Chargers and Cowboys- All Too Familiar

I just got done watching the San Diego Chargers turn the ball over four times and still have a chance at a 45 yard field goal to tie the game vs. New England which would have sent the contest into overtime. However, as poor teams do, the Chargers were called for a false start which added 5 yards to the attempt which Kris Brown proceeded to miss wide right by the width of a football thus San Diego is now 2-5.

As usual the Chargers out gained the opponent, which is as sure a thing as Lindsey Lohan abusing drugs, but they lost the two most important statistics in football, the turnover battle (0-4) and the scoreboard (20-23). This game got me to thinking about all the commonality between the San Diego Chargers and the Dallas Cowboys thus I thought I would review it with you.

Each team has a Pro Bowl quarterback, Phillip Rivers and Tony Romo, each team has a capable set of running backs, each team has perennial Pro Bowl Tight Ends, Antonio Gates and Jason Witten, game breaking WRs- that’s a check and very talented defenses. Hell, the Cowboys probably have the game’s best defensive player in DeMarcus Ware, their All-Pro Linebacker.

After going through the litany above, one must be wondering how is San Diego 2-5 and Dallas 1-4 staring 1-5 squarely in the eye tomorrow night vs. the NY Giants? The answer to the preceding is quite simple; the biggest commonality between these teams which renders all the talent above relatively useless is that each has a weak head coach that would be an excellent coordinator but neither is a leader of men. Norv Turner, in San Diego, cut his teeth with Jimmy Johnson’s Cowboys dynasty of the 90s as an offensive coordinator. Turner is one of the most creative offensive minds in the game; he’s also a pushover that allows his team to make dumb mistake after dumb mistake without consequences. San Diego has had one of the league’s most talented teams for the past five or six years yet every year they come up just a bit short.

Wade Phillips heads the Cowboys and like Turner, he is a great coordinator- only he is a defensive guru. Matter of fact, when he was in San Diego with Turner’s predecessor Marty Schottenheimer, Phillips put together one of the best defenses in the league but again the Cowboys continually fall short of expectations despite having a roster littered with Pro Bowlers and All-Pros. Like their cousins in San Diego, Dallas usually does themselves in with penalties and turnovers at the worst of times. Like the Chargers there really isn’t any consequences for the players thus they continue to make the same mistakes and wonder why they “have such bad luck” as I read a quote from Marcus Spears in this week’s paper.

Luck doesn’t go around looking for stumble bums as legendary Texas coach Darryl Royal once said; you make your own luck or bad luck as is the case with these franchises. In a league where the games are close every week and the talent is fairly distributed throughout the league, one cannot underestimate the importance of a great coach, not only a solid X and O guy but a leader of men. The Chargers and Cowboys lack this element and will continue to fall short of their expectations until they change this.

As a Cowboys fan, I have more confidence in San Diego hiring a good coach because owner Alex Spanos is solid and GM A.J. Smith is one of the most shrewd executives in the game. The Cowboys are so organizationally dysfunctional right now with the “everything revolves around me” world of Jerry Jones that they make the Menendez family look like the Brady Bunch. With Wade Phillips on his way out after this season, I would be less suprised if Jerry Jones hired China Phillips before I ever see Bill Cowher patrolling the Dallas sideline.