Another set of comments on Texans game

[CrazyCowboy]

Originally Posted by Fla Cowpoke

Just was able to download the vids off of the bittorrent link. Have put them on Bearshare, but need more people to do so and they might be downloadable in a reasonable amount of time. Hopefully Calico's bandwidth will kick back in on his host.

Anyhow, I came away with a lot of positive things.

First off, I though Bledsoe played very well. He had a couple of drops...but I did not see one poor decision. He fired the ball with authority, several times to his secondary receivers. One thing. If we never run another screen, it will still be too soon. Just take them out of the playbook. Maybe install the shovel pass we used to work so well to Preston Pearson and Ron Springs.

[View Full Quote]I thought Al Johnson, Andre Gurode, Rob Petitti and Stephen Peterman played excellent games. I saw pancake blocks at various times by each one of them. Gurode has earned his spot on the roster...and he is a legitimate challenger to Johnson. In fact, after watching him play I think it speaks highly of our depth that we have two starting quality centers. On Julius very first run, AJ completely buckled the nose tackle. On the 2nd and 17 run in the first series, he pulled very nicely. In fact, the whole OL looked good on that play. On the play that Petitti hurt his ankle, he actually pancaked the defender. And he impressed me with his toughness...sticking in there after he hurt the ankle. I am sold on him as the right tackle. He has gotten better every game and I do not see any real issues with his footwork.

Newman looks spectacular. He ran stride for stride with Johnson several times. Johnson is one of the faster receivers in the league. On the pick in the endzone, he baited Carr into that throw. He almost had another pick shortly afterwards. And throw in the nice return that he had that was called back on Ware's block in the back. Newman looked REAL good.

On the TD run by Jones, Petitti had a very nice block and did anyone else notice who got the crackback block on the corner? Terry Glenn!

Romo also played very well. He played smart, avoided the impulse throw, and moved the team right down the field on a couple of occasions. I am ok with him as the backup.

And Morgan actually made a tough catch. Only thing is, it seemed that he should have turned to the outside in the pass route, not the inside. Although maybe turning to the inside it kept the defender inside and he was able to shield him from the ball. It was a good catch.

The negatives...well, the special teams units were a mess. But I heard Parcells say they were trying a lot of different people out there, some that had not really played together. So I chalk it up to experimentation. Better see it cleaned up though. Reggie Swinton is fast when he gets a head of steam. Thornton and Jones both turned and started running as hard as they could on the angle but Reggie outran the angle. I wished we had kept Swinton two years ago and cut Randall Williams.

Larry Allen and Flozell Adams seemed to not be very motivated. They did not handle the blitz well. Allen got dogged on the same type of stunt that Petitti got beat on last week on the play that Bledsoe got sacked on early. And twice he and Adams let blitzers split them. Gotta let the outside guy go on the blitz...the one up the gut is the biggest risk to the QB.

The middle of our zone, especially in the 3-4, is soft. Our LB's don't seem to be getting good drops consistently. To some extent it is understood with the intricacies of the system. But season is fast approaching.

The last disappointment is the nagging injuries. I would like to have had a game where we got to see the entire starting OL play. I wish Barber, Ferguson, Rivera, Beriault and Kalen Thornton could get 100% by game one. Kalen Thornton is clearly favoring his left leg but he is playing his heart out. I know they get paid a lot of money, but I really respect the guys who bust their and play through any pain. And we have a lot of those.

Overall, I like the way things are shaping up. We all question Parcells about individual moves, but when you add up the whole package, it's hard to complain with the turnover in the roster since Parcells arrived.

Very good read.....thanks

[Duane]

Best read I've had this morning, good job.

[baj1dallas]

Nice and positive. After watching Monday night's game, everybody should feel a bit better about the Cowboys

[Fla Cowpoke]

Originally Posted by JDSmith

You're welcome, but it wasn't my analysis.

Fla Cowpoke started the thread.

Since my real initials are JD...it counts anyway!

Guys, glad to see the comments appreciated.

You may be right on Adams, but there were at least two blitzes against the left side of the line that we completely botched. SHouldn't be a problem on that side, just need to get it locked down.

[percyhoward]

Originally Posted by Next_years_Champs

I also agree with your opinions about the overall play from Al Johnson and Andre Gurode, both played effectively and I saw no obvious blown assignments. I do think however that AJ has the advantage when asked to pull as well as moving downfield and making blocks on linebackers in open space. Gurode struggles with that he seems to miss more times than not.

Great thread.

I see your point now about AG's problems when blocking in space. That's one of the things that hurt our screens--blocks that our lineman either didn't get to quick enough, or just whiffed on.

On one of the screens, the LB who's supposed to have Witten was looking in the backfield the whole time. Maybe in the regular season we'll throw a couple of quick passes to Witten to keep the LB honest. But we weren't "setting up" plays at all. The plays seemed to be selected at random. We even ran that fake reverse, without running the reverse later.

The first failed screen to Julius would've worked, but Bledsoe just hurried his throw under pressure, which he should have expected.

On Newman's INT, Johnson made a good enough fake on the out move, but then just slowed down and backpeddled into the EZ, and Carr floated the pass. A more experienced WR and QB might have scored there.

[Fla Cowpoke]

Yeah, Gurode is a little slow getting to anyone except the man in front of him. Johnson is very good at pulling and I really didn't see him getting blown up by anyone. Not sure how good the interior of the Texans line is.

The screens. They just kill me. I think we are the worst I have ever seen. It might be the lack of mobility by some of our OL. We also do not do a good job of holding our blocks long enough to get the defense committed upfield. On several of the screens their DL flattened out in pursuit long before Bledsoe threw the ball.

Julius needs a LOT of work as a pass catcher. He seems very mechanical at it. That is why Barber or even the A-Train might get a fair amount of third down work.

In Carr's defense, he was on the move. I don't think he floated it really. Johnson didn't have anywhere to go...I can't really blame it on him. He was fairly deep into the endzone, not far from the end line.

[Sportsbabe]

I also agree that I feel comfortable with Romo if Drew goes down. Heck, if Drew gets pulled I feel comfortable with Romo (lol). He looks completely confident out there. Confidence goes a long way. If you play tentative and scared, that's what you'll get. Happy to learn after the fact that he told Thompson to suck it up because BP is testing him. One more for Romo's leadership skills.

[TLW47]

Romo has shown me something this preseason. I don't think he's ready to take a team to the SB or anything but he seems to be doing fine.

[mmurray21]

I must have seen a different game than everyone else. When I heard all the positive reviews on Saturday night, I thought I would see the Cowboys dominate. When I saw the game on Sunday I saw a 1st team offense that looked sluggissh and defeated. If the offensive line can not play better than that, there is no way this team wins more than 6 games. The O had 1 nice drive the enitre first half and no successfull third down attempts. The defense look good in terms of making big hits but they were also giving up a lot of plays. If not for some flags, the 1st half score would have been much different(in the other direction).

To listen to a lot of the calls on this, you would think the Cowboys were in midseason form. Right now, this team looks a lot more like last years team than a Contender. I certainly expect them to be much improved, but they still have a ways to go. I completely understand Parcell's pessimism on the team at this point.

[Sportsbabe]

Originally Posted by mmurray21

I certainly expect them to be much improved, but they still have a ways to go. I completely understand Parcell's pessimism on the team at this point.

You are mostly right on your assessment. My feelings are, as long as the games don't count yet, it's just practice. I also know that this is a new defense, a new QB and a new right side O-line. Last but not least, BP is a paranoid, gloom & doom dictator. I trust that he will do everything in his power to win games. That's all I ask.