Sports Then and Now

After a disappointing 1-7 start, Wade Phillips and the Cowboys are left to wonder what happened to the promise of 2010.

Finally having seen enough as the 2010 season continues to be a nightmare for his Dallas Cowboys, team owner and general manager Jerry Jones has done the inevitable and dismissed beleaguered head coach Wade Phillips.

Jones had tried to resist the temptation to make a coaching change during the middle of the season, but an embarrassing 45-7 loss on Sunday Night Football to the Green Bay Packers was more than the proud owner could absorb.

So, the Cowboys will finish the 2010 season under the leadership of offensive coordinator Jason Garrett.

It was just a couple years ago that Garrett was the hot young coaching prospect. When he became the offensive coordinator for the Cowboys in 2007 many thought it was just a matter of time before he would replace Phillips as the coach of the Cowboys.

Now, Garrett will have his chance, but it certainly isn’t in the situation originally envisioned.

With a 1-7 record and having been outscored 121-59 the last three weeks, Dallas is on pace for their worst season since their first season under Jones’ ownership in 1989.

During that season, Dallas started 0-8 and posted only one victory over the 16 game schedule.

However, the biggest difference between the Cowboys in 1989 and 2010 is that while the 1989 squad had no expectations and were biding time as Jones and coach Jimmy Johnson started building the team into eventual three-time Super Bowl champions, the 2010 Cowboys had visions of the Super Bowl dancing in their heads before the season. Read the rest of this entry →

Tom Dempsey gave the Saints an improbable victory with his field goal 40 years ago.

The New Orleans Saints didn’t have a lot to celebrate during their first two decades in the NFL, but they did enjoy one special moment 40-years ago this week when their improbable kicker made a seemingly impossible kick to defeat the Detroit Lions 19-17 on November 8, 1970.

Even during an era when straight-on kickers were still the majority in the NFL, Tom Dempsey was not your pro-typical NFL player.  Dempsey was 6-foot-2, but weighed more than 250 pounds. He also was born without fingers on his right hand or toes on his right foot.

Nonetheless, Dempsey played football at Palomar Community College in San Diego and then somehow found his way into the NFL with the New Orleans Saints.

As a rookie in 1969, Dempsey earned first-team All-Pro honors and appeared in the Pro Bowl while ranking fifth in league with 99 points. He led the NFL with 41 field goal attempts and was third in the league with 22 successful attempts.

In 1970 Dempsey and the Saints were struggling when they hosted Detroit in week eight. Dempsey had converted only five field goals through the first seven games and the Saints were 1-5-1 on the season. Read the rest of this entry →

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In week 12 of the 2005 NFL season, the Seattle Seahawks and the New York Giants met in an important match-up between NFC division leaders seemingly on a collision course for the post season.

The New York Giants entered this game as leaders of the NFC East division with a 7-3 record, thanks in large part to the number one overall pick of the 2004 NFL Draft, quarterback Eli Manning, who the Giants traded for after Manning refused to go to the San Diego Chargers.

In his first full season as the starting quarterback, Manning led a potent offense that included running back Tiki Barber and wide receiver Plaxico Burress, who the Giants acquired from the Pittsburgh Steelers in the offseason.

Their opponent, the Seattle Seahawks entered the game on a six-game winning streak and an 8-2 record.

Like the Giants, the Seahawks had a potent offense, which was the league’s best, lead by quarterback Matt Hasselbeck and running back Shaun Alexander who had scored 19 touchdowns prior to this game.

At this point in time, the Seahawks had been a team that had the talent to be among the best, but just could get over the hump. Read the rest of this entry →

Six games into the 2010 season, the Dallas Cowboys are playing anything like the star on their helmet. A 41-35 home loss on Oct. 25 to the division rival New York Giants in their only Monday night game of the season dropped the Cowboys to a dismal 1-5 with their third straight loss. Dallas is 0-3 at home this season and is off to its’ worst start since 1989 when it finished 1-15. As if things could not get any worse, starting quarterback Tony Romo suffered a broken left clavicle in the loss to the Giants and will be sidelined anywhere from six to eight weeks.

Dallas quarterback Tony Romo lays motionless after taking a hit from New York Giants' linebacker Michael Boley in the second quarter. Romo suffered a fractured left clavicle (non-throwing side) on the play and will miss six to eight weeks.

All of a sudden a team picked to contend for the Super Bowl finds itself all alone in the basement of its’ own division. A winning record let alone a wild card playoff berth seems to be a distant and unlikely feat this season. All those lofty preseason expectations have seemed to gone up in smoke.

Yet, when a talented team like the Cowboys stumbles, they need to look at themselves. Such is the case for Dallas this season as the Cowboys have defeated themselves. Penalties, turnovers, bad plays, breakdowns in special teams, and poor play calls by coaches have all been factors in the losses. Everyone from owner, president, and general manager Jerry Jones is involved in what is a serious case of underachievement.

It started in a week one loss at Washington when a holding call on right tackle Alex Barron nullified what would have been the game-winning touchdown pass from Romo to Roy Williams on the final play in a 13-7 loss. That was the final mistake in a night of goofs for Dallas which committed 12 penalties for 91 yards. Furthermore, Romo had two passes intercepted. Read the rest of this entry →

In 1978, the National Football League expanded not only its regular season from 14 to 16 games, but also its playoff format from eight teams to 10. With the inclusion of one extra playoff team per conference, a game between the two wild card teams would be played one week before the three divisional winners began their postseason.

Thus, the Wild Card playoff round was born and in the very first NFC Wild Card Game the Atlanta Falcons would host the Philadelphia Eagles in Atlanta Fulton County Stadium.

The Eagles were making their first postseason appearance since they won the NFL championship back in 1960.  Following that season, the Eagles went into freefall as the franchise had only two winning seasons from 1961-75.

After a 4-10 season in 1975, the Eagles hired UCLA head coach Dick Vermeil, whose team had just defeated #1 Ohio State in the Rose Bowl, to the same position.

By his third season, Vermeil had turned the Eagles into a winner as the team finished with a 9-7 record to clinch one of the two NFC Wild Card spots for the team’s first playoff appearance in 18 years.

While the Eagles were returning to the postseason, the Atlanta Falcons were making their first foray into the playoffs. Read the rest of this entry →

Two games into the season, the Dallas Cowboys are staring at 0-2. While most fans are screaming for the heads of players and coaches, not all is lost. It is early in the season and too early for anyone to be throwing it all away.

Statistically, teams that start 0-2 don’t always make the playoffs. One team that did start 0-2 was the 1993 Cowboys. That team won the Super Bowl. There is a big asterisk by that team as it was without hall-of-fame running back Emmitt Smith who was holding out due to a contract dispute.

Smith, the NFL’s all-time leading rusher, was signed in time to play week three and the Cowboys reeled off seven straight wins en route to a 12-4 season and their second straight Super Bowl win. However, there is not a running back the caliber of Smith this time around. Furthermore, Dallas does not have a dominating team like it did in 1993.

Dallas linebacker Anthony Spencer converges on the Bears' Jay Cutler

While the Cowboys have promise and potential, they are young. They are good enough to give it a good run this season and are capable of making the playoffs. However all that is just talk right now. Dallas has to focus on playing better football.

The schedule doesn’t get any easier. Dallas plays at Houston – who beat the Cowboys in the preseason – next week. With a bye the following week, the Cowboys face a must win against the Texans. No team wants to go into a bye off a loss and no team wants a week off to dwell over 0-3.

After the bye, the schedule really becomes competitive with home games against Tennessee, division foe New York, and Jacksonville along with a road game at Minnesota, also 0-2. There is time to turn a dismal start around. Focus, preparation, and execution are needed. Pointing fingers, letting these two losses linger with you, and panicking are not. Read the rest of this entry →