Last Friday, several media types asked Jerry Jones if Wade Phillips' job would be in jeopardy in the event of a loss in Kansas City, to the woeful, transitioning Chiefs. Jerry was predictable in his answer, saying 'no' quickly, and reaffirming his inexplicable allegiance to Phillips--a practice of which he has made a habit over the last 10 months or so.
The fact that, despite ample ugliness, Dallas won on Sunday, paired with Jerry's consistent vocal support, points seemingly to Phillips' job being safe for the time being; but should it? Outside of losing, Dallas' performance made just about as convincing an argument possible for Wade getting mid-season walking papers.
Read: 13 penalties for 90 yards, including one defensive series that saw four offsides penalties in the span of seven snaps.
Read: Two fumbles lost, and four total.
This was a team that was sorely under-prepared, to the point of negating the time-tested "winning is the bottom line" argument, at least in the context of Phillips' job security; Dallas did win, but they did so purely on talent.
Raw talent will only get you so far in this league because, with only a handful of exceptions (one of which is the Chiefs) every team is ripe with similar talent; this is particularly true in the NFC East, which makes the importance of preparation, of on-field discipline as obvious as a trout in the milk.
From 2007, the Dallas Cowboys have been on a backwards march of sorts, from the upper echelon of the NFL to a middle-of-the-road team, capable of a winning season, perhaps, but not much else; and they've done it, pretty remarkably, without losing any great degree of talent.
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Something must change if Dallas is to reverse this trend; now if someone could just convince Uncle Jerry of as much.
