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The media circus is in full effect, and the drama in Dallas has been kicked up another notch. This being said, the Cowboys better win today, or its going to get really ugly, really fast. This mess started with Jerry Jones making some questionable comments about Barber, and then we have all this drama with Romo, Witten, and the wide receivers. Then Newman calling out the coaching staff, and now word that Witten was Werder’s source in regards to the love triangle between Romo, Witten, and Owens. Its a mess from the very top to the bottom - a mess.

Its complete mayhem in Dallas and a loss in a key game against the Giants could absolutely make this team implode. A win is needed bigtime in order to get the team back in wildcard contention, but more importantly for the sake of stabilizing the team as a whole. The locker room antics are wide open to the media, its ridiculous what is going on in Dallas. This is another indictment of bad coaching and ability to manage these players.

This sort of locker room drama would not have happened under Parcells, and its getting out of control right now in Dallas. Phillips seems to be oblivious to what’s going on, he was asked if the locker divided, in which he basically said no. Just the fact that the head coach is being asked these types of questions is just not a good thing.

Let’s see how the team responds today against the Giants.

I’ve been trying to see why our defense has not been able to be a force and shutdown people. When you have a marquee player like DeMarcus Ware, your defense gets instanst credibility to some extent, but that’s where it ends in Dallas.

I’ve come to the conclusion that our draft picks, mainly from the Parcells era, have been busts, or just marginal at best. We’ll look at the players Parcells drafted who still remain on the team:

2003:

CB Terence Newman - probably one of the better players drafted, but may have peaked already, age and injuries are becoming more frequent. Still a good starter, not the shutdown player he was a few yrs ago.

LB Bradie James - let’s face it, he’s just ok, he’s not a playmaker. He’s had an up and down career, but not much of a force to be honest. He’s not going to get better.

2004:

This was the worst draft class, no one remains on the team, Bruce Thornton was a bust, Nate Jones and Jacques Reeves were horrible, and Patrick Crayton remains the only player from that draft class, and his status on the team is not too high right now. No defensive players remain from 2004.

2005:
Here’s where we get into the meat of our defense. The rule is 3yrs later, and guess what, we missed on most of these guys.

LB DeMarcus Ware - by far the best player on the team, and top 3 defensive player in the NFL without a doubt, ’nuff said.

DE Marcus Spears - ok, here we go…Spears is a starter on this defense and he’s a bust, he’s the training camp sweetheart, countless compliments and all this crap, then when the season gets here, its the same old story, he just disappears, he’s an official bust.

LB Kevin Burnett - a 2nd rounder, a bust. Too many injuries, dating back to before he signed his contract, how lame was that? and not much impact on the team, he’ll be gone after this season.

DE Chris Canty - 4th rounder, thought to have been a steal on draft day…3yrs later, he’s a bust too. He’s not blowing people up with his size? lame. He’s not making plays or pressuring the QB. He’s playing to his draft status, he’s a 4th rounder alright, his steal status has been retracted.

NT Jay Ratliff - 7th rounder, who’s playing like a 1st rounder. Besides Ware, Ratliff is the other guy on defense you can count on every game. So, that’s it…two good players on defense right now, this year, 2008…

2006:

This was the class of defensive backups. We didn’t pull any defensive starters from Parcells’ last draft class.

LB Bobby Carpenter - who knows what the heck happened here? He was great at Ohio, but did Parcells stunt his growth and damage him forever? We’ll never know. What we do know is that he can’t beat out marginal players like James and Ayodele last year, so what does that say?

DE Jason Hatcher - I still have love for Hatcher, he’s my player, and he does make plays when he’s in there. To this day, I don’t know why they don’t start Hatcher over Spears…who cares if Spears was a first rounder, get over it, he’s a bust, take the mistake like a man, and start Hatcher. For now, Hatcher is a backup, but he could start on many teams in this league.

DB Pat Watkins - a supposed 5th round steal..not anymore, he’s just a minimal 5th rounder type of player. Our hopes of him being a ballhawk with his size never manifested into anything. He’s a backup too.

Wade’s draft classes are on pace to being just as useless as Parcells’

2007:

Looks like the kicker, Nick Folk, will be the highlight of this draft class, how pathetic is that?

LB Anthony Spencer - he’s still at a TBD stage, but if his injuries keep coming up, he’ll be another Kevin Burnett and we don’t need another one of those roster spots down the drain. Has potential, but not making plays as of yet.

The rest of this draft class is a colassal mess, we already dropped a 3rd rounder on James Marten, Isaiah Stanback is a complete waste of a roster spot, Deon Anderson is not big enough to be a fullback, we should have drafted Owen Schmitt, but we didn’t, and now we’re here with a solid special teamer, but just an average FB.

DBs Courtney Brown and Allen Ball are Nate Jones and Jacques Reeves clones, and that’s just not going to get us anywhere except for more deep passes their ways for easy TDs. No good

2008:

TBD, we won’t know into another season or two.

As you can tell, the core of our defense is made up of marginal players. Forget their draft status, alot of these guys simply do not have the playmaking pedigree that Ware and Ratliff posess. Its weak stuff man, I think when we look at the coaching coupled with the players we have starting on defense, the recipe for a Super Bowl defense is not there, it just is not going to be there. We’ve had the two best 3-4 gurus in the NFL take on this defense and they were unable to muster any sort of dominant play. The reason is the players. We missed on alot of defensive players.

Looks like others are thinking like me in regards to what is going to happen next with Wade Phillips. I blogged about this yesterday during the 3rd quarter of the game. I layed out the scenario in which Wade will be given until the bye week at the lastest; at which point, Jason Garrett would be handed over the team as the Interim Head Coach.

DMN Blog had very similar thoughts on this scenario, which further reinforces my thinking as well:

But Jerry might be forced to make a move, especially if the Cowboys lose their next two games (a likely scenario) and enter the bye week with a losing record. Dallas would be in Save Our Season mode at that point.

Maybe it makes sense to give Garrett a trial period for the last half of the season. If he can’t right the ship, Jerry can make a run at Bill Cowher or another big-name coach this winter.

For now, Wade Phillips is still at the wheel, and the league’s most talented team appears to be headed for a fiery crash. (DMN)

That’s pretty close to what I said yesterday, so there are obviously more writers and fans thinking the same thing…Wade Phillips’ days in Dallas are numbered, as in 14 days to be exact.

I’m going to add more into the scenario I layed out yesterday. I think Jerry Jones thought ahead and brought in the people he did to supplement Wade’s staff. Prime example would be Dave Campo. Dave Campo knows Jerry, and he’s a defensive mind, he’s been a successful defensive coordinator in the NFL. Judd Garrett was also hired as the Assistant Director or Pro Scouting, let’s not forget that part. That being said, if Wade Phillips is indeed canned by the bye week, which I believe will indeed happen, then you’ll be saying good bye to Brian Stewart as well. There is no way we keep the horrible Phillips understudy in training on board as our defensive coordinator. Campo will likely take over as DC.

Both Garrett and Campo will be judged on how they handle the team on the interim basis. If all goes well, and I mean a complete turnaround into the playoffs, then Garrett will remain as head coach, and Campo will remain on as DC. Furthermore, with Campo on board, we could make a transition back to the 4-3 if we wish. The 3-4 has been a complete utter failure under Parcells and Phillips, who were supposedly 3-4 gurus, so if neither could get it going, then why keep running it? Some defensive systems are cyclical, and I think the 3-4 has run its course in Dallas.

Now, I know we’re getting ahead of ourselves, but I thought it would be interesting to see the potential makeup of the staff in the coming weeks. Jerry is not dumb, and clearly has his contingencies well in place.

The Cowboys moved the 3-4 defense in 2005, and after several season’s its been a complete and utter disappointment. There can be several factors that have led to let down of the much hyped system. Parcells was supposedly a guru of the system, and somehow under his tenure, it never lived up to the in-your face pressure it had touted.

Maybe you can blame the ineffectiveness on the instability from the coaching aspect, rather than the scheme. Let’s look at the 3-4 Timeline:

In 2005, our defensive coordinator, Mike Zimmer, had been a 4-3 guru, and was forced to implement a totally new scheme, it never did much.We brought 3-4 type players; Ferguson, Ware, Spears, Burnett, and Canty were all added.
In 2006, Zimmer had another year under the system, but again, the pressure and production never came to fruition as it had been said to do.

In 2007, Parcells leaves, Jerry Jones interviews several coaches, it came down to Norv Turner and Wade Phillips. The Cowboys had even interviewed the 4-3 guru Ron Rivera, who incidentally now works for Norv Turner in San Diego. The Cowboys hire Wade Phillips who brought a highly vaunted style of 3-4 to the table, something the last version of the 3-4 lacked. It was said that the Phillips 34 was more aggressive, and that we would see all sorts of exoctic disguises, with all sorts of blitz packages galore. Guess what, no it didn’t. Where were the blitz packages and aggressiveness down the stretch and the playoffs? Brian Stewart took over the defensive coordinator position and either watered it down, or was still getting use to the new position coming up from the secondary coaching ranks previously.

In 2008, same story, we still have Brian Stewart, and the Phillips 34 has not been as advertised. We’ve been hoodwinked. The defense is not getting after the QB, there’s no pressure, no exotic blitz packages, no man to man, just cushion and more of the Parcells read and react 34 which we didn’t care for, somehow its still being run in Dallas.

The 3-4, whether it be the Parcells 34 or Phillips 34 has been a second-rate defensive bust of a scheme. I’m ready to dump this system for the next coach that comes on board, because one thing is for sure, Phillips is gone in case you didn’t know it. The only person I’d be willing to try the 3-4 again, would be Bill Cowher, he had a good grasp of the system for years, and he’s a well rounded coach.Cowher on the 3-4 (2005):

“I think it is cyclical,” Pittsburgh Steelers coach Bill Cowher said. “That seems to be the case in the league. You’ve seen a couple more teams, it seems like every week, that are going to it. We’ll see how long people stay with it. It’s one thing to make the change; it’s another to stick to it.”

If we stick with the 3-4 it needs to be Cowher leading the troops; otherwise, get a 4-3 guru back in here and utilize what we have. Our roster is primed to excel back in the 4-3, maybe even the 4-6. Can you imagine having Ware, Tank, Ratliff, Canty, Spencer, Ellis all on the field. That would be 90s SuperBowl defense right there.

Do you know what was the last NFC team that used the 3-4 which made the Super Bowl? The New York Giants, under Parcells, in 1991. Since 1991, all the NFC teams got to big game with the 4-3. Just look at the most recent NFC represenatives:the Bucs, Panthers, Eagels, Bears, and Giants to the Super Bowl.

Screw the 3-4, just based on that, we’re against all odds to make it based on history…since 1991, pathetic.