Analyzing the Post November Swoon Syndrome

[Chocolate Lab]

In December, besides losing that unfortunate divisional game, the Pack also beat the hell out of Oakland, St. Louis, and Detroit - with their smallest margin of victory in those games being 21 points. Then - they came out in the playoffs and blew the doors off the Seahawks.

Compare that to the December/January Cowboys. I know which team I think deserves criticism - and it's not the Pack.

You don't see a little difference in strength of schedule there? Not to mention their best (or second best) offensive player didn't get hurt? (Or the fact that they got thoroughly embarrassed playing all their starters vs. the Bears?

Or hey, you know what... Maybe GB is just better than us. That's possible.

 

[superpunk]

You don't see a little difference in strength of schedule there? Not to mention their best (or second best) offensive player didn't get hurt? (Or the fact that they got thoroughly embarrassed playing all their starters vs. the Bears?

Or hey, you know what... Maybe GB is just better than us. That's possible.

We both played Detroit.

I don't think when we played St. Louis that we beat them as badly as Green Bay.

It's not like we were playing juggernauts in December, either. Aside from a couple tough division games, we drew the mighty Lions and BOOC Matt Moore. We had our starters in against everyone, and ended up getting embarrassed pretty badly against Philly and Washington.

It's every damn year, no matter who we play. Green Bay isn't saddled with that. They crushed 4 of the 5 teams they played in December/January.

 

[Chocolate Lab]

We both played Detroit.

I don't think when we played St. Louis that we beat them as badly as Green Bay.

It's not like we were playing juggernauts in December, either. Aside from a couple tough division games, we drew the mighty Lions and BOOC Matt Moore. We had our starters in against everyone, and ended up getting embarrassed pretty badly against Philly and Washington.

It's every damn year, no matter who we play. Green Bay isn't saddled with that. They crushed 4 of the 5 teams they played in December/January.

Yeah, that's the point. They played Oakland and STL while we got Washington and Philly -- two vastly better teams. If we'd played some of the worst teams in the league that had already quit for the year (like bad teams do that time of year) we'd have won, too.

 

[superpunk]

Yeah, that's the point. They played Oakland and STL while we got Washington and Philly -- two vastly better teams. If we'd played some of the worst teams in the league that had already quit for the year (like bad teams do that time of year) we'd have won, too.

We got to play Detroit and Carolina. Did we beat either of them by 21 points? Washington and Philly aren't in our league, talent-wise. Did we score a TD against them? Green Bay deserves no flack for dropping a division game when they shellacked the other 4 teams they played in December/January. The Cowboys deserve all the flack in the world for finishing the season with a 1-3 record, and getting embarrassed by far inferior competition.

 

[Chocolate Lab]

LOL. Okay, man. If you won't see that playing two playoff teams is far, far different than playing bottom of the barrel teams that have already quit (if you remember, Detroit was still in the playoff hunt when we played them -- not at all the case when GB did) then I don't know what to tell you.

BTW, we haven't discussed that Seattle-GB game yet, have we?

 

[superpunk]

LOL. Okay, man. If you won't see that playing two playoff teams is far, far different than playing bottom of the barrel teams that have already quit (if you remember, Detroit was still in the playoff hunt when we played them -- not at all the case when GB did) then I don't know what to tell you.

You play who's in front of you.

We **** the bed - Green Bay didn't. We've got a habit of doing that, Green Bay doesn't. We're sitting at home watching Greg Ellis extract sand from his ****** again, Green Bay isn't.

You tell me which team deserves hardcore criticism. Here I thought all this would be fixed once old man-tits was out of the picture. Fool me twice...shame on me.

BTW, we haven't discussed that Seattle-GB game yet, have we?

I bumped that thread right after the game. You weren't around. I'm ready whenever.

 

[EPL0c0]

You know what? I bash Jerry as much if not more than anybody.
One thing it isn't since 2002 is him.
The man hired exactly what fixed the talent on this team then hired exactly
what that talent said they needed in their coach.
It ain't Jerry.

Sorry 'bout that, I meant to add a "teehee* at the end. I wasn't Jerry bashing. One of the best thing he's done IMO was hiring Calvin Hill. I goes way beyond Jerry. I think a lot is the fact that it is the Dallas Cowboys..."America's Team" and the pressure of putting up w/ the media attention all year. I can see how it can wear guys down mentally. Couple it w/ the physical abuses of a season and it's possibly we see such late season breakdowns.

I'm actually surprised, at least for this season, nobody brought up indoor training camp LOL

 

[Chocolate Lab]

I bumped that thread right after the game. You weren't around. I'm ready whenever.

Naw, I don't live here... It just seems like it.

Forget the bet. No one's in a mood for it anyway.

 

[Dave_in-NC]

I'm sorry, but I just don't think the December swoon is applicable this year.

We had home field locked up relatively early, and that made games meaningless in December.

With this team, no game is meaningless. I don't know how long that is going to take the coaches to figure out but every game has been meaningful for years. This hasn't been a team to turn it on and off.


Were the Pack criticized for being soft when they got killed by the Bears when homefield was theirs for the taking?

We aren't the Pack or the Bears. We are the Dallas Cowboys who can't seem to finish the season on a good note.

Now, I can credit the idea that the players may not be mentally tough enough to handle pressure situations later in the year as opposed to earlier in the year. I can also credit the idea that maybe they start wearing down in the latter part of the year. But, even that doesn't seem to apply this year because some of the games were once again meaningless, and quite a few of our starters were slightly injured and out resting.

Did you watch the second half of Sundays game? We were wore slapout we had the bye week. You can't deny the Giants looked way,way fresher.

 

[SultanOfSix]

Did you watch the second half of Sundays game? We were wore slapout we had the bye week. You can't deny the Giants looked way,way fresher.

Yea, amazing seeing that we were a 2nd half team the whole year. And we should have been even better in the 2nd half after executing a 20+ play, 10.5 minute drive right before the half.

Sorry, but the whole "collapse" was just fishy to me.

 

[InmanRoshi]

The Packers lost one anomaly weather game where they gave up multiple TD's from their punting unit trying to kick in the face of 50+ mile an hour winds giving up one bad snap, two punts blocked and another shank off the shin. The rest of their games they utterly destroyed their opponents in December, and carried it into the playoffs where they spotted the Seahawks 14 points out the gate and still destroyed them by 3 TDs. It wasn't just "one bad game" for the Cowboys, it was a trend. It was only by miracle that we went 2-2 in December. We barely squeeked out wins in Detroit and Carolina when we put the ball on the ground five times and only failed to recover once. We were winning those games only because we were getting all the bounces. Eventually those lucky bounces were going to stop going our way, and sure enough they did. The two losses were horrible, horrible, horrible showings.

If 4 offense TD's in their last 16 quarters, for a team that was on pace to become one of the top 5 offensive scoring teams in NFL history and break every team record up till that point, doesn't qualify as a collapse you have a pretty loose definition of collapse. That averages out to 1 TD per game. That's Joey Harrington/Atlanta Falcons territory. In my mind, considering where they started at the end of November to where they ended up at the end on Sunday, it's a collapse every bit as big as the defensive collapse of 2006 if not larger.

 

[khiladi]

All I'm saying is that 2007 was when Jerry instituted the good-guy only policy.

 

[SultanOfSix]

If 4 offense TD's in your last 16 quarters, for a team that was on pace to become one of the top 5 offensive scoring teams in NFL history up till that point, doesn't qualify as a collapse you have a pretty loose definition of collapse. That averages out to 1 TD per game, for a team that broke almost every passing record in team history. In my mind, considering where they started in December to where they ended up at the end, it's a collapse every bit as big as the defensive collapse of 2006.

Did I say it wasn't a collapse?

I just don't buy this all of a sudden Garrett forgot how to coach, someone exposed him, players forgot how to play, Decemeber jinx, and all of this other nonsense.

But I tend to be a conspiracy oriented guy, so take what you want from it.

 

[Dave_in-NC]

The Packers lost one anomaly weather game where they gave up multiple TD's from their punting unit trying to kick in the face of 50+ mile an hour winds giving up one bad snap, two punts blocked and another shank off the shin. The rest of their games they utterly destroyed their opponents in December, and carried it into the playoffs where they spotted the Seahawks 14 points out the gate and still destroyed them by 3 TDs. It wasn't just "one bad game" for the Cowboys, it was a trend. It was only by miracle that we went 2-2 in December. We barely squeeked out wins in Detroit and Carolina when we put the ball on the ground five times and only failed to recover once. We were winning those games only because we were getting all the bounces. Eventually those lucky bounces were going to stop going our way, and sure enough they did. The two losses were horrible, horrible, horrible showings.

If 4 offense TD's in their last 16 quarters, for a team that was on pace to become one of the top 5 offensive scoring teams in NFL history and break every team record up till that point, doesn't qualify as a collapse you have a pretty loose definition of collapse. That averages out to 1 TD per game. That's Joey Harrington/Atlanta Falcons territory. In my mind, considering where they started at the end of November to where they ended up at the end on Sunday, it's a collapse every bit as big as the defensive collapse of 2006 if not larger.

I didn't see the Packers game, but after all that and they found a way to win.
That's amazing.

 

[Nors]

The Packers lost one anomaly weather game where they gave up multiple TD's from their punting unit trying to kick in the face of 50+ mile an hour winds giving up one bad snap, two punts blocked and another shank off the shin. The rest of their games they utterly destroyed their opponents in December, and carried it into the playoffs where they spotted the Seahawks 14 points out the gate and still destroyed them by 3 TDs. It wasn't just "one bad game" for the Cowboys, it was a trend. It was only by miracle that we went 2-2 in December. We barely squeeked out wins in Detroit and Carolina when we put the ball on the ground five times and only failed to recover once. We were winning those games only because we were getting all the bounces. Eventually those lucky bounces were going to stop going our way, and sure enough they did. The two losses were horrible, horrible, horrible showings.

If 4 offense TD's in their last 16 quarters, for a team that was on pace to become one of the top 5 offensive scoring teams in NFL history and break every team record up till that point, doesn't qualify as a collapse you have a pretty loose definition of collapse. That averages out to 1 TD per game. That's Joey Harrington/Atlanta Falcons territory. In my mind, considering where they started at the end of November to where they ended up at the end on Sunday, it's a collapse every bit as big as the defensive collapse of 2006 if not larger.

Lets not forget the great collapse of 2005. That was a kick in the nuts collapse.

 

[InmanRoshi]

I didn't see the Packers game, but after all that and they found a way to win.
That's amazing.

Yeah, they pretty much spotted the Seahawks 14 points right out of the gate and not only did they regroup, rally and find a way to win they pretty much had it wrapped up by half time.

We go into halftime tied, hold the opponent to 56 yards in the 2nd half and still somehow find a way to lose.

And they're younger than we are and most of their guys have never been in a playoff game before. We were in one last year. So there goes that whole youth and inexperience excuse.

 

[Yakuza Rich]

this year it was all about post-GB

that game was our Superbowl.

the team started eating the cheese then and, as you all know, cheese isn't good for your heart

I think injuries and a non-important Washington game had more to do with it.





YAKUZA

 

[Boysboy]

I think injuries and a non-important Washington game had more to do with it.





YAKUZA

Sorry-but I don't buy all this "They ate the cheese too early" bit.

Yeah-these guys are human, and with 24/7 cable, floods of publications, and the internet, when things are going WELL, it's EASY to bite into your own press.

However-it would usually last ONE game(assuming that's the game you stink it up in), NOT an entire month + the playoffs. And besides, I would have thought after that anomaly Eagles game, this WOULD have been their wakeup call.

Anyhow-no, I don't, and can't buy this "they got complacent" excuse.

 

[utrunner07]

oh wow, i had no idea....