DallasCowboys.com-SHOWTIME

[TK]

http://www.dallascowboys.com/spagnola.cfm?id=8F1A3E0F-B734-8931-265499BDFC134A12

Show And Telling

By MICKEY SPAGNOLA

DallasCowboys.com Columnist

October 30, 2003, 5:05 p.m. (CST)

IRVING, Texas - Showtime!

Love it, don't you? That is the message Big Bill imparted to these Dallas Cowboys this week. Time to go. Time to make hay. Time to find out what this 2003 season is all about.

That's Bill. He doesn't sugar-coat things. He's not mealy-mouthed. He deals in very few grays. Just black and white.

Hey boys, at 5-2, owning a one-game lead in the NFC East with the Washington Redskins coming to town on Sunday for a nationally-televised game from Texas Stadium, your season for the next five games is on the line.

What you got?

"This is the time of year when you've got to knuckle down, and it's showtime," Cowboys head coach Bill Parcells said of his message to the troops coming off the disheartening 16-0 loss to Tampa Bay on Sunday. "It really is showtime. Either you got it or you don't have it. And when this month is over, I'll know a lot more about the Dallas Cowboys, the people on the Dallas Cowboys and where the future will be for some of those people. I'll know that."

Yeah boy. Reminds me of that 1993 season, the one following Super Bowl XXVII when the Cowboys got off to that 0-2 start sans Emmitt Smith. They were 11 games into the season, and stood but 7-4 after losing two more straight, the second of which being that Sleet Bowl catastrophe on Thanksgiving Day to, uh, Miami, by the way.

Well, the next week, with the Cowboys in second place, one game behind the Giants, Jimmy Johnson told his guys, and then anyone else who would listen, that they needed to "run the table" if there was to be any chance of winning the NFC East title; of winning back-to-back Super Bowl titles. Man, you talk about pressure.

And Jimmy was relentless, chastising his team after giving up a late score in a 37-20 whipping of Minnesota and continuing to harp after beating the Jets, 28-7, the following week.

Well, as the story goes, the Cowboys had to win every one of those five games, including the final one in overtime against the New York Giants at Giants Stadium, 16-13, just to win the NFC East. Brother, what a grind that was.

OK, this is a different era, a different team, certainly one with far less pedigree and different set of circumstances. But the competitor in Parcells will not allow him to qualify even this first season with the Cowboys as a "rebuilding" one. He's not sitting there, as some have, saying to himself he's a year or two away from turning this franchise around. That he can't possibly win with this cast of characters.

Uh-uh. At 62, Parcells realizes tomorrow is promised to no one, and he has masterfully given his players something to focus on after what would seem to have been a put-in-your-place loss to the defending Super Bowl champion Bucs this past Sunday. Sure, there are nine games remaining, and to the players, that must seem like that far-away mountain on the horizon, the one you never think you'll ever reach.

So he has compartmentalized what could seem an intimidating task into a more comprehensible challenge. Just take the next five games: Washington, Buffalo, New England, Carolina and Miami. Focus on these, and by time we get home Thanksgiving evening for some turkey, we will know what we are, who we are, where we are. For this is the heart of the Cowboys schedule, playing teams currently 3-4, 4-4, 6-2, 6-1 and 5-2. Add those up. It comes to 24-13. Hmmm. The last five teams the Cowboys have played stand a combined 13-22.

You talk about meat.

"I told our team (Wednesday) that basically we need to play our best football of the year starting now, this month," Parcells said. "We do. I think if we do, then we'll have a chance to be in contention for something in December. If we don't do that, I don't think we will. It's kind of showtime now. Not just this week, but over this period. We've got four home games in the next five. Nobody in our division has that advantage.

"So we have a hard schedule, but I told them we have a good schedule."

Hard, yes. Two of those teams, New England and Carolina, currently lead their divisions. Another, Miami, is but a half game out. At one time, Washington stood 3-1. Buffalo was once 2-0.

But good, you bet. Of those five games, four are at Texas Stadium, including Sunday's 3:15 p.m. (CST) kickoff against the Redskins. Only a Sunday night game at New England interrupts two pairs of home games.

That simple, it's time to find out just what you are, and don't be afraid. Hey, that's what Parcells preaches to his players, knowing from experience some guys would rather hide on the sideline or behind an injury rather than to test their mettle in a critical part of a game to find out if they're good enough. Some guys, according to Bill, would just rather not know than get exposed.

Well, he's exposing his team.

The Cowboys are 5-2, but have accomplished nothing more than igniting fandom optimism. Parcells is well aware of what can happen with 5-2. He reminds everyone of how San Diego's 6-1 last year turned into 8-8. Let me remind you of how the Cowboys' 6-2 in 1986 turned into 7-9 as Parcells' Giants went waltzing to the Super Bowl title right past them.

Now if this 5-2 is for real, then the Cowboys at least need to go 3-2 over the next five games to brace for what's coming that final month of the season: Three of the final four games on the road and having to play division opponents Philadelphia, Washington and the Giants all in a row. That would leave them 8-4 for the stretch run. Or if the Cowboys struggled, and came out of this rough stretch 2-3, that would leave them a competitive 7-5 with four to go.

Sorry, I just laughed. Just caught myself. Here I am, after watching this team go 5-11 for three consecutive years, suddenly talking about this team winning seven or eight games with four to play.

But Bill's not laughing. He's grinding, and he's making his assistant coaches grind even harder, which means his players will be grinding even harder than that when they play these four of five at home over a 25-day span.

That's the beauty of this whole thing: Parcells did not come with an eye to the future. He did not come with preconceived notions of how this season would turn out. Oh, he's realistic about his talent. He knows his shortcoming. But that's even more beautiful. He does not dilute his thinking with machismo, fooling himself by thinking he has more than he really has.

He's just trying to find ways to win with what's he's got. You know, as if harkening back to the old days of basketball when there wasn't a shot clock, back when a coach with a huge underdog would decide his only chance of winning against some Goliath was to stall, just grind the clock out on each possession, hoping to create impatience on the better team, and maybe win a game, 13-10. Really, it used to happen. Was called the "stall."

So he signs an Adrian Murrell. He benches a Larry Allen. He takes the wraps off a Derek Ross. He leaves a Zuriel Smith behind. He experiments with a Leonardo Carson. He trades for Kenyon Coleman. He milks a Quincy Carter. He drives a Roy Williams. Anything to get a little more edge for a team he knows is tenuously hanging on an edge.

And now, he goes to the whip, creating a sense of urgency for a team trying to discover just what it is.

"This month is going to be showtime for the Dallas Cowboys," said Parcells, unafraid of spewing some of that Jersey matter-of-factness. "Not this week, but this month will be showtime. Four of these next five games are at home. If we can play good football now and get to December, I think we'll have a chance. If we don't, then I think we'll be a middle of the pack or less team. Simple as that."

Pretty straightforward for a come starting the season with a "we'll see" outlook.

"The reality of the situation has changed," Parcells said. "We're a first-place team now, and we have an opportunity to do some things here that maybe going into the season not many people, and maybe including the players, didn't think we could do. My job as the coach is to tell the players the truth, and not to let them figure that out on their own, and the truth of the matter is, if we don't play well this month, we're probably not going to be a contender. And the truth of the matter is, if he do, we probably are going to be. As simple as that.

"So I don't see why you just can't say it when the reality of it is pretty accurate."

So he has said it, simple as that. The curtain comes up on just what these Dallas Cowboys will be in 2003 during this five-game November engagement. And by time the leftovers are warmed up Thanksgiving night, we will know, too, right along with Big Bill, what these Cowboys will be.

So come on, bring on the Redskins, the Bills and the Patriots, too. Don't forget the Panthers and Dolphins.

It's Shhh-ohhhh. . .TIME!

MICK SHOTS

With the Cowboys playing those four of the next five games at home, the three other NFC East members must play three of the next five on the road. And of these 15 games, all but two will be played against teams not on the Cowboys schedule. Philly must play Green Bay and Washington meets Seattle.

Darrell Russell will be a classic risk-reward case for 31 teams in the NFL, assuming he indeed clears waivers after the Raiders washed their hands of the troubled defensive tackle following his reinstatement by the NFL on Monday. The second pick in the 1997 draft is a tremendous player, but obviously he comes with considerable baggage, even unable to keep himself out of trouble after being served with an indefinite suspension by the league. He had to agree to the league minimum on a one-year deal before I'd take a chance on him. And remember owner Jerry Jones saying after failed attempts with Alonzo Spellman and Dimitrius Underwood, "We are not in the business of rehabilitation."

Should the Cowboys beat Washington, they assure themselves of at least finishing with a push when it comes to two-team tiebreakers in the NFC East. That would mean they would have beaten each of the three teams once, with the second round of the home-and-home series scheduled for Dec. 7-21.

After getting, uh, Sapped, last Sunday at Tampa Bay, this will be a big proving game for guard Larry Allen. He will be matched up against former Desperados lineman Bernard Hosley, but very well could find himself taking on former Pro Bowler Darrell Russell, signed just this week by the Redskins following his reinstatement after a 1½-year suspension by the NFL.

Troy Hambrick admits to being knocked out cold on the first third-and-one attempt when he was crushed by Derrick Brooks and Jermaine Phillips from the other. "I went down like a tree," Hambrick said. So when asked about the problems on third-and-short, like what did he see (on film), he quipped, "Buccaneers."

And the score . . . Cowboys 20, Redskins 13 . . . defense will create just enough separation.