1. They really really don't trust C-Mike for some reason. Either they don't want him to pass block or he just does not know/understand the playbook.
I was careful to watch every play Michael was in and it's obvious he doesn't quite get the pass protection (again, it's not a playbook thing...it's a reading the defense and stoning the blitzer thing). Every play he was in he either got the ball on a rushing carry or went directly out for a pass. Michael is a bit on the short side and Rod Smith is about 6 inches taller than him. So I wonder if it is more of a size and technique issue than reading defenses. Of course, with smaller size means your technique has to be sharper.
3. Jeff Heath made some plays. He looked really good on pass coverage deep down the right sideline. He came up with a big stop and 3rd down. There was a question on the TD on who should have been in coverage, him or Church. Broaddus says he will get the answer but it looked like Church blew the coverage to me.
That looked all on Church to me. Just by body language alone. It looked like Church thought Willson was going outside and he got beat badly.
4. The issues with the Refs is getting old. The incompetence is tiring. I'm not a conspiracy theorist, but I do think some individual Refs have certain biases. Maybe a bias for or against a team. Maybe a bias for the home team. Maybe a bias to be overly critical of certain types of plays in an attempt to get noticed by their bosses. Whatever the issue, it is really getting old. I really wish there was some way to petition the NFL for drastic changes. Maybe full time refs would help or maybe better disciplinary actions for bad calls. It's not just against the Cowboys. I see it in other games where they at times appear biased and at other times just incompetent.
It's ridiculous to watch. It reminds me of 2005 all over again.
Either way, the NFL doesn't know how to address the problem. IMO, McFadden did by all intents and purposes...fumble the ball. They had a solid rule in place, but because Dean Blandino gave the incorrect ruling on the Dez catch...now blatantly obvious catches are no longer catches and blatantly obvious fumbles are no longer fumbles.
I do think that refs have biases, but I don't think it showed up here. I just think this is flat-out incompetence and it is set up by have a clown that has never refereed a game before on any level as the head of the refs.
5. The Cowboys defense was definitely good enough to win so I don't want to complain much about them; however, they still seem to have no consistent answer for the legal pick play. The Seahawks got at least 2 critical 3rd down conversions on legal pick plays. It is super easy for their QB to see pre-snap where the receiver will be open due to a pick play.
To me, it's poor play recognition from the corners and we don't have the MLB out there to stop it. I also think they ask a lot out of their corners because the safeties are limited in coverage. What I see out of Carr and Claiborne is that they cannot stop those long comeback routes with any consistency. It tells me that they are afraid of getting beat deep, likely because there is little safety help and the WR can get easy separation.
11. Doug Free had multiple bad plays again. The Cowboys had a great off-season except for retaining Free and Weed. It would be almost impossible for a rookie 3rd round pick that missed all of the off-season to come off of the PUP and do much, but if Green has anything he might be an upgrade at RT. It appears my dream of Leary getting healthy and Collins moving to RT is dead, at least for this year. Physically Collins compared to Free is like the Terminator compared to PeeWee Herman.
Collins probably isn't moving to RT and I really don't think he should. Hopefully, Garrett and company have read books on the science of movement pattern training, skill acquisition and motor skill learning. Switching Collins to RT would probably be a very bad idea because the movements are so different. He would also have to get time to alter his body to be better suited at RT. Combine that with the speed of the game and still refining his techniques...it would be a missed opportunity to at least develop a great left guard if we move him to RT.
Free had too many negative plays for sure, but he still has many good plays. I doubt Green would accumulate as many positive plays as Free and would probably have as many negative plays...if not more. The RT position has to be addressed next season because Romo's best years have come when the RT play has been good. If Collins continues to progress at this rate, I would then consider giving him a shot at RT in the offseason.
YR
