The Very Hot Seat

The Dallas Cowboys are off to a 1-3 start, which is there worst start since 2001.  The Cowboys seem to have multiple problems on the field but the biggest would have to be the team’s discipline.  In the Cowboys’ last lost Tony Romo threw for over 400 yards and three touchdowns, while Felix Jones rushed for over 100 yards.

            Still with these great stats, the Cowboys still came up short against the Titans this past week.  This is why the Cowboys biggest issue is their lack of discipline on the field.  Tony Romo threw three interceptions and Marc Colombo was called with a late penalty for excessive celebration on the touchdown the tied up the game late.  This penalty turned out to be very costly as it set the Titans up with good field position and a late touchdown to give the Titans the edge over the Cowboys.

            With the main problems on the field not being the production of the players but the discipline on the field the main source of the problems, points back to the Cowboys head coach Wade Philips. 

            Wade Philips has a history of being a very passive coach and being mild-mannered on the sidelines during the games.  The problem is that the Cowboys need the very opposite of Wade Philips.  They need a coach that will get in their faces and punish them when they commit penalties on the field or when quarterback Tony Romo throws an interception on a terrible read.  After the Cowboys loss Philips stated the he wants his players to celebrate touchdowns even though a celebration penalty cost them the game.  Philips has also only has one win in the postseason during his four-year tenure with the Cowboys.

            With all this stated it seems to believe the obvious solution to fire Philips and for owner Jerry Jones to look for a new head coach.  But Jones and the Cowboys have previous stated that Philips has nothing to worry about and will retain his job as the Cowboys’ head coach.

            Many people may ask why does Philips have such a secure job?  With all these problems and Philips lack of success in the post season isn’t releasing him the clear-cut answer?  I would think that the sure answer would be to fire Philips.

            But anyone that knows Jerry Jones know that he loves having control over the football team.  He has a history of being over controlling and interfering with the head coaches while they are trying to do their jobs.  Jones has run a numerous amount of successful coaches out of Dallas, some of those being Tom Landry, Barry Switzer, Jimmie Johnson and Bill Parcells.  All of these coaches had very successful tenures with the Cowboys with some of them winning multiple Super Bowls.  But all these great coaches have one thing in common, one thing that may have led all their teams to the success that they had, and that is these coaches had or demanded total control over their football team.  Jerry Jones wanted to have more control over the on-field decisions and this lead the coaches to leave the Dallas Cowboys.

            Wade Philips mild-manner and laid back attitude allows Jerry Jones to do what he wants with the team and have more control.  This in result might be why Philips may not be on a hot seat like most people believe he should.