Finally a voice of reason in the regarding the December losses
http://www.nationalfootballpost.com/The-Mo...avern-8196.html
America’s team is tanking, not because it’s December, but because it’s playing good teams and its field-goal kicker is killing it. Do you think if the Cowboys had the Lions or the Bears on their schedule now, we’d be hearing this December swoon talk? I hate generalizations that make no sense, and all this talk about past seasons is not the real reason for the Cowboys losing the past two weeks. It’s been their inability to make critical plays at critical points in the game. Going 1 for 8 on third down Sunday, combined with not being able to make a field goal and not being able to score from the 1-yard line are all reasons for the loss, not the time of year.
Dallas head coach Wade Phillips is staring at a difficult schedule to close out the season.
The Cowboys held the Chargers to their season low in points and broke their 18-game streak of scoring more than 20 points in a game. But when the game was on the line, they could not get off the field. Quarterback Tony Romo has played well and has not turned over the ball, yet the Cowboys haven’t won the last two weeks. Why? Is it their players, their coaching or have they just been unlucky? The answer is a little bit of everything. They just haven’t been able to make clutch plays at right time, or make the clutch call or the clutch kick. They’re a good team, but they fail to play with a sense of purpose at the right moment. Is this the fault of their head coach, Wade Phillips? He certainly has to take some responsibility, but so do his assistants, especially Jason Garrett, the offensive coordinator.
My sense of the Cowboys -- and the reason for their failures at crunch time -- lies more in the way they’re set up organizationally. Every member of the franchise, from the players to the coaches to the staff, all act as independent contractors who function well at times but are not always in rhythm. They just don’t have an ultimate leader during the games -- player or coach – who can inspire a sense of confidence and be able to motivate at the most critical time. Football teams must be unified, winning and losing together, and most of all must be responsible to the head coach. I just don’t see that element in Dallas, and the reason for their failures lies in their lack of leadership.