Billy Cundiff. Support him or not.

[Alexander]

I dont care how bad we played,at the time he kicked that ball we were tied and his sole job right there was to put us ahead and probably win the game. Sorry but he wouldnt be back in uniform again for me.

On the other hand, as Coach Parcells said, what are you going to do?

San Francisco signed Cortez.

That alone should tell you how thin the talent pool is.

It is funny when you have fans getting upset at the head coach because he doesn't go "find a kicker".

They don't grow on trees.

I just think it would be smashing if we got one that did his job and was not famous for the wrong reasons.

 

[CalCBFan]

I don't blame Cundiff, but I agree your kicker in the NFL has to make that kick. I got tired of watching us kick FGs in the RZ back in the '90s. Campo lost his job for some of the same mistakes being made by our current coach and his staff.

I totally agree w/ posts by TNCowboy and TexasAce on this borad over the last couple of days. BP is a "play to not lose coach" and those guys lose more often than win. I don't think Jim Mora, Sr. ever won a PO game, and I think you could count the ones Marty Schottenheimer has won on 1 hand. Bill Walsh on the other hand ALWAYS went for the kill, with appropriately successful results.

And as far as Thursday's game goes, Mick's Mail confirms that Marcus Spears was tackled by the OL before Dane even got to the 1st down marker, but the hold wasn't call and the play brought back. So I blame the refs...

 

[scottsp]

Agreed, Alexander. There is a perception that quality kickers are easy to come by, that they're walking the streets. They're not. At this point, only so much we can do. Settle in because Billy is prolly it.

 

[Tristan]

Unfortunately with our pathetic play calling in clutch situations our team is almost always in a position where a missed kick loses us the game. Yes Cundiff is responsible for the loss, but until our offense can start converting second down and two into first downs, our team will continue to lose to many games in the last seconds that could have been won.

 

[Billy Bullocks]

This is a game where I won't blame the kicker. It was a more open game. Denver would have played it completely different had we made the kick. At the end of the day, Denver made the big plays, and they won the coin toss. Based soley on the NYG game, where we took the ball in OT and never looked back, I won't ***** about the OT rule the league has.

Cundiff, I was happy to have him back, and I don't think he misses anymore like that this year. Don't forget the 56 yarder last week. There's really no excuse for missing a kick like he did, but you know what, to put this game on his shoulders is just wrong.

 

[Sarge]

Realisticly that is what they are paying him to do. Good kickers come through in the clutch, .

...and even bad kickers make 33 yard field goals.

 

[Sarge]

On the other hand, as Coach Parcells said, what are you going to do?

San Francisco signed Cortez.

That alone should tell you how thin the talent pool is.

It is funny when you have fans getting upset at the head coach because he doesn't go "find a kicker".

They don't grow on trees.

I just think it would be smashing if we got one that did his job and was not famous for the wrong reasons.

He's had since last year to 'find a kicker.' This problem didn't just creep up on Thanksgiving. We've known we had problema at K for over a year now.

When you play ball like Parcells (ball control) you are ASKING for close games.

If you wanna play ball control offense and play not to lose, you'd better have a kicker that doesn't miss 33 yeard field goals.

Bottom line, this problem was born on Thanksgiving. In fact, I predicted before one game was played this year that we would lose 2-3 games based on our kicker alone.

 

[big_neil]

So you don't consider Bledsoe gift wrapping 7 points for Denver to be a bigger factor in the loss than a 3 point field goal miss?

Not when that was the 1st quarter and he was 5 for his next 5 with a TD. That's a 5 for 6 (83% Comp.) stretch with 1 TD 1 INT and 55 yards. That's a 96 rating.

Not when Drew had 3 all purpose TDs and 2nd pick was meaningless. Drew had 232 yards - his season and career average per game, against arguably the best team in the NFL.

You can't rewind all the way to the first quarter and expect that changing something there would result in the same outcome - even the for the FG miss it's a stretch to say it necessarily lost the game. And for everyone who says Drew never should have thrown the ball at the end of the game at Seattle, at the time I realized it was already OT and you never know if you'll get the ball back again.

 

[big_neil]

It's simple, Cundiff HAS TO MAKE THAT KICK...

Exactly. The game was 7/8 over and we had come from behind to tie 3 straight times - with 3 impressive TD drives.

That swung the momentum and the next thing you know Terry drops the pass (that was well covered anyhow).

The loss really goes to the running game. They had 55 yards on the day. That's as many as the rush on Denver's 2nd play in Overtime. That 2nd and 2 was the killer when JJ got 1. He needed to contribute.

But Cundiff's 56 yarder makes up for it - he gets another shot.

 

[kmd24]

I won't argue here. But Coach Parcells expects the kickers to do their job, which is kick the FG.

I won't apologize for them if they cannot do it. Of any player on the team, this one player has direct responsibility for their actions more than any other. And when they fail, it is hard for me to use the "team game" concept to fall back on.

Thing is, you can't be results-oriented, you have to play the percentages. Even the best kickers will miss kicks now and then. Cundiff has had a pretty good track record in his career on kicks under 40 yards, so, as a coach, you have to like your chances in that spot, a lot better than with Cortez (and maybe Suisham, though we never really saw enough of him to make a judgement).

 

[Cbz40]

We have made 76 % of our FG attempts......

"The Cowboys are making 76 percent of their field-goal attempts. They have the 12th worst field-goal accuracy among the 15 NFL teams with winning records."
Mac Engel.....FWST

That is very suspect......that will percentage will keep you out of the playoffs.

 

[Dallas31]

Bring back Suisham !!!

 

[Alexander]

He's had since last year to 'find a kicker.' This problem didn't just creep up on Thanksgiving. We've known we had problema at K for over a year now.

We also knew RT would be a problem.

What exactly was to be done?

How many kickers from this past draft are doing well? Say we took Nugent in the early rounds. I am sure you would have a heart attack.

And what free agents were out there? There were no Neal Rackers, Mike Vanderjagt or Adam Vinitieri available. There were people like Paul Edinger, who is not much better with the Vikings.

Knowing their is a problem and having the ability to solve it are two things entirely.

 

[Alexander]

Thing is, you can't be results-oriented, you have to play the percentages. Even the best kickers will miss kicks now and then. Cundiff has had a pretty good track record in his career on kicks under 40 yards, so, as a coach, you have to like your chances in that spot, a lot better than with Cortez (and maybe Suisham, though we never really saw enough of him to make a judgement).

Precisely. Coach Parcells did not expect that miss. Why should he as Cundiff was usually very accurate from forty yards in. To blame the coach for that failure of the percentages is crazy.

 

[Smith22]

I agree he HAS to make that kick. I still think he will be fine and was a much better option than going with a rookie or Cortez.

 

[CactusCowboy]

I am not going to slam Cundiff for the game last week, it happens. But, he never has made me feel comfortable, ever. We need a dependable kicker, period.

 

[JackMagist]

I'll just say that Cundiff has always been inconsistent and we knew it when we resigned him. I would have liked to see us bring in France who had a very good preseason with Tampa Bay and did not miss a single kick with Philly. Only time will tell if he will be better than Cundiff but his early showings have been encouraging.

 

[dbair1967]

I see way to much blame going to Billy Cundiff. In that Denver game so many other things went wrong it is just lame to say Cundiff cost us the game. I guess I will go over AGAIN just some of the other things that also are to blame.

Our OL did a horrible job of opening holes for our running game. Our running game was nothing. THe OL also did a horrible job of protecting Bledsoe. Maybe if they did their job we win.

Terry Glenn dropped some key passes in the game. Maybe if he catches those we win the game.

Drew Bledsoe threw 2 INTs. One was returned for a TD that gave Denver 7 points. Maybe if Bledsoe did not give Denver 7 points we win the game. Maybe if on the 2nd INT Bledsoe completes the pass or throws it away we win the game.

Or maybe if T-New catches that on INT right to him we win the game.

There is just to many things that went down to say Cundiff cost us the game.


Last game he was a hero in here. He went 2-2 hitting a 56 yarder. Get me a list of all the Kickers who have hit a 56 yarder. Yeah I expect it to be a kinda short list.

Until we find a truly BETTER kicker the Cundiff I back the man. I guess if he goes 3-3 and nails 2 50+ yarders some of you wanting him gone will be saying he is the best Kicker in the NFL.

After seeing what garbage we had in Cortez I will back Cundiff till we get a kicker who is PROVEN BETTER.

I have said what I am gonna say and if some of you can not see that there were all kinds of other things that cost us the game then you are hopeless.

and not any of that replaces the fact that had Cundiff did his job, we probably win the game

a 33 yd fg is a gimmee, especially when its at Texas Stadium with no wind or rain

David

 

[Chuck 54]

I see way to much blame going to Billy Cundiff. In that Denver game so many other things went wrong it is just lame to say Cundiff cost us the game. I guess I will go over AGAIN just some of the other things that also are to blame.

Our OL did a horrible job of opening holes for our running game. Our running game was nothing. THe OL also did a horrible job of protecting Bledsoe. Maybe if they did their job we win.

Terry Glenn dropped some key passes in the game. Maybe if he catches those we win the game.

Drew Bledsoe threw 2 INTs. One was returned for a TD that gave Denver 7 points. Maybe if Bledsoe did not give Denver 7 points we win the game. Maybe if on the 2nd INT Bledsoe completes the pass or throws it away we win the game.

Or maybe if T-New catches that on INT right to him we win the game.

There is just to many things that went down to say Cundiff cost us the game.


Last game he was a hero in here. He went 2-2 hitting a 56 yarder. Get me a list of all the Kickers who have hit a 56 yarder. Yeah I expect it to be a kinda short list.

Until we find a truly BETTER kicker the Cundiff I back the man. I guess if he goes 3-3 and nails 2 50+ yarders some of you wanting him gone will be saying he is the best Kicker in the NFL.

After seeing what garbage we had in Cortez I will back Cundiff till we get a kicker who is PROVEN BETTER.

I have said what I am gonna say and if some of you can not see that there were all kinds of other things that cost us the game then you are hopeless.

I'll back having the best kicker we can find on the team. If that's Cundiff, then so be it, but he doesn't get a free ride for missing that easy FG to give us a late game lead. I'm sure he feels awful about it, and I doubt that Parcells has much confidence in him either.

I won't give any kicker a free ride on missing a potential game winner that we go on to lose until that kicker has a proven track record as a very good kicker...then one has to swallow the disappointment hard and move on, knowing that the kicker seldom fails in those situations.

Contrary to many of you, I don't think Cundiff has won that leeway yet. Even Parcells said his performance last year was not satisfactory...he was below the league average. That means he's on the chopping block if a better kicker becomes available.

Right now Cundiff will probably be the best we can afford for the rest of the season, but let him miss another kick like that down the stretch, and you can bet your bottom dollar he'll either be replaced again by Suisham or he'll be replaced next season.

If he starts making an extremely high percentage of kicks and pushes himself beyond the league average, maybe winning a couple of games, then he'll be safe again.

Right now he's just a guy who screwed up at a very bad and memorable time. To argue against that fact is folly.

 

[SilverStarCowboy]

I for one am not supporting Billy Cundiff, this isn't the first game winning chip shot he has missed and won't be the last. If there is a veteran that is more consistant available I would sign him. Those 30 somthing yard field goals are key game breakers alot of the time. Where's Eddie Murray when you need him? What about an old reliable inside the 40 yard line Vet?

IMO Dallas needs a reliable kicker inside 40 yards, worse than a big legged kicker who can connect from 56 yards.