Star-Telegram: It’s all cool now for the Dallas Cowboys, but wait until January

[tr1]

Will the choking dogs show up early this year? Before January? Stay tuned.

By RANDY GALLOWAY

http://www.star-telegram.com/332/story/808212.html

OXNARD, Calif. — All seems cool here, 50 miles north of LA, but that’s not a commentary on the high temp of 74 degrees registered in the Dallas Cowboys’ camp on Monday afternoon.

Good football teams normally don’t have much to sweat in early August, and there’s no doubt the Cowboys have their strongest collection of talent in years. A case can be made it’s finally a team on the verge of premier status, but we won’t know that until at least early January.

With the recent history of postseason pukes, this bunch needs to win a playoff game. Even just one would be an immense improvement.

Back in the day, Jerry Jones used to make bold training camp proclamations. He would go giddy in August, predict 10 wins for teams obviously void of double-digit W talent, and then have to hear it from the rest of us as yet another 5-11 season unfolded.

Jerry wised up several summers ago, and canned the predictions. In this camp, he refuses to even mention those two magical words: Super Bowl.

Others, however, rate the Cowboys in that category, even with a playoff pedigree that is horrible in recent times. But as Jerry surveyed the situation after a Monday morning workout, he was full of optimism about his quarterback, his receivers, his defense, his roster depth in many areas, etc.

"We have a chance to be the team most expect us to be, and be a team that can go where many seem to think we will go," he said.

OK, that’s as close to Super Bowl talk as Jerry will venture.

I repeat:

Win a playoff game first. Or even before that, have a good December as a jumping off point into the playoffs. Decembers are killing the Cowboys. Worst yet, that month has been a primer for what happens in January.

Twelve years without a playoff win is a disgraceful slump for a franchise such as the Cowboys. But Jones said he personally reduces the agony to the last two seasons.

"There’s really only one constant over the last 12 years, and that’s me, as I’m reminded often," he said, smiling. "With this current cast, our disappointments in January are based on the last two seasons. But if I’ve got my history right, they used to say Tom Landry couldn’t get over the hump [in the ’60s], and when he finally did, the rest was history."

OK, let there be no Landry-Wade Phillips comparisons, but for what it’s worth, Phillips seems to be as loose and comfortable in this camp as we’ve see him in his short coaching tenure at Valley Ranch. Having arrived only Sunday, my Phillips read has been extremely brief, so I rely mainly on others for that opinion.

But I have been giving Wade a rundown on my Italy vacation trip in July, and he’s acting interested in the details. Mainly, however, Phillips is a coach who isn’t sweating all the stuff we thought he’d be sweating. Coaches know. Know when the team’s talent level is such, confidence replaces concern, even in August.

And then the failure of January, a mere seven months ago, is still bitterly fresh, "which I feel is a strong motivator, I sure do," said Jerry. "How could it not be, when we let the season end at home that day, when we dropped dead right there?"

And last week came a vivid reminder of that playoff loss to the Giants, when the now-retired Michael Strahan visited Oxnard, this time as a TV commentator.

"I had seen Michael after the Giants won the Super Bowl, and he had made some comments I was pleased to hear," said Jerry. "When he came out here last week, he repeated those to me and others on the team.

"No. 1, Michael said we were the most physical team the Giants played all season. I liked that a lot. It’s important to be known as physical. Plus, he said we were the best team the Giants played all season, and obviously he meant New England also."

The Giants, of course, had lost the two regular-season games to the Cowboys. "Again, according to Michael, only when they beat us in January, was the seed planted that they could go to the Super Bowl, and then win it," added Jones.

Even if it’s B.S. to think the Cowboys were superior to last season’s Belichicks, and even with the theory nothing good can come out of losing like the Cowboys did in January, it’s possible to take it a step beyond, and into August.

"We are better, we are better right now than we were then," said Jerry.

No argument from here, where everything is cool for the time being.

[Cowboy8467]

A good article, and I must agree with it. Until the Cowboys can show they mean business in December and into January, they will continue to carry the label of choker. Good find tr1 :applause:

[bubba9497]

Michael said we were the most physical team the Giants played all season.

:laugh:

[DCranon21]

Win a playoff game first. Or even before that, have a good December as a jumping off point into the playoffs. Decembers are killing the Cowboys. Worst yet, that month has been a primer for what happens in January.

Twelve years without a playoff win is a disgraceful slump for a franchise such as the Cowboys. But Jones said he personally reduces the agony to the last two seasons.

He has a point, you have to win in December to catch the mometum to head into the playoffs.