BipolarFuk
Demoted
- Joined
- Apr 7, 2013
- Messages
- 11,464
By Russell S. Baxter
If eight is truly enough, then it is safe to say that 8-8 is enough already.
It's been three years and counting for the Dallas Cowboys, who have not had a winning campaign since winning the NFC East in 2009 and have finished at exactly .500 each of the last three years. In those last three seasons, head coach Jason Garrett and his club was in position to win the division in Week 17 only to fall short on every occasion.
So what can team owner Jerry Jones, team president Jerry Jones and Cowboys general manager Jerry Jones do to turn this thing around?
Stop if you have heard this all before.
Once again, the Cowboys have made a change in terms of who will be calling the plays this season. The man on the spot in 2014 is well-traveled coach Scott Linehan.
The Cowboys' new defensive coordinator is Rod Marinelli, who was the team's defensive line coach this past season. The one-time Detroit Lions head coach is Dallas' fourth defensive coordinator in five years and takes over for Monte Kiffin after the Cowboys finished last in the NFL in total yards allowed in 2013.
Since winning the NFC East with an 11-5 mark in 2009, Dallas is a combined 30-34. Let's take it a step further back. Dating back to 1997, the Cowboys own a 136-136 regular-season record. Over the last 17 years, they have had more 10-plus loss seasons (6) than campaigns with double-digit wins (4).
And here's a little modern NFL history lesson and numbers most football fans are very familiar with:
No team has been to more Super Bowls than the Cowboys, who've made eight appearances in the Big Game--tied with the Pittsburgh Steelers for the most ever. And only Pittsburgh (6) has won more Lombardi Trophies than Dallas (5), who became the first franchise in league annals to win three Super Bowls in a four-year span (1992-95), a feat since duplicated by the New England Patriots (2001-04).
But 1995 is significant, because it not only marks the last time the Cowboys won an NFL title but also the last time we saw the organization even reach the NFC title game. In 1996, Dallas did manage to win its division with a 10-6 mark and went on to defeat the Minnesota Vikings in the wild-card playoffs before losing to the Carolina Panthers a week later in the divisional round. However, over the last 17 seasons, Jones' team is a dismal 1-6 in the playoffs.
These days, are both Garrett and Tony Romo to blame for this long stretch of failure? Keep in mind that since 1997, Jones has gone through six different head coaches and 15 different starting quarterbacks. And while the head coach and quarterback do deserve their share of the blame, the ineptitude stretches back before their arrival in the current positions.
Still, the common denominator over the last 17 seasons has been Jones, who has owned the team since 1989 and was around for the glory years of "The Triplets" and Super Bowl titles under head coaches Jimmy Johnson and Barry Switzer.
And while it's always easy to label a scapegoat, is Jones indeed the sole reason that this organization never seems to live up to expectations? Perhaps the bigger issue is that those aspirations are consistently too high and just based on the fact that these are the Dallas Cowboys.
Over the last four seasons, it hasn't taken a lot to win the NFC East. No team in the division has won more than 10 games dating back to 2010.
So when will we see a sixth Lombardi Trophy in Dallas? Can the Cowboys win a division title and make a return to the playoffs? Is a winning season in the cards anytime soon?
How 'bout them questions, Cowboys fans?
If eight is truly enough, then it is safe to say that 8-8 is enough already.
It's been three years and counting for the Dallas Cowboys, who have not had a winning campaign since winning the NFC East in 2009 and have finished at exactly .500 each of the last three years. In those last three seasons, head coach Jason Garrett and his club was in position to win the division in Week 17 only to fall short on every occasion.
So what can team owner Jerry Jones, team president Jerry Jones and Cowboys general manager Jerry Jones do to turn this thing around?
Stop if you have heard this all before.
Once again, the Cowboys have made a change in terms of who will be calling the plays this season. The man on the spot in 2014 is well-traveled coach Scott Linehan.
The Cowboys' new defensive coordinator is Rod Marinelli, who was the team's defensive line coach this past season. The one-time Detroit Lions head coach is Dallas' fourth defensive coordinator in five years and takes over for Monte Kiffin after the Cowboys finished last in the NFL in total yards allowed in 2013.
Since winning the NFC East with an 11-5 mark in 2009, Dallas is a combined 30-34. Let's take it a step further back. Dating back to 1997, the Cowboys own a 136-136 regular-season record. Over the last 17 years, they have had more 10-plus loss seasons (6) than campaigns with double-digit wins (4).
And here's a little modern NFL history lesson and numbers most football fans are very familiar with:
No team has been to more Super Bowls than the Cowboys, who've made eight appearances in the Big Game--tied with the Pittsburgh Steelers for the most ever. And only Pittsburgh (6) has won more Lombardi Trophies than Dallas (5), who became the first franchise in league annals to win three Super Bowls in a four-year span (1992-95), a feat since duplicated by the New England Patriots (2001-04).
But 1995 is significant, because it not only marks the last time the Cowboys won an NFL title but also the last time we saw the organization even reach the NFC title game. In 1996, Dallas did manage to win its division with a 10-6 mark and went on to defeat the Minnesota Vikings in the wild-card playoffs before losing to the Carolina Panthers a week later in the divisional round. However, over the last 17 seasons, Jones' team is a dismal 1-6 in the playoffs.
These days, are both Garrett and Tony Romo to blame for this long stretch of failure? Keep in mind that since 1997, Jones has gone through six different head coaches and 15 different starting quarterbacks. And while the head coach and quarterback do deserve their share of the blame, the ineptitude stretches back before their arrival in the current positions.
Still, the common denominator over the last 17 seasons has been Jones, who has owned the team since 1989 and was around for the glory years of "The Triplets" and Super Bowl titles under head coaches Jimmy Johnson and Barry Switzer.
And while it's always easy to label a scapegoat, is Jones indeed the sole reason that this organization never seems to live up to expectations? Perhaps the bigger issue is that those aspirations are consistently too high and just based on the fact that these are the Dallas Cowboys.
Over the last four seasons, it hasn't taken a lot to win the NFC East. No team in the division has won more than 10 games dating back to 2010.
So when will we see a sixth Lombardi Trophy in Dallas? Can the Cowboys win a division title and make a return to the playoffs? Is a winning season in the cards anytime soon?
How 'bout them questions, Cowboys fans?
