Cowboys on alert to learn from past failures after promising seasons
After posting a 12-4 record, winning the NFC East and winning a playoff game last season, conventional thinking has the Dallas Cowboys building on that success this season … even becoming a Super Bowl contender.
However, if recent history is a guide, maybe these Cowboys and their fans shouldn’t be making reservations for San Francisco in February just yet.
The previous two times the Cowboys recorded double-digit wins, won the NFC East and made the playoffs — 13-3 in 2007 and 11-5 in 2009 — they followed with two disappointing seasons and missed the playoffs.
The Cowboys went 9-7 in 2008 before bottoming out with a 6-10 finish in 2010 that resulted in coach Wade Phillips getting fired, the hiring of Jason Garrett and three subsequent 8-8 seasons before last year’s breakthrough performance.
Injuries played a role in the failed seasons of 2008 and 2010, considering quarterback Tony Romo missed three and 10 games in those years, respectively.
But was something else afoot? Did a sense of entitlement creep in? Did those the teams lose their edge?
While this is a new team with only Romo, tight end Jason Witten, tackle Doug Free and cornerback Orlando Scandrick still around from 2009 and only Witten and Romo from 2007, lessons were learned then that the Cowboys hope will pay off this season.
“I think that’s part of what Jason’s message is. It’s a new team and a new day,” vice president Stephen Jones said. “You have to start over with the same accountability and same work ethic that we had last year and not assuming that we got it. It’s going to take a lot of hard work. The good news is I think we have the leadership that understands that this time. A lot of our veteran leadership went through that and had some success and went backward.”
Garrett was an assistant coach under Phillips on those teams in 2008 and 2010. And while he knows those teams were completely different than this team in makeup and demeanor, he has taken steps to avoid history repeating itself a third time.
“I think there are lessons from really everything we’ve done in football in our lives,” Garrett said. “You’re trying to look at those kinds of things. You’re looking at what you did as an organization and then as a coaching staff, what did we do those years that maybe didn’t work out for us.
“There’s probably not a real cause and effect. We did this, this was wrong, that resulted in a season that wasn’t quite as good. Like anything, it’s a combination factor. You’re always trying to learn and looking back and seeing what you did well.”
The main thing Garrett has focused on has been preaching to his team about starting from ground zero and earning its success this season just as it did in 2014 by putting in the work the same way.
No one will admit to a sense of entitlement creeping in during 2008 or 2010, but they readily acknowledge that the culture is different because of Garrett, his focus on working hard every day, and his emphasis on playing with an edge.
“There’s a different culture, different coaches, different players, maybe some different motives at time,” Witten said. “Ultimately, we just didn’t make plays. I think you learn from the experience. There are a lot of things that go into it. You’ve also just got to have an edge. You learn that you don’t just build on it. You have to start over. And that’s something this team has done a great job understanding. There was a culture last year that everybody was on edge. We have to keep that.”
Witten said it’s been clearly communicated from ownership down through the coaches and players that the only chance they have of avoiding the pitfalls of 2008 and 2010 and really building on the success they had last year is by keeping that edge and putting that work in from ground zero all over again.
“I think that message has been clear in the way we work and the way we communicate,” Witten said. “And the way we try to do things. That’s the only way we know to do it and that’s the only chance we are going to have to have some success.”
Witten also embraces the championship purpose of this season.
“Thirty-one other teams have the same goal, too. I’m not afraid to say it, but it’s silly to talk about it,” Witten said. “We know what our ultimate goal is, but we just choose to focus on other things that allow us to get there.”
This story was originally published August 1, 2015 at 8:17 PM with the headline "Cowboys on alert to learn from past failures after promising seasons."