Are the Cowboys soft?

[Mansta54]

I see some simularities between the Mavericks and Cowboys, they both are soft! I have not seen a mean streak attitude on the Cowboys for awhile and this really bothers me. Just sayin...........

Guess you haven't watch Columbo, Biggs, or MB3 play.. There's NOTHING soft about the Boyz.. Don't know what you're watching son but it isn't the Cowboys...

 

[VACowboy]

By my recollection, the Cowboys hadn't manhandled anyone last year at this time. Their special teams play was far better against Indy than SD; however, the Cowboys starters only managed a draw against the Colts starters while completely dominating the Chargers' starters.

The score versus the Chargers starters was 7-7, regardless. The final was 31-17 as opposed to 23-10. Our vaunted "depth" got whipped this year, unlike '07.

According to an article from yesterday, the Broncos out-executed the Cowboys in practice last season.

That's directly contrary to my recollection. From what I remember, we smacked them around in practice and then smacked them aroound in preseason game #2 so badly that all you read coming out of Denver was how Wade gameplanned everything and Shanahan didn't.

In fact, I can only recall one instance during recent history in which Dallas was manhandled in the preseason: last year against the Texans.

Is this in response to something I wrote?

 

[LittleBoyBlue]

:clap2:

Bravo, Cobra. Great posting in this thread.

:

If we go winless in postseason again... well ya know...

 

[ABQCOWBOY]

I don't think it's a question of being physically soft as much as it is a question of mental toughness. Nobody likes to lose. There is no question about this. The issue is, how bad do you want to win. People forget that we are a fairly young team and because of this, we gotta go through the things that all good teams go through. We gotta take some arse kick'ens along the way before we learn how to win. I look back on the Giants game and I see just how close we were. We held the Champs to 230 total yards. We ran all over them. We did to them what nobody else, even the Pats, could do. To me, this is why Roger Staubach is the greatest player in the history of our franchise. He would not accept losing. Sure, he lost some games. Big games even but he was so mentally tough that even when it looked as if there was no hope at all, he could bring you back and win games. That is what we have to learn how to do, IMO. We were better then NY last year, IMO. We lost that game mentally. It's a learning process. One I hope we get past this season.

 

[Doomsday101]

This is the biggest flaw of them all. The Giants are extremely talented, make no mistake about it. It wasn't hunger that got them through, it was an abundance of talent.

You should feel good about that, we beat them 2 out of 3 times and were just a few plays away from beating them again.

Giants avoided making stupid mistakes like penalties. Dallas has 12 penalties in that game and did the same vs the Pats and not often will you win games when you are doing thing to hurt yourself against quality opponents.

 

[VACowboy]

I don't think it's a question of being physically soft as much as it is a question of mental toughness. Nobody likes to lose. There is no question about this. The issue is, how bad do you want to win. People forget that we are a fairly young team and because of this, we gotta go through the things that all good teams go through. We gotta take some arse kick'ens along the way before we learn how to win. I look back on the Giants game and I see just how close we were. We held the Champs to 230 total yards. We ran all over them. We did to them what nobody else, even the Pats, could do. To me, this is why Roger Staubach is the greatest player in the history of our franchise. He would not accept losing. Sure, he lost some games. Big games even but he was so mentally tough that even when it looked as if there was no hope at all, he could bring you back and win games. That is what we have to learn how to do, IMO. We were better then NY last year, IMO. We lost that game mentally. It's a learning process. One I hope we get past this season.

Well-said.

 

[joseephuss]

I don't think there is anything soft about having a 9 play, 96 yard, 4:57 long TD drive and a 20 play, 90 yard, 10:28 long TD drive in the same playoff game. That and having 154 rushing yards in that same playoff game. Those are not things that soft teams do.

Dallas is not soft. They have some issues that they obviously needed to correct from last season. Hopefully they have.

 

[ScipioCowboy]

The score versus the Chargers starters was 7-7, regardless. The final was 31-17 as opposed to 23-10. Our vaunted "depth" got whipped this year, unlike '07.

When Romo and the bulk of the key starters and skill players were pulled, the score was 7-0 Dallas. Rivers remained in the game well after Dallas started substituting second teamers on defense and offense. And the 14 point deficit was the not the product of being physically whipped; it was the result of two special team blunders and two pass interference penalties. For the game, SD gained a paltry 213 yards of offense--hardly indicative of a physical whipping.

That's directly contrary to my recollection. From what I remember, we smacked them around in practice and then smacked them aroound in preseason game #2 so badly that all you read coming out of Denver was how Wade gameplanned everything and Shanahan didn't.

You're referring to last year's second preseason game--a point that we have to reach this year.

This year's practice reports against Denver vary widely depending on the source.

Is this in response to something I wrote?

Does it have to be?

 

[ABQcowboyJR]

lol I don't think our team is actually that soft. It would help if we can get an old hitting roy back though. That would give us just another fearful presence on the field. We just need to stay mean and hungry come post season.

 

[AtlCB]

The score versus the Chargers starters was 7-7, regardless. The final was 31-17 as opposed to 23-10. Our vaunted "depth" got whipped this year, unlike '07.

The Chargers took three drives, one turnover on ST, and a bad PI call in order for their offense to score a TD. Dallas scored easily on their first drive. The Charger's first teamers got whipped no matter how you look at it.

 

[VACowboy]

When Romo and the bulk of the key starters and skill players were pulled, the score was 7-0 Dallas. Rivers remained in the game well after Dallas started substituting second teamers on defense and offense. And the 14 point deficit was the not the product of being physically whipped; it was the result of two special team blunders and two pass interference penalties. For the game, SD gained a paltry 213 yards of offense--hardly indicative of a physical whipping.

San Diego never had its "first-team" offense on the field. Its two best players never saw a snap. Does that not count in the "first-team," "second-team," "whatever-team" comparison? Do we also disregard special teams and penalties when judging the outcomes of games? In my book, the only place a whipping counts is on the scoreboard and our reserve players got trounced 24-10.

You're referring to last year's second preseason game--a point that we have to reach this year.

No, my post refers to both practice and the second preseason game.

This year's practice reports against Denver vary widely depending on the source.

I guess that's up for interpretation.

Does it have to be?

Not at all. It's your post. Say whatever you want. I only asked if your last sentence referred to something I'd written because because the rest of your post did.

 

[cobra]

We lost that game mentally.

I would love to dispute this, but seeing as how it is an inherently unproveable claim, neither of us could argue our case.

The fact is that we played well and we lost to a team that--at the time--was playing better than anyone in the league including the 18-0 Patriots. I fail to see why our fans want to ignore that and instead suggest that we failed because of a problem with us. They had an aggressive defensive scheme and a QB that was playing out of his mind. IT HAPPENS. That we lost does not require the conclusion that our players "didn't want to win" (or "weren't hungry"--a phrase which is a load of BS and is some STUPID sports cliche that people abuse despite the fact it is baseless, un-quantifiable, and nothing more than a pretextual term to applaud people).

I keep seeing the suggestion that our players do not want to win. How in the heck do you reach that conclusion? The players were devastated after the loss and worked in the off-season. Did they not want to win when they fought back in Buffalo to a last second victory? Of course not. The guys wanted to win.

Again, I come back to the point that this is all a bunch of hooey based on unreasonable and fictionalized fans' expectations.

These guys have the talent to want to win and the fight to do so. There are far more reasons to be excited about this team. We improved talent wise over the off-season.

Again: if you can't be excited about this team's chances, what do you require in order to be confident and hopeful about the team's chances? (Once we answer that, we will prove my conclusion about unreasonable expectations).

Hell, the Skins fans are all confident they are going to win the Super Bowl and they have far more reasons to be concerned. Our fans have as good as reason as anyone to be hopeful and our fans are manufacturing concerns to worry about.

It's amazing how soon you forget 5-11. ENJOY THIS!

 

[bigE79]

No but some of the fans are

 

[ABQcowboyJR]

I would love to dispute this, but seeing as how it is an inherently unproveable claim, neither of us could argue our case.

The fact is that we played well and we lost to a team that--at the time--was playing better than anyone in the league including the 18-0 Patriots. I fail to see why our fans want to ignore that and instead suggest that we failed because of a problem with us. They had an aggressive defensive scheme and a QB that was playing out of his mind. IT HAPPENS. That we lost does not require the conclusion that our players "didn't want to win" (or "weren't hungry"--a phrase which is a load of BS and is some STUPID sports cliche that people abuse despite the fact it is baseless, un-quantifiable, and nothing more than a pretextual term to applaud people).

I keep seeing the suggestion that our players do not want to win. How in the heck do you reach that conclusion? The players were devastated after the loss and worked in the off-season. Did they not want to win when they fought back in Buffalo to a last second victory? Of course not. The guys wanted to win.

Again, I come back to the point that this is all a bunch of hooey based on unreasonable and fictionalized fans' expectations.

These guys have the talent to want to win and the fight to do so. There are far more reasons to be excited about this team. We improved talent wise over the off-season.

Again: if you can't be excited about this team's chances, what do you require in order to be confident and hopeful about the team's chances? (Once we answer that, we will prove my conclusion about unreasonable expectations).

Hell, the Skins fans are all confident they are going to win the Super Bowl and they have far more reasons to be concerned. Our fans have as good as reason as anyone to be hopeful and our fans are manufacturing concerns to worry about.

It's amazing how soon you forget 5-11. ENJOY THIS!

I do not agree. Our team was mentally weak and thats why we lost. When you have a team of our talent there is no reason they should lose. The only logical solution is that we are mentally weak and not able to perform under certain circumstances.

 

[Doomsday101]

I would love to dispute this, but seeing as how it is an inherently unproveable claim, neither of us could argue our case.

The fact is that we played well and we lost to a team that--at the time--was playing better than anyone in the league including the 18-0 Patriots. I fail to see why our fans want to ignore that and instead suggest that we failed because of a problem with us. They had an aggressive defensive scheme and a QB that was playing out of his mind. IT HAPPENS. That we lost does not require the conclusion that our players "didn't want to win" (or "weren't hungry"--a phrase which is a load of BS and is some STUPID sports cliche that people abuse despite the fact it is baseless, un-quantifiable, and nothing more than a pretextual term to applaud people).

I keep seeing the suggestion that our players do not want to win. How in the heck do you reach that conclusion? The players were devastated after the loss and worked in the off-season. Did they not want to win when they fought back in Buffalo to a last second victory? Of course not. The guys wanted to win.

Again, I come back to the point that this is all a bunch of hooey based on unreasonable and fictionalized fans' expectations.

These guys have the talent to want to win and the fight to do so. There are far more reasons to be excited about this team. We improved talent wise over the off-season.

Again: if you can't be excited about this team's chances, what do you require in order to be confident and hopeful about the team's chances? (Once we answer that, we will prove my conclusion about unreasonable expectations).

Hell, the Skins fans are all confident they are going to win the Super Bowl and they have far more reasons to be concerned. Our fans have as good as reason as anyone to be hopeful and our fans are manufacturing concerns to worry about.

It's amazing how soon you forget 5-11. ENJOY THIS!

I have and do give credit to the Giants but I will say the mental break downs and stupid penalties played a big part in Dallas losing that game. You can't go out and commit 12 penalties against good teams and win very often. In doing so you are either trying regaining the same ground just lost due to a penalty as well as putting yourself into long distance passing situation which plays well to a team that has the ability to apply pressure as the Giants do or giving the other team 1st downs to move the chains. If there is one area this team really needs to improve on it is their focus or as was said mental toughness. Dallas was one of the most penalized teams last year and it is hard to win championships when you continue to shoot yourself in the foot

 

[AtlCB]

San Diego never had its "first-team" offense on the field. Its two best players never saw a snap. Does that not count in the "first-team," "second-team," "whatever-team" comparison? Do we also disregard special teams and penalties when judging the outcomes of games? In my book, the only place a whipping counts is on the scoreboard and our reserve players got trounced 24-10.

We were also missing Terence Newman on defense (we started a rookie). Also, one of those touchdowns given up by our second string defense was thrown by Phillip Rivers (the Chargers' starting QB) after our backup QB threw and interception to one of their starting CB's (Quentin Jammer). The backup offense and defense also played with poor field position throughout the game, because of poor special teams play. Except for special teams, the team didn't play that poorly for their first preseason game.

 

[AtlCB]

I have and do give credit to the Giants but I will say the mental break downs and stupid penalties played a big part in Dallas losing that game. You can't go out and commit 12 penalties against good teams and win very often. In doing so you are either trying regaining the same ground just lost due to a penalty as well as putting yourself into long distance passing situation which plays well to a team that has the ability to apply pressure as the Giants do or giving the other team 1st downs to move the chains. If there is one area this team really needs to improve on it is their focus or as was said mental toughness. Dallas was one of the most penalized teams last year and it is hard to win championships when you continue to shoot yourself in the foot

OTOH, if TO is healthy, Dallas beats the Giants in the playoffs.

 

[Doomsday101]

OTOH, if TO is healthy, Dallas beats the Giants in the playoffs.

Maybe so. No doubt he did not look like he had that extra gear to separate from the defender which made it harder for Tony to get him the ball. One thing for sure Dallas has to clean it up when it comes to flags we just can't keep shooting ourselves in the foot like we do.

 

[thekavorka]

OTOH, if TO is healthy, Dallas beats the Giants in the playoffs.

come on man. we can't start using injuries. the giants had to overcome some big injuries as well.


we mentally shot ourselves in the foot, making stupid mistakes. that's why Dallas lost the game.

 

[CactusCowboy]

I am thrilled at the number of responses to my post. It is very difficult to be critical on your own teams forum. With these posts you surely find out who are true football fans( peopel that really know and understand football) and the punks who just post out of anger, not really thinking about what they just looked at. Whether it is mentally soft, immaturity, or something else, there is something missing and I hope they find it before the season starts.

Hey, I love my Cowboys, but I am not one of those fans, and man do we have a ton of them, who cannot handle any percieved negative posts about the Cowboys.

It is obvious on this board who are true Cowboy and NFL fans and who understand the game, unfortunately, they are in the minority!