Jerry Jones Gives Cowboys’ Coach Wade Phillips A Vote Of Confidence

Added on Sep 24, 2010 by Jason Kearney in

NFL

Jerry Jones has no plans to fire Dallas Cowboys’ coach Wade Phillips should the team fall to 0-3 and says that he still has complete confidence in his coach. That should take some of the pressure off of Phillips–for this week at least. Phillips has called the Cowboys’ game against the Houston Texans this week ‘an emergency situation’, likely realizing the symbolism of dropping to 0-3 against Texas’ “other team”. Only five teams in NFL history have recovered from an 0-3 start to make the playoffs, the last being the Buffalo Bills in 1998–a team coached by Wade Phillips no less.

Jones even threw in a Texas appropriate cowboy metaphor as he talked about his coach:

“I do believe in Wade and the staff and the players. The thing about it is when you have that kind of commitment, one of the No. 1 things you have it for is those situations. Those people are supposed to really be there in hard times. Hard times. That’s when you’ve got to make your best grade if you’re deserving of that commitment and we’re in hard times.”

“That’s why I’m in the saddle with Wade and in the saddle with the staff and the team.”

Jones has never fired a coach midseason but ‘in the saddle’ with Phillips or not that could change. Phillips signed a new two year contract after last season, but it was clear that job security wasn’t part of the deal and that the only way to guarantee a return for 2011 was to turn in a solid season. Phillips understands that the risk of being fired is part of the job for NFL head coaches:

“It’s my own pride in myself and working at what I do and trying to do better. We went 11-5 in Houston [as an assistant under his father, Bum Phillips] and we’d just been to the AFC championship game two years in a row. We lost a playoff game and they fired us. I thought I was doing a good job.”

“From then on I didn’t judge myself on those things, I judged myself on how hard I worked at it and what I tried to do.”

The Cowboys’ biggest problem has been the offense, which sputtered during the preseason and has scored only one offensive touchdown in two regular season games.