Babe Laufenberg: Genius List of 5 Things to Fix Cowboys.

[big dog cowboy]

Anything that didn't have fixing the O-line as a top priority isn't worth the time. It was the single worst performing unit on the team.

:signmast:

 

[theebs]

well for all of you dismissing laufenberg, watch the vids for yourself, and yes the galloway thing was a joke.

http://cowboyszone.com/forums/showthread.php?p=2602399#post2602399

 

[theogt]

well for all of you dismissing laufenberg, watch the vids for yourself, and yes the galloway thing was a joke.

http://cowboyszone.com/forums/showthread.php?p=2602399#post2602399

I'm not dismissing him, it just seems like a lot of fluff based on the recap. I mean, seriously, an ex-Cowboys committee? Stuff like that just screams to me, "I don't know what was wrong, so I'm going to just make up a few things that will sound good to most fans." Laufenberg is great, and I was really looking forward to his list when I clicked on the thread, but he just fell flat on this one I think.

Edit: I just watched, and yes it was a bunch of fluff. Thanks for posting, though, theebs.

 

[Yeagermeister]

TO shut his mouth and play?

 

[theebs]

I'm not dismissing him, it just seems like a lot of fluff based on the recap. I mean, seriously, an ex-Cowboys committee? Stuff like that just screams to me, "I don't know what was wrong, so I'm going to just make up a few things that will sound good to most fans." Laufenberg is great, and I was really looking forward to his list when I clicked on the thread, but he just fell flat on this one I think.

Edit: I just watched, and yes it was a bunch of fluff. Thanks for posting, though, theebs.

I didnt see it as fluff at all. the committee, maybe, but that is something he has talked about for awhile. I think he is talking about clearing up the culture again, its back in the toilet after parcells fixed it.

And as far as not bagging on the line, there play was poor at times, but we have good players in their prime. kosier-gurode-davis-columbo are in the prime of their careers. With the added competition of holland that makes it even better. FLo is a better player with kosier next to him. So I can understand why he doesnt see that as a concern.

Especially when you have to remember, he is a personal friend of the garrets and I bet Jason is fine with the players on the line.

also I am suprised no one has commented on wares interview. He basically called out the young players and many of his teammates saying they dont work hard enough, they lack discipline and they are more concerned with being individuals. That says alot to me.

 

[hutch1254]

Theebs!
I beg you. The Score from tonight must be posted. I hope he recorded it.
5 Things to get The Cowboys back to the Superbowl. (Outside of firing Wade)

The List was:

1. K.O. T.O. - Cut Owens. Babe was no holds barred on this one. Cancer was not a strong enough term for "cannibalistic" Owens in Babe's opinon. Brutally honest.

2. Form a Cowboys Commitee - an advisory board to the owner of former players & coaches headed by Roger Staubach, Thomas "Hollywood" Henderson, Troy Aikman, and Darren Woodson. He also mentioned Randy Galloway, but I think he was joking. I hope.Grandpa Urine needs to stay locked & loaded with his Curevo & 1 hand and his Sports Writing for idiots book in the other while he waxes poetic with his collection of no-talent clowns on GAC at ESPN Radio.

3. Hire a QB Guru - someone to scour the planet for nothing but QBs. Ron Wolf was mentioned at a $1 million annual salary. Scout, draft & develop young QBs to avoid the Brad Johnson disaster of '08.

4. Ride Romo - Babe really believes Romo is the guy to get the Cowboys back, but he must be "leashed" as Parcells put it. The discipline of not turning over the ball must be the team's priority as it pertains to Tony Romo. He thinks he can do it (strongly),BUT if not see #3 and find his replacement!

5. Remove all Extraneous Hyperbolic Crap - No Hard Knocks, no drama, & none of the drama queen B.S. that surrounded this team before camp ever opened. Re-focus this group for lofting the Lombardi after the season not before Opening Day.

1. KO TO - yes. Doubt it will happen though.
2. Cowboy Committee - it sounds good, but ask yourself...would we really need one if there was a real GM in place?? Proabably not, and yes I agree Aikman probably chimes in from time to time to Jerry.
3. QB Guru - anything will help.
4. Ride Romo - agree, totally believe he can do it, just needs to be guided down the right path.
5. Remove all crap - yes, everything we get involved with outside of football seems to become an embarrassment, at least lately. No more garbage.

 

[theogt]

I didnt see it as fluff at all. the committee, maybe, but that is something he has talked about for awhile. I think he is talking about clearing up the culture again, its back in the toilet after parcells fixed it.

And as far as not bagging on the line, there play was poor at times, but we have good players in their prime. kosier-gurode-davis-columbo are in the prime of their careers. With the added competition of holland that makes it even better. FLo is a better player with kosier next to him. So I can understand why he doesnt see that as a concern.

Especially when you have to remember, he is a personal friend of the garrets and I bet Jason is fine with the players on the line.

The problem is that a lot of the miscues happened with the Gurode-Davis-Colombo side of the line. At least in pass protection, at the end of the year they were as bad or worse than the other side of the line. Surely that's not related to losing just Kosier on the left. Either there were scheming problems, players didn't understand the scheme and weren't executing, or both. That to me is a much more serious problem than "putting a leash on Tony." To me, the INTs/fumbles were a symptom of the problem, not THE problem.

I guess I just expected more Xs and Os talk than wishy-washy things like "culture." And there's the QB scout thing. How is that at all going to help us in the next 4-6 years, barring another injury to Romo? That's not about winning next year. And of course the other two points were just culture related. So that's why I see it as mostly fluff.

 

[Chocolate Lab]

Anything that didn't have fixing the O-line as a top priority isn't worth the time. It was the single worst performing unit on the team.

I hope Wade has found a way to dig at Jerry that maybe he should've hired the guy he wanted, not the one RJ wanted...

Houck has had an amazing career as a coach, but I fear that he's simply too old. Everyone, even coaches, lose it at some point, and I hope he hasn't.

And LMAO at Babe. "My dad has survived two cancers, but if TO moved in with him, he'd be dead in a week." :laugh2:

 

[theebs]

The problem is that a lot of the miscues happened with the Gurode-Davis-Colombo side of the line. At least in pass protection, at the end of the year they were as bad or worse than the other side of the line. Surely that's not related to losing just Kosier on the left. Either there were scheming problems, players didn't understand the scheme, or both. That to me is a much more serious problem than "putting a leash on Tony." To me, the INTs/fumbles were a symptom of the problem, not THE problem.

I guess I just expected more Xs and Os talk than wishy-washy things like "culture." And there's the QB scout thing. How is that at all going to help us in the next 4-6 years, barring another injury to Romo? That's not about winning next year.

Laufenberg has been baffled as to why we havent drafted a qb in all these years. He brings it up constantly. He had almost a full interview last year after the draft with stephen jones and he quizzed him on why they never drafted qbs. He has shown the stat with Dallas being one of only 3 I think or 4 teams who havent drafted at least 3 qbs in the last 10 years or whatever.

And as far as x's and o's, he never does that stuff on this show. He does lots of it during the year on the pregame show and sometimes on the score after home games.

He broke down owens and pointed out all his flaws a couple of times this year. he pointed out missed throws from romo and incorrect routes from the wr. I just dont think he was going to get too technical with last nights show.

 

[theebs]

I hope Wade has found a way to dig at Jerry that maybe he should've hired the guy he wanted, not the one RJ wanted...

Houck has had an amazing career as a coach, but I fear that he's simply too old. Everyone, even coaches, lose it at some point, and I hope he hasn't.

And LMAO at Babe. "My dad has survived two cancers, but if TO moved in with him, he'd be dead in a week." :laugh2:

Did you watch the ware interview? He really layed it out there about some of the young players.

and without saying it, he said we didnt have guys late to meetings on defense....but on offense he said he couldnt say with a big smile!!!!

He also said there are too many chiefs and not enough indians in the locker room and that the team is loaded with individuals, who lack discipline and dont work hard enough.

 

[Idgit]

I hope Wade has found a way to dig at Jerry that maybe he should've hired the guy he wanted, not the one RJ wanted...

Houck has had an amazing career as a coach, but I fear that he's simply too old. Everyone, even coaches, lose it at some point, and I hope he hasn't.

And LMAO at Babe. "My dad has survived two cancers, but if TO moved in with him, he'd be dead in a week." :laugh2:

Good coaches don't grow on trees, but with good players, OL coach at least is a replaceable position. I have a lot of respect for Houck, but I kind of wish there were indications from the organization that he had lost it. Replacing him would be a lot easier than upgrading the players.

Short of one or the other, it's hard to have confidence that we'll be a lot better in '09, and this is one area on the team that definitely needs to be addressed in the offseason.

 

[theogt]

Laufenberg has been baffled as to why we havent drafted a qb in all these years. He brings it up constantly. He had almost a full interview last year after the draft with stephen jones and he quizzed him on why they never drafted qbs. He has shown the stat with Dallas being one of only 3 I think or 4 teams who havent drafted at least 3 qbs in the last 10 years or whatever.

And as far as x's and o's, he never does that stuff on this show. He does lots of it during the year on the pregame show and sometimes on the score after home games.

He broke down owens and pointed out all his flaws a couple of times this year. he pointed out missed throws from romo and incorrect routes from the wr. I just dont think he was going to get too technical with last nights show.

Understood.

But that brings up another little nit to pick about the segment, and I don't want to really get into it here because this isn't a TO thread, but it appeared that he was trying to blame that Romo INT in the clip on TO. That seems silly to me. TO slowed his route to turn and look for the throw, but Tony threw it way wide (into triple coverage) and TO didn't have a chance on the ball. He should have used that clip for the Romo point, not the TO point.

 

[theogt]

Did you watch the ware interview? He really layed it out there about some of the young players.

and without saying it, he said we didnt have guys late to meetings on defense....but on offense he said he couldnt say with a big smile!!!!

He also said there are too many chiefs and not enough indians in the locker room and that the team is loaded with individuals, who lack discipline and dont work hard enough.

Maybe Wade needs to take more charge of both the offense and defense. It's unfortunate that he can't at least depend on his coordinators more.

 

[Alexander]

Laufenberg has been baffled as to why we havent drafted a qb in all these years. He brings it up constantly. He had almost a full interview last year after the draft with stephen jones and he quizzed him on why they never drafted qbs. He has shown the stat with Dallas being one of only 3 I think or 4 teams who havent drafted at least 3 qbs in the last 10 years or whatever.

It is one opportunity we most certainly squandered over the last decade.

Even the selection of Quincy Carter was a bit skewed because at the time Jerry Jones was looking for a QB but was concerned about the cap dollars associated with signing a high draft choice at the position. That is one reason why we went to such trouble trying to trade up, down and sideways to draft him.

Instead, we went looking under rocks and came out with rubbish like Clint Stoerner, Anthony Wright, Ryan Leaf, Tony Banks and Chad Hutchinson. The Romo situation was very much a function of fate as it was not like he could not have gone to a number of teams that contacted him as a free agent.

It is a bit scary that one of the two QBs not named Aikman that Jones has drafted is now a successful QB coach and has been for years.

 

[theebs]

Understood.

But that brings up another little nit to pick about the segment, and I don't want to really get into it here because this isn't a TO thread, but it appeared that he was trying to blame that Romo INT in the clip on TO. That seems silly to me. TO slowed his route to turn and look for the throw, but Tony threw it way wide (into triple coverage) and TO didn't have a chance on the ball. He should have used that clip for the Romo point, not the TO point.

You have got to be kidding me. Its a dig route or 4 route to the sideline.

Look up every person worth there salt, that route has to be run at 100% speed. He shouldnt be looking for the ball out of his break, he should be running the route. he made his cut and then jogged and looked back? That is completely inexcusable. Putting that on romo is completely wrong.

That is a route terry glenn excelled at. He used make that cut and hit the sideline at the same speed. That is how you run it. 100%. You dont go half butted wondering if the ball will be thrown or not, you cut and get to your spot expecting the ball.

Its a clear sign of one of the problems here. No one can get on owens because he answers to the owner only and the owner already empowered him in september and took all the blame off of him.

 

[khiladi]

I hope Wade has found a way to dig at Jerry that maybe he should've hired the guy he wanted, not the one RJ wanted...

Houck has had an amazing career as a coach, but I fear that he's simply too old. Everyone, even coaches, lose it at some point, and I hope he hasn't.


And LMAO at Babe. "My dad has survived two cancers, but if TO moved in with him, he'd be dead in a week." :laugh2:

Like I said before, blame the vertical nature of Garrett's game and lack of effective play-action. How can the game have passed Houck by, when the year prior, Brown was averaging 5 YPC and before that, Tomlinson was the league-leading rusher? The offensive line collapsed with Sparano against the Giants in the play-off game as well. People claim that it was Green Bay's plan that exposed this offense, but the Giants did essentially the same thing teams did this year, and that was press coverage on the WRs to disrupt their vertical routes and get pressure on Romo, because Garrett didn't adjust the routes. Tony Romo was running like mad the whole-second half even with Sparano as coach, trying to find receiver's downfield.

 

[khiladi]

If there is one thing an OL needs to establish itself, it is continuity in the offensive play-calling. We have no running game and no play-action. The delayed blitz worked wonders against the Cowboys, because players like Dawkins could get to Romo, before TO, RW, and Crayton had to run 40 yards downfield.

 

[Alexander]

The offensive line collapsed with Sparano against the Giants in the play-off game as well. People claim that it was Green Bay's plan that exposed this offense, but the Giants did essentially the same thing teams did this year, and that was press coverage on the WRs to disrupt their vertical routes and get pressure on Romo, because Garrett didn't adjust the routes. Tony Romo was running like mad the whole-second half even with Sparano as coach, trying to find receiver's downfield.

I think the Giants game is a very poor example to use for how the line performed for most of the season. Overall, we rarely saw the confusion that plagued this year's version. After Pendergast stunted the life out of us and exposed our inability to compensate, it was something smart coordinators went after the remainder of the year. For the most part, Houck never solved that issue.

Blame what you want on Proctor, but I still cannot excuse why his presence caused such a step down. Kosier may have been the communication glue, but I do not feel we should have ever been in that situation to begin with. To me, the slack was up to Gurode to compensate, but also the line coach to rectify.

In reference again the divisional playoff game, it was one of their worst pass protection performances of the year in the second half but consider the game plan.

We rarely ran the ball like that during the season. It was always pass first, wear them down late with Barber, the same blueprint that Garrett probably followed from the days with Turner and Zampese. The pass sets up the run.

In that game, we ran the ball up and down the field against the Giants. That game should have been over by halftime. IMO, the playcalling in the second half set up the line to fail or at the very least did not acknowledge the change in pace. By the time the game was in the fourth quarter, you could see many of them were completely winded and started making mental mistakes (like Davis). You have to credit the Giants for being in better shape than we were. They took the pounding and did not wilt.

It is up to Garrett to get on the same page with Houck. Either get the line back to par and solve the issues where even simple movement confuses them or shorten the long-developing routes that require such extensive protection.

 

[theogt]

You have got to be kidding me. Its a dig route or 4 route to the sideline.

Look up every person worth there salt, that route has to be run at 100% speed. He shouldnt be looking for the ball out of his break, he should be running the route. he made his cut and then jogged and looked back? That is completely inexcusable. Putting that on romo is completely wrong.

That is a route terry glenn excelled at. He used make that cut and hit the sideline at the same speed. That is how you run it. 100%. You dont go half butted wondering if the ball will be thrown or not, you cut and get to your spot expecting the ball.

Its a clear sign of one of the problems here. No one can get on owens because he answers to the owner only and the owner already empowered him in september and took all the blame off of him.

If it is a dig route, he screwed it up, but he's not going parallel at all. Looks more like a flag route to me, where he breaks at 45 degree angle and looks back at the QB. If it's a flag route, he did exactly what he was supposed to do and Tony threw a wild ball into triple coverage.

 

[Chocolate Lab]

Did you watch the ware interview? He really layed it out there about some of the young players.

and without saying it, he said we didnt have guys late to meetings on defense....but on offense he said he couldnt say with a big smile!!!!

He also said there are too many chiefs and not enough indians in the locker room and that the team is loaded with individuals, who lack discipline and dont work hard enough.

Yep, those were great... Thanks for putting them up.

It was good stuff from The Man on the team. I happened to turn on ESPN radio last night and was halfway listening to their Football Tonight show (or whatever it's called) and I perked up when I heard Ware on there. He said much of the same things he did here, mainly about leadership. It sounds like he's going to step up and be a lot more vocal than he has been, which can only be a good thing. They also asked him if Romo needs to be more of a leader, and surprisingly to me, he said yes he does. Makes you wonder if he and Romo and maybe a couple other guys got together and said we need to take control of this thing or the guys that shouldn't be listened to will be.

I'd love to see what would happen if we eliminated the pseudo-leaders on this team (Tank's already gone and we know who another is) and replaced them with Ware and a select couple of others who do things the right way.