Cowboys vs. Jets

[mexicanjunior]

Cowboys defense stood on it's head for 28 minutes, wish we could have held them out on that last drive but can't expect that much more considering...Offense looks decent but Romo has happy feet back there, I don't think he trusts his line enough to hang in the pocket. His passing accuracy has been terrific though and Dez is showing up bigtime. Hope we can keep the lead in the 2nd half.

[mexicanjunior]

I knew eventually Romo was going to make the mistake to swing the momentum...get your ass on the ground and take the 3 points...The effing moron that let the middle rusher go untouched on that punt block needs to be cut tomorrow.

[mexicanjunior]

Sept 11, 2011 21:24:46 GMT -6 mexicanjunior said:

I knew eventually Romo was going to make the mistake to swing the momentum...get your ass on the ground and take the 3 points...The effing moron that let the middle rusher go untouched on that punt block needs to be cut tomorrow.

Romo with the dagger pick into double coverage trying to get it to a one legged Bryant against the best corner in football...classic Romo.

[matt51180]

Sept 8, 2011 9:41:40 GMT -6 Terd Ferguson said:

Case in point...maybe the DUMBEST article I've read in a VERY long time:


By MAC ENGEL
tengel@ star-telegram.com
IRVING -- The Dallas Cowboys' season is days away and already their thin secondary has been gutted by injury, their first-round draft pick -- the starting right tackle -- is out at least two games, and they have two kickers who should be just fine on extra points.
The Cowboys are going to play against a defense that would blitz the punter during halftime. And they are going to do so with a starting quarterback who missed the second half of last season because his offensive line couldn't block.
The following isn't a joke: Cowboys coach Jason Garrett needs to start Jon Kitna at quarterback in Week 1 in New Jersey against Los Jets. Stephen McGee? Fine. Tony Romo's play isn't the issue, but his health is. Sitting Romo on Sunday is all about saving the season.
Right now, the plan is for Romo to play behind offensive linemen named Young, Green, Novice, Raw and Improving. Sorry; Young was waived and signed by someone else leaving some guy on the 53-man roster named Prakt S. Quad.
The game has never been more controlled by the QB, and if Romo isn't running for his life and he is upright, the Cowboys can rise to the top of the NFL's middle class and make the playoffs. The way Week 1 looks, Romo may be on his back so much he won't have a Week 2.
"As a coach, you always want more depth and I think, if you ask 32 coaches around the league, they'll probably say the same thing," Cowboys coach Jason Garrett said Wednesday at Valley Ranch. "You want to have as much experienced depth as you can while at the same time developing players. Hopefully, you don't get banged up in the wrong places."
Tackle? Wrong place to be banged up.
Cornerback? The really, really wrong place to be banged up.
Why couldn't the GM be on injured reserve during the draft?
The only place any worse for a team to be banged up is Romo's position. Lose that guy, lose the season. There aren't enough tight ends on a roster to keep in to block. At this point, if Red wants to keep his QB breathing against the Jets, Romo will send out one receiver on a route and throw up Hail Marys. The Cowboys may be better off punting on second down.
The situation Romo faces Sunday night before a national TV audience is frightening at best, and vulnerable at least.
The Cowboys aren't expected to win this game, but they can live and breathe at 0-1. If they walk out 0-1 with an injured quarterback, it is time to fire up the draft talk.

Like it or not, the Cowboys' only chance to do anything this season depends on Romo. Even Kitna knows it.
Romo is the single reason this team isn't rebuilding.
Under this new Webster's definition I just made up, absolutely no NFL team can be considered rebuilding with a healthy Pro Bowl quarterback, which Tony Romo is, whether you like it or not.
When evaluating this team one year later, it is imperative to consider the strength of the quarterback. This is not Seattle, where Tarvaris Jackson will be frustrating Seahawks fans. This isn't Tennessee, where an aging Matt Hasselbeck will leave fans praying for the chance to take Andrew Luck.
Romo is a 31-year-old guy with plenty of good years left.
As much as he may frustrate you, he is this team's best chance to begin the process of establishing itself as a threat.
"He's developed in all areas as a quarterback. He's better fundamentally. He manages the game better. His understanding of offense and defense is significantly better," Red said.
I do not grasp the venom pointed at Romo.
Who is better?
The only neighborhood Romo clearly does not have the gate code for is the one that includes Brady, Brees, Peyton, Rivers, Rodgers, Vick and Roethlisberger.
Romo is just outside of that neighborhood. He belongs in the same condo complex as Ryan, Cutler, Eli and Sanchez.
With Romo healthy, the Cowboys could potentially open the season 3-1. Seriously. I'm not kidding.
"I am very hopeful that we'll come out positive. I'd like for us to have a fast start," Jerry Jones said Wednesday. "I'm hopeful that we'll have a team that we thought we were going to have last year."
The only way that happens is if the quarterback is playing quarterback, and not standing on a sideline wearing a headset talking to the quarterback on the field. Except Sunday night.
The season is not even a game old and, considering all that has happened at such vital positions, having a crash test dummy play QB in Week 1 may be necessary to save Weeks 2 through 17.


Read more: www.star-telegram.com/2011/09/07/3345128/commentary-not-playing-romo-against.html#ixzz1XNOWb6nx


Read more: www.star-telegram.com/2011/09/07/3345128/commentary-not-playing-romo-against.html#ixzz1XNNRmEtS

Wow...I thought you might have been hard-selling the dumbest article ever bit. Not so much. Engel is an effing moron. Then again, so is his wife...

[matt51180]

Sept 11, 2011 21:24:46 GMT -6 mexicanjunior said:

I knew eventually Romo was going to make the mistake to swing the momentum...get your ass on the ground and take the 3 points...The effing moron that let the middle rusher go untouched on that punt block needs to be cut tomorrow.

That play wouldn't have even happened if Witten hadn't slowed down and let the safety run him out of bounds. Witten is bigger and stronger that that saftey...RUN HIS ASS OVER. All he needed was 6 more yards...

[matt51180]

If they play the season like they did the first three quarters, then I'll be happy this year. That 4th quarter melt down was Wade-esque, fille dwith a lot of mistakes by a lot of players on both sides of the ball. But, ignoring the last drive, the first half was pretty great.

[Sideshow Bob]

After having a night to sleep on it, and let the raw emotions of what happened subside, here's what I think about last night's game...

Romo is going to get criticized more this week than he has after any game since the dropped hold in Seattle. Should he? Yes and no. The goal line fumble was a really bad play by him - absolutely terrible on a number of levels. As for the interception, that really looked like a bad route by Dez, which makes you wonder what the hell he was even doing in the game. He was cramping up the entire second half, and didn't look like he could hardly run at all. At the very least, if you insist on keeping him in the game, use him as a decoy and throw to Miles or Witten or ANYONE WHO CAN RUN! Most of the game, like 80-90% of it, Romo was GREAT. That being said, I'm definitely frustrated with his play down the stretch.

Even though the Jets piled on the yards and points in the second half, I still really liked what I saw from the defense - especially since they were so gutted by injuries in the secondary. McCann, McCray and Church all made some solid plays, and I thought the entire defense did a great job of tackling all night long. We had so many missed tackles the past few years, it was great to see everyone wrap up all night long. Sean Lee was DOMINANT. And Ware was great, too. Really, the entire front seven was outstanding all night long. The Jets bread and butter is the running game, and we did an excellent job stuffing the run.

Back to the secondary, we are going to need to sign some CBs this week, without question. Scandrick is apparently out at least a month, and Jenkins has gone from the Cowboy Chicken to Mr. Glass. We need some healthy veteran reinforcements brought in ASAP!

Special Teams will draw scrutiny for the blocked punt, and rightfully so. More than any other single play, that cost us the game. And while we were pretty mediocre on returns, I thought our coverage units were outstanding! And Bailey looked very solid on his two kicks.

All in all, like Dunham and Miller said earlier this morning, I feel better about the Cowboys today than I did at this same time yesterday. They game me more reasons for optimism last night in terms of the rest of this season than reasons to think this year will be a disaster. BUT, yesterday also proved that what previously looked like an easy schedule now looks a lot tougher (SF, WAS, BUF).

[Sideshow Bob]

Sept 12, 2011 5:43:17 GMT -6 matt51180 said:

Sept 11, 2011 21:24:46 GMT -6 mexicanjunior said:

I knew eventually Romo was going to make the mistake to swing the momentum...get your ass on the ground and take the 3 points...The effing moron that let the middle rusher go untouched on that punt block needs to be cut tomorrow.

That play wouldn't have even happened if Witten hadn't slowed down and let the safety run him out of bounds. Witten is bigger and stronger that that saftey...RUN HIS ASS OVER. All he needed was 6 more yards...

Gary said the exact same thing when that play happened. Witten really is a lot bigger than Leonhard, and should have run back toward the middle of the field and plowed him over.

[Terd Ferguson]

I'll say this now, since I was too angry last night to say much that didn't come off like I'm a Mac Engel disciple:

That game was GIVEN AWAY by: Tony Romo, Jason Garrett, and Jason Witten.

Romo - the fumble was just a STUPID play. Throw it away or slide. Going head first there served no purpose. He wasn't going to score and it only opened him up for something bad to happen.
On the pick by Revis, it looks like Romo was throwing to a spot (out of bounds at the 1st down marker) but Dez ran another route. Who made the right read? It is hard to say (of course Tony says Dez did but guys say that kind of stuff). What matters is, Dez was about 50%. He should not have been on the field. He didn't even run a route. He jogged down the field in a straight line. Why would Tony throw ANY route to Dez when Dez has both Revis and a safety on him?

Those were Romo's mistakes and they were HUGE.

Garrett - No reason to have Dez on the field at the end of this game. He could not run. Even if Dez said he was fine, how many times did we have to see him not be able to out run Bob to know that he wasn't ok to be out there? The pass plays before Romo's fumble are puzzling. We ran it in on the goal line before, why not try again? The strength of our running game seems to be those off guard plays and stretch plays. Why run up the middle on so many crucial short yardage plays? Why not one of the ones that worked earlier? Why not that little roll out with Romo and Witten where Romo can throw or run? Garrett puts Romo in positions where he can make more mistakes. If he managed the game the way he did with Kitna, we win that game last night.

Witten - for chrissakes you are 6 inches taller and 85 lbs heavier than that safety. When he was all that stood between you and the goal, you tried to out run him?? I don't think you can out run Tyron Smith, let alone a DB. Just crush him. I said that during the play. No reason to make that such a close play, stay 3-4 yards away from the sideline and when the safety gets there, just throw him down.



The upside - our defense is better than anyone thought. Even missing the top 3 CBs, we held that team in check and should have won if not for 2 crucial offensive mistakes and a blocked punt where a rookie just let someone come untouched straight up the middle.


This season will be decided by the health of the team, and most specifically (unfortunately) Newman and Jenkins. Both of them are injury prone and we need them both. If they were both healthy, we win that game last night easily because I don't think the Jets would have scored 10pts.


Garrett needs to be better. Romo needs to be better. I can get past those mistakes mostly because we were supposed to get blown out in this game according to all "experts".

After watching the Eagles and the Redskins/Giants games yesterday I can tell you this, we should win this division. I said the same thing after watching the first game of the finals when we lost to the Heat. I don't know if we WILL win, but I know there is no reason why we CAN'T win.
The OL is better than anyone expected (and they will only get better with more reps). They faced a TOUGH defense on the road on Sunday night. Until we get to the playoffs, that is probably the toughest test they will face all year.
The defense is better than anyone expected. Missing the top 3 CBs and running a new scheme with no OTAs or minicamps, we still played pretty well. Like the OL, we will just get better as the season goes on. Unlike the OL, we will face tougher opponents.

Bailey looked good too, so I am not worried about the kicker. Folk hitting that kick was tough to watch. I said during that season that we should put him on IR because he didn't appear healthy after his hip surgery. I'm not sure the reasoning behind cutting him instead of the IR move, but Folk didn't win that game last night, we gave it to them.

[Terd Ferguson]

By the way, Bob called Lee's INT about 10 seconds before it happened.

[Sideshow Bob]

Sept 12, 2011 7:19:15 GMT -6 Sideshow Bob said:

After having a night to sleep on it, and let the raw emotions of what happened subside, here's what I think about last night's game...

Romo is going to get criticized more this week than he has after any game since the dropped hold in Seattle. Should he? Yes and no. The goal line fumble was a really bad play by him - absolutely terrible on a number of levels. As for the interception, that really looked like a bad route by Dez, which makes you wonder what the hell he was even doing in the game. He was cramping up the entire second half, and didn't look like he could hardly run at all. At the very least, if you insist on keeping him in the game, use him as a decoy and throw to Miles or Witten or ANYONE WHO CAN RUN! Most of the game, like 80-90% of it, Romo was GREAT. That being said, I'm definitely frustrated with his play down the stretch.

Even though the Jets piled on the yards and points in the second half, I still really liked what I saw from the defense - especially since they were so gutted by injuries in the secondary. McCann, McCray and Church all made some solid plays, and I thought the entire defense did a great job of tackling all night long. We had so many missed tackles the past few years, it was great to see everyone wrap up all night long. Sean Lee was DOMINANT. And Ware was great, too. Really, the entire front seven was outstanding all night long. The Jets bread and butter is the running game, and we did an excellent job stuffing the run.

Back to the secondary, we are going to need to sign some CBs this week, without question. Scandrick is apparently out at least a month, and Jenkins has gone from the Cowboy Chicken to Mr. Glass. We need some healthy veteran reinforcements brought in ASAP!

Special Teams will draw scrutiny for the blocked punt, and rightfully so. More than any other single play, that cost us the game. And while we were pretty mediocre on returns, I thought our coverage units were outstanding! And Bailey looked very solid on his two kicks.

All in all, like Dunham and Miller said earlier this morning, I feel better about the Cowboys today than I did at this same time yesterday. They game me more reasons for optimism last night in terms of the rest of this season than reasons to think this year will be a disaster. BUT, yesterday also proved that what previously looked like an easy schedule now looks a lot tougher (SF, WAS, BUF).

I forgot to give props to the OL. They played pretty well for the most part, and will definitely continue to get better every game. Kosier was actually the worst of our lineman last night - the youngsters played great.

[Sideshow Bob]

Sept 12, 2011 7:31:07 GMT -6 Terd Ferguson said:

By the way, Bob called Lee's INT about 10 seconds before it happened.

I DID!!! I knew Dirty Sanchez was due for a pick. I didn't call Lee specifically, though, just that we were going to get an INT there.

[bigdave]

ONE STUPID ASS COMMENT AND I'M GONE FOREVER THIS TIME. THAT INCLUDES HERE AND OUTSIDE OF THE SIDEROOM IN GENERAL.

I'm back cause I'm pissed off. I'm upset not because Romo or the talent or anything like that. 

I'm angry cause two of the three things I worried about going into the season haunted us last night. Cornerback depth, and having 2 kickers and keeping Holly. Costa played well enough to say he had a good game.

Look at the blocked punt. Who's the personal protector? Keeping two kickers meant no Butler or Thomas could have used both after Scandrick and Jenkins got hurt. 

I do think the game needs to be simplified for Romo a bit the mistakes sometimes are stupid the fumble was stupid not a hustle play or the defense doing something great. Tell Romo when to go wild ass when we are down and need a miracle come back but more stable less Farve like. He'll have plenty of chances to be a hero seeing our talent pool ain't as deep in every game we play this season.   

Other lesser factored to loss. Brooking played poorly on the goal line touch down he was to slow to close on the ball. Lee would have made the play. He looked slow aside for one coverage play in the second half he was horrible.  Worse thing that happened to Brookings was Igor getting cut now he has my full attention. Choice missing a blitz pickup first series not taking the outside guy could have hurt our season had Romo gone down again.  Ratliff was stood up or pushed back all but 3 plays in the game playing out of position needs to be addressed seeing we extended him long term.  I'm on the fence with Elam Church and Mccary played really well the both need to get more snaps. Witten not so much the long catch and run going out of bounce the problem he seemed to be gassed but a few played before think at 11:47 point of 4th quarter going out of bounce after a first down we were up 14 at that point get tackled in the field of play dude. 

Lots of positives going into week 2. If we play this well every week we'll be fine. 

[Sideshow Bob]

Sept 12, 2011 19:50:11 GMT -6 @bigdave said:

Witten not so much the long catch and run going out of bounce the problem he seemed to be gassed but a few played before think at 11:47 point of 4th quarter going out of bounce after a first down we were up 14 at that point get tackled in the field of play dude. 

Lots of positives going into week 2. If we play this well every week we'll be fine. 

I made the exact same comment when Witten ran out of bounds on that play, but Gary told me I didn't understand how the NFL clock works.

I agree with you that there were many more positives than negatives in that game, and that we will win a lot of games if we play like that every week.

[Terd Ferguson]

Sept 13, 2011 8:29:57 GMT -6 Sideshow Bob said:

Sept 12, 2011 19:50:11 GMT -6 @bigdave said:

Witten not so much the long catch and run going out of bounce the problem he seemed to be gassed but a few played before think at 11:47 point of 4th quarter going out of bounce after a first down we were up 14 at that point get tackled in the field of play dude. 

Lots of positives going into week 2. If we play this well every week we'll be fine. 

I made the exact same comment when Witten ran out of bounds on that play, but Gary told me I didn't understand how the NFL clock works.

I agree with you that there were many more positives than negatives in that game, and that we will win a lot of games if we play like that every week.

And apparently you still don't. The clock only stops while they reset the ball until under 4 minutes left. The clock started right back up and the Cowboys allowed time to run off while they set the offense and called signals. The difference between going out of bounds or getting tackled in the field of play was maybe 10 seconds...we were destined to choke that one away. The team panicked. They'll get past it. None of that changes how the clock works in the NFL. I even SHOWED you the clock was still running before the snap.