA; Dallas Cowboys head coach Jason Garrett waits in the tunnel before leading his team on to the field against the Seattle Seahawks at CenturyLink Field. Seattle defeated Dallas, 27-7. Mandatory Credit: Joe Nicholson-US PRESSWIRE

Jason Garrett: 

During the time the Dallas Cowboys were winning games and stringing those wins along, Wade Phillips was the head coach of the team.  He was only a head coach.  He had both offensive and defensive play callers.   Now the Cowboys head coach is Jason Garrett, who is also the offensive play caller and even though Bill Callahan, offensive line coach is in name only offensive coordinator he is still part of the coaching staff, but Garrett still calls the plays. Now looking back on when Garrett first started calling the offensive plays the team succeeded well to a point.  However, it has become more obvious that offensive play calling is sincerely lacking to a point now.  It seems that the more unbalanced the play calling is the worse the team as a whole plays.   An interesting statistic to chew over: Since 2008, when the Cowboys have more than 35 pass attempts AND less than 25 rushing attempts in the SAME GAME, their records is 1-19.  Perhaps Garrett needs to focus on being a head coach and accept some help from Callahan when it comes to play calling.  He may just have too much on his plate.

Another thing with Garrett is it seems no adjustments are made at half-time when the team is not in the lead.  It seems to the novice eye that he has a game plan and he sticks with it even when it isn’t working.

Yes, the argument can be used that Garrett calls the plays, but it is up to the players to execute them.  That is also true and we will get into that more in a little bit.  The fact of the matter is, and even Garrett said so in his post game press conference after the loss to the Seattle Seahawks, the offense must get better.  Well Dallas fans have been waiting for that for 4 years now.  It starts with coaching, Garrett has to get better, otherwise he needs to continue to be the head coach for consistency purposes, but hire an intelligent and creative play caller who can utilize what talent the team has to get the results Cowboy fans expect.

Lack of Heart and Lack of Toughness:

When the Dallas Cowboys aren’t in control of the game they lose the will to continue to play and fight back, they lack the heart and soul to become warriors on the field.  They roll over and die.  This was apparent to anyone who watched last Sunday’s game against the Seahawks.  In a perfectly manageable half-time score of 10-7 the Cowboys gave up plain and simple.  There was no fight left in them.  They were flat, sluggish and tired.  Yes, Seattle is a very physical team, but so are a lot of the teams on the rest of the Cowboys schedule.   Some of this lack of heart can be attributed to the fact that some of the players have been around long enough in the organization and they know once things go bad in a game they always seem to get worse.   That is unacceptable.  They shouldn’t have to be motivated to go out and do their job on the field.  Only a handful of players, specifically quarterback Tony Romo, linebacks DeMarcus Ware and Sean Lee and usually tight end Jason Witten come out to play and play hard for four quarters.  If the rest of the team could show up with that kind of heart and determination the team itself would be a lot better and better off.

This team is more built as a finesse team and lack the physical intimidation factor that you see a lot of other successful teams possess.  They can’t be a finesse team with the current state of affairs such as the offensive line and the lack of a true # 1 wide receiver on the team therefore they should work on getting physical and bumping people (within the league rules of course) and they need to start getting mad.  If you compare the 90’s “Doomsday” defense with this current defense we are running the difference between those two teams are the physical toughness they possess on the field.

Some of this can be attributed to the fact that the rules in the NFL have changed, but seriously when was the last time you saw Dallas have a proper tackle on defense or have a tough safety?  It’s been a while!

Of course, we are just going into week # 3 and it isn’t time to hit the panic button because it is only one loss for the season and there is plenty of NFL season left but it’s something to think about as the Tampa Bay Buccaneers roll into Dallas for the Cowboys first home game of the 2012/2013 NFL season.  So which team will show up? The one who showed some symbolence of heart and confidence in week 1 or the team that rolled over and died in week 2?