Coaches and related deficiencies

Yesterday afternoon, Dallas played at the Minnesota Vikings in the late afternoon NFL game, and I watched some of it. The Cowboys reminded me of the Aggies, killing themselves with penalties and turnovers. The experts who comment on pro football are always talking about the depth of raw talent on the Dallas roster, just like a lot of Aggies are always talking about the raw talent at TAMU. Assuming there are significant numbers of skilled players on both teams, I have to wonder why both play so fucking poorly so consistently. The Cowboys are 1-4; the Aggies are 3-3 but haven't beaten any of the decent teams they've played, and could've lost to one of the weak ones.

One possibility is that Tony Romo is as overrated in his league as Jerrod Johnson is in the Big 12. Before the season, Johnson was being hyped as the best QB in the conference, the most dangerous offensive player, etc. So far he's been dangerous, all right. To the Aggies.

Another possibility is that both programs are suffering from leadership problems. Dallas will never amount to shit as long as Jerry Jones is the owner, and Bill Byrne hasn't accomplished much with his coaching hires in the TAMU football program. Wade Phillips and Mike Sherman seem to be examples of the Peter Principle. Both were outstanding assistant coaches who've been promoted to their level of incompetence. In Sherman's case, the result is surprising because he was reasonably successful as head coach of the Packers. Different level of competition and different rules, though, which seems to confirm the idea that good college coaches don't necessarily do well at the pro level and vice versa.

So -- I stay frustrated. I have free time and a great HD television set, and I can't find a football team to watch. The Patriots are my favorite pro team, but they don't get on TV around here with the same frequency as the Texans and Cowboys. I adopted USC as my favorite college team just as the NCAA hammer was coming down on them, then switched to the Alabama Crimson Tide one season too late. The solution to my predicament would be for both the Aggies and Cowboys to stop beating themselves with penalties, turnovers, kicking game errors, and so forth, but that isn't likely to occur until they can locate coaches who know what the fuck they're doing.