On “The Red Zone” on SIRIUS NFL Radio, hosts Solomon Wilcots and Marty Schottenheimer spoke about the reports that Dallas Cowboys head coach Wade Phillips will take over the defensive play calling duties from defensive coordinator Brian Stewart for this weekend’s game against Tampa Bay.
Both Phillips and Stewart coached under Schottenheimer when he was the head coach of the San Diego Chargers. (Phillips was defensive coordinator, Stewart was secondary coach)
Marty Schottenheimer: “I think Wade, right now, is the best choice to do it because he’s been in this system for years and years. Brian got involved, to my knowledge, when he was with us in San Diego. It’s difficult for a head coach, I think, to see things going on that you’re really not comfortable with and I think that you, as the head man as it were, you need to step forward and go ahead and take control of that thing. The key here in this thing is the buck stops right there and from now on it isn’t, ‘Well, what’s wrong with Brian?’ You open yourself up as the head coach for criticism if it doesn’t go well but, hey, by the way, isn’t that what the business is all about for a head coach?”
Solomon Wilcots: “This is a team that maybe there’s a number of different things that can improve. As you analyze this football team where are some of the areas you’d like to see them improve?”
Schottenheimer: “Well, you know, a year ago they were putting tremendous pressure on the quarterback and I don’t see the evidence of creating a difficult situation for most of the quarterbacks, particularly over the course of the last three or four weeks. I don’t know what may have occurred. At the outset of this season they were off and running and then all of a sudden this thing began to turn. You look at it from a head coach’s perspective and the thing that’s most troubling, Solly, is you know they are capable of doing it because they’ve done it. So that having been said, where do you go to solve the problem? I used to refer to the little Dutch boy who had to go around sticking his fingers in the dyke to try to keep the wall from collapsing on him. They’re not at that point yet but I think this is a pretty significant move for Wade to make. I think it is the right one. The results, they remain to be seen. The injuries have compromised them I think. The Pacman Jones thing is an issue. There’s just too much around the periphery, I think, that is unrelated to finding a way to line up and win one play at the line of scrimmage. That’s a problem for Dallas right now.”
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