A 'routine' win for Dallas

Chris Schultz

10/11/2007 12:01:12 PM

Last Monday night, the Dallas Cowboys beat the Buffalo Bills 25-24 in what was by far the best game of the 2007 season so far.  Given the circumstances going into the game, it should not have even been close.  So why was it that the Bills played so well and Dallas looked so average?  Well, one team was still in a routine and the other saw the game as a special event.

The routine of pro football is a necessity for productivity.  Every aspect of the week has a very clear and concise time when a meeting or practice starts and ends.  The purpose of the routine is to maximize preparation time and, by doing so, maximize the ability to perform on game day.

Here's how it worked in Dallas.

Before a Monday night game, the first meeting would be at 9:00 am Wednesday.  Then 10:00 am, then noon, followed by a break and a 1:00 pm meeting.  Practice would start at 3:00 pm and would be done by 6:00 pm.  For coaches, it continues.  For players, that day is over.

The Wednesday routine is repeated Thursday and Friday.  On Saturday, the only deviation would be having a meeting or two dropped and the practice is a bit shorter.

On Sunday, it's a 9:00 am meeting, another at 10:00 am, a one-hour practice at 11:00 am, and a 2:00 pm flight.  In the evening there is a mandatory meeting at 7:00 pm and another meeting at 8:00 pm.  Curfew is at 11:00 pm.

Game Day has a structure all its own.  Breakfast at 10 am, a meeting at 10:30, and the players are free by 11:30 for a while.  The pre-game meal is around 3:00 pm.  Then it's a taxi or bus ride to the stadium between 3:30 and 4:00 pm depending on the player's preference. 

Then the in-stadium game day routine starts.  Snappers, kickers and holders are on the field at about 7:15 pm.  Quarterbacks are out at about 7:30 pm, followed by defensive backs and linebackers about five minutes later.  Offensive linemen are next at about 7:40 pm and everyone is off the field by 8:05 pm. 

They are back on the field at 8:20 pm for the national anthem at 8:25 pm.  Kickoff is at 8:30 pm on the dot.  Not a second early, not a second late.

Now, after all this structure, after all this time, after all this forced discipline, after all this routine - which is repeated every week - now it's time to play football.

For Dallas, they never transitioned out of routine and had everything mentally engrained into their game day performance.  They stayed as the robots they were for the last five days.

With the Bills, it was different.  There had not been a Monday Night Football game in Buffalo since 1994.  The routine that suppressed Dallas elevated Buffalo.  Marshawn Lynch knew all his friends from college were watching.  Trent Edwards knew this was an opportunity of a lifetime.  Everyone in Buffalo was talking about the game for the first time in 16 years.  There was great, positive energy.

For Dallas, they will be on nationally televised Monday Night or Sunday Night games six times this year.  In fact, all 16 of their games are high profile public events that everyone sees and acknowledges. 

When the kickoff happened, it was magic for Buffalo.  Every play was special, an opportunity to shine.  For Dallas, it was, "well, we just have to execute and we will win.  After all, we are 4-0 and we're playing the 1-3 Bills."

And it used to happen to me like that, too. 

In looking at the game I saw seven injuries for Buffalo on defence, a rookie in Trent Edwards making his second start, a rookie running back - nothing that said the Bills would have any success.  Everything suggested this should be a routine win for Dallas.

That deadly word: routine.  It can be so empowering and so debilitating.

The key thing to remember is that game day is special.  The practices are a grind, but the game is different - it's a special moment.  There is a stronger energy level that has to be achieved, a different kind of pressure that needs to be embraced.  The work week should be work, the game should be fun.

So Dallas wins on a last play field goal - actually two - and the routine starts all over again.  Sixty minutes to get on the bus, arriving 30 minutes before take-off, a 1:30 am charter flight with food of your choice an hour into the flight.  Landing is  at 3:30 am with the time change.  If desired, the team bus leaves at 3:45 am for Valley Ranch and gets to the practice field no later than 4:15 am.

The last thing coach Wade Phillips would offer was a reminder that treatment for injuries and bumps and bruises starts at 10:00 am, film sessions start at 1:00 pm, with a rundown at 4:30 pm.

Thank goodness Tuesday is a day off!