Transition to NFL Is Tougher Than Dallas’ Johnson Expected

Jimmy Johnson, a coach who lost two college games in his last three seasons, lost two pro games in the first eight days of this season.

He is finding it is not going to be an easy transition from the University of Miami to the Dallas Cowboys.

“I’ve taken a big challenge,” Johnson said after the Cowboys lost to the Atlanta Falcons, 27-21, Sunday. “This may be more of a challenge than I thought.”

Johnson soon might be longing for the days when he was accused of running up the score at Miami.

Johnson’s Cowboys are 0-2, but Johnson’s old Miami team won its first two games by a combined score of 82-6.

Johnson, though, said he was not worried he made a mistake in leaving Miami to replace Tom Landry as the Cowboys coach after his college roommate, Jerry Jones, bought the pro team in February.

“We knew we were going to have some rocky times, but I have no second thoughts,” Johnson said Wednesday.

In Landry’s 29th and final season, the Cowboys went 3-13, but they beat the Atlanta Falcons and lost to the New Orleans Saints, 20-17.

In their first two games this year, the Cowboys were beaten by the Saints, 28-0, and lost to the Falcons.

Johnson said part of the problem is the players are making a transition to a new coaching staff.

“One of the problems that you have in a transition like this is not only taking over a team that won just three games last year, but also installing a new offense and a new defense. It takes a period of time for the players to adjust to your system and to completely believe in what you’re doing. In some ways, when you have a transition like this, initially, there could be a dropoff,” he said.

Johnson still seems confident for the long term.

“I have no doubts we can turn it around in time,” he said.

For the short term, though, there appear to be problems on top of problems, even though his offense features quarterback Troy Aikman, the first pick in the college draft, and veteran running back Herschel Walker.

In the opener against New Orleans, Walker was unhappy because he carried the ball only eight times for 10 yards.

Walker even referred to the Cowboys’ offense as the “Miami Hurricane-Dolphin (passing) offense,” a reference to Johnson and offensive coordinator David Shula.

In the second game against Atlanta, the Cowboys gave the ball to Walker 23 times, and he gained 85 yards. He also caught two passes for 60 yards, including a 52-yard reception. He scored two touchdowns in a game for the first time since 1987.

But the Cowboys still lost, and in the second half, when they blew a 21-10 lead, they ran on six of their first seven first-down plays. The suggestion then was made by some members of the media that the Cowboys ran too often in the second half.

“When you lose, everybody has an opinion on what you have done,” Johnson said. “Every player should want the football more. That’s understandable.”

Johnson mentioned a different problem when he said the Cowboys wore down in the second half in the 78-degree heat and suggested the team wasn’t helped by the cool temperatures at its Thousand Oaks, training camp.

“I’m used to hotter weather in training camp,” he said. “I’ve always been concerned about practicing in cool weather in training camp.”

That brought up inevitable comparisons with Landry, who took the Cowboys to five Super Bowls in the 1970s while practicing in the cool weather in California.

Johnson said, “I’m only concerned about what’s best for our situation at the moment. I can’t be concerned about what’s happened in the past. Different people do things in different ways. That doesn’t necessarily make one right and one wrong.”

Johnson will coach his first regular-season home game against the Washington Redskins today. Although both teams are 0-2, the game is a sellout. The fans seem to be curious about the Johnson era.

“I just wish we were a little better,” Johnson said.

Noted as an enthusiastic coach, Johnson said he hadn’t lost his spark despite the rocky start.

“When I lose my enthusiasm, then I should get out of coaching,” he said.

Johnson, though, seems to be losing his sense of humor.

He was asked to compare the Cowboys with his best Miami teams.

“I don’t know that I can really compare a college football team to a professional team,” Johnson said.

Johnson didn’t laugh when a reporter suggested with tongue in cheek that the Hurricanes might be better than the Cowboys.

He just repeated his previous answer.

In another attempt at humor, a reporter asked Johnson which team would win if the Hurricanes and Cowboys were matched in one of those ESPN computer games.

This time, Johnson refused to say anything.

Johnson is not in much of a mood for laughs these days.