Why's everyone Blaming T.O.? or: What's Really Wrong in Dallas

I'm the last person in the world to defend T.O. I think his me-first attitude is detrimental to team chemistry. Placating his demands for more touches is detrimental to offensive balance. I think that he was a talented player, but his skills are on the decline and he's not willing to realize it.

T.O. was also instrumental in Jerry Jones running Parcells out of town. The Big Tuna wanted nothing to do with a selfish egotistical player with waning skills and basically gave Jones the "it's either him or me" ultimatum. JJ went with T.O. Big mistake.

That being said, I want to know why everyone is jumping on T.O.'s case all of a sudden. Everyone seems willing to blame the Cowboy's collapse on T.O. Let's not forget that he was the only player who decided to show up against Philly. He ended the game with 6 catches for 100+ yards. Granted they were 6 meaningless catches for 100+ meaningless yards, but everyone else posted the kind of stats you'd expect a peewee team to have against the Eagles.

If you want to point the finger you have to start at the top and work your way down. Jerry Jones is the number one problem with this franchise. He went into this season thinking that his team was infallible. He made umpteen boneheaded moves these last few years (signing T.O., Tank Johnson, Pacman Jones, etc. etc.) He turned his franchise into a circus. He put this team together. He encourages the media frenzy that has surrounded this franchise these last two decades. He hired the coaches and the players, it all comes back to him.

After that you have the coaches. Wade Phillips and Jason Garrett are taking a lot of the heat, but let's not forget the amazing choke job by D-coordinator Brian Stewart. The Cowboys were terrible on defense in weeks 16 and 17. All three of these guys should be in hot water.

There's no way that I can see Phillips keeping his job. At one point in the second half Sunday he tried to send the punt team in after the 'boys were stopped on a 3rd and short. Romo waved them off and went for it on 4th down. He converted and kept the drive alive, but that's not the point. Phillips stood on the sideline completely bewildered as his Quarterback overruled him. If Parcells were still coaching you know that that would never have happened. If Parcells were still coaching Romo probably would have collapsed on the sidelines from a severe beating, as opposed to later, in the lockerroom from a rib injury.

Then you can trickle the rest of the blame down onto the players. They don't play like a team. There's a lot of infighting and suspicion. Players are shooting their mouths off the the press. They're fighting each other on the team plane. Everyone's pointing fingers at one another trying to deflect the blame. Hell, some players are even trying to distance themselves from the franchise entirely. When confronted about their team's poor play Tank Johnson said something to the tune of "What do I care, I'm a free agent." The stituation in Big D is shameful right now.

Jerry Jones is preaching consistency, claiming that all the players and coaches will remain in place for next season. If Jones wants his team to contend he needs to shake things up and build a talented team, not just a talented roster.