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A lot is said about Wade Phillips, especially after losses. I wrote a little bit about Wade in my piece “Less Answers”, but I wanted to speak a little more about him.
Many people have an issue with Wade’s laid back attitude. They think that he does not get on his players enough and he is not too expressive during press conferences. They dislike how he never puts blame on the players and can never admit that there are any issues on the team regarding their late season struggles.
Well, I am not sure if any of you heard Pittsburgh Steelers head coach Mike Tomlin’s press conference after they lost to the Baltimore Ravens two Sunday night’s ago.
If you have not heard it, take a listen.
I will admit that after hearing that, I was actually excited because I love hearing a coach say this even though I am not a Steelers fan. He does not hide from the fact that his team needed to get back to playing smart and winning football. And then with his great quote, “We’re gonna unleash hell here in December”, he was being fiery.
But since the time of that loss and press conference, the Steelers have lost consecutive game to the Oakland Raiders in a last minute loss and the Cleveland Browns, whose defense absolutely shut them down.
This could prove a couple of things. It is still all about the players. You can tell the players what to do as much as you want, but ultimately, they are the ones who execute the plays being called.
Another thing is that it really does not matter whether the coach is laid back or forceful. I think that what matters is how they relate and treat their players.
Confidence is a fragile thing. You cannot pet a players ego because it could become inflated and you cannot criticize a player too heavy because they could crumble.
Obviously Parcells did not get the complete job done. He definitely set the table for this organization to get back to winning ways, but maybe his coaching style did not get through to these players.
It has been repeated that Wade is doing a great job record wise for this team, but people still believe he is too relaxed. When people defend Wade, they compare his attitude to that of Tony Dungy, a Super Bowl winning coach who was probably the most laid back coach in the history of the league.
In the 2006 season’s Super Bown, Dungy face off with Chicago Bears head coach Lovie Smith, who has the exact same attitude. Two laid back coaches leading their team into the Super Bowl. Of course, Love Smith does not have the same long term success as Dungy had, but he still took his team to a Super Bowl.
If you want Wade to be aggressive and forceful, it is never going to happen. It is easier to be a fired up coach that becomes more relaxed than it is to be a relaxed coach becoming fired up.
Wade still gets angry at penalties even though he is not going absolutely mental. So, if anyone thinks he is totally passive, he is surely not.
The main point is that talking about what you plan to do means absolutely nothing. Mike Tomlin’s team is likely sitting at home for this seasons playoffs after winning the Super Bowl a year ago. A betting man would have said that after Tomlin’s rant, his team was going to bust through the rest of the season, right into the playoffs.
It is all in the performance. All that Wade can do is put this team in the best position to win. They are in control of their own destiny and “they” need to finish the season strong.
When I say “they”, I mean the players.
Coaching was alot different before the salary cap. If a player wasn’t playing well the coach could cut him without it affecting the way that teams would be able to pay future players. Now if a team cuts a player his salary could still count against their cap for multiple seasons (T.O. is a good example). That is why Jimmy Johnson could have such a heavy handed coaching style while in Dallas. Players knew that if they screwed up too much they would be without a job. Jimmy Johnson’s lack of success in Miami is a good example of why that approach doesn’t always work now that we are in the salary cap era.
Definitely. Another thing Jimmy did that Michael Irvin has said, Jimmy would make it so uncomfortable for the players after they lost.
I’ve been saying it for the last month or so. The season finale against the Eagles will be for the division title. And damn if it doesn’t look more and more likely after this week. The ‘boys lose a HUGE game to the Bolts and the Eagles drop the Giants. Now dallas is one game behind the Eagles for the division lead and the Giants are one game behind Dallas (with the head to head tie breaker against our boys too dammit). If the pace stays the same and Dallas is one game behind the Eagles for first place that last game of the season then a win will win the division for Dallas, and a loss likely knocks dallas out of the playoffs (because if the giants keep up then they will jump ahead of Dallas in the standings in this scenario and Dallas can’t tie with NY; or the Packers either for that matter). I see this being the scenario that final week. Let’s see if I’m right.