Couchscout's Midseason Report

[diehard2294]

Been waiting for this..thanks

I have been saying all year I believe Romo suffers from the same thing Garrett does and that is the pressure they are feeling about the agonies of this franchise as of late.

Can you tell me what you see from our WR's and there run blocking? I feel its been very suspect at best

What is your opinion on changes that would need to be made if this team struggles and goes 6-10??

[sbark]

I think with Romo, like CS says he will ignore players he doesnt trust. But as indiv plays develop, that makes him think the extra 1/2 second about who he is about to throw at.............he doesnt trust Dez, and OTree not much more, and that makes him have to think rather than just react.....

Thing about Dez's mistakes......when he breaks a hot read slant route, or drifts his pattern too deep, either of which cause Romo to throw a pik.........that stat goes on and against Romo, who then gets roasted, vrs. the occasional huge play Dez can give you ---in which this board and everyone else oh's and ah's about how great it was........why wouldnt Dez keep looking for the bag of gold and not worry about the plays that give Romo sleepless nights. Especially then, when JG starts to throw Romo under the bus on top of it.

I watched as the Falcons sprinted their MLB straight back into the FS position on several plays, which then allowed them to move their reg.S laterlly to double our Wide outs. Garrett or personel couldnt adapt to what the Falcons "were giving us" the short middle in the 4th qtr....it was like Garretts offense is set up to dictate to the Defense, the Falcons adapted, and Garrett system could drop down and just take what was being given to them enough to keep drives going. I think Murray out of the backfld would've been huge in forcing the Falcons to keep the MLB in a normal area.

[burmafrd]

So many keep on about how smart Red Ball is.

I just do not see it as regards football.

Lack of adjustments, same mistake time and again, etc.


IT is ALWAYS a huge gamble to make someone a HC who has never been one before.

[burmafrd]

As regards DEZ jus thow many have commented on over the years about his intelligence?

when 50 people in a row say you are drunk its time to borrow a quarter and lay down in the gutter.

[brickman]

Originally Posted by sbark

I think with Romo, like CS says he will ignore players he doesnt trust. But as indiv plays develop, that makes him think the extra 1/2 second about who he is about to throw at.............he doesnt trust Dez, and OTree not much more, and that makes him have to think rather than just react.....

Thing about Dez's mistakes......when he breaks a hot read slant route, or drifts his pattern too deep, either of which cause Romo to throw a pik.........that stat goes on and against Romo, who then gets roasted, vrs. the occasional huge play Dez can give you ---in which this board and everyone else oh's and ah's about how great it was........why wouldnt Dez keep looking for the bag of gold and not worry about the plays that give Romo sleepless nights. Especially then, when JG starts to throw Romo under the bus on top of it.

[View Full Quote]I watched as the Falcons sprinted their MLB straight back into the FS position on several plays, which then allowed them to move their reg.S laterlly to double our Wide outs. Garrett or personel couldnt adapt to what the Falcons "were giving us" the short middle in the 4th qtr....it was like Garretts offense is set up to dictate to the Defense, the Falcons adapted, and Garrett system could drop down and just take what was being given to them enough to keep drives going. I think Murray out of the backfld would've been huge in forcing the Falcons to keep the MLB in a normal area.

Garrett is THE WORST at making in game adjustments. If the defense changes and he didn't have it in his game plan, he is done. The opposition knows it and there in a nutshell is why we are 3-5. Opposing coaches must just be licking their chops when they get to us on the schedule. We can outplay any team in the league, but we don't outthink anyone.

[Sasquatch]

Thank you for the insights, CS.

Jerry Jones has been taking a lot of heat in the media and on this site for his poor record as GM. You've evaluated individual players and positions, but what is your overall evaluation of the team as a whole, and how the disparate parts fit together?

[visionary]

Originally Posted by couchscout

I specifically avoided the Jason Garrett topic for this post. I'm on the record already as being a Garrett fan. I'm well aware he's not perfect, and he's far from a finished product as a head coach. But I get the benefit of actually talking to front office people and scouts around the league on a near daily basis. To a man...every...single...one...thinks Garrett is a rising superstar. They all know he's got work to do, but he has everything you want in a head coach. It's been speculated here that he's in year 2 of a 3 year rebuilding plan, and I pretty much agree. He's jettisoned a lot of dead weight from the previous regime and brought in a all star coaching staff. I think we'll see the last steps of that plan this off season and a completely different team next season.

thanx for your great great post CS

regarding garrett, i have been a fan of his but have seen nothing over the last year or so that reinforces my opinion

i hope you are right and garrett turns out to be a great one and takes us to the promised land

[Bluestang]

Originally Posted by sbark

I watched as the Falcons sprinted their MLB straight back into the FS position on several plays, which then allowed them to move their reg.S laterlly to double our Wide outs. Garrett or personel couldnt adapt to what the Falcons "were giving us" the short middle in the 4th qtr....it was like Garretts offense is set up to dictate to the Defense, the Falcons adapted, and Garrett system could drop down and just take what was being given to them enough to keep drives going. I think Murray out of the backfld would've been huge in forcing the Falcons to keep the MLB in a normal area.

We drove down the field scoring our lone touchdown by exploiting the middle on our second possesion in the 4th qtr.

Penalties, drops, overthrows were the drive killers.

[JPostSam]

thanks so much for this, CS!

you mention players like austin, dez and felix not being put in the position/role to do the things they're good at.

my question is, why not?

if garrett is brilliant, why is he pushing "round peg" players into "square peg" holes?

[Yakuza Rich]

Not Quite Romo -

[View Full Quote]The Tony Romo I've seen in film study this year is not the Tony Romo I saw all of last year. He's not the same player, and it's really not close. Last years Romo could have won you a Super Bowl with the right players around him. This years Romo might lead you to the playoffs and have a semi-exciting loss in the first round if he had the right players around him. He's missing. Missing throws, missing reads, missing Laurent Robinson. I wrote last year that if Dez didn't improve dramatically on the mental part of the game that Romo would start ignoring him. Well folks, we're there. Romo has gone into full blown Dez ignore mode. He has consistently ignored a wide open and beyond the sticks Dez for a shorter throw to someone (anyone) else. His passes are sailing on him. For the first time in his entire career, that playmaker magic is all but gone. I've even seen him consciously giving up on plays this season. I don't know what it is, maybe it's age, maybe it's being a father, maybe it's all the people in his ear, I dunno, but he's not the same player. I cannot begin to describe to you how much it hurts to say this. This is a player I've loved and defended since day one. I saw him throw one pass in a preseason game against Jacksonville before anyone knew who he was, and I instantly said to my friend "that right there, that's what we need. Did you see that? His back foot hit on his drop and the ball came out, on time, accurate, and to the right person." I started following him from that moment, and started believing he was the one to put us back on top shortly after. That faith started wavering for the first time this season. I'm not saying it's over, he could turn it around, but he has a hole to climb out of.

Welcome to forum hell. Personally, I think the right side of the O-Line is causing a lot of problem. He seems pretty comfortable with Tyron on the left side, but he often sees the pressure from the right side too much now.

[quote]I have a little observation on him to share with you guys. I've noticed that when he has the ball with a defender in front of him and he's jogging/running slow trying to set the guy up for a move, it literally NEVER works. He's tackled every time. Now, when he busts through the line at full speed and there is a defender on him, he makes guys miss at full speed at a rate I don't think I've ever seen. It's usually the opposite, if I have time to set a guy up, I can make him miss, but if I'm running full speed ahead, there isn't time to set a guy up. Watch for that. Especially those flare routes, when is the last time he made someone miss on those? Can't wait for Murrays return[quote]

I have noticed for a while now how hard Felix can cut at full speed. His rookie year against Green Bay was a good example, just faking the hell out of a GB corner when he was going top speed. That’s why he reminded me of Dorsett at the time. I don’t pay attention as much to the other runs, but it makes sense that he’s not more effective. Personally, I don’t hate him and he’s effective in a certain role, but he fumbles too much and he’s not very good in short yardage. Personally, I think the NFL has fallen too in love with the dual RB system. I think too many RB’s need to get ‘warmed up’ with carries and the dual-RB system doesn’t suit them as well. I think you need a primary RB, a #2 RB that must be good in short yardage and a #3 RB that can play special teams and can pass receive. As we are seeing, you lose your primary RB and your backups can’t do short yardage, you’ve just made 3rd and short entirely more difficult.

Phil Costus -


His injury has cost us the first half of the season. I told you guys last season that people were being way too hard on him. Now you guys know what truly terrible C play looks like (at least in the running game). Not only was he not nearly as bad as people said last year, he's one of, if not the most improved player on the team this season. What little playing time he's had this season has been excellent. I'm talking top 6-8 C in the league excellent. It was always a technique thing with him, he has to play technically perfect because of his short arms. If he does though, he has everything else you want. It's too damn bad he's missed so much time, we might be sitting at 5-3 instead of 3-5. His presence in the running game is probably worth that.

Now he has to stay healthy. And I don’t think Benardeau is the answer at RG. I actually like Livings, but he’s not a spring chicken or All-World either. If Arkin can come around next year at guard or as a legit backup center, that would be huges.

That's the 9 million dollar question isn't it? I think we all see what happens to this defense when he's injured (his lack of an injury history is one of the more underrated things about him), but does that make him worth 9 mil? If I had my guess, I would say the Cowboys would love to resign him this year to a mid level contract, 5 years 30 mil, something like that. It will be very interesting to see what offers he gets if he's allowed to shop the open market. He's not the pressure player all of his want him to be. I will however say this, with the defensive line I talked about a second ago, he wouldn't have to be. He could be the run defender we all know him to be, help in coverage, help with the pass rush and get paid decent. I have a suspicion he's chomping at the bit to go somewhere and get paid really well to be their pass rush star. We shall see.

I come from more of a statistics background. Our lack of turnovers is really killing us. It hurts the defense because it can’t get off the field as quickly as it should given how it plays. And it hurts the offense because we can’t create quality field position.

We have had 3 interceptions the entire year. In the NFL, most turnovers are interceptions. In fact, each year about 75% of the league’s turnovers come from the QB position (strip fumbles or INT’s).

One INT came on a hit on Cutler that the ball went into Lee’s hands. It was more or less a fumble. The 2nd INT came from Claiborne on our goal line, coming from Cam Newton on a pass that I think he Newton was trying to be cute. The other was a hit from Sensy on Cruz that popped the ball out.

Essentially, 2 of the 3 INTs were really fumbles. And none of the INT’s have really been the ‘returnable’ type of picks.

I think that with the defense we have now, even with McCray at safety, no Lee and our current D-Line…they would get much more picks if the pressure from Spencer’s spot was better. Although to counter that, I think a little better D-Line play and much better safety play would improve them as well.

To me, it comes down to replacing 1 player (Spencer) vs. replacing probably 3 players (1 D-Linemen—likely Coleman & 2 safeties).

I think a lot will depend on the draft and FA and what’s there. If there’s nothing at OLB, then I would probably franchise Spencer (which I would hate to do) unless I thought Butler can get a decent job done and I can take the money saved and spend it on a D-Lineman and safety.




YR

[DCBoysfan]

Thanks you CS that was an excellent read.

[big dog cowboy]

[Crown Royal]

Originally Posted by couchscout

1. Safety - We have got to get more production out of this position.
2. WR - And more specifically, we need a veteran, don't have time to wait on a rookie.
3. Interior OL - Both potential starters and depth
4. FB - Need to find a real FB. When was the last time we had a real hammer at FB? Does it really go ALLLL the way back to Moose?
5. OLB - Both a potential replacement for Spencer and more quality depth.

This is pretty much my order of need except i switch 1 and 2. Too many complaints around here about pressure when this team generates plenty of it, but the safety position leaves us a little constrained (both McCray and Sensabaugh were highly exposed against the Falcons- if we get better safety play we win that game, even with our putrid offense).

I cannot tell you how much I hate to say WR is the number 1 need right now, considering that as much as couchscout loves WRs, I hate them. I hate what we spend on them, I didn't think a WR was a need in 2008 or whenever we got Roy Williams, I don't believe ANY wr is worth what we gave up for Dez...especially Dez. But right now we have one good slot receiver and one good TE. We have zero reliability past the numbers, and I think it's evident that we no longer throw outside the numbers because of that.

As for what is wrong with Romo, I think it is similar to year or two before Favre's last year in Green Bay. He is mentally adjusting to crappy players, he's tired of being the guy on the team who has to carry it, the pressure is eating at him, not to mention family items. The good thing is that Favre climbed out of that 2-3 year slump, the only hope is that Romo's doesn't last as long because he just doesn't have the same collateral built up that Favre did.

[THUMPER]

Great stuff CS, thanks for posting your observations they are very insightful and informative.

[Oh_Canada]

This is one awesome thread.

So it sounds as if you are saying the oline is not nearly the pass protecting sieve people make them out to be and Costa isn't quite the dog poo he's made out to be either.

I'm not surprised by your observations, they are probably a middle of the road oline and slowly showing signs of improvement.

One thing I'm surprised about is the Dline isn't higher on your draft list. They have two older vets who need to be replaced and Rat is becoming injury prone as he gets deeper into his 30's.