A Little Perspective?

Cowfan75

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That doesn't explain some of the play calls we saw yesterday. Basic Football 101 stuff is being screwed up here. I don't care what kind of off the field issues there are it's no reason or excuse to play stupid football.

:hammer:
 

john van brocklin

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Cowboys watched a man to whom many of them were no doubt bonded, collapse. Lose his life. The coaching staff surely spent countless hours in person and on Zoom calls with the man.

Their grief and shock surely were deep. Meetings and practice were canceled. Rightly so. The players or the coaches surely were not in any way prepared, mentally or emotionally, for a Thursday game.

Mistakes were made. Both players and coaches were clearly out of sorts.

I get that fans are angry and disappointed. I understand that commentators and sports writers have an opportunity to be outspoken and clever.

Only Gil Brandt seemed to understand what that team faced -- at least based on the comments I saw.

The extreme criticism is over the top, I think, given the circumstances. These are human beings.
Good point
But this team has deep foundational problems
 

Shake_Tiller

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Many things can be true at once.
1) The Cowboys entered the season a more flawed team than many of us wanted to acknowlege. A large part of that was a disastrous veteran free agent signing performance.
2) The team started slowly as a result of poor execution, bad luck, unfamiliarity with new defensive schemes and lack of preparation time given a new coaching staff.
3) Compounding the slow start, the team was hit with a series of key injuries. The OL essentially was wiped out. QB1 was lost. The starting TE was lost. A slew of overlapping CB injuries began. I believe the team has lost 18 games from its top 4 CBs, and Canady opted out before the season. LVE and Lee were lost for an extended period. Finally, QB2 went down.
4) The team seemed to recover a bit with better health, culminating in the unlikely win over the Vikings, to which no doubt some of us overreacted.
5) The team suffered a shocking tragedy that was made worse by where and how it happened. The shock and grief occurred during an extremely short week so that extremely inadequate preparation compounded the effect of the tragedy, which was surely profound.
6) The starting OTs went down very early in the game. The coaches lost confidence in the cobbled together line and made several questionable decisions.

A word about point 6: One can disagree with the calls and still see the logic. I wanted a QB sneak on the 4th down attempt that ended in the incompletion to Lamb. I am guessing the coaches didn't have confidence in a clean exchange and interior push. The pass should have worked. Clear pass interference was required to stop it. I still find it a poor call. The fake punt is difficult to support, but it might have been a TD had Wilson thrown the ball.

Bottom line: People talk about "stealing" a possession in the context of turnovers. That was an attempt to steal a possession because the coaches weren't confident the team could drive the ball and score. Events subsequent to the Jaylon interception return and other offensive failures give some support to that strategy, like it or not.

An NFL team can't win often with a mangled OL. The Cowboys have practice squad players on the field there and at CB. Those are 2 of the game's most important units. The starting QB is gone. Depth can't cure this kind of injury-ravaged season. There aren't 160 starting caliber OL in the league, much less 300-plus. The Cowboys are down to guys in the 250-300 skill range.

People are correct to say this is a bad football team. People are also correct to say they have lost 15 Pro Bowls on offense (20 including Frederick). The vet free agency blunders were on defense. That created holes. The CB injuries created more.

The coaches have called games as if they lack confidence in what they have on the field. No doubt they do. Some decisions have been hard to defend. I've also seen Belichick, for instance, make this year what seem to have been some bizarre decisions.

Not sure coaches feel, in the modern NFL, you can win playing Parcells-style Quincy ball. Maybe that's wrong, but it seems to be what the league believes. The Bears have had their heads handed to them while trying, and their defense is superior to the Cowboys'.

Still would like to see fans be more realistic about Thursday. I'm not persuaded Dallas had much of a chance. If they did, coaches might as well work shorter weeks and have players practice less. It would mean preparation is relatively unimportant. It isn't a coincidence Ron Turner unveiled a game plan chock full with motion, trick plays, etc. He planned to compete against an unprepared team.
 

Shane612

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The injuries are just too much overcome. You could argue Dak, Tyron, and Collins are our best three when healthy.

Once both of the tackles went out early it wasn’t looking good. The staff is grasping at straws and gambling just to try and gain an advantage.
That may be true, but fake punt on 4th and 10, on your end of the field?
They still had time to play defense, and get the ball back.
.
It's so stupid that you'd think it was Jerry's idea.
 

Shane612

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Perspective, while eating my honey glaze ham sandwich on wheat.....
Cowboys suck so bad.

Crazy owner => dumb and stubborn GM => dumb coaches => bad team.
 

Blackspider214

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Cowboys watched a man to whom many of them were no doubt bonded, collapse. Lose his life. The coaching staff surely spent countless hours in person and on Zoom calls with the man.

Their grief and shock surely were deep. Meetings and practice were canceled. Rightly so. The players or the coaches surely were not in any way prepared, mentally or emotionally, for a Thursday game.

Mistakes were made. Both players and coaches were clearly out of sorts.

I get that fans are angry and disappointed. I understand that commentators and sports writers have an opportunity to be outspoken and clever.

Only Gil Brandt seemed to understand what that team faced -- at least based on the comments I saw.

The extreme criticism is over the top, I think, given the circumstances. These are human beings.

Stop with the excuses. This was a 20-16 game with 12min to go. Could have been tied had Lamb caught that easy ball. You act like we went out there with zero energy and were blown off the field from the start. This team did not execute at all in the 4th. Went 0/3 in the redzone. 2 failed 4th downs in our own territory. Terrible coaching.
 

HungryLion

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Well, good luck with your new team. I'm willing to buy your likes off ya.


I’m going to sell you my likes, once the cowboys move on from Dak and I have to create a new username.

don’t worry. I got you big guy.
 

Bobhaze

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Here’s some additional “big picture” perspective on the Cowboys:
  • Since 2000, the Cowboys are 10-11 on Thanksgiving Day games, including 5-7 on Thanksgiving Day games at AT&T stayjum.
  • Over the last 21 seasons, including 2020 so far, the Cowboys cumulative record is 171-160. Mediocrity defined.
  • Since 2000, in 21 seasons including 2020, they have made the playoffs only 7 times, winning 3 playoff games and losing 7. They are 3-1 at AT&T in playoffs and 0-6 on the road in playoffs.
 

Creeper

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Here is some perspective. The WFT is 4-7. 2 of their wins came against Dallas. A third was against a Joe Burrow-less Bengals team. They lost to the Giants twice and the Lions. The WFT is a bad football team. What does this say about Dallas?

We have to face reality. You can come up with whatever explanations for their losses, but they are 3-8 because they are an awful football team, with awful coaches. No coaches should impact the outcome of a game they way the Cowboys coaches did yesterday. The worst part of this is it will convince Jerry that he was right about Garrett and his mistake was firing him. We are in for many more years of bad football with this team.
 

Blue64

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Actually, we were very capable of winning that game without Martin. We did not pull the fake punt with 5 minutes left and down by 20. It was 4 points and almost a quarter to go. What would anybody do? Nobody would call that play in that situation. I understand trying to get an edge, but we weren't playing the Chiefs. We were playing a 3 win team that looked like the Chiefs compared to us.
You missed the point, you’re right about the play being called while 4 points down. However, our o-line once Martin went down was done.
 

Cowfan75

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You missed the point, you’re right about the play being called while 4 points down. However, our o-line once Martin went down was done.

I didn't miss the point; we still were capable of winning even after Martin went down.
 

Shake_Tiller

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By my quick count, the Cowboys have lost via injury a collective 96 games among starters or players who would have started if they had been available to replace others who were injured.

This does include Frederick, but it does not include players who opted out, nor does it include the punter. I'm really trying not to skew or exaggerate the numbers. In that vein, I also didn't include all the instances where players were injured early and missed most of a game.

Even excluding Frederick, this equates to about 8 missed starters per game. Again, this includes Dalton, for instance, and Fleming -- guys who would have started a game if available, though they weren't starters entering the season.

This is no "next man up" situation -- a phrase often pablum for the brain as much as it is valid.

Cognitive dissonance is at work in some folks. If one argues for replacing a Jeff Heath or a Conner Williams, the argument is clearly acknowledging a need to improve the talent level at a specific position. One can hardly argue, then, that the loss of talent at other positions is irrelevant.

The Cowboys suffered significant injury losses at QB, TE, OT, OG, OC, DT, LB and CB. This kind of attrition isn't normal, neither is it repairable.

Others might imply I am taking the spotlight from coaching and organizational issues. That isn't true. I have watched the same failures others have watched.

But to contend it doesn't matter to your fortunes that your team has been riddled with injuries or that in a short week of preparation a member of the coaching staff collapses on-site and dies as players and coaches stand by in horror strikes me as willful stubbornness, at best, cluelessness at worst.

If I can't say, "Yeah but, there are injuries," surely others can't say, "Yeah but, the injuries are irrelevant."

And the tragedy of watching a relatively young man die... I met an old friend one time at a farmer's market. We hadn't seen each other in some time and had a long and pleasant conversation.

The next day I was on hand as he was recovered from a lake, his hands bound, his mouth gagged. Murdered. Being the only one on the site who knew him, I made the preliminary ID of the body. I still see his face in the occasional dream, smiling grotesquely at me from death as a result of the gag.

I'm no stranger to violence, instant death or the macabre, but I struggled to concentrate for a month following that shock. Watching helplessly as a team member -- a respected coach -- dies must have a similar impact.

This isn't a ballgame, folks.
 

Shake_Tiller

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By my quick count, the Cowboys have lost via injury a collective 96 games among starters or players who would have started if they had been available to replace others who were injured.

This does include Frederick, but it does not include players who opted out, nor does it include the punter. I'm really trying not to skew or exaggerate the numbers. In that vein, I also didn't include all the instances where players were injured early and missed most of a game.

Even excluding Frederick, this equates to about 8 missed starters per game. Again, this includes Dalton, for instance, and Fleming -- guys who would have started a game if available, though they weren't starters entering the season.

This is no "next man up" situation -- a phrase often pablum for the brain as much as it is valid.

Cognitive dissonance is at work in some folks. If one argues for replacing a Jeff Heath or a Conner Williams, the argument is clearly acknowledging a need to improve the talent level at a specific position. One can hardly argue, then, that the loss of talent at other positions is irrelevant.

The Cowboys suffered significant injury losses at QB, TE, OT, OG, OC, DT, LB and CB. This kind of attrition isn't normal, neither is it repairable.

Others might imply I am taking the spotlight from coaching and organizational issues. That isn't true. I have watched the same failures others have watched.

But to contend it doesn't matter to your fortunes that your team has been riddled with injuries or that in a short week of preparation a member of the coaching staff collapses on-site and dies as players and coaches stand by in horror strikes me as willful stubbornness, at best, cluelessness at worst.

If I can't say, "Yeah but, there are injuries," surely others can't say, "Yeah but, the injuries are irrelevant."

And the tragedy of watching a relatively young man die... I met an old friend one time at a farmer's market. We hadn't seen each other in some time and had a long and pleasant conversation.

The next day I was on hand as he was recovered from a lake, his hands bound, his mouth gagged. Murdered. Being the only one on the site who knew him, I made the preliminary ID of the body. I still see his face in the occasional dream, smiling grotesquely at me from death as a result of the gag.

I'm no stranger to violence, instant death or the macabre, but I struggled to concentrate for a month following that shock. Watching helplessly as a team member -- a respected coach -- dies must have a similar impact.

This isn't a ballgame, folks.
 

buybuydandavis

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The injuries are just too much overcome. You could argue Dak, Tyron, and Collins are our best three when healthy.
And Martin yesterday.
And Frederick in March.

Tyron, Martin, Frederick, Collins. Thought we'd be looking at a 4 Pro Bowl oline this year.

The only question was LG, where as it turned out both Williams and McGovern look solid.
 

buybuydandavis

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The Cowboys suffered significant injury losses at QB, TE, OT, OG, OC, DT, LB and CB. This kind of attrition isn't normal, neither is it repairable.

Dak, Frederick, Tyron, Collins, Jarwin - out for the season
Martin - out for a few games
LVE - out half the season
Awuzie - out half the season

McCoy - Injury
Zeke, Jaylon - Stinking
Poe, Ha Ha, Griffen - Stunk

These weren't our JAGs, they were supposed to be the quality that carried the JAGS.

Even the guys who stunk, all of them were former pro bowlers, with Zeke, Jaylon, and Griffen in the Pro Bowl last year. People were *excited* about the free agents we picked up.

The only predicted quality that has delivered has been the WRs and Lawrence, and even Lawrence started the season poorly.
 

Tussinman

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And Martin yesterday.
And Frederick in March.

Tyron, Martin, Frederick, Collins. Thought we'd be looking at a 4 Pro Bowl oline this year.

The only question was LG, where as it turned out both Williams and McGovern look solid.
Funny how the last guard spot was predicted to be the most unknown/up in the air and it ended up being the only one still standing of the 5 spots (lol)

Reminds me of how La'el was the most questionable extension 2 off-seasons ago and he ended up being the best extension of the group
 
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