Gosselin: Cowboys haven't closed gap on Eagles or Giants, still a .500 team

[Bungarian]

I think this team still has a lot of holes. If they go out and get a third receiver, he still won’t be as good as Laurent Robinson was last year. He was Romo’s go-to guy, the guy that Romo depended on down the field. That’s going to kill them.

I think the lack of a pass rush is going to hurt them. DeMarcus Ware’s 30 this year. His best years are behind him and they didn’t get a second guy. I didn’t see them closing the gap on either the Eagles or the Giants, teams that they were 0-4 against last year. With a tougher schedule, I think this is a .500 team.



http://www.dallasnews.com/sports/dal...-.500-team.ece

[zrinkill]

That is fair .... though what makes the Eagles so good?

Year after year I hear how good they are yet they went 8-8 last year too.

[RXP]

Originally Posted by zrinkill

That is fair .... though what makes the Eagles so good?

Year after year I hear how good they are yet they went 8-8 last year too.

Did you watch the Eagles play at the end of last year? They may have been the best team in football in December. Had they made the playoffs, nobody wanted to play them. It could have been them instead of the Giants winning it all.

Doesn't mean that will happen this year. But if they carry over what they did last December, they will be very tough to beat. And they raped us twice last year. We do not match up well against that team. Their team speed on offense is scary. Hopefully our changes on defense will help defend that. But as of now, they are a better team than we are.

Just keeping it real..

[zrinkill]

Originally Posted by RXP

Did you watch the Eagles play at the end of last year?

Looked like us at the end of 2009 and 2010.

What does that tell you?

[SilverStarCowboy]

With Carter, Lee and Conner our Inside LBs have improved by leaps and bounds over Brady and Brooking.

Coupled with an entire new secondary, it's hard to see Dallas not closing the so called "gap".

Then it's the Oline the Giants and Eagles dominated, this is where the biggest harvest of crow lays in wait.

[bbailey423]

Originally Posted by RXP

Did you watch the Eagles play at the end of last year? They may have been the best team in football in December. Had they made the playoffs, nobody wanted to play them. It could have been them instead of the Giants winning it all.

Doesn't mean that will happen this year. But if they carry over what they did last December, they will be very tough to beat. And they raped us twice last year. We do not match up well against that team. Their team speed on offense is scary. Hopefully our changes on defense will help defend that. But as of now, they are a better team than we are.

Just keeping it real..

There team speed on offense is for real. But we will not be sending Brooking and James on the field as ILBs next year. We will not be sending a broken washed up Terrance Newman on the field. We will trot out personell to directly counter where they are strong. I think Lee/Carter/Connor is an upgrade over Lee/James/Brooking. I think Carr/Claiborne/Jenkins/Scandrick is an upgrade over Newman/Jenkins/Scandrick/Ball. So we did not match up well with them LAST year...but management has gone out and done something about it.

[Idgit]

Ho-hum. Don't have a problem with the take, but the reasoning is poor. If we're 500 again this year, it's not going to be because of WR3. That's hardly a hole. Anyone writing off Ware's production at this point is premature. And it's not like the gap against the Giants on the field was significant. The Eagles are another matter, and the Redskins got better, too. It's going to be a dogfight, but 9-7 or 10-6 might win this division, so we're talking about a handful of plays separating the top three teams again. Predicting how those handful turnout at this point in the offseason is futile.

[Randy White]

Originally Posted by Idgit

Ho-hum. Don't have a problem with the take, but the reasoning is poor. If we're 500 again this year, it's not going to be because of WR3. That's hardly a hole. Anyone writing off Ware's production at this point is premature. And it's not like the gap against the Giants on the field was significant. The Eagles are another matter, and the Redskins got better, too. It's going to be a dogfight, but 9-7 or 10-6 might win this division, so we're talking about a handful of plays separating the top three teams again. Predicting how those handful turnout at this point in the offseason is futile.

Send your resume to the DMN. Also tell them that their new and upgraded " columnist " is stealing their money..

[casmith07]

Originally Posted by Idgit

Ho-hum. Don't have a problem with the take, but the reasoning is poor. If we're 500 again this year, it's not going to be because of WR3. That's hardly a hole. Anyone writing off Ware's production at this point is premature. And it's not like the gap against the Giants on the field was significant. The Eagles are another matter, and the Redskins got better, too. It's going to be a dogfight, but 9-7 or 10-6 might win this division, so we're talking about a handful of plays separating the top three teams again. Predicting how those handful turnout at this point in the offseason is futile.

Substitute Carr and Claiborne in place of Newman, and there's no way we don't win 10+ games.

Both Giants games were lost because of inability to defend the pass. The Cardinals game was lost because of inability to defend the pass.

The Lions game was lost because of inability to defend the pass down the stretch (even with turnovers, if we were able to defend the pass, save for the jump ball in the end zone, we likely win that game).

That's 4 wins right there, which would've made us 12-4 at best, and 10-6 at worst if we split with the Giants and are inable to overcome turnovers against Detroit.

And that's with still getting beaten twice by the Eagles.

It's extremely poor reasoning, and it's looking at one position with blinders on, something I hate.

[RXP]

Originally Posted by bbailey423

There team speed on offense is for real. But we will not be sending Brooking and James on the field as ILBs next year. We will not be sending a broken washed up Terrance Newman on the field. We will trot out personell to directly counter where they are strong. I think Lee/Carter/Connor is an upgrade over Lee/James/Brooking. I think Carr/Claiborne/Jenkins/Scandrick is an upgrade over Newman/Jenkins/Scandrick/Ball. So we did not match up well with them LAST year...but management has gone out and done something about it.

I think we will do a better job on Jackson and Macklin, but it remains to be seen how we will handle McCoy and Vick on the run. On paper, it should be better, but I'm taking a wait and see attitude. Their defense will be better than last year as well. They started figuring it out at the end of last year, and they should be better with a full offseason.

[Sandyf]

He is a reporter, nothing more nothing less. His job is to get readers to read and comment which normally generates more readers, like or dislike.

Is he a fan of Dallas? Who knows or cares. He has always preferred a glass half empty and he has a great dislike for Jerry Jones thereby a lot of negative comments.

Are we better? Sure, how much remains to be seen. Are the Eagles and Giants better? No way to really tell until we play the games. Frankly, I don't see them as any better than last year. Yes the Giants won the Super Bowl only because everything fell right for them the second half of the season, the same for any Super Bowl champion.

The fact is no one really knows who will be better or worse until we start to play the games. Injuries will play a big part also.

Will we miss Robinson, initially for sure but if Homles, Radway and Coale step up we will forget Robinson in a heart beat. He Ware on the down side, sincerely disagree with that statement then again Goose probably thought LT was washed up at 30 also and probably believes Brady, P. Manning should both retire.

Remember he is just a sportswriter and his knowledge of football and the Cowboys is no more than ours in most cases.

[Galian Beast]

I don't think we will miss Robinson at all. Miles Austin played a very small amount of snaps last year, even Bryant didn't play a whole lot. The combination of them playing a full year will be what makes the difference.

Not to mention the full steady addition of having a running game, and hopefully an improved offensive line.

We had 42 sacks compared to the Giants and Eagles having 50 and 48 respectively. HUGE difference... :/

Eagles gave away Asante Samuel for peanuts... that's a huge downgrade... no mention there huh?

Every major weakness we had on defense has been shored up. I don't see how this is a 500 team, based on the fact that we should have been better than 500 last year minus a few gaffes.

[Doomsday101]

Originally Posted by Bungarian

I think this team still has a lot of holes. If they go out and get a third receiver, he still won’t be as good as Laurent Robinson was last year. He was Romo’s go-to guy, the guy that Romo depended on down the field. That’s going to kill them.

I think the lack of a pass rush is going to hurt them. DeMarcus Ware’s 30 this year. His best years are behind him and they didn’t get a second guy. I didn’t see them closing the gap on either the Eagles or the Giants, teams that they were 0-4 against last year. With a tougher schedule, I think this is a .500 team.



http://www.dallasnews.com/sports/dal...-.500-team.ece

So Gosselin must have felt Robinson was going to be great when we got him in week 2 of the season and now he can't be replaced? As he stated Dallas can get a 3rd WR but he will not be as good. OK coach Gosselin that expains why you sit in the box seats and not on the sidelines.

[RXP]

Originally Posted by Doomsday101

So Gosselin must have felt Robinson was going to be great when we got him in week 2 of the season and now he can't be replaced? As he stated Dallas can get a 3rd WR but he will not be as good. OK coach Gosselin that expains why you sit in the box seats and not on the sidelines.

Gosselin's explanation on Robinson is bogus. Sure he had a terrific year. But only because Austin and Bryant were continually injured. If they can stay healthy, they will more than make up Robinson's production, making the 3rd WR less important.

Besides, on this team Witten really is the 3rd receiver.

Now, if injuries retuen to Austin and/or Bryant, we will have a problem. WR depth is admittedly not very good. Gosselin just seem to assume that Austin and Bryant will strugle and there is nobody there to take up the slack.

A little presumptous on his part, I would say.

[bbailey423]

This is fair from the standpoint that the results don't lie. But we were 7-4...1st place in the division...after Romo playing banged up for weeks....Dez playing banged up....Miles out of the lineup....grossly miscalculating the young pups on the OL...1st year head coach....no benefit of a full training camp...lining up to kick a FG to go 8-4 in Arizona. We make the kick. But we had called timeout. Our season fell apart from there. I think we had a 2 TD lead against the Giants with 5 minutes to go the first time we played them? So since both the Giants and Eagles swept us...he can take the position that they are better than us...but I am not sure how much better they are....and I would argue the difference is slight enough to where a bounce here or there are either team could win. Is he taking into account how HUGE of a loss Jason Peters is to the Eagles?