Things that need improvement...

[TheHustler]

1. OL play. Especially during the 2nd half, half of JJ's runs, he was hit behind the LOS.
2. Better blitz pickup. Pettiti wiffed on one. Polite on one.
3. Bledsoe has to get the ball out earlier. He held the ball too long on several plays.
4. Secondary needs to play better. I don't know if it because we were in the zone, or if they were just beating our secondary, but McCardell for 2 TDs is unacceptable.
5. Too many penalties. The start of the game was UGLY. 3 penalties in a row on offense at one point.
6. Roy needs to be a playmaker. He had a couple nice tackles behind the LOS but he's not forcing the fumbles, intercepting the ball, knocking the ball out of a players hands. I also thought his celebrations after tackles was a bit excessive.

Great game though. Go Cowboys!

[MarionBarberThe4th]

We need to abandon the zone. Newman and Henry are superior phsically, let them play man

[Rack Bauer]

Our pass rush needs improvement... still. Was it better today then it was last year? Yes. But it's still not "Good".

[ravidubey]

Originally Posted by TheHustler

1. OL play. Especially during the 2nd half, half of JJ's runs, he was hit behind the LOS.
2. Better blitz pickup. Pettiti wiffed on one. Polite on one.
3. Bledsoe has to get the ball out earlier. He held the ball too long on several plays.
4. Secondary needs to play better. I don't know if it because we were in the zone, or if they were just beating our secondary, but McCardell for 2 TDs is unacceptable.
5. Too many penalties. The start of the game was UGLY. 3 penalties in a row on offense at one point.
6. Roy needs to be a playmaker. He had a couple nice tackles behind the LOS but he's not forcing the fumbles, intercepting the ball, knocking the ball out of a players hands. I also thought his celebrations after tackles was a bit excessive.

Great game though. Go Cowboys!

This is a nice wish but Bledsoe hit 75% of his passes and placed the ball better than I've ever seen him do before. Bad things will happen every game, expecially against a Superbowl contender like San Diego, you've got to be able to roll with the punches like the Cowboys were able to do.

Dallas overcame their penalties, San Diego didn't and that was the difference today.

[TheHustler]

Originally Posted by MarionBarberThe4th

We need to abandon the zone. Newman and Henry are superior phsically, let them play man

I agree completely. With Neman, Henry and Glenn, we can run with most 3 WR sets. I'd like to see them in man to man with Davis deep and Roy in the box.

[dargonking999]

I think we need to improve our ST play first and formost, and i think we need to improve on converage and responsiblites, Mcardell was open because alot of the time guys were jumping routes and misscommunicating, we had alot of that and hopefully BP will sure it up this week,if not look for avery hungry redskin teamtocom ine and pull an upset, these guysunder valued and chiagco and alsmost lost, be cetain they will throw everything at us to win,

[Cowboy from New York]

Originally Posted by TheHustler

1. OL play. Especially during the 2nd half, half of JJ's runs, he was hit behind the LOS.
2. Better blitz pickup. Pettiti wiffed on one. Polite on one.
3. Bledsoe has to get the ball out earlier. He held the ball too long on several plays.
4. Secondary needs to play better. I don't know if it because we were in the zone, or if they were just beating our secondary, but McCardell for 2 TDs is unacceptable.
5. Too many penalties. The start of the game was UGLY. 3 penalties in a row on offense at one point.
6. Roy needs to be a playmaker. He had a couple nice tackles behind the LOS but he's not forcing the fumbles, intercepting the ball, knocking the ball out of a players hands. I also thought his celebrations after tackles was a bit excessive.

Great game though. Go Cowboys!

1. The Chargers obviously game planned entirely around stopping JJ and we should get used to that gameplan. I think the one series in the 2nd half where we did keep crashing JJ into the line for little gain was when we were coming off of 2 series where SD had had two long consecutive touchdown drives and had held the ball for a large part of the 3rd quarter. So my thought was that Parcells wanted to hold the ball for a while and give his defense a blow.
2. No arguement on Polite, but he'll learn. I thought Pettiti played pretty well, and while the chargers went after him, they seemed to like their chances blitzing off both edges of the LOS. Flozell got the one holding penalty on one of those.
3. Bledsoe DID hold the ball too long several times, I guess the sunny side to that is that our o-line gave him that much time to do that.
4. We all saw Davis make bite on the run and give up that td. Newman got beat several times and there was a lot of confusion out there at times. BUt man, Henry brought his A game today big time.
5. No arguement on the penalties, but most came on that one drive from hell.
6. I noticed that too, Roy had a few big hits and yards saving tackles but he seemed quiet....for Roy. I'm not sure what the chargers did, run him off on routes or what but they did mamage to keep him quiet today. Which probably freed up some other guys to make the plays today. Really was hoping to see a lot more run blitzes involving Roy today.

[50cent]

Agree with almost everything except pass coverage. We held Brees to 50% completion rate and 2 INts. He only threw 7 last year and had a 60% completion rate last season. Pretty good for the first game.

We did get consistent pressure, but it didn't translate into sacks. Brees had happy feet all day.

[TheHustler]

Originally Posted by Rack

Our pass rush needs improvement... still. Was it better today then it was last year? Yes. But it's still not "Good".

Yeah. Brees had too long out there.

[TheHustler]

Originally Posted by dargonking999

I think we need to improve our ST play first and formost, and i think we need to improve on converage and responsiblites, Mcardell was open because alot of the time guys were jumping routes and misscommunicating, we had alot of that and hopefully BP will sure it up this week,if not look for avery hungry redskin teamtocom ine and pull an upset, these guysunder valued and chiagco and alsmost lost, be cetain they will throw everything at us to win,

How could I forget the ST play, the coverage unit was atrocious.

[zrinkill]

Originally Posted by Cowboy from New York

1. The Chargers obviously game planned entirely around stopping JJ

I hope so ............... they have a great defense ............. and JJ STILL got 93 yards on 26 carries (3.6 yds per carry)

[jay cee]

Originally Posted by TheHustler

How could I forget the ST play, the coverage unit was atrocious.

During the preseason, someone posted a stat about how effective last seasons kickoff coverage was, and pointed out that it may have been because the kicker was so adept at hanging the kicks up and giving the coverage team time to get down field.
I wonder if part of the kickoff coverage problems were due to the new kicker.

[TheHustler]

Originally Posted by jay cee

During the preseason, someone posted a stat about how effective last seasons kickoff coverage was, and pointed out that it may have been because the kicker was so adept at hanging the kicks up and giving the coverage team time to get down field.
I wonder if part of the kickoff coverage problems were due to the new kicker.

Cortez doesn't exactly have the strongest leg, we there were a couple missed tackles too.

[Dale]

I have to wonder if Cortez was being instructed to kick them high, and short. Because throughout the preseason he was booming them into the end zone pretty routinely. And he was signed by Minny last season specifically for his kickoff abilities.

Considering how poor our kickoff coverage was this preseason, DeHaven's answer might have been higher but shorter kickoffs. Just a guess.

To the rest of the post, I think they need to work on the pass rush and mental mistakes along the offensive line. Far too many penalties committed by the line this afternoon. If I'm not mistaken, everyone but Rivera got in on the action.

By and large, I thought the line protected Bledsoe pretty well. He hangs in the pocket so long that he's going to take some sacks. It's just the way he plays. Polite's miscue where he missed Sammy Davis around the edge was about the only one I really felt was because of poor protection.

But if Bledsoe can continue throwing the ball like he did today, it's well worth a few sacks every game. We haven't had a passer like him here in a while.

[Chocolate Lab]

Originally Posted by Dale

I have to wonder if Cortez was being instructed to kick them high, and short. Because throughout the preseason he was booming them into the end zone pretty routinely. And he was signed by Minny last season specifically for his kickoff abilities.

Considering how poor our kickoff coverage was this preseason, DeHaven's answer might have been higher but shorter kickoffs. Just a guess.

I wondered that same thing, Dale. His kicks today just didn't look anything like what they did in preseason.

Of course, if that was the plan, it didn't work too well.