Wade Phillips Watch: Why the Dallas Cowboys Coach Shouldn't Leave Alone

It's Monday morning, and the Dallas Cowboys are the talk of the NFL.  However, unlike many years in the successful history of the franchise, it is not talk about their playoff seeding but rather how such a talented team could go so wrong.

The Dallas Cowboys are without a doubt one of the most talented teams in the league.  You'd be hard-pressed to find a fantasy football league with many Cowboys starters on the waiver wire.  From Miles Austin to Jason Witten to Felix Jones and DeMarcus Ware, the Cowboys are stacked, talent-wise.

So how did such a talented team, a team favored by most sportswriters to be a Super Bowl contender this season, fall to 1-7?

It wasn't this bad at first.  While Dallas started at 1-5, every one of the first five losses was by one score.  Take away a key penalty or mistake, and the Cowboys might have won each of those games.

That talk is gone now.  Just one week after being shredded by a very mediocre Jacksonville Jaguars team, Dallas marched into Green Bay and was drubbed by the Packers, 45-7.

The world seems to be expecting Wade Phillips to be fired today.  Jerry Jones is not a man that likes to have egg on his face, but he's currently wearing an  omelet with a side of bacon and hash browns.  The Dallas Cowboys' website crashed Monday morning, presumably from a traffic overload, and this afternoon's Cowboys press conference promises to have reporters asking more questions than a political scandal.

I find myself saddened by this turn of events. 

Many Dallas fans never liked him, but the fact is that Wade Phillips accomplished more with the Cowboys than any coach since 1995.  Three winning seasons in a row, two NFC East titles and a playoff victory is more than any coach, including Bill Parcells, accomplished as head coach.  I've been defending Phillips as recently as last month, but now it's clear to me he's already quit, too. 

Clay Matthews stuffed Marion Barber on a 3rd-and-1 that a drunk blind man could have seen coming.  The defense never even tried to make adjustments after the half.  Phillips was mailing it in before halftime.

Phillips shouldn't go alone.  The Cowboys' loss wasn't just due to player errors or bad calls. 

They quit.

Youngsters like Dez Bryant and Bryan McCann were the only players that showed any fire on Sunday night.  Far too many of the Cowboys players seemed as if they took their "return to basics" to mean the offseason had already started.

The worst offender was Mike Jenkins.  The commentators called him out for a lack of effort on what should have been a goal-line stand by Dallas.  They were right to do so.  Jenkins clearly quit playing by that point and didn't even try.  One cannot say he mailed it in because his play there was even more lazy than that.  It's more like he went to a Pack 'N Mail location and let them mail it in for him.  It was that bad.

Cut him, Jerry. 

No matter who is coach, Jenkins, and for that matter any other players who rolled over and died in Green Bay, should be cut or benched immediately.  Jerry Jones spoke of "consequences" following this embarrassing loss.  That cannot extend only to the coach.  If the Buffalo Bills, the only team in the league with a worse record, can scrap and fight for 60 minutes and still try to win, then why can't Dallas?

It should be an interesting afternoon at Valley Ranch.