A reminder for next year

[mahoneybill]

Something was going on with bailey this season

I think that sloppy field at GB influenced his approach and threw him off. His kickoffs weren't right, except the one after 15 yards were tacked on as a penalty against GB. Certainly his FG's were off also. Normally you can see them going high and centered.

Also, don't know on FG's if they were from left hash mark. As I recall that's where his " before GB game" misses came from.

 

[mahoneybill]

Been replaced by progress

Good one, and in line with " change the Story"

 

[mahoneybill]

I think Murray's fumble was a lot more costly. A probable 14 point swing there.

To me we left 6 on FG's and a possible 7 on Murray strip by Peppers, or Dez " non catch" so 13 pts we " could have had" or as many as 20...

In any case I for one am enjoying the GB suffering. Now they know what its like to waste opportunities, and get bit by not 1 but several ( fake FG & Onsides) calls that worked to the advantage of the opposition and lead to a win....

Also interesting to see results of Twitter NFL Network poll where the question was 57 % in favor of GB collapsing vs Hawks........ Hope this one lives on Mr Discount Double Checks internal hard drive for the rest of his career....

 

[TwentyOne]

There has a lot of talk about the the offense and the defense as it relates to the Cowboys getting to the Superbowl next year -- right now.

If you look at the Packer game and, IMHO, what ultimately lost them the game in Seattle it was their special teams failing them -- the fake FG for a TD and a onsides kick.

One thing that didn't get a lot of airplay this season is the general downward trend of special teams. Lack of returns. FG kicking not as good as other years, etc.

I'd hate for the Cowboys to get better overall (defensively mainly) next season and then blow a game like the Packers did on special team.

Its easy to forget how pivotal special teams can be.

You are absolutly right about the imortance of special teams play.

But i do think our SPs overall were good. We had very good coverage most of the year which was an upgrade from last year. Our return game could have been better but ws not really bad either.

Our FG kicking wasnt bad either. Our kicker missed some kicks late in the season. But thats not because he is a bad kicker or our FG unit is bad. It just looks bad because the kicking game was "godlike" before the misses.

When i review our strategy under garrett he never has given me the feeling he could underestimate the importance of SPs. In fact it was more of the opposite.

I am not concerned about SPs. As i am not with any other part of our team. The strategy of Garrett pays off now and every arrow points up. I am very optimistic in every phase of the game going into the next seasons.

 

[TheMarathonContinues]

It seemed like some of his kick-offs didn't go as deep too, but it's hard to tell if it was intentional or not, I mean sometimes that's what the coach calls. That was sort of what got me to noticing it though. It made me wonder if had had some sort of injury, not one bad enough to keep him off the field, but some sort of little nagging thing that was more of an irritant than outright injury. Like I say though, I haven't even seen where a reporter has asked him about it.

Yeah that's another thing as well as his kick offs but the crappy kick offs kept resulting in positive plays like fumbles or not much yardage so I wasn't sure if it was intentional or not lol.

 

[MikeT22]

In any case I for one am enjoying the GB suffering. Now they know what its like to waste opportunities, and get bit by not 1 but several ( fake FG & Onsides) calls that worked to the advantage of the opposition and lead to a win....

Also interesting to see results of Twitter NFL Network poll where the question was 57 % in favor of GB collapsing vs Hawks........ Hope this one lives on Mr Discount Double Checks internal hard drive for the rest of his career....

Also he'll be 32 next year. Obviously still has several quality years left but he's got more NFL years behind him than in front. Opportunities like this don't come around every season and he just blew one.

 

[Risen Star]

I have no idea why the special teams coach was retained. He was awful this year.

 

[Craig]

All 3 phases is nice...lets have Dallas focus on defense first. Their STs are ok.

 

[mahoneybill]

Also he'll be 32 next year. Obviously still has several quality years left but he's got more NFL years behind him than in front. Opportunities like this don't come around every season and he just blew one.

Good to see him suffer through some adversity. Will see how he rebounds next year. He's got a rocket for an arm, and is one of the best at ball placement in the league.

Only thing separating him and "to a degree Philip Rivers " at this point, is a SB , that buys " the media Monopoly Card " of we won't bad mouth you......

 

[mahoneybill]

All 3 phases is nice...lets have Dallas focus on defense first. Their STs are ok.

We have some talent on ST's but do need to improve:

1. Letting oppostions gunners have a free run

2. Blocking on FG & Punts

3. Punter - we are probably keeping Jones due to his chemistry as the holder, but i for one think we can have someone better to affect field position after punts. Will stand corrected if there is data showing he's in league leaders in that category.