Dallas Blues: Jerry Jones to Blame for Cowboys' Decade of Mediocrity

“We need to talk.”

“Honey...I’m late.”

“Let’s go see a musical.”

“Wade Phillips has just been hired as the head coach of your favorite football team.”

There they are—the four scariest sentences in the English language. 

Nobody wants to hear them—and once you do, you’ll never be the same.

On some level, I get what Wade Phillips was doing when he said the better team lost on Sunday: He was trying to take the pressure off his players and put it on himself. 

I understand that.

But ask yourself, no matter how many times it’s probably been true, have you ever heard Tony Dungy say, "Sure, the Steelers beat us, but after looking at the tape I truly feel that we were the better team."

Or after the AFC Championship Game last year, did you ever hear Bill Belichick say, “We were better, bottom line. I know the score didn’t reflect it, but we’re the better team. Go us!”

Okay, I’m taking a little liberty with what Phillips actually said, but the point remains the same: A head coach needs to be above stupid statements like that.

That’s what Philip Rivers is for.

This is all a good coach says after a game like Sunday’s: “They outplayed us, they outcoached us, they out executed us, they out-hustled us, they out-blocked us. They were the better team.”

Of course, Wade Phillips knows as much about being a good head coach as he does about healthy eating.

That aside, the Cowboys’ issues go far deeper than Wade Phillips. 

The fact that Jerry Jones is on the field yelling at Wade, his players, and his assistant coaches during the last two minutes of a playoff game is a huge, gigantic, Wade Phillips-sized problem. 

No wonder Jason Garrett took the first flight out of Dallas Monday (to Baltimore).  

No wonder Tony Sparano already has his name on an office in Miami, right next to former Cowboy employees Jeff Ireland and Brian Gaine.

Jimmy Johnson built a tremendous NFL team in Dallas. The problem is, Jerry Jones firmly believes that he was the one who built it. Cowboys fans have spent the last decade suffering because of this delusion.

I'd thought Jones learned his lesson when he hired Bill Parcells and, more importantly, seemed to back off a bit. 

But watching him play pretend head coach on the sidelines Sunday was a brutal reminder of why this team hasn’t won a playoff game in over a decade.

Jerry Jones’ reign of terror began with Barry Switzer, took a brief vacation during Parcells' tenure, and has come back in full force with Wade Phillips. 

On Sunday, I blamed Tony Romo, the Dallas offensive line, and Wade “Never Won a Playoff Game” Phillips for the Cowboys collapse on Sunday. 

In retrospect, I was wrong.

Jerry Jones is to blame. Jerry Jones is destroying the Dallas Cowboys.

But, on the bright side, thanks to him Brett Favre is probably going to get another shot at a Super Bowl!

I'm SeanMC.