|
| | | | | | | | Friday, September 15, 2000
Unlucky in Big D
By Alex Laracy
MondayNightFootball.com
Perhaps no coach outside of Bloomington has had a tougher September than Dave Campo. But unlike the ousted General, Campo has been the one assaulted (by bad luck, that is) and the worst might not be behind him.
|  | | Dave Campo's had a rocky start as the Cowboys' head coach. |
After 11 years of loyal service with the team, Campo finally has his chance to shine in Big D as only the fifth head coach in Cowboys history. However, after a Week 1 which had $42 million dollar man Joey Galloway tearing his ACL and Troy Aikman suffering his umpteenth concussion, Campo is being asked to right a ship sinking faster than Bobby Knight's fishing lure.
In Week 2, Aikman's replacement Randall Cunningham did everything right (243 yards, three TDs) but win, and now Campo has the added misfortune of a possible quarterback controversy. Campo and Cunningham have asserted the starting job is still Aikman's, however the cloudy superstar is one big hit away from Al Toon-dom, and the still capable Cunningham seems a bit more content as his backup as perhaps the coach wants him to be.
Although only Week 3, it certainly seems unlikely that the Cowboys have a legitimate shot at making the playoffs. The real question is whether or not Campo can maintain a high enough level of respectability in 2000 to allow him another chance to prove himself next season.
The offense: Who's left?
Luckily for Campo, there's still some firepower on offense for Dallas as long as Emmitt Smith remains healthy behind a better than average offensive line headed up by Larry Allen and Erik Williams. But he has gotten off to a slow start, running for only 88 yards on 23 carries through two games after a quiet preseason. One wonders how many more productive years that the future Hall-of-Famer has left after over 10 years of pounding. Look for backups Chris Warren and rookie Michael Wiley to spell Smith more and more as the season progresses (or regresses).
Coming off his best season as a pro (80 catches for 1,097 yards), Rocket Ismail is forced to step up even more this year with Galloway's collapse. His eight catches and 105 yards after two games would be fine numbers to complement Galloway's, but without him, Campo needs him to get those numbers each week. Fellow burner James McKnight (six catches, 95 yards) mans the other starting spot, while the three-headed tight end conglomerate of Jackie Harris/David LaFleur/O.J. Santiago needs to get more involved (a combined 3 catches for 61 yards, thus far).
The defense: What gives?
Campo has never gotten the credit he's deserved for engineering a Dallas defense that has finished in the top 10 in total defense four of the last five years despite all of Jerry Jones' financial splurging focusing on offense.
Despite the loss of Deion Sanders to the Redskins, Campo still boasts one of the youngest, most talented defensive front sevens in football with Greg Ellis (7.5 sacks in '99), Alonzo Spellman (5), Chad Hennings (5), Ebenezer Ekuban (2.5) and "Mysterious" Dimitrius Underwood manning the line. First time Pro-Bowler Dexter Coakley (86 tackles, 4 interceptions), Dat Nguyen (12 tackles in the first two games) and Darren Hambrick (42 tackles in'99) are the linebackers. And Nguyen's knee sprain suffered against the Cardinals will keep him out at least the next two weeks.
Obviously, Dallas' secondary suffered a major blow when they lost the mercurial Sanders to their division rival Redskins, and the retirement of Kevin Smith didn't help either. Sanders' replacement, Ryan McNeil, is solid yet unspectacular, while the other cornerback spot is manned by promising rookie Kareem Larrimore, who will undoubtedly experience some growing pains before thriving in Campo's system. Safeties Darren Woodson and George Teague still hit with the best of them, but like the corners are prone to giving up big plays.
The talent on defense is there. However, over the first two games, this unit has given up over 400 yards on the ground. If the front seven doesn't start playing up to expectations and the rookies in the secondary don't mature quickly, the '00 'Boys might begin to resemble the legendary 1-15 squad of 1989.
The prognosis:
Not good. But it's not Campo's fault.
More has gone right for Darryl Strawberry over the last several months than for the Cowboys, and Dave Campo probably can't help but wonder, "What next?" The chances of Dallas competing with NFC powerhouses like Washington, Tampa Bay, St. Louis and Minnesota seems implausible at this point. But Campo's a fighter, and he's still got a couple of guys named Aikman and Smith on his side, so total disaster is unlikely. But don't look for "America's Team" to squeeze out more than six wins in 2000.
Alex Laracy is the assistant editor of MondayNightFootball.com
| | |
| | |
| 
 |
Michael Westbrook talks about his season-ending injury.