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Von Miller defends Cowboys' coaching staff
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- Von Miller defends Cowboys' coaching staff
Cowboys linebacker Von Miller got his first sack in eight games with the team during Sunday's mind-boggling home loss to the Cardinals. After the 33-30 overtime defeat, Miller went to bat for the coaching staff.
"I'm a parent," Miller said, via Jon Machota of The Athletic . "I got three kids. Sometimes you raise your kids a certain way and you teach them lessons. You expect them to act a certain way when they go out.
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"And sometimes the kids just go out there and do things that are not a reflection of who you are as a parent. And I use that reference for our coaching staff. We have amazing coaches that keep us prepared, ready to go mentally, physically, emotionally. They breathe life into us, and just for whatever reason, that's the product.
"The product that went out there is not a reflection of our coaching staff. This is pro sports. This is not parenting. So at the end of the day, the buck has to stop somewhere. Somebody's going to get the blame.
"But my opinion, this is just me, I don't know nothing about football. I only played 16 years. We've got great coaches. We've got a great coaching staff. And that's not a reflection of how they coach us and get us ready every week."
Miller's metaphor has obvious limits. For starters, it's a lot harder to disown a child than it is to bench or cut a player. If players aren't doing what they're supposed to be doing, the team needs better players.
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Or it needs a better General Manager. Which won't happen, because Jerry Jones continues to do the job he hired himself to do in 1989.
As it relates to coaching, the fact that the players aren't performing the way they're supposed to shows that the coaching isn't working. If a coach tells the players "this is what you should do" and they don't do it, it's absolutely a reflection of the coach's inability to get the players to respond to the coaching.
For any great coach in any sport, the quality of the strategies hinges on the willingness and the ability of the players to do what they are told to do. The coach's job includes not only drawing up the plays but getting the players to implement them as designed.
It's that simple. And, no, it's not parenting. Parents love their children unconditionally. A coach's love is conditioned on the player doing what the player is expected to do. When the player can't (for whatever reason) or won't, the coach needs to pivot to a different player.
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So if the Cowboys' 3-5 record doesn't land on the shoulders of the coaching staff, where should it go? And if it goes to the overall quality of the roster, isn't the general "indictment of the whole show" (as Jones said Sunday) a specific indictment of it ringleader?
If the Cowboys have the right coaches and the wrong players, it means they have the wrong G.M. And since the owner is the G.M., the cycle will continue.
Offseason hype, in-season collapse. Lather, rinse, repeat.
And as long as the fans keep falling for it, it will continue — year after year after year. The common denominator since the team's most recent NFC Championship appearance is the G.M. who, if he wasn't the owner, would have been fired four or five times since 1995.
