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Jones should have held onto Parcells coordinator Zimmer


Jetscode1

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Nice read...

Woody should seriously consider hiring this guy to follow Rex...no nonsense, disciplinarian...from the Parcells tree...

CINCINNATI — Bengals cornerback Adam “Pacman” Jones said last week the “coaching was horrible ... from the top down” when he was with the Cowboys in 2008.

Another Bengals corner that played for the Cowboys wasn't as harsh, but Terence Newman did indicate Jerry Jones let a good coach get away.

That would be Mike Zimmer, who coached in Dallas from 1994-2006 and is guiding the NFL's eighth-ranked defense in Cincinnati.

“‘Zim,' it's kind of an enigma to me how he's not a head coach in this league yet,” Newman said. “He's a great D-coordinator, understands every facet of the game on defense and can coach every position.

“... He's a great coach, the reason we're playing the way we are.”

The Bengals have suffocated opposing offenses during their four-game win streak, allowing only one touchdown.

Zimmer called the defensive shots for the Cowboys from 2000-06, spending the last four seasons under Bill Parcells. When Zimmer was unsure whether Parcells would leave after the Cowboys lost to Seattle in a wild-card game after the 2006 season, he accepted the defensive coordinator's job in Atlanta, where he stayed one season before joining Cincinnati.

Parcells, of course, retired shortly after Zimmer left, and Jones hired Wade Phillips. Bengals.com asked Zimmer last week if he ever thought he'd become Dallas' coach while he was there.

“Some other people did,” Zimmer said. “I thought I'd be a head coach somewhere.”

The son of an Illinois high school coach, the no-nonsense Zimmer is intense, tireless and demanding. If he were the Cowboys' coach today instead of Jason Garrett, there's no way Jimmy Johnson would have called Valley Ranch a country club.

Zimmer was up for jobs in Miami and Tampa Bay in the offseason. At 56, he seems resigned to finishing his career as a coordinator.

“Honestly, I don't listen to that stuff anymore — God's honest truth,” Zimmer said. “For so many years, people said, ‘This is your year.' Then at the end of the year, for about three days, I'm totally depressed because I see this guy get a job, that guy get a job. So it's in my best interest not to think about it. ... I'm like (everybody else), I get disappointed too.”

Newman and Pacman are revenge-minded today after getting dumped by Dallas, but Zimmer is still on good terms with the Cowboys.

“He's a great coach and has been for a long time,” said Garrett, who was a backup quarterback for Dallas when he got to know Zimmer in the 1990s. “I learned a ton from him. His defenses always play well. This year's team is no different.”

The Cowboys' injury-riddled defense, meanwhile, has struggled. But Jerry Jones isn't allowing coordinator Rob Ryan to use that as an excuse, an indication his job could be in jeopardy.

“We ought to be playing and can be playing better defense,” said Jones, pointing out Ryan still has his top pass rushers and defensive backs.

After the Bengals win today behind a defense that pummels Tony Romo, Jones might indeed wonder why he didn't hang onto Zimmer.

torsborn@express-news.net

Read more: http://www.mysanantonio.com/sports/cowboys/article/Tom-Orsborn-Jones-should-have-held-onto-Parcells-4102672.php#ixzz2EZRkdGpT

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