Cowboys’ Jones expecting special season
July 23, 2010
SAN ANTONIO (AP)—Dallas Cowboys owner Jerry Jones seemed to be trying totemper the obvious expectations he has for his team.
Not so easy when the next Super Bowl will be played in his own stadium, andthe Cowboys could legitimately be in position to play in that game nextFebruary.
“There’s just not a whole lot of things not to like about the upcomingseason,” Jones said Friday. “But we all know the game and the journey we haveahead of us.”
The ever-optimistic Jones has constantly reminded his players since the endof last season, and even before that, that they could be the first Super Bowlhost team to actually play for the title. He beams with pride when talking abouthis $1.2 billion stadium that opened last season.
Yet, on the day before the Cowboys open the NFL’s longest full-squad campthis year, Jones talked about how the defending NFC East champions ended lastseason. After winning their first playoff game in 13 seasons, againstPhiladelphia at home, they lost 34-3 at Minnesota the following weekend.
“We have got a lot to make amends for, but that’s not all bad,” Jonessaid. “Where I think that I won’t be going is spending a lot of time talkingabout, ‘Well, we’re having the Super Bowl in the Super Bowl stadium, theexpectation is to play the Super Bowl there.”’
Yet, clearly that is what he wants to happen.
Instead of a spending spree in an uncapped salary year, Jones emphasizedcontinuity with a group that has had success—though still hasn’t reached thepinnacle the owner experienced by raising the Lombardi Trophy three times in afour-year span in the mid-1990s.
A slimmer coach Wade Phillips (he has lost about 40 pounds since lastseason) goes into his fourth year with a 33-15 record in Dallas and a playoffvictory to his credit as head coach.
Phillips has also settled nicely into the dual role of head coach-defensivecoordinator. His 3-4 defense led by Pro Bowl linebacker DeMarcus Ware(notes) last yearallowed the fewest points in the NFC, with consecutive shutouts to end theregular season.
Jason Garrett is still calling plays for Tony Romo(notes), who is coming off arecord-setting year in which he also threw a career-low nine interceptions.
Jones said having that continuity “is a big deal. … We have got a lot ofcontinuity in what our players are going to be asked to learn and execute.”
The only significant changes came after Dallas cut expensive former Pro Bowlplayers Flozell Adams(notes), their offensive left tackle the last 12 seasons, andsafety Ken Hamlin(notes).
“We do have a lot of starters coming back,” Phillips said. “We have a lotof starters who played well and are coming into the prime of their careers.”
Regardless of what happens, this is going to be a special season for thefive-time Super Bowl champions, who are marking 50 years as an organization. Forthe first time, Dallas has the highest all-time winning percentage in NFLhistory at .580, just ahead of Miami (.579), after the Cowboys won their lastthree games of the 2009 regular season.
Emmitt Smith, the NFL’s career rushing leader, is being inducted into thePro Football Hall of Fame in two weeks, and the Cowboys are playing in thepreseason opener that weekend in Canton, Ohio. Troy Aikman and Michael Irvin,teammates with Smith for those three Super Bowl championships under Jones, arealready in the Hall of Fame.
With the extra preseason game, the Cowboys are the first full squad to opencamp. Rookies of some other teams are already reporting, but no other fullsquads report until Wednesday.
Dallas has all of its drafted rookies under contract after linebacker SeanLee(notes), the second-round pick, agreed to a deal Friday. First-round pick Dez Bryant(notes)on Thursday agreed to a a five-year deal.
After the Cowboys went 13-3 in Phillips’ debut season, there were bigexpectations the following year. But they went 9-7 and missed the playoffs in2008.
Jones remembers what the coach told players before the start of trainingcamp two years ago—that everybody was saying all they had to do was pick upwhere they left off and the next stop would be the Super Bowl. But the coachreminded them then they were still 80 players and not yet a 53-man team.
What did Phillips plan to tell the Cowboys before their first workoutSaturday?
“We’ve approached it, it’s not the Super Bowl at our place, it’s this nextpractice for us, that’s the most important thing for us, and then theprogression from there,” Phillips said Friday. “We’re going to take aright-now approach.”
Phillips described the team as confident but realistic. The coach said theCowboys want to draw from their great tradition and “made some strides” lastseason.
“We have some players on this team that have had some close experience inmaybe knocking on the door of the Super Bowl that are going to play majorimportant roles for this team,” Jones said. “I don’t even know that they needto be reminded that close doesn’t count. We all know we have an opportunity.It’s easy to see that it doesn’t sit there for you forever.”
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