An interesting test for Garrett looming

[tyke1doe]

Play em until week 17. Keep them focused. Hopefully we have some padded practices left for the BYE week we should get.

I would let them play up until the second half of Week 17. Then I would rest the starters and everyone who had any knicks and bruises.

 

[Clove]

Everyone with major injuries, just heal up. The rest, play as if you're 0-14, 0-15. We need all hands on deck in the playoffs, and we need this team playing in full on attack mode. I'd dial back the carries on Zeke just a tad, somewhere around 16 to 17 carries a game. I'd pull Dak out of blow out type games and let Romo play. I would play my guys to keep them sharp but I'd be smart about it. We just need to be hitting on all cylinders.

 

[MRV52]

Play along for a second. Let's say:

• The Cowboys beat the Vikings and Giants
• The Steelers beat the Giants this week
• The Seahawks, Lions, and Falcons all lose a game in the next two weeks.

That could all happen. In fact, I think it will. That creates a very precarious position for Dallas the remainder of the way.

Essentially, that wraps up everything, leaving a full month before Dallas plays another game of significance. It also means the Cowboys would only travel once in six weeks the rest of the way until the Super Bowl, should they make it.

Games against Tampa, Detroit, and Philadelphia, followed by a bye in the playoffs. That's four weeks of nothing but a few full-contact scrimmages essentially. Time to heal is awesome, but a month is too long. Don't want to forget your football.

How should Garrett handle this?

Push hard all the way to the Super bowl, then let the team slack off in the pre-season.

 

[phildadon86]

I would let them play up until the second half of Week 17. Then I would rest the starters and everyone who had any knicks and bruises.

Sorry that's what i meant by week 17. Had a customer come into the store couldn't fix it.

 

[jrumann59]

All starters play at least a half. Get romo ready at least get him snaps to knock off rust.

 

[JD_KaPow]

I've seen a lot of theories and no good evidence about whether clinching early and resting everyone helps or hurts. I doubt it matters very much.

 

[65fastback2plus2]

If we were all soooo worried about chemistry that we didnt sit dak to start tony, then the SAME chemistry states you must play every play like it counts. You start all the starters and you play them the entire game.

 

[Bleu Star]

With a young team, I think you have to keep playing as if they do matter.

Exactly. You have to instill within their minds that every game is an important building block to hoisting that Lombardi.

 

[BrAinPaiNt]

Easy.

He would take each day as an independent day of the others and start stacking together with other independent days until we have a collection of independent days that will no longer be independent days but a combination of days a pile of days if you will.

By doing this you make sure that each day is as important as the other days by giving each their due attention.

I don't think you can take some days as less important and try to stack them with the more important days as this would cause a lack of symmetry and stability among the days and if I know anything about Jason "the mad Ginger" Garrett is that I don't think his coaching OCD would allow for a lack of stability and symmetry among stacked days as they would look too disorganized in a pile.

But...that is just one man's opinion.

 

[erod]

So, the resounding opinion is that you still play....

Sean Lee
Jason Witten
Dez Bryant
Orlando Scandrick
Tyron Smith
Tyrone Crawford
Terrell McClain
Barry Church
Doug Free
Justin Durant
Demarcus Lawrence

....and just hope none of them don't get hurt in THREE games?

 

[WoodysGirl]

 

[TellerMorrow34]

Play along for a second. Let's say:

• The Cowboys beat the Vikings and Giants
• The Steelers beat the Giants this week
• The Seahawks, Lions, and Falcons all lose a game in the next two weeks.

That could all happen. In fact, I think it will. That creates a very precarious position for Dallas the remainder of the way.

Essentially, that wraps up everything, leaving a full month before Dallas plays another game of significance. It also means the Cowboys would only travel once in six weeks the rest of the way until the Super Bowl, should they make it.

Games against Tampa, Detroit, and Philadelphia, followed by a bye in the playoffs. That's four weeks of nothing but a few full-contact scrimmages essentially. Time to heal is awesome, but a month is too long. Don't want to forget your football.

How should Garrett handle this?

Should this all play out like this then I think you play every single week still as if you have to win it.

My reason for this being that I saw the Colts wrapping things up a couple of times, way to early, and they didn't play as much down the stretch of the last couple of games and it hurt them in the playoffs.

You have to just keep grinding, IMO.

 

[aikemirv]

Even if we lock everything up, I still want Dak and Zeke out there playing.

Yep, Zeke gets at least 15 carries a game.

Dak, honestly, needs to see everything he can possibly see because the playoffs just get tougher!

 

[TellerMorrow34]

So, the resounding opinion is that you still play....

Sean Lee
Jason Witten
Dez Bryant
Orlando Scandrick
Tyron Smith
Tyrone Crawford
Terrell McClain
Barry Church
Doug Free
Justin Durant
Demarcus Lawrence

....and just hope none of them don't get hurt in THREE games?

Yes.

You can't, and shouldn't, go into games trying to figure out ways to not get injured. Those things happen. They suck but they're part of the game. The team needs to stay sharp. Taking long periods of time off will not help them win in the post season.

 

[Kevinicus]

Play along for a second. Let's say:

• The Cowboys beat the Vikings and Giants
• The Steelers beat the Giants this week
• The Seahawks, Lions, and Falcons all lose a game in the next two weeks.

That could all happen. In fact, I think it will. That creates a very precarious position for Dallas the remainder of the way.

Essentially, that wraps up everything, leaving a full month before Dallas plays another game of significance. It also means the Cowboys would only travel once in six weeks the rest of the way until the Super Bowl, should they make it.

Games against Tampa, Detroit, and Philadelphia, followed by a bye in the playoffs. That's four weeks of nothing but a few full-contact scrimmages essentially. Time to heal is awesome, but a month is too long. Don't want to forget your football.

How should Garrett handle this?

The Steelers/Giants game isn't even necessary for this.

 

[LandryFan]

IMO, you push it all the way until week 17 and then you still play your starters but maybe a guy like Zeke only gets 10 touches instead of 20.


Also, I would sit Scandrick and get him healed up and get Leon McFadden some game experience.

Maybe you let D. Lawrence rest up as well.


We play the Eagles week 17 I believe and they will be out of the wildcard picture.. Letting the Eagles win is actually a good thing because it hurts their draft position.

It'll hurt their draft position in every round except the first round...they traded that pick away for Wentz. I hope for a Minnesota loss Thursday night, then for them to win out. That'll hurt Philly since Philly has their first round pick.

 

[cowboys1981]

You keep playing so you don't lose the tempo. Rest the starters in the second half of the Eagles game and let Sanchez get killed. He's on the roster to get killed that day.

Let Church heal
Let Crawford rest his shoulders

 

[TellerMorrow34]

Well we see more of Morris. And we also let the best backup QB in football take some snaps to get sharp just in case.

No reason to do something stupid for the sake of 'staying sharp'.

Just watch snaps, thats it, especially at the end.

These are the two things I could see happening in this situation if it were to play out as he laid it out. We could see them ease up on the use of Zeke (Of course that will likely also depend on how close he is to the record, if he is at all) and we might actually see a little bit of Romo out there just to knock some rust off.

 

[BrAinPaiNt]

I wonder if we get a bye week if the believes in Wade's belief that it is considered a playoff win.

 

[CATCH17]

You keep playing so you don't lose the tempo. Rest the starters in the second half of the Eagles game and let Sanchez get killed. He's on the roster to get killed that day.

Let Church heal
Let Crawford rest his shoulders

We're not really about tempo and rhythm.

We're about lining up and imposing our will. What would help that more than rest?