Dallas Cowboys: Ranking the Coaches of ‘America’s Team’
5. Wade Phillips
(2007-10)
Wins: 34, Losses: 22 (56 games)
The teams of Wade Phillips did a good job on the field, making the playoffs two of his four seasons at the helm, but he needed his teams to be great, and he did not get the job done in that aspect of being the head coach.
Phillips was 1-2 in the postseason as the Cowboys’ head coach, and he was 12 games over .500 as the head coach of the team. He had teams who were very capable of playing in NFC Championship games, and one team should have been playing for a Super Bowl (2007) but the team did not achieve that type of success.
The ’07 season still hurts to think about … well, how it ended in the postseason is the painful part. The Cowboys were 13-3, winners of the NFC East championship, and even had a first-round bye.
Then came a 21-17 loss to the New York Giants in the Divisional Round, and from there, I believe fans never forgave Phillips for that collapse.
Following the playoff collapse, the Cowboys missed the playoffs in ’08 after finishing 9-7 (third in the NFC East), but rallied to earn another NFC East title with an 11-5 record in ’09.
That regular-season success didn’t do much for the playoffs after the Phillips-led Cowboys lost in the Divisional Round again, this time falliing to the Minnesota Vikings by a 34-3 score. Phillips did lead Dallas to a Wild Card win that postseason, a 34-14 win over the Philadelphia Eagles.
The best way to describe Phillips’ tenure as the Cowboys’ head coach is he coached very talented teams, but failed to get the very best from his players when it matted the most.
Next: No. 4: He won a 'Super Bowl Baby!'