At 0-2 and facing a matchup against the Texans, the Cowboys have to solve their early problems now. Cornerback Terence Newman thinks they can do it in practice.
“Like I said, I don’t know if you heard me, but I think that things [in practice] kind of got let go [by the players] in practice,” Newman said via Matt Mosley of ESPN.com’s NFC East blog. “It’s things that . . . it’s not our coaches. They don’t really know some of the things that were going on. But as players, we have to crack down and make sure that some of the stuff that has been going on doesn’t go on.
“We have to make it a game situation in practice. That’s just what it is. We go hard in practice, but maybe our intensity needs to go up a little bit. We’ve got to do that as players and not worry about the coaches.”
We could go in a lot of directions here. Newman is trying not to criticize the coaches, but saying the coaches “don’t really know” what’s happening and the players need to police themselves better says a lot. Among other things, it says the Cowboys need better leadership.
Defensive end Marcus Spears says Newman should voice his concerns, but talking won’t accomplish much.
“That D-line group that I’m in and that room that I’m in, we go to work every day,” Spears said. “So I can’t agree with that comment from my perspective. . . . Push the panic button and say these guys need to come together and talk. That’s not the issue, man. We’ve got to play better.”
ESPN’s Ed Werder also said other Cowboys referred to unnecessary “drama” on the team.
“I mean, you can talk about this until you’re blue in the face,” Spears said. “And you can keep talking and keep talking and end up 0-16. And all you’ve done the whole year is had a bunch of team meetings. We need to meet on the practice field and meet on Sunday and win games. That’s the cure-all for everything.”