Trying to find people who think the Cowboys stand a chance of beating the Saints this weekend is more difficult than finding a woman who isn't claiming to have had an affair with Tiger Woods, but that's not shaking Wade Phillips's belief in his squad. Like any good coach, he's using the negativity as an inspirational tool and telling the world that his team is going to come out fighting on Saturday night.
At least, that's what we think he's doing. Wade spoke with Calvin Watkins of ESPNDallas.com and it's not always easy to follow exactly what he's saying.
"Usually when people say you can't do something, people bow up and have a lot of pride," Phillips said. "I think it helps. I don't think our confidence is we can't do it and we got to do something else to be able to do it."
Phillips is trying to say that the team is confident they can win, right? The head starts hurting somewhere around the second negative and there's a metallic taste in the back of the throat, but that seems like the point he's trying to make. Maybe he should just say "We think we can win."
It's also odd that Phillips would say that people doubting his team usually helps them win football games. It didn't seem to do much against the Giants or Chargers or last December, for that matter, or in the playoffs two years ago or ... You know the history, so does Wade, and that's why it is easier to just say we think we can win the game and move forward.
Wade wasn't quite done.
"We have confidence in our football team. We're not going to cow down to these guys. We think we can win. Every game we've been in so far, we thought we could win. I believe we feel the same way going into this one."
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Note to Wade: Although you used it correctly, it's not a great idea to coin phrases like "cow down" when the definition it calls to mind is "the habit of Dallas football teams falling apart in the late stretches of seasons that once seemed promising."
Look, we're having some fun with the coach here, but all of these words amount to nothing. It wouldn't say much about Phillips or his players if they didn't think they could win every game they played and it would say even less if they professed to being intimidated by an opponent shortly before taking the field. It would be empty coming from Sean Payton, but coming from the coach of a team that continually "cows down" in big spots it is either sad or laughable.
