IRVING, Texas — It was supposed to be a joke, a light-hearted moment on an otherwise gloomy Monday at Valley Ranch.

I even waited until the walk-off—when the print reporters trail Cowboys coach Wade Phillips down the hall toward his office, asking a few questions away from the TV cameras and microphones—so it wouldn't look like grandstanding.

And I preceded it with the disclaimer that I really wasn't trying to be a smart (aleck) by asking the question in the first place. Well, OK, maybe I was a little bit, but it was more about lightening the mood while actually hoping for a response, too.

So Coach, anybody planning any trips on the three days off you're giving the players this coming weekend? You know, like maybe to Cabo?

He didn't take it well.

Wade's first reaction was to just turn and walk away, shaking his head in disgust, but then he thought better of it, and turned back to answer the question.

"Three days off is what we've done every bye week," he said, still as placid as ever. "It's what other coaches do. Dan Reeves gave (the Broncos) a whole week off one time.

"I will talk to them about it. I don't get into their private lives when I say, 'Hey, you're off for three days.' "

Coach, maybe you should. In fact, I know you should.

This isn't every bye week.

This isn't Denver, or Buffalo, or San Diego.

And you're no Dan Reeves.

This is why poor Wade shouldn't be coaching here. He's such a nice, polite man, but he still doesn't get it. These are the Dallas Cowboys. Whatever else he's done in 30-plus years of coaching, this is different.

This situation needs a different approach. A different mind-set. A more aggressive attitude.

Instead of this Friday, Saturday and Sunday off, why not bring the players in for a light workout Saturday? Make sure they can't make a three-day trip to Mexico, or Las Vegas, or Katmandu.

Work on getting the snap counts right on both sides of the ball (hello, DeMarcus Ware and Flozell Adams). Give the new No. 2 quarterback, Brooks Bollinger, an extra day of reps, working with his receivers.

Oh, I'm sure they'll enjoy their three-day weekend, wherever they spend it. They've earned it, right? Uncle Wade's reputation as a player's coach gets more polishing and by the time the Cowboys hang up their pads at the end of the season, he still won't have won a playoff game.

I can't help but believe that Jerry Jones is beside himself. Whatever he says, whatever spin he spins, he has to be furious.

The team he thought could win a Super Bowl is in imminent danger of not even making the playoffs. By now, Jerry understands that there's something rotten at the core of this team, something dreadfully wrong that goes beyond mere injuries.

How, he has to be asking himself, did we trick ourselves into believing that Brad Johnson could be an adequate No. 2 quarterback?

"Obviously we thought that," Phillips said, "or we wouldn't have gone in the direction we did."

Anyone with one good eye—that would be me—could see all the way back in training camp in Oxnard that Johnson no longer had enough arm to play quarterback in the NFL. The Cowboys' solution to the problem, as Phillips pointed out Monday, was to add Bollinger as a No. 3 quarterback.

Whoopee.

Now we all know that Jerry would cut off his left arm if he thought it would help the Cowboys win a Super Bowl. Or sacrifice his first-born (sorry, Stephen), if it came to that.

So it seems natural to assume that if Uncle Wade, or Jason Garrett, or Wade Wilson had come to him and said, "Jerry, we have to get a No. 2 quarterback. Brad just can't do it anymore," Jones would have done whatever he could to deliver the goods.

But if anyone made that plea, we haven't heard about it. That makes every one of them culpable in the fiasco we've seen since Tony Romo broke his pinkie. Someone should pay for this with their job, and since the buck usually stops on the head coach's desk, he's my first candidate.

That doesn't take Jerry off the hook, by any means. He's the general manager and as far as I know, he has two good eyes. He was there in training camp, seeing exactly what I was seeing. He had to know that Johnson didn't have it anymore.

But apparently all of them stood around with their fingers crossed, praying that Romo would never get hurt. That's downright idiotic.

Beyond that, the Cowboys have ignored the quarterback position in the draft since taking Quincy Carter in the second round in 2001.

When Jerry had a chance to nab Brady Quinn, the eighth-ranked player on the Cowboys' draft board in 2007, with the 22nd pick, he opted instead to package it in a trade to Cleveland.

Yes, that netted Felix Jones in this year's draft, but please remember that this is a quarterback's league and the last three weeks have proven that again without a doubt.

The Cowboys are once again at a vital crossroads. To get to the playoffs, they will almost certainly have to win five of their last seven games and trying to find five victories in what is a very tough schedule isn't easy.

It has to start in two weeks in Washington. Lose there, or against San Francisco at home the following week, and you can forget it. It's over.

But how does this team regain its confidence? How do these players learn to believe in themselves again after such a miserable October?

"Winning does it more than anything," Phillips said, which is kind of a chicken-or-the-egg answer. "The locker room, how we practice, how we talk to the players, how they interact.

"We have to keep the finger on the pulse and see what they feel like."

Mmmm. I assume that means Uncle Wade must be booking his weekend flight to Cabo, too.

Oops, there I go, being a smart (aleck) again.