Fire Wade Phillips Now; Trade Roy Williams Immediately

Congratulations to the New York Giants. To say I am shell shocked is an understatement. Coach Wade Phillips should be fired immediately. He is not a winner in the playoffs. This Dallas Cowboys team, once destined for the Super Bowl, was obviously not prepared to play this game today. The penalties were unbelievable. The defensive line and linebackers played a strong game. The secondary, namely Roy Williams, was disappointing much of the game. Allowing that touchdown seconds before halftime after the Cowboys had a 20-play drive for a game-leading touchdown was one of the most disappointing series I witnessed this year.

I cannot tell you how angry I am with Wade Phillips and his coaching style. I don’t like it. The Landry Hat calls for the promotion of offensive coordinator Jason Garrett to head coach. The offensive line fell apart and if Sparano wants to go, too, I say go! How the offensive line seemed to forget how to pass block is unacceptable. Andre Gurode couldn’t even snap the ball to Tony Romo correctly.

Romo was under a ton of pressure in the second half. In fact, it is the most pressure he has seen all year. When the defense stopped the Giants, and gave the offense the ball back with 1:50 left in the game, it was that Giants pressure that won the game.

Romo….there will be a lot of talk this offseason if he truly is the answer. He is now 0-2 in playoff games. At the end of the game, sans the flip to Jason Witten, Romo overthrew players and missed a few open receivers. Then, there are the dropped passed, chiefly by Patrick Crayton and Anthony Fasano, both of which appeared to be easy seven points. There are plenty of what-ifs, but I will say the biggest play of the game was Fasano’s drop at the endzone. That field goal was the last time we scored. Romo was 18-36 for 202 yards, 1 touchdown and 1 interception at the end of the game.

"“It’s tough to beat someone three times in a year and we didn’t end up doing it. Really I thought the touchdown before the half is the one that really hurt, ” Phillips said at the post game press conference. “I am disappointed over all. It was 14-14 at the half and we still had a chance to win. We could have held them to field goals instead of touchdowns. That’s what they did to us.”"

On the distractions and if they affected the players:

"“No, I thought we moved the ball well. We played aggressive. We ran the ball better,” Phillips said."

"“We didn’t coach well to win, we didn’t play well to win, that’s the bottom line.”"

Amen, Phillips. You hit the nail on the coffin. You’re fired.
Romo didn’t even make sense in the beginning of his post game interview. All I got from him was : “It hurts.” Yeah, Tony…it does hurt. It hurts bad. We felt this pain last year with you. And we are feeling it worse now. As Romo’s interview continued, I heard a lot of excuses from him. Enough!!!

But he was asked some pretty good questions later on:

1. You may have lost some fans with this game. What do you have to do to get them back?

"“Next question,” Romo quickly replied as he shook his head. “We have a strong fan base and they love us. … I will take the blame and I will take the criticism here. That is why we are put in those positions. People are either going to enjoy watching you play and root for you or they are not. All I can do is work as hard as I can and try my best.”"

2. Any regrets?

"“I don’t live with regrets,” Romo said. “I’m content in my own skin. … I don’t think I will be reading or listening to anything for awhile. That’s just kinda how I operate.”"

Terrell Owens had one of the most emotional closing interviews I have ever seen from a Cowboy. First off, T.O. deserves a lot of respect for his work ethic. He recovered from a high-ankle sprain because of his work ethic. He’s not the same player that he was in Philly or even last year. He’s a better person and a better player. I respect him. His tearful postgame interview is evidence that he cares about the game, his at teammates and about winning.

"“We came up short today, but we’re still a team. No one person lost this game. We’ve got to give all the credit to the Giants. They came in here and they got the win,” Owens said."

Missed opportunities at the end?

"“You just can’t pinpoint that last drive,” Owens said."

Owens then attacked the media for the controversy it spurred with the team. I am sure this will be replayed all season long.

"“This is not about Tony,” Owens said. “You guys can point the finger at him. You guys can talk about the vacation. But if you do that, it is really unfair. That is my teammate. That is my quarterback and if you guys do that it is unfair. We lost it as a team. We lost it as a team, man,” Owens said, tears flowing down his face. “This loss hurts. This loss hurts, because I know this team is dedicated and put in a lot of hard work to get where we are. We didn’t execute. We knew in order to win this game we had to put some points on the board and we didn’t do that.”"

Disbelief? Did you feel this team was destined to get to the Super Bowl?

"“I know we were and we didn’t make enough plays,” Owens said. “And it is really a shame on our part. We had the talent on this team.”"

Continuing on, the Cowboys should trade Roy Williams. He just is an overrated safety. He can’t cover anyone. And he’s not even a good hitter anymore. Get rid of him.

Marion Barber needs to be signed immediately but it’s obvious he is not a full-time back. The Cowboys need to draft a running back in the first round of the draft. The Cowboys also need a corner or two in this draft.

Now a bit of honesty: I honestly had a feeling this was going to happen. I tried to use bravado for those three weeks up to this game. I’ve learned a lot blogging about this season and I think next year you will see a different Landry Hat. I’m not kidding either. Even with a 13-3 season, I don’t think any true Cowboys fan like myself ever really felt 100 percent confident like a Patriots fan feels. A lot crumbled over the last month and a half of the season and I tried to ignore it. I won’t do that anymore.

I actually felt sick in the stomach for the first time ever as a Cowboys fan. I didn’t feel like this past year when Romo fumbled that snap. There was just something about this game, the closeness of it, and how it ended that just made me queasy. I won’t supplicate for your condolences. I expect a lot of painful trash talking coming my way at this blog. I will prepare myself for it. I hope this week to have a couple of video blogs posted for a new addition for my readers. Of course, I will be masked to hide my true identity because it’s fun that way.

Coming all next week will be MOCK DRAFTS. Dallas Cowboys fans, we need to move on.