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Super Bowl or bust?


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AP
Dallas Cowboys head coach Wade Phillips, center, and safety Roy Williams, left, greet former New York Giant Michael Strahan, who was visiting the Dallas Cowboys football training camp on Friday, Aug. 1, 2008, in Oxnard, Calif. (AP Photo/The Dallas Morning News, Louis DeLuca) ** NO SALES, NO MAGS, NO TV, INTERNET: AP MEMBERS ONLY **
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Posted Aug 02, 2008 @ 08:33 PM

AP —

Super Bowl or bust?
Not necessarily for Dallas Cowboys coach Wade Phillips. At least that’s what owner Jerry Jones insists.
“It’s wrong to say Super Bowl or Wade doesn’t keep the job,” Jones said. “That is just not correct. That is not a thought to me.”
With Phillips’ supposed successor-in-waiting already on the staff (offensive coordinator Jason Garrett) and being paid like a head coach (about $3 million), there are some who still believe that Phillips has to get the Cowboys to the Super Bowl.
The Cowboys are a legitimate Super Bowl contender, and they go into 2008 as a favorite in the NFC. All 13 Pro Bowl players are back from last season’s team that matched a franchise record by winning 13 games in Phillips’ first season before losing to the New York Giants in the playoffs.
After the Cowboys scored the second-most points in the NFL and set many team offensive records with Garrett calling plays, Baltimore and Atlanta interviewed him for their head coaching jobs last winter. Garrett took his name out of consideration, then got a promotion (to assistant head coach) and a substantial pay raise.
Jones said there is nothing in Garrett’s contract that guarantees him becoming the next head coach, whenever the position becomes available. There is also nothing that would prohibit Garrett from other head coaching jobs.
“If given a great opportunity after this season, there’s nothing in our agreement to keep Jason from looking,” Jones said. “My goal was to keep Jason and have Wade too.”
Phillips is in the second season of the three-year contract he got when he replaced Bill Parcells. The deal includes an option for a fourth season.
When Jones was asked at the start of camp why Phillips didn’t get a contract extension after last season, the coach answered before the owner could.
“I already have a contract. I’ve only been here a year. I don’t know if anybody realizes that,” Phillips said.
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IN-N-OUT: Instead of the popular hamburger franchise that has a location not far from the Cowboys’ training camp, we’re talking defensive linemen.
Marcus Spears has been working inside at nose guard, instead of solely at his normal end spot. Meanwhile, Jay Ratliff has been moving outside to end, getting snaps again at the position he played before taking over last season for injured nose guard Jason Ferguson.
“We want to be versatile. We want to have good matchups. I think it gives us a chance to do that with them being able to play more than one position,” coach Wade Phillips said.

Spears, a first-round pick in 2005, has started 42 straight games at end. Ratliff, a seventh-round pick that year, took over as the starting nose tackle after Ferguson suffered a season-ending injury in last year’s opener.
With nose tackle Tank Johnson available from the start of this season after serving an NFL suspension the first eight games last year, moving Spears and Ratliff around give the Cowboys more depth and versatility along the front line.
“Because of taking only five of six defensive linemen to the games, they have to be versatile,” coach Wade Phillips said. “But part of it too is because Tank has done so well, you can move Jay around.”
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EXTRA POINTS: The Cowboys had two practices Saturday, the first time in camp they’ve had consecutive two-a-days. ... Talk about inflation — and amenities. Cowboys owner Jerry Jones said the scoreboard in the team’s new $1.1 billion stadium “will be 50 percent more costly than all of Texas Stadium.” The new stadium opens next season. Texas Stadium was built for $35 million and opened in October 1971

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