Fire Wade Phillips

IRVING – Norv Turner, the coach Jerry Jones rejected to hire Wade Phillips, returns to Dallas on Sunday with an opportunity to send the Cowboys’ season into a free fall.

You must admit the irony is delicious. It gets even better.

Phillips’ team plays its best football before Thanksgiving Day, while Turner’s San Diego team plays its best football in the final month of the season.

Phillips’ team has had no postseason success, while Turner made it to the AFC Championship Game two seasons ago and has at least one playoff win each of the past two seasons.

Turner has done everything Jerry wishes Phillips had done.

Imagine that.

If he chooses, Phillips can continue to reside in a world of gumdrops and lollipops, but the reality is he’s about to coach the game that will tell us whether he’ll return next season.

Beat the Chargers, who are riding a seven-game winning streak, and the season remains salvageable. Lose, and this season is a wrap, because we know the beatdown that awaits in New Orleans the following week.

Turner understands December matters, while Phillips tries to act like it doesn’t.

We all know Turner is a flawed head coach after failed stints in Washington and Oakland, but he has unearthed the secret of getting his team to peak late.

Two years ago, the Chargers started 1-3 before winning their last six games to finish 11-5. Last year, they started 4-8 before winning their last four games and overcoming a three-game deficit in the AFC West to win the division.

Compare that with Phillips, whose face turns red every time you mention the Cowboys’ 18-32 record after Dec. 1 since 1996. Obviously, he’s not responsible for all of it – just the last nine games.

Think about it.

This is the same coach who can tell you he’s won more regular-season games than just about any other NFL coach the last three years. And that his team led the NFL with 59 sacks last year. And that his winning percentage as a head coach is nearly .600.

That’s because Phillips likes those numbers. He feigns ignorance on all others.

Frankly, it’s easy to see why he hasn’t earned the respect he covets so desperately. How can you respect the job someone does when they live in a fantasy world when it comes to the Cowboys’ struggles?

Reality says Phillips is 0-4 in the playoffs and has presided over the only No. 1 seed in the NFC to lose in the first round since the NFL developed the current format in 1990. He also failed to make the playoffs last year with a team Jerry believed had Super Bowl potential and oversaw the most gutless performance in franchise history, a 44-6 loss at Philadelphia, in the final game of last season with the playoffs on the line.

Phillips wants you to believe this team has nothing to do with the other Cowboys teams that have failed in December. He wants you to believe history doesn’t matter.

Poppycock.

History – you can call it tradition – is a huge part of sports. It’s the reason some pro franchises such as the Yankees, Lakers and Red Wings and some college programs such as Ohio State football, North Carolina and Duke basketball and Texas baseball always seem to find ways to win.

It’s the same reason why some franchises always find ways to lose. At times, winning and losing becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy.

The prophecy can be broken – the Red Sox are a good example – but it’s difficult.

Failing to acknowledge the Cowboys’ failures after Thanksgiving Day won’t make the questions go away.

Jerry believes winning the division and winning a playoff game are tangible goals. He wants to see some tangible progress before committing another year to Phillips, which is why he hasn’t extended his contract.

If Phillips doesn’t find a way to match Turner’s success in December, he’ll spend the off-season looking for a new job.

If Wade Phillips is going down, his players are going to fight for him.

The Cowboys coach, whose team is trying to avoid another December collapse, is under an increasing amount of scrutiny with every loss. And team owner Jerry Jones said Phillips needs to put together a playoff run to ensure he returns next season.

But in the Dallas locker room, there is wide support for Phillips. LB Keith Brooking said there’s growing momentum to validate Phillips and ensure he remains the Cowboys coach.

“I’ll go to fight for that man until I hang my cleats up and I’m done playing football, because I have the utmost respect for him,” he told ESPN.

TE Jason Witten said the team and Phillips are trying to block out the speculation about the coach’s job security.

“The players are behind him 100 percent,” Witten said, via ESPN. “The message that we get sometimes is different than the perception in the media in general.

“On his end, I don’t think he really worries about that, as long as his team has that understanding. He does a good job of putting it out there and letting us know where it is. He believes in our team. That’s a good thing.” — Sean Leahy

Cowboys stink in December.

LISTEN to Wade on the Fan

Then read what DCfanatic has to say about Wade Phillips

David Moore of Dallasnews.com has an idea

Dallas Cowboys coach Wade Phillips is in the final year of his contract. Owner Jerry Jones has an option for next year, but has chosen to let the season play out before addressing Phillips’ future.

How the Cowboys finish will determine whether Phillips will be back for a fourth season.

Phillips knows as much, but chooses not worry about it.

“That’s the way I’ve always coached,” Phillips said. “Way back [in Denver], when we were 10-6, 10-6, 11-5 and went to two AFC Championship Games and we got fired, I realized that, hey, you can do a great job and for whatever reason, you can be gone.

“So I stopped worrying about all that and worry about coaching, trying to do the best I can do to help the team win. That’s all I really think about.”

The Cowboys are 6-3 and sitting alone atop the NFC East. Phillips has an overall record of 28-14 in Dallas.

But he is 16-13 since opening the 2007 season with a 12-1 record, and the Cowboys still haven’t won a playoff game since 1996.

No matter what happens, Phillips said his spirit and confidence won’t be broken, because he knows he is a good coach and that he does a good job.

“I have confidence in myself as a coach,” Phillips said. “I think I can do a good job, and I think I can help the team do better. Whatever it is, my record shows that. Everywhere I’ve been we’ve won.”

Listen to Wade Phillips on the Morning Zoo. November 18th

Considering that the defense, and the team as a whole, have stepped up of recent, Phillips must get some (fairly hefty) share of the credit. Yet, few are singing the praises of the coach once known pejoratively as “Cupcake.”

So, is it possible that Phillips is underrated?

What is this guy smoking?

“Everybody says he hasn’t won a playoff game,” Bum Phillips said. “Well, I know a lot of guys who haven’t even got to the playoffs. Wade’s won with three teams, and two of them were getting beaten up when he got there. I’d say that’s pretty good.”