Striking parallels between Dallas Cowboys and A&T

[Bornthrilla]

Dallas' regression should have been expected

Parcells' gambles with new players the reason behind poor start

ASK THE NFL EXPERT
By Don Pierson
NBCSports.com contributor
Updated: 9:23 p.m. ET Nov. 10, 2004

The Dallas Cowboys and Bill Parcells shocked the NFL last year by getting to the playoffs. So why are they shocking the NFL this year with their 3-5 record? Parcells is shocked anyone would ask.

The Cowboys are not so much underachieving this year as they overachieved last year.

They had the No. 1 defense in the league and nobody could really figure out why. Now they are No. 20. They had a quarterback, Quincy Carter, who wasn't worth keeping this season. They went with 41-year-old Vinny Testaverde instead.

Nobody who studied the Cowboys closely could be too baffled by their current record. As Parcells said last season, anybody who predicted anything close to 10-6 would have to be turning cartwheels.

Now, Parcells is calling his team stupid and nobody is arguing with him.

What happened? Last year is what happened. The turnaround from 5-11 to 10-6 was a mirage. Backsliding was inevitable. It happens occasionally to teams that come out of nowhere and are not yet ready for primetime. The Chicago Bears went from 5-11 to 13-3 to 4-12 between 2000 and 2002. The Kansas City Chiefs went from 8-8 to 13-3 and are now back at 3-5.

First, too many Cowboys started to believe the hype. Parcells got rid of not only his quarterback, but leading rusher Troy Hambrick and speedy receiver Joey Galloway. He couldn't have been too happy with any of them and he replaced them with Testaverde, Eddie George and Keyshawn Johnson — all players past their prime.

Parcells was trying to maintain a playoff team by substituting the future for the present. Obviously, he wasn't convinced the future included young players Carter or Hambrick or receiver Antonio Bryant, who clashed with the coach in the offseason and was traded last month to Cleveland for another problem receiver, Quincy Morgan.

Last year, when Oakland coach Bill Callahan labeled his Raiders "the dumbest team in America," the fallout started Callahan on the way to becoming the former Raiders' coach. But when Parcells scolded his team for being "too stupid" to run a no-huddle offense against Cincinnati last week, it was just Parcells being Parcells.

"This is the only team I can ever remember having that I can't get to respond in the right way no matter how hard I try," Parcells said. "I feel like I'm having trouble with elementary things. Either I'm not communicating right or they're not paying enough attention. One of the two, and I assume it's me."

Of course, he really believes it is them, but if he can't get their attention by trading them, benching them, belittling them or even encouraging them, maybe he has a point in pointing to himself.

The defense has struggled for several reasons. One is the failure of Parcells acquisition Marcellus Wiley to adequately replaced Parcells castoff Ebenezer Ekuban. The defensive end has five sacks in Cleveland, Wiley has none in Dallas.

Getting rid of cornerback Mario Edwards left a void and after replacement Pete Hunter got hurt, the defense has had to shade safety Roy Williams in coverage instead of maximizing his hard-hitter style closer to the line of scrimmage. The worth of veteran safety Darren Woodson has become increasingly apparent as he has missed the entire season with injury. Compounding this disarray in the secondary is the failure of promising rookie cornerback Terence Newman to take a step up. He is wrestling with a sophomore slump.

Unless Parcells can apply his magic and coax a dramatic second-half turnaround, this will be the first team that has missed the playoffs in a second season under Parcells.

The struggles raise the constant question of when Parcells benches Testaverde in order to find out what the Cowboys have in Drew Henson. Parcells scoffs at the question. Henson has spent the last three years playing baseball in the New York Yankees organization.

"Why would you at this point in time take an unproven guy ... and throw him into this?" Parcells asks. "Only foolish people would ask the question right now."

Right now, there are a whole bunch of foolish people living in Texas and a lot of them are Cowboys' fans.

[Bornthrilla]

Parcells, players are equally perplexed

Posted on Fri, Nov. 12, 2004



Bill Parcells and the Cowboys are staring at a 3-5 record and trying to fix what's wrong.

By Jennifer Floyd Engel

Star-Telegram Staff Writer


IRVING - Former NFL coach Mike Ditka listened intently to Cowboys coach Bill Parcells' post-Cincinnati Bengals comments.

His radar sounded when Parcells said "we're too stupid." Ditka immediately understood.

"He's frustrated, and you've got to understand when people get frustrated -- I went through that myself a lot -- it's very hard sometimes. You're not as careful with words as you'd like to be," Ditka said. "But I don't know where he said anything wrong really. I mean, stupid is as stupid does."

Except now Parcells is the one being called stupid, or pretty close to it.

Parcells finds himself being criticized for his lack of off-season aggressiveness (why did the Cowboys not sign cornerback Ahmed Plummer?); for his game management (why did he go for it on fourth down in his own territory so early against the New York Giants?); for misjudging players (Daleroy Stewart is the answer at defensive tackle?); and for being too mean to his team (why would he call them stupid?)

"Trust in Big Bill" has been replaced by "What is Big Bill thinking?" as the mantra of Cowboys followers.

So how exactly does an NFL coach go from being lauded as a genius one season, in which everything he does is considered inspired, to an idiot the next season, when everything he does is inspected, second-guessed and roundly derided.

"It's a good question," said Philadelphia Eagles coach Andy Reid, whose team plays the Cowboys on Monday night in Irving.. "That's how the business works."

The NFL is full of coaches who were going to be the second coming until the wheels came off. But this isn't just any coach.

This is Parcells. He has skins on the wall. He has two Super Bowl rings. He has players from New York to New England to Dallas who swear by him. He has a history. He has a reputation.

Is Parcells' reputation being tarnished by a 3-5 start to the 2004 season?

"Bill is Bill, and Bill is a great coach," Ditka said, laughing off the idea that Parcells is to blame for the current state of Cowboys affairs. "I've always had this thing; I said that players play and coaches coach, but once the players cross the sideline, they've got to play. And right now, he's not getting production."

The list of the Cowboys' problems has been repeated ad nauseam. The defense isn't as good as last season. Injuries. The running game is nonexistent. Penalties. Mistakes. More penalties. More mistakes.

What is different is Parcells is at a loss of how to fix it. He has done everything he normally does and a few things he has never tried. Nothing seems to work. He is admittedly more exasperated than he has ever been in coaching.

"Probably more so because I feel like I'm having trouble with elementary things," Parcells said. "Now, you know, either I'm not communicating right or they're not paying enough attention. One of the two, and I assume it's me."

He blames himself. So do a lot of people. Cowboys players think they know better. They feel Parcells is doing everything he can to make them successful, just as he did last season when the Cowboys finished 10-6. But the results are not following.

"Would you be happy facing the media every day and trying to explain what it is your team is not doing?" linebacker Dexter Coakley said. "You try to prepare them. You think you have a veteran team and they still do not get it. That's tough, day in and day out, to try to explain or to try to find reasoning for the way things have gone."

The hot theory is Parcells is part of the problem and is in danger of losing this football team. Former Oakland Raiders coach Bill Callahan certainly lost his team after saying he had "the stupidest team in America" after a loss last season.

Parcells is not Callahan.

Parcells is a future Hall of Fame coach who only a year ago did the impossible by getting the Cowboys to 10 wins and the playoffs and who is having a not-so-good-year this season.

As for everything else ...

"I've been a lot worse off than this a couple of times," Parcells said.