Injury sense ... tingling!

They’re winning games with a third string quarterback and have overcome at least 14 key injuries every week to advance to the playoffs for the first time in history, but as good as it gets, it gets just as bad. On top of everything else now, Houston Texans defensive coordinator Wade Phillips, the guy who turned the team around and taught them to work together and be a functioning professional football team, is leaving for a few weeks to take care of … uh, something.

From The Pigskin Report:

According to Fox26 reporter Mark Berman on Twitter, “Texans defensive coordinator Wade Phillips will take a medical leave of absence for a couple of weeks”.

There has been no explanation of what the reason behind the leave of absence is, but this comes as a completely unexpected move. It is being reported now that LB coach Reggie Herring will assume duties of calling the defensive coordinator during Phiilips’ absence.

Adam Schefter of ESPN is reporting that that the Texans expect Phillips to return later this season, but notes that after his performance this season there’s a chance he’ll accept a head coaching position somewhere in 2012.

The remainder of Houston’s regular season is games against Carolina, the woeful 0-13 Indianapolis Colts and the Tennessee Titans. That’s not the hardest schedule in the world and Houston has already clenched the AFC South, so I guess we shouldn’t worry too much. Or we should worry about how hard they clenched it, and how many weeks that’ll put the entire team out of action.

As if things weren’t bad enough for the Dallas Cowboys, it seems that the organization once endearingly known as America’s Team just can’t get anything right. With franchise quarterback Tony Romo down for the season and owner Jerry Jones breaking his own rule about terminating his head coach in the middle of a season, the franchise completely disappeared from the face of the Earth. Or at least the World Wide Web.

It turns out that someone within the organization forgot to renew the team’s official domain, DallasCowboys.com, so for a good chunk of Sunday, not only was the team’s web site unavailable, but it was also available for purchase. Instead of the standard links to the schedule, roster, merchandise, etc., fans were greeted by a stock image. I like to think it looked like this.

Hey Dallas News, do we know for sure whose fault this is? I hope it’s someone noteworthy.

In the publicly available database on WhoIs.com, the domain’s registrant is listed as Dallas Cowboys Football Club Ltd., but the specific e-mail address administrative contact is for Jerry Jones Jr., son of owner Jerry Jones and executive vice president and chief sales and marketing officer for the team.

A message to that e-mail address and a phone call to Jones Jr. were not returned.

In fairness to the younger Jones, he was busy clearing out Wade Phillips’ mini fridges and purchasing a new parking sign for Head Coach Jason Garrett. Then he had to drive away from the facilities when he called to order another new parking sign for Head Coach Jon Gruden. He’s just a busy guy, that’s all.

Wade Phillips’s holiday calendar just got a lot more wide open. According to multiple sources on Twitter, Wade was fired today from his position as head coach of the Dallas Cowboys; a position he had held since the 2007 season. After winning the NFC East last year and being praised as favorites to repeat, the Cowboys only could win one of their first eight games, including their most recent drubbing against the Packers on national TV last night.

Jason Garrett, the Cowboys’ $3-million offensive coordinator who also interviewed for top jobs at St. Louis, , will take over head coaching duties. He has two brothers in the Cowboys organization according to Wikipedia; John is the team’s tight ends coach and Judd works in the front office.

It’s uncertain whether Cowboys owner Jerry Jones thinks he can make chicken salad out of the rest of the Cowboys season, but with two more nationally televised games on the horizon (Week 14 vs. Philly and then a Week 16 Christmas Day game at Arizona), there was enough potential for even more bad advertising for the team to require a change. I for one am just waiting for what will be, sadly, the last Wade and Jerry post on KSK. It’s funny when you don’t think of the overweight as real people.

We’ll get a recap of all the weekend business tomorrow, but we can’t help but be elated with the Green Bay Packers putting together a 45-7 drubbing of the Dallas Cowboys in the Sunday Night game. The game was over so quickly that Cris Collinsworth almost ran out of ways to be folksy.

Aside from Jon Kitna and Dez Bryant (9 catches, 86 yards, 1 TD) playing catch in the first half, the Cowboys did almost nothing worth mentioning. The highlight of the game for Dallas was probably watching Roy Williams take a helmet-to-helmet shot from Green Bay’s Nick Collins. I appreciate that Collins stays true to his thuggish self, even in the face of a blowout.

Of course the big question is whether or not Cowboys coach Wade Phillips will keep his job. Going into last night, Cowboys owner Jerry Jones seemed content to let Phillips finish the last year of his contract with utter futility, but last night’s embarrassment on national TV might change that. I personally think Wade should stay; the last way to reward a guy that’s been so sh;tty at his job is to give him more time off during the holidays. Plus, how awesome has it been to watch the Cowboys lose almost every game this season? More awesome than giving bootleg mammograms in the parking lot of a Catholic high school. Yeah, I went there.

This is Dallas Cowboys head coach Wade Phillips dancing to “Y.M.C.A.“, that annoying-as-balls song pushed out the backdoor by the Village People in 1978. Yes, this song is older than most of you reading this site but, presumably, a lot more gay. It helps to be one of 32 head coaches in the NFL, surrounded by women that would rather take photos of you dancing around in your ugly-assed shirt than offer up a beejer. Come on, Wade. You’d think you could close on at least one of those honeys.

By the way, the Cowboys are now 1-4 after losing to the Vikings yesterday. That’s good enough for last in the NFC East and for laughing at Cowboys fans through Halloween. Tony Romo (220 yds, 3 TDs, 2 picks) is shaping up to be the bipolar failure that most of us knew that he could be. He’s like the white Jeff Blake, but with a better social life. Read the rest of this entry »

The Cowboys’ Pacman Jones is still riding out his most recent suspension, but NFL Kommizzioner Roger Goodell could theoretically reinstate him this week.  But let’s be realistic: he won’t.  And Dallas coach Wade Phillips knows the score:

Phillips said that he doesn’t know anything about the possibility of Pacman’s indefinite suspension ending.  “I really don’t know,” Phillips said. “When he’s gone, he’s gone. We don’t really think about it. We’re preparing the guys that I have.”

Would Phillips want Pacman back if the commissioner clears him to play?  “Yeah,” he said. “Sure.”

There you go.  A ringing endorsement from the coach who’s trying to keep his team afloat in a crowded playoff picture. “Do you want your Pro Bowl-caliber cornerback to return?”  “Whatever, I guess.”