Bluestang
Well-Known Member
- Messages
- 6,161
- Reaction score
- 1,583
Maybe the mods can sticky this but here's all my notes from each episode...
1. https://cowboyszone.com/threads/all-or-nothing-episode-1-notes.402111/
2. https://cowboyszone.com/threads/all-or-nothing-episode-2-notes.402144/
3. https://cowboyszone.com/threads/all-or-nothing-episode-3-notes.402299/
4. https://cowboyszone.com/threads/all-or-nothing-episode-4-notes.402396/
5. https://cowboyszone.com/threads/all-or-nothing-episode-5-notes.402413/
6. https://cowboyszone.com/threads/all-or-nothing-episode-6-notes.402461/
7. https://cowboyszone.com/threads/all-or-nothing-episode-7-notes.402621/
8. https://cowboyszone.com/threads/all-or-nothing-episode-8-notes.402644/
I created separate threads for each episode as a way to write down notes of what I saw of during the episodes. Many of the threads got lost because I did most of it during the draft weekend. I took notes because particular things stood out to me or I was paying attention to something specific.
Overall the series was well done and there was a lot of story lines that were part of the 2017 Dallas Cowboys that the Amazon folks followed throughout the season:
1. Zeke suspension drama
2. The Anthem drama
3. Sean Lee, Tyron Smith, and Dan Bailey injuries
4. Dak/Dez chemistry
5. And the most obvious, the ups and downs of the 2017 season
6. Jon Jones and the Jones family integrated in all aspects of football
On to my combined notes:
1. Zeke suspension drama: JJ makes excuses about Zeke and the entire staff coddles him when Zeke is going in and out of through the courts. Zeke is late to meetings, sleeping during meetings (a lot of players do this because it obvious throughout the series), out of shape, getting criticism from all over, and is being thrown into game plans last minute as the injunctions are being granted. Zeke was a complete disaster for the first month of the season. What's alarming is that the staff didn't have a real plan for his absence and just threw him in when available. They would have been better off if they would have just had Zeke serve his suspension instead of the constant back and forth with the injunctions. Rod Smith didn't find his groove until Zeke was close to returning and a lot of us fans were pounding the table for him to start in the first place.
2. The Anthem drama: This had an affect with the players. JG sensing the inmates were about to riot addresses the staff and JJ makes the team do the kneel down before the National Anthem in the ARZ game. The staff didn't care about the National Anthem stuff and wanted to focus on football but JG who also agreed that he didn't care about the issue but then tells the staff that they needed to rein the players in. I thought Amazon should have made this a bigger story line but I think they were told to go in a different direction. The whole story line just didn't have the same editing focus as the rest of the series.
3. Sean Lee, Tyron Smith, and Dan Bailey injuries: Sean Lee's 2 game absence doomed us for the LAR and GB games. He re-injures his hammy in the ATL game and then misses 3 more - the PHI, LAC, and WAS game. In those 6 games we went 1-5. Tyron Smith misses the ATL and PHI game and we lost those too. Dan Bailey is out for 6 games starting the SF game and we go 3-3. Also keep in mind that we didn't have Zeke starting the ATL game, which coincides with all 3 of those player's absences. 4 star players out because of suspension or injury. Zeke and Bailey had combined for 79 points up until Zeke was suspended and Bailey hurt his groin. Tyron gave up 3 sacks the entire season, Chaz Green beat that record in one game. Dan Bailey was never the same when he came back. The point to all this is that we had an injury plagued year. Maybe not long term injuries but star players missed critical games that contributed to our loss record.
4. Dak/Dez chemistry: For me this was a specific thing I honed in on. At the start of the year, in the team meeting scenes Dak was in between Dez and Beasley. Leading into the first WAS game (Week 8), that seating arrangement changed and Dez migrated to another seat. It would be like this for the rest of the season. The series didn't go into the why but they did focus on the chemistry issues the two were having. The KC game when Romo was the broadcast announcer Dez shares with the CBS crew that Romo and him would practice the fade route until Dez was so tired of it he would ask to work on something else. Dak and Dez didn't quite get that chemistry right but the Amazon crew didn't delve into the why on this either. My assumption is that Dak just didn't have that trust relationship with Dez on the 50/50 ball. In one scene Linehan encourages Dak to throw Dez the ball on those 1v1 situations in a team meeting leading up to the 2nd WAS game. You see some flashes of that but we all know the result it just wasn't the same as the Romo/Dez connection. The offense as a whole did not score a passing TD after Week 9 - KC and until Week 13 - WAS. Think about that lovely stat for awhile. During the staff meeting after the LAC loss, Wade Wilson tells the staff it was the first time he's seen Dak Prescott lose confidence in the offense. That's a pretty damning statement to say. Dez is pretty animated on the sideline but all is not what it seems. The first WAS game, Dez is holding up 2 fingers in reference to the Cover 1 defense WAS played 2 times in a row and stuck a 3rd stringer on Dez for those plays. Dez tied the all time franchise TD record in the Week 7 SF game, but would never break the record until the second WAS game - Week 13...remember that the offense went on a dry spell for passing TDs from Week 9 - Week 13. Also keep in mind Zeke started his suspension Week 10 and Tyron Smith missed Week 10, 11, and was gimpy in Week 12. Anyone could tell that Dooley had no idea how to coach Dez. He just would let Dez voice his opinion and that was that. I put this on JG because Dooley was his guy and Dooley failed Bryant. Want to see a good coach? Look at Gary Brown and how he connects on a personal level with his players. Good coaching is mixture of growing the player professionally and personally. After all these are young men coming into the NFL.
5. And the most obvious, the ups and downs of the 2017 season: the series paints a good picture of what happened throughout the season. The Cowboys didn't do a good job of blocking out the noise and maybe that's because there was a lot going on. Injuries, suspensions, issues on offense/defense all to our star players. Some of those games were painful but in light of everything going on I gained a better perspective of what some of the factors were.
6. Jon Jones and the Jones family integrated in all aspects of football: Jon Jones is lucky SOB, but the surreal moment he shared with his dad after winning the State Championship was awesome to see. However, the bad parts are how JJ constantly is making excuses for the team during losses. He's the first one to speak and he blathers on about oh we are so luck to be here crap. One of his quotes "we are lucky, lucky ****ers to go out and do this again". JJ coddles his coaches too, in the beginning during the Zeke suspension drama the way he tells Garrett and the staff to handle Zeke is non-direct and he starts out by not wanting to make excuses for the player but than proceeds to anyways. Now I understand why it was said Bill Parcells kept JJ out of the locker room.
Last Tidbits:
1. Jason Witten is shown 2 times yelling at a staff member on the sideline, once in the GB game and the other in the SEA game. My thing about all this is Dez got the bad rep for it, and its been debunked as far as what was actually being said. However we also saw Scandrick say something directly to JG's face when we were getting blown out in the ATL game. And now you have Witten doing the same thing. It's OK to be mad, but why is Dez the bad guy when he does it but Witten and Scandrick aren't being held to the same standard?
- During the GB game Witten yells to a staff member "tells those ****ers on 3rd down to get their head out of their ***" referring to the defense.
- 2nd half SEA game after the Dak Pick-6. Witten is shown yelling at a coach saying "It's a bad matchup! You know why he's mad...on his back[Prescott]...because we can't get open!"
2. JG used Bill Parcell's HoF speech about Emlen Tunnell's plaque in the NYG locker room in the final team meeting.
3. The result of Dak running read option was a swollen hand that he had trouble with during practice. No thank you to changing this offense to any read option plays.
4. The look on Joe Baker's clueless face when Sean Lee tells him it's impossible for him to be in 2 different spots on a read is priceless. Sean Lee is a walking coach and I understand why the defense struggles the way they do when he's out.
5. Dez is the creator of the Navy Blue jersey and Color Rush White pants uniform combination.
6. Best for last...The OL group nicknamed Tyron Smith...Deebo. From here on out we shall refer to him as such.
Final words - it was a great series overall. I'd recommend it to any fan wanting to get a good glimpse of what happens at the Star, on the player's day off, and during the game. Again these notes were my own observations of the series and were things that stood out to me. Thanks for reading this very long post.
Go Cowboys!
1. https://cowboyszone.com/threads/all-or-nothing-episode-1-notes.402111/
2. https://cowboyszone.com/threads/all-or-nothing-episode-2-notes.402144/
3. https://cowboyszone.com/threads/all-or-nothing-episode-3-notes.402299/
4. https://cowboyszone.com/threads/all-or-nothing-episode-4-notes.402396/
5. https://cowboyszone.com/threads/all-or-nothing-episode-5-notes.402413/
6. https://cowboyszone.com/threads/all-or-nothing-episode-6-notes.402461/
7. https://cowboyszone.com/threads/all-or-nothing-episode-7-notes.402621/
8. https://cowboyszone.com/threads/all-or-nothing-episode-8-notes.402644/
I created separate threads for each episode as a way to write down notes of what I saw of during the episodes. Many of the threads got lost because I did most of it during the draft weekend. I took notes because particular things stood out to me or I was paying attention to something specific.
Overall the series was well done and there was a lot of story lines that were part of the 2017 Dallas Cowboys that the Amazon folks followed throughout the season:
1. Zeke suspension drama
2. The Anthem drama
3. Sean Lee, Tyron Smith, and Dan Bailey injuries
4. Dak/Dez chemistry
5. And the most obvious, the ups and downs of the 2017 season
6. Jon Jones and the Jones family integrated in all aspects of football
On to my combined notes:
1. Zeke suspension drama: JJ makes excuses about Zeke and the entire staff coddles him when Zeke is going in and out of through the courts. Zeke is late to meetings, sleeping during meetings (a lot of players do this because it obvious throughout the series), out of shape, getting criticism from all over, and is being thrown into game plans last minute as the injunctions are being granted. Zeke was a complete disaster for the first month of the season. What's alarming is that the staff didn't have a real plan for his absence and just threw him in when available. They would have been better off if they would have just had Zeke serve his suspension instead of the constant back and forth with the injunctions. Rod Smith didn't find his groove until Zeke was close to returning and a lot of us fans were pounding the table for him to start in the first place.
2. The Anthem drama: This had an affect with the players. JG sensing the inmates were about to riot addresses the staff and JJ makes the team do the kneel down before the National Anthem in the ARZ game. The staff didn't care about the National Anthem stuff and wanted to focus on football but JG who also agreed that he didn't care about the issue but then tells the staff that they needed to rein the players in. I thought Amazon should have made this a bigger story line but I think they were told to go in a different direction. The whole story line just didn't have the same editing focus as the rest of the series.
3. Sean Lee, Tyron Smith, and Dan Bailey injuries: Sean Lee's 2 game absence doomed us for the LAR and GB games. He re-injures his hammy in the ATL game and then misses 3 more - the PHI, LAC, and WAS game. In those 6 games we went 1-5. Tyron Smith misses the ATL and PHI game and we lost those too. Dan Bailey is out for 6 games starting the SF game and we go 3-3. Also keep in mind that we didn't have Zeke starting the ATL game, which coincides with all 3 of those player's absences. 4 star players out because of suspension or injury. Zeke and Bailey had combined for 79 points up until Zeke was suspended and Bailey hurt his groin. Tyron gave up 3 sacks the entire season, Chaz Green beat that record in one game. Dan Bailey was never the same when he came back. The point to all this is that we had an injury plagued year. Maybe not long term injuries but star players missed critical games that contributed to our loss record.
4. Dak/Dez chemistry: For me this was a specific thing I honed in on. At the start of the year, in the team meeting scenes Dak was in between Dez and Beasley. Leading into the first WAS game (Week 8), that seating arrangement changed and Dez migrated to another seat. It would be like this for the rest of the season. The series didn't go into the why but they did focus on the chemistry issues the two were having. The KC game when Romo was the broadcast announcer Dez shares with the CBS crew that Romo and him would practice the fade route until Dez was so tired of it he would ask to work on something else. Dak and Dez didn't quite get that chemistry right but the Amazon crew didn't delve into the why on this either. My assumption is that Dak just didn't have that trust relationship with Dez on the 50/50 ball. In one scene Linehan encourages Dak to throw Dez the ball on those 1v1 situations in a team meeting leading up to the 2nd WAS game. You see some flashes of that but we all know the result it just wasn't the same as the Romo/Dez connection. The offense as a whole did not score a passing TD after Week 9 - KC and until Week 13 - WAS. Think about that lovely stat for awhile. During the staff meeting after the LAC loss, Wade Wilson tells the staff it was the first time he's seen Dak Prescott lose confidence in the offense. That's a pretty damning statement to say. Dez is pretty animated on the sideline but all is not what it seems. The first WAS game, Dez is holding up 2 fingers in reference to the Cover 1 defense WAS played 2 times in a row and stuck a 3rd stringer on Dez for those plays. Dez tied the all time franchise TD record in the Week 7 SF game, but would never break the record until the second WAS game - Week 13...remember that the offense went on a dry spell for passing TDs from Week 9 - Week 13. Also keep in mind Zeke started his suspension Week 10 and Tyron Smith missed Week 10, 11, and was gimpy in Week 12. Anyone could tell that Dooley had no idea how to coach Dez. He just would let Dez voice his opinion and that was that. I put this on JG because Dooley was his guy and Dooley failed Bryant. Want to see a good coach? Look at Gary Brown and how he connects on a personal level with his players. Good coaching is mixture of growing the player professionally and personally. After all these are young men coming into the NFL.
5. And the most obvious, the ups and downs of the 2017 season: the series paints a good picture of what happened throughout the season. The Cowboys didn't do a good job of blocking out the noise and maybe that's because there was a lot going on. Injuries, suspensions, issues on offense/defense all to our star players. Some of those games were painful but in light of everything going on I gained a better perspective of what some of the factors were.
6. Jon Jones and the Jones family integrated in all aspects of football: Jon Jones is lucky SOB, but the surreal moment he shared with his dad after winning the State Championship was awesome to see. However, the bad parts are how JJ constantly is making excuses for the team during losses. He's the first one to speak and he blathers on about oh we are so luck to be here crap. One of his quotes "we are lucky, lucky ****ers to go out and do this again". JJ coddles his coaches too, in the beginning during the Zeke suspension drama the way he tells Garrett and the staff to handle Zeke is non-direct and he starts out by not wanting to make excuses for the player but than proceeds to anyways. Now I understand why it was said Bill Parcells kept JJ out of the locker room.
Last Tidbits:
1. Jason Witten is shown 2 times yelling at a staff member on the sideline, once in the GB game and the other in the SEA game. My thing about all this is Dez got the bad rep for it, and its been debunked as far as what was actually being said. However we also saw Scandrick say something directly to JG's face when we were getting blown out in the ATL game. And now you have Witten doing the same thing. It's OK to be mad, but why is Dez the bad guy when he does it but Witten and Scandrick aren't being held to the same standard?
- During the GB game Witten yells to a staff member "tells those ****ers on 3rd down to get their head out of their ***" referring to the defense.
- 2nd half SEA game after the Dak Pick-6. Witten is shown yelling at a coach saying "It's a bad matchup! You know why he's mad...on his back[Prescott]...because we can't get open!"
2. JG used Bill Parcell's HoF speech about Emlen Tunnell's plaque in the NYG locker room in the final team meeting.
3. The result of Dak running read option was a swollen hand that he had trouble with during practice. No thank you to changing this offense to any read option plays.
4. The look on Joe Baker's clueless face when Sean Lee tells him it's impossible for him to be in 2 different spots on a read is priceless. Sean Lee is a walking coach and I understand why the defense struggles the way they do when he's out.
5. Dez is the creator of the Navy Blue jersey and Color Rush White pants uniform combination.
6. Best for last...The OL group nicknamed Tyron Smith...Deebo. From here on out we shall refer to him as such.
Final words - it was a great series overall. I'd recommend it to any fan wanting to get a good glimpse of what happens at the Star, on the player's day off, and during the game. Again these notes were my own observations of the series and were things that stood out to me. Thanks for reading this very long post.
Go Cowboys!
Last edited:
