Have a Little Pride

As I sat watching the Dallas Cowboys phone in another game last night, I noticed my feelings towards Wade Phillips changing. I have been calling for the guy's head since the Giants game three weeks ago, and I still think he has got to go, but the lackluster effort last nght was more than Wade. I watched a team that seemingly had no personal pride on the line. They got embarrassed by the Packers and their reaction to that was not to get mad and play harder, it was to crawl into their shell and feel sorry for themselves. NBC kept showing that shot of Jay Ratliff on the sidelines, and it looked like the man was crying. I have no problem with a man crying, but c'mon Jay, your dog didn't just die. Man up and tackle somebody.

Ratliff wasnt the only one to deserve some finger pointing. Michael Jenkins has been getting beat like a rug all season. Well at least on the plays where he doesn't commit a pass interference penalty. And to make matters worse, when James Jones caught a quick out at the ten yard line, and Gerald Sensbaugh was draped on him trying to keep him out of the endzone, Jenkins decided not to even try to tackle the guy. He pulled  a Deion Sanders and didn't even hit Jones as he fell into the endzone. Nice effort Michael.

Don't worry offense, you are not off the hook. How could you be when you barely managed 100 total yards. The best example of a poor effort play for me on the offense comes from Felix Jones. Hey Felix, rememeber in the Giants game when a running back missed a block and got Tony Romo killed. Apparently he doesn't, because he just stood there as a Packer linebacker ran right by him and almost decpaitated Jon Kitna. At least Felix fell on the fumble.

A close second on the offense was Jason Witten not getting off the ball on a third and 1 that allowed Clay Matthews to get to Marion Barber the same time the hand off did.

I agree that Wade Phillips is going to be gone, and he should be. This team has woefully underperformed, and at the end of the day the coach should take the blame for that, just as coaches get praised for doing more with less talent. That being said, at what point do the players on this team step up and show some professional pride and start playing hard. That's not on Wade, that's on them.