No tackling?!

[Ride the Pine]

So, even after last year's fiasco of on-the-field tackling problems, Wade Phillips will once again have a tackle-free training camp. This, to me, is the stupidest thing a coach can do, and just proves why I believe Wade Phillips will be gone from Dallas after this season.

[Taydeezy]

Umm...there are quite a few teams that don't tackle in their own mini camps.


If Dallas had a "toughness" problem, then I'd agree with you...but there problems come with execution, turnovers, and not being where they are supposed to be on defense...NOT tackling.


The ONLY game that you could have seen, and made that claim, was the Baltimore game, where they gave up 2 long TD runs in the 4th quarter...and I'd chalk that up more to the players being in the wrong position and bad tackling, then just tackling, lol.


Don't mistake the Cowboys problems tackling in the Baltimore game(or the last Philly game, which I toss out because the entire team failed to show up for some reason, lol), for them having that issue all year.


I think tackling your own players isn't going to make the team any better...as a matter of fact, as Wade Phillips said himself, "We dont' play the Cowboys"

[Ride the Pine]

Well, they had far worse problems tackling than just the Baltimore game. They were fortunate to win week one in Cleveland because of it. Ok, so it was the first week... well they had more problems in the first Washington game that got overlooked because everyone was too busy blaming Terrell Owens. Remember the opening kickoff return for a TD against Arizona? Tackling problem. The St. Louis debacle? Besides Brad Johnson, if someone could have tackled Steven Jackson, they may have had a better shot at staying at least within 10 points.

I remember almost every week thinking "well, if they had actually practiced this, maybe 'player x' wouldn't be trying to arm tackle." In my opinion, it was the biggest problem with the defense and special teams last season, and it isn't even close. I don't care if you don't "play the Dallas Cowboys", if you don't practice it, you can't expect to show up and be able to do it properly on gameday. It has been well-chronicled that more times than not, teams that don't do it at all in training camp don't do it well during games. It opens the door to injuries from guys not being ready to hit or take hits (Felix Jones, Miles Austin anyone?).

Tackling is about as fundamental as it comes in football, and while it lends it's hand to training camp injuries, at least you take the field with a team of guys who will be able to properly execute and take a hit when they have to. I'm not saying go crazy and tackle every practice, but NO contact in practices is just absurd, and won't go very far in getting rid of the "Camp Cupcake" label. Wade Phillips should have been gone after year 2, and Jerry, instead of admitting he was wrong, placed the blame on Owens and cut him instead. I'm afraid he'll be regretting that decision soon enough, as much as I hate to say it.

[Ride the Pine]

Originally Posted by Taydeezy

as Wade Phillips said himself, "We dont' play the Cowboys"

Also, we shouldn't trust ANYTHING Phillips says... this is the same guy that, after getting drubbed 44-6 in the season finale, pulled his "Well... umm... I thought we did some good things..." You just got plastered 44-6, I don't care what else happened you don't lose like that and have ANYTHING good happen.

[Taydeezy]

Well, they had far worse problems tackling than just the Baltimore game. They were fortunate to win week one in Cleveland because of it. Ok, so it was the first week... well they had more problems in the first Washington game that got overlooked because everyone was too busy blaming Terrell Owens. Remember the opening kickoff return for a TD against Arizona? Tackling problem. The St. Louis debacle? Besides Brad Johnson, if someone could have tackled Steven Jackson, they may have had a better shot at staying at least within 10 points.

WHAT?!?

Fortunate?!?

The Cowboys won that game 28-10, and it wasn't even really that close. The Cowboys offense shut it down early in the 2nd half, and Cleveland didn't even look like it belonged on the same field.

come on brandon!

I'll go on...

That Washington game wasn't "overlooked" because of TO, and it was NOT lost because of tackling. Terrance Newman, who was hobbled and shouldn't have been playing, was destroyed by Santana Moss that game, and that was a HUGE reason they lost. You can really tell that because in the 2nd game, when Newman was 100%, he shut down Moss by himself.

Oh, and don't forget that was the infamous "8 running plays game" when they handed the ball off 8 times to RB's that ENTIRE game. Oh, and handed it off twice to TO on a reverse. I'd call that poor game planning more than poor tackling.

THOSE are the reasons they lost that game...not tackling.

As for the Arizona game, yeah that opening kickoff return was bad. But once again, chalk that up to players being out of position and not staying in their gaps more(exectution) than bad tackling. Something the Cowboys have fixed, I hope, by firing their Special Teams coach, and bringing in one of the best in the league. Once again, it was execution, not tackling that hurt them.

Besides that, I can name about 3-4 more plays that lead to the Arizona loss...not that opening kickoff, which hurt, but didn't cost them the game.

The St Louis game, like the Baltimore game, might be the best examples you can throw out. That's really two games that they had "poor tackling" games, and it wasn't NEARLY as bad as you seem to think.

"Debacle" and "Fiasco" are HUGE overstatments.

[Ride the Pine]

Ok, I'm gonna throw something out here. Go back and look at the box score for the Cleveland game. The stat you won't see is how many times Braylon Edwards dropped a touchdown pass. The number of times Anthony Henry got burned that game was too many to count, but I can tell you exactly how many sure-to-be touchdowns (if he catches them) Edwards had but dropped: 4. The game was much closer than the score indicated, and the drops came on crucial downs that ended drives 3 of the 4 times. It wasn't really the defense that stopped the offense on that day, and while every team has to have a little bit of luck or fortune to put together a good season, you can't make it your bread and butter for long stretches. While you cite many other good reasons for the loss in Washington, tackling was still a problem. Seriously though, it was all season, even in wins. The entire defense, with the exception of Zach Thomas and Ware were trying to arm tackle, and poor Thomas was too small to finish the tackle himself many times.Why do you think there were so many times the Cowboys allowed teams into the red zone before they stopped them? I'm telling you, I'm not blowing smoke here, it was a very legitimate problem all season, and I truly believe it is attributed to only doing it on gameday. You can't expect to do ANYTHING well that you haven't done prior to a game.