Hostile
The Duke
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I got up at 5 o'clock this morning to watch the game because I was gone until 8:30 last night. I would have been home about and hour and a half earlier but I ended up helping an old man change his tire after he cut a valve stem. He didn't have his spare in his van so we had to take him home to get it.
Just before I went to bed last night I saw that Gaines Adams had died at 26. Sort of put watching the game this morning into perspective for me. It isn't life or death.
I made myself a promise this year that I would not get too high on wins or too low on losses. It's harder when there is so much on the line, but I think I got it done for the most part.
Pardon me for a slight detour here. The thing is I think people understand less about the game than ever before. It translates directly to fantasy football and Madden video games. People literally no longer see the team as a whole. They see parts that in those games you can change in one move. You can manipulate the players and the talents and create outcomes. In the real world that doesn't work. I'm not sure fans will ever get back to the point of truly appreciating the entire team as a living, breathing thing.
I didn't start this thread to discuss the loss of grasp on the game though, so I will leave that for later replies if asked or simply leave it alone. I don't know at this time.
So I logged on last night before I even knew a score. I intended to watch the game before going to sleep. I knew as soon as I logged in that we had lost and probably badly. I had 8 PMs with angry titles. I took a look at the infractions and bans for Vikings trolls and I felt awful. I knew that even though I had alerted the Staff that I would not be around that they had gone through hell. I felt like I didn't pull my fair share of babysitting duty when I saw the fallout. I knew that some posters who had been virtually silent for a month would be back and happy. They were. I knew immediately that I was not going to watch the game last night, so I got up early to do it.
I figured I would be ready for anything this morning when I watched the game. I wasn't.
The first thing that comes to my mind is that we moved the ball well enough to have scored. If you stop and look at the stats it is mind boggling when you see a couple of them. 2 penalties. Both 5 yarders. So stupid penalties did not kill this team. We had 16 first downs. So did the Vikings. We had a slight advantage in Time of Possession. Nothing like the lopsided examples against the Eagles the last 2 weeks. I'd kind of expect that it would be when I see the score. But that wasn't the case. We have got to finish drives with scores.
The Vikings were only 4 of 13 on 3rd down. Favre only threw it 24 times. Peterson didn't kill us. In fact he only averaged 2.4 yards per carry.
The stats look fine until you get to a few of them that stand out and you see the game. The first of course is turnovers. We didn't get any and we gave them 3. We all know that can't happen if you want to win. Not against a good football team and I think you have to say the 13-4 Vikings are a good football team. They were caused by the biggest breakdown of the game.
Point blank, the O-Line was awful. Tony Romo was running for his life. According to the stats line he was hit 10 times. He was sacked 6 times. I don't know how many QB pressures there will be, but it has to be in the 20's easily. It comes as no shock to me when I see that kind of pressure applied that we gave them the ball 3 times. It shouldn't come as a surprise to any Cowboys fan. We witnessed the exact same thing for our Cowboys for the last four straight weeks. Give me the same game and Tony planting his feet with time to throw and I like our chances. The reality is, that just didn't happen.
Both of Romo's fumbles happened with Vikings pressure forcing him to scramble and having nowhere to go. Fumbles are bad enough any time, but when they are deep in your own territory they are worse. The INT is pretty much all on Tony as he lollipopped the ball towards Crayton. But the fumbles are as much the fault of the O-line as they are the QB.
He was given no chance to win this game. Naturally that means it was ignored in last night's witch hunt. No QB can win from their back and very few can win when on the run constantly. The failure yesterday lands squarely at the feet of the Offensive line. When Flozell went down they literally fell apart.
I have never been afraid of giving the other team credit and I am going to do that right now. The better team won yesterday. The Vikings wanted it more. Favre was efficient and Sidney Rice had a career kind of day on the biggest stage of his young career. He made our DBs look really bad on several plays. The Vikings Defense was the difference. Rather than fall apart and waive everyone and fire everyone the Vikings deserve some credit. I'm going to give it to them.
I want to talk about the late score. Was it rubbing it in? In my opinion it was. I can understand why Brooking was angry about it. I can understand why some fans are too. It was 4th and 3 in a 27-3 game with less than 2 minutes left, and they threw it in the endzone. If it had happened with Peterson or Taylor running the ball to kill the clock I might feel differently. If they had simply got the 1st down I might feel differently. If it was 3rd down I might feel differently. Maybe it will motivate the Cowboys next year when we play the Vikings. I wouldn't have done it if I were in Minnesota's shoes, but they did it and we didn't stop them.
So the sun sets on the 2009 season. I can't speak for every fan, but I am satisfied. I never believed this was a Super Bowl team. Even when we were hot and the media darling again I kept thinking it was too good to be true. In fact I woke up yesterday morning and thought we were going to lose. Lost in the river of tears over this beatdown is the fact that the Vikings were unbeaten at home this year. Everyone thought we were getting the team that folded against Arizona and Carolina. Those drubbings didn't happen in the Vikings hood.
People were chiming in about Favre's 0-3 record against Dallas in the post season. All season long I have been saying that previous years don't matter. This was not Favre and the 90's Packers. This was Favre and the 2009 Vikings. They were a stellar team at home. Previous seasons don't matter folks.
I actually created a thread yesterday morning about taking the Vikings too lightly and decided not to post it because I was sure people would think it was bad karma I was introducing. So I deleted it and went to Church. I am glad I didn't post it.
I said I was satisfied and I am. Not with the results yesterday, but with the 2009 season. I wanted to win the NFC East. That was important to me. The Cowboys delivered. I wanted to see a December turn around. That was important to me. They delivered. I wanted to win in the post season again. That was important to me. They delivered. I couldn't be happier that we swept the Eagles in 3 games. I refuse to turn a blind eye to those things while bitter about yesterday.
Winning it all is all that matters, but I didn't expect to win it all. Not this year. Part of that is my irrational superstition about Super Bowls in Miami. Do I think we could have beaten the Vikings? Yes, I do. But the reality is we didn't. Do I think we could have gone back to New Orleans and won again? Yes, I do. Do I think we could have beaten the Colts, or very hot Jets? Yes, I do. But I just didn't see us doing all of that in one run to glory. It was too high a hill to climb. By the way, the Chargers losing was a shock to me. I really felt they were the team to beat. It shows you what a hot team can do.
If it were up to me the coaching staff would all be back. I'm not a Wade fan and I have never hidden that. But he earned an extension. I know a lot of people will deny that while they wave their pitchforks, but he did. This team was amazing defensively down the stretch as some young players got their stripes and I refuse to close my eyes to that after one loss, no matter where it happened.
I'd like to see the O-Line depth improved more than any other thing this off season. They are all up there in age. Even though they have great games together sometimes they also produce some stinkers like yesterday.
I don't know what it will take but Tony and Roy need to get on the same page. It is a mutual thing that both share responsibility for. Tony has to look for Roy and Roy has to get open and make the catch. Not a doubt in my mind they can do it. It makes the team that much better if they get the job done.
I think 2 areas of the Special teams were critical down the stretch and burned us yesterday. I am not satisfied with Kick Returns at all. I think we are jogging instead of running. It happened late in the year almost every game.
I hate Kickers. I have no confidence in ours. I was not excited when we acquired him. As bad as Nick Folk was I wish we had kept him and tried to get him through this. I have more confidence in him as bad as he was. This is our 2nd look at Suisham and I have seen enough. Please don't Draft a Kicker. Just fix it.
As the Cowboys exit stage left and the curtain comes down I want to thank the Cowboys for an enjoyable season. A lot of people will not understand that because of yesterday. The season as a whole was fun for me. Yesterday was not. I can separate the two. It is going to be a long off season again though because a lot of people can't. Video games and fantasy football have assured that.
This decade was difficult. Maybe the worst in team History. For my money it was. The coming decade gives me hope and the 2009 team are a big reason for it. I appreciate the chemistry and the effort that they gave us, yesterday notwithstanding.
50 years are in the book. The end.
Just before I went to bed last night I saw that Gaines Adams had died at 26. Sort of put watching the game this morning into perspective for me. It isn't life or death.
I made myself a promise this year that I would not get too high on wins or too low on losses. It's harder when there is so much on the line, but I think I got it done for the most part.
Pardon me for a slight detour here. The thing is I think people understand less about the game than ever before. It translates directly to fantasy football and Madden video games. People literally no longer see the team as a whole. They see parts that in those games you can change in one move. You can manipulate the players and the talents and create outcomes. In the real world that doesn't work. I'm not sure fans will ever get back to the point of truly appreciating the entire team as a living, breathing thing.
I didn't start this thread to discuss the loss of grasp on the game though, so I will leave that for later replies if asked or simply leave it alone. I don't know at this time.
So I logged on last night before I even knew a score. I intended to watch the game before going to sleep. I knew as soon as I logged in that we had lost and probably badly. I had 8 PMs with angry titles. I took a look at the infractions and bans for Vikings trolls and I felt awful. I knew that even though I had alerted the Staff that I would not be around that they had gone through hell. I felt like I didn't pull my fair share of babysitting duty when I saw the fallout. I knew that some posters who had been virtually silent for a month would be back and happy. They were. I knew immediately that I was not going to watch the game last night, so I got up early to do it.
I figured I would be ready for anything this morning when I watched the game. I wasn't.
The first thing that comes to my mind is that we moved the ball well enough to have scored. If you stop and look at the stats it is mind boggling when you see a couple of them. 2 penalties. Both 5 yarders. So stupid penalties did not kill this team. We had 16 first downs. So did the Vikings. We had a slight advantage in Time of Possession. Nothing like the lopsided examples against the Eagles the last 2 weeks. I'd kind of expect that it would be when I see the score. But that wasn't the case. We have got to finish drives with scores.
The Vikings were only 4 of 13 on 3rd down. Favre only threw it 24 times. Peterson didn't kill us. In fact he only averaged 2.4 yards per carry.
The stats look fine until you get to a few of them that stand out and you see the game. The first of course is turnovers. We didn't get any and we gave them 3. We all know that can't happen if you want to win. Not against a good football team and I think you have to say the 13-4 Vikings are a good football team. They were caused by the biggest breakdown of the game.
Point blank, the O-Line was awful. Tony Romo was running for his life. According to the stats line he was hit 10 times. He was sacked 6 times. I don't know how many QB pressures there will be, but it has to be in the 20's easily. It comes as no shock to me when I see that kind of pressure applied that we gave them the ball 3 times. It shouldn't come as a surprise to any Cowboys fan. We witnessed the exact same thing for our Cowboys for the last four straight weeks. Give me the same game and Tony planting his feet with time to throw and I like our chances. The reality is, that just didn't happen.
Both of Romo's fumbles happened with Vikings pressure forcing him to scramble and having nowhere to go. Fumbles are bad enough any time, but when they are deep in your own territory they are worse. The INT is pretty much all on Tony as he lollipopped the ball towards Crayton. But the fumbles are as much the fault of the O-line as they are the QB.
He was given no chance to win this game. Naturally that means it was ignored in last night's witch hunt. No QB can win from their back and very few can win when on the run constantly. The failure yesterday lands squarely at the feet of the Offensive line. When Flozell went down they literally fell apart.
I have never been afraid of giving the other team credit and I am going to do that right now. The better team won yesterday. The Vikings wanted it more. Favre was efficient and Sidney Rice had a career kind of day on the biggest stage of his young career. He made our DBs look really bad on several plays. The Vikings Defense was the difference. Rather than fall apart and waive everyone and fire everyone the Vikings deserve some credit. I'm going to give it to them.
I want to talk about the late score. Was it rubbing it in? In my opinion it was. I can understand why Brooking was angry about it. I can understand why some fans are too. It was 4th and 3 in a 27-3 game with less than 2 minutes left, and they threw it in the endzone. If it had happened with Peterson or Taylor running the ball to kill the clock I might feel differently. If they had simply got the 1st down I might feel differently. If it was 3rd down I might feel differently. Maybe it will motivate the Cowboys next year when we play the Vikings. I wouldn't have done it if I were in Minnesota's shoes, but they did it and we didn't stop them.
So the sun sets on the 2009 season. I can't speak for every fan, but I am satisfied. I never believed this was a Super Bowl team. Even when we were hot and the media darling again I kept thinking it was too good to be true. In fact I woke up yesterday morning and thought we were going to lose. Lost in the river of tears over this beatdown is the fact that the Vikings were unbeaten at home this year. Everyone thought we were getting the team that folded against Arizona and Carolina. Those drubbings didn't happen in the Vikings hood.
People were chiming in about Favre's 0-3 record against Dallas in the post season. All season long I have been saying that previous years don't matter. This was not Favre and the 90's Packers. This was Favre and the 2009 Vikings. They were a stellar team at home. Previous seasons don't matter folks.
I actually created a thread yesterday morning about taking the Vikings too lightly and decided not to post it because I was sure people would think it was bad karma I was introducing. So I deleted it and went to Church. I am glad I didn't post it.
I said I was satisfied and I am. Not with the results yesterday, but with the 2009 season. I wanted to win the NFC East. That was important to me. The Cowboys delivered. I wanted to see a December turn around. That was important to me. They delivered. I wanted to win in the post season again. That was important to me. They delivered. I couldn't be happier that we swept the Eagles in 3 games. I refuse to turn a blind eye to those things while bitter about yesterday.
Winning it all is all that matters, but I didn't expect to win it all. Not this year. Part of that is my irrational superstition about Super Bowls in Miami. Do I think we could have beaten the Vikings? Yes, I do. But the reality is we didn't. Do I think we could have gone back to New Orleans and won again? Yes, I do. Do I think we could have beaten the Colts, or very hot Jets? Yes, I do. But I just didn't see us doing all of that in one run to glory. It was too high a hill to climb. By the way, the Chargers losing was a shock to me. I really felt they were the team to beat. It shows you what a hot team can do.
If it were up to me the coaching staff would all be back. I'm not a Wade fan and I have never hidden that. But he earned an extension. I know a lot of people will deny that while they wave their pitchforks, but he did. This team was amazing defensively down the stretch as some young players got their stripes and I refuse to close my eyes to that after one loss, no matter where it happened.
I'd like to see the O-Line depth improved more than any other thing this off season. They are all up there in age. Even though they have great games together sometimes they also produce some stinkers like yesterday.
I don't know what it will take but Tony and Roy need to get on the same page. It is a mutual thing that both share responsibility for. Tony has to look for Roy and Roy has to get open and make the catch. Not a doubt in my mind they can do it. It makes the team that much better if they get the job done.
I think 2 areas of the Special teams were critical down the stretch and burned us yesterday. I am not satisfied with Kick Returns at all. I think we are jogging instead of running. It happened late in the year almost every game.
I hate Kickers. I have no confidence in ours. I was not excited when we acquired him. As bad as Nick Folk was I wish we had kept him and tried to get him through this. I have more confidence in him as bad as he was. This is our 2nd look at Suisham and I have seen enough. Please don't Draft a Kicker. Just fix it.
As the Cowboys exit stage left and the curtain comes down I want to thank the Cowboys for an enjoyable season. A lot of people will not understand that because of yesterday. The season as a whole was fun for me. Yesterday was not. I can separate the two. It is going to be a long off season again though because a lot of people can't. Video games and fantasy football have assured that.
This decade was difficult. Maybe the worst in team History. For my money it was. The coming decade gives me hope and the 2009 team are a big reason for it. I appreciate the chemistry and the effort that they gave us, yesterday notwithstanding.
50 years are in the book. The end.
