Will The Cowboys Decade of Futility Continue? Is Tony Romo the Answer?

 

2004 Pre-season game against Raiders

That Tony Romo has had his share of difficulties in win-or-go-home games has been well documented, but nobody can rightly question the fact that he is a championship-caliber quarterback. Romo is the reason that Jerry Jones and a whole host of expectant Cowboy fans can hold out hope that America's Team can get back to the top of football's steep, and winding, staircase. Yes, Romo often drives coaches crazy with ill-advised impulse decisions, but has also used this same gunslinger mentality to give his team many more victories that otherwise would have been improbable, if not impossible.
What, you ask, is his most important last-minute effort over his ten-year career? Well, only a meaningless preseason contest from the Black Hole in Oakland where Romo's go-for-broke mentality not only won a game, but might very well have saved a franchise with it.

Read the full story in Chapter 13 of Decade of Futility by Ryan Bush.

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Dallas Cowboys Owner Jerry Jones “Outdated,” Says ESPN’s Colin Cowherd

by Ryan Bush

Dallas Cowboys Owner Jerry Jones

There was a massive metaphorical earthquake in the wake of Peter King’s elaborate comments this morning about the “closing window” that Cowboys owner Jerry Jones sees in Dallas.  Not only is a “win-or-bust” mentality wrong for a franchise that has won only one playoff game in fifteen years, it’s also unfounded, says ESPN Radio talk-show host Colin Cowherd.  The Cowboys are a young team, pointed out Cowherd on his show, The Herd, and a good young team at that.  Brandon Carr is only 26 years old.  Morris Claiborne is 22.  Dez Bryant 23.  Sean Lee and Dan Connor are 26.  Tyron Smith 21. Dan Bailey 24.  Miles Austin is 28.  The old ones happen to be the trio of Demarcus Ware, Jason Witten and Tony Romo.  And Romo’s the oldest of the bunch, at age 32.  The core group of players that the Cowboys are relying on are barely out of the cradle, let alone having one foot in the grave.

“[2012] is not a window-closing thing,” said Cowherd.  “It’s can Jerry Jones get out of the way.”

Cowherd, like many NFL insiders, believes that Jones’ hands-on approach to managing the team is preventing the team from reaching their enormous potential.  “I think Jerry’s outdated.  I think the way Jerry runs things is outdated,” Cowherd summarized.

With that statement, Cowherd may have touched on the central nerve that has placed such emphasis on winning big this season.  More than a closing window on the Cowboys, it’s just barely possible that the 68-year old Jones sees the window closing on his own time as the Cowboys general manager.

An Offseason Of What-ifs For Dallas Cowboys Can Finally Be Silenced Against Giants

 A perpetual game of what-ifs has been played around the Dallas Cowboys’ team complex since last January’s season-ending loss to the Giants in Week 17.  It’s to be expected when you lose a firm grasp on the division in one meeting, and then watch someone else steal it right out from under your nose during the next.  What if Tony Romo’s hand hadn’t been swollen like a purple pumpkin from contact with a helmet a week earlier?  What if Demarco Murray had been in the backfield instead of on the sideline with a broken ankle?  What if Dan Bailey’s kick that would have forced overtime three weeks previously at Cowboys Stadium had gone through the uprights, rather than off the hand of Giants defensive end Jason Pierre-Paul?  What if the Cowboys had won the NFC East instead of the Big Blue G-Men?  The suppositions go on and on…

The Cowboys entered that month of all months, December, with a 7-4 record, but collapsed down the stretch, finishing with an 8-8 mark.  There was no season-ending celebration, no playoffs.  Instead, the Cowboys got to recline in a tub of ice while the Giants marched through the NFC Playoffs and all the way to a Super Bowl championship.

The Cowboys’ entire off-season program of free-agent signings, the draft, and mini-camps, has been geared to beat the Giants, winners of five of the last six meetings in the series.  Cornerbacks Brandon Carr and Morris Claiborne join safety Barry Church for what is expected to be a much better secondary than the one Eli Manning torched at will twice in the season’s final months. 

These three pieces, among others, have the Cowboys feeling confident of their chances this time around.  You can hear it in their voices, see it in their walk.  The Cowboys know the challenge ahead, yet realize the opportunity.  The Giants are the champions, but are not invincible.  Last year’s down-to-the-wire contest in Arlington that ended on a blocked field-goal proves that.

And here we are, eight months later, on the other side of training camp, preseason and final cutdowns, with the Giants directly ahead.  It’s time to put an end to this game of what-ifs, and could’ve-would’ve-should’ves.  The Cowboys say they want the crown for themselves.  Well, now is the time to go and take the first major step in winning it.

Dallas Cowboys' Felix Jones’ Uninspiring Play Gives Additional Meaning To Remainder Of Preseason on the Long Road to the Super Bowl

 By Ryan Bush

As late August threatens to give way to September, head coaches and general managers have begun to anticipate the first of two roster cut downs in order to reach the NFL-mandated 53-man roster.  Dallas Cowboys head coach Jason Garrett has been pelted with questions from the media this preseason surrounding the team’s wide-open battle at three of the five receiver positions, leaving little room for other discussion.  Cole Beasley’s seven-catch performance in San Diego on Saturday night has only intensified the ongoing debate among coaches, players, and fans alike.

Meanwhile, a developing story at the running back position has to have Garrett and general manager Jerry Jones a bit concerned as well.  Three weeks of training camp and two exhibition contests into the season and what once was thought to be a roster position set in stone has turned into a host of veritable question marks that is nothing but disconcerting.

Entering his fifth season in the league, Felix Jones traveled to California for training camp with a firm grip on the No. 2 halfback position behind last year’s rookie phenom Demarco Murray.  But one uninspiring practice after another, coupled with two sub-par performances against Oakland and San Diego, has left Jones’ role with the team very much in doubt. The speed that convinced the Cowboys to draft him twenty-second overall in the 2008 draft out of Arkansas seems to have disappeared, and his impressive agility right along with it.  And all this developing around two running backs, Murray and Olawale, that have made the most out of every carry.  Without a doubt, this could spell trouble for the Cowboys and Jones.

In a league that has adopted a dual-running back fold as the norm, the Cowboys were counting on Jones to be Murray’s sidekick in the backfield, spelling him intermittently throughout the course of each game.  Jones’ game-breaking abilities in the passing department made him a valuable asset as a third-down back in Jason Garrett’s offense as well.

The tone from the front-office suggests the Cowboys are prepared to be patient with Jones, who is coming off off-season shoulder surgery, and aren’t watching the waiver wire for any possible replacement.  

But how long their patience will last is the question?

Because,  it’s no secret that Garrett needs production from his No. 2 back and might be hesitant to expect Olawale to fill that role as a raw rookie in the case that Jones continues to flounder, making the final two exhibition games versus St. Louis and Miami, oh, so very important.