Couple Peter King nuggets from his weekly column

[Risen Star]

This is just a bump in the road to our 6th title.

Which occurs a year before our journey to a 7th title.

 

[SportsGuru80]

I refuse to overreact either way with this team. It's a looooooooooong season, you're not going to win every game. On to Atlanta!

 

[CowboyinMD]

This is just a bump in the road to our 6th title.

Which occurs a year before our journey to a 7th title.

For those that are old enough to remember, this was exactly like the loss to the Rams in 1992. We had no business losing that game. It does happen.

But it is indeed a reflection of how they practiced this week, particularly on offense. Dak, CeeDee, and Coop all nursing injuries probably meant they half-assed it during the week, and it showed.

Let this be a warning. Seems to me that had they lost @Minnesota, they're probably would have been more effort. But with a non-conference game, it certainly looked like they backed off the intensity.

As Coach Landry used to say, especially after the 1978 season, you want to start off strong and finish strong. Let your bumps in the road be in the middle.

 

[ChronicCowboy]

We have no chance of championship with that tub of lard coaching. His 4th down calls and time management this season have been terrible.

 

[Zman5]

TB last year got stomped by NO 38-3 at home in November. Managing to only score a FG in the 4th quarter. Brady was 22 for 38 and threw 3 Int and no TDs.
Championship teams do have these types of games.

 

[stilltheguru]

Good teams rarely loose like this. I don't mind losing games but we just didn't show up. That worries me. Along with Mike's arrogance in the beginning with the first two 4th down calls. It feels like we are always a good team until someone punches us in the mouth and they we are too busy crying and picking our teeth up versus getting ready to hit back. I'll see how we come out this week but I believe we all need to be worried.

Not true no matter how many times you say it. I could easily provide examples

 

[ESisback]

Good teams rarely loose like this. I don't mind losing games but we just didn't show up. That worries me. Along with Mike's arrogance in the beginning with the first two 4th down calls. It feels like we are always a good team until someone punches us in the mouth and they we are too busy crying and picking our teeth up versus getting ready to hit back. I'll see how we come out this week but I believe we all need to be worried.

Disagree. We suffered big losses during the regular season in our Super Bowl years. Virtually every week there are upsets. Just this week, SEVERAL good teams “played like crap”.

 

[EGTuna]

Good teams rarely loose like this. I don't mind losing games but we just didn't show up. That worries me. Along with Mike's arrogance in the beginning with the first two 4th down calls. It feels like we are always a good team until someone punches us in the mouth and they we are too busy crying and picking our teeth up versus getting ready to hit back. I'll see how we come out this week but I believe we all need to be worried.

False. Here’s a Cowboys-centric history lesson for you from one of the best disproving your thoughts.

https://cowboyswire.usatoday.com/li...them&utm_medium=trueanthem&utm_source=twitter

 

[ologan]

I have zero faith in this team, this looks so familiar, l expect familiar results. From here on out they will be lucky to win 4 more games

Time to choose another team to follow, I suspect. There are good ones out there to choose from.

 

[Carson]

Not true no matter how many times you say it. I could easily provide examples

He’s a lose cannon. He might loose it by responding.

Man it amazes me how many people that cannot spell lose lol

 

[perrykemp]

TB last year got stomped by NO 38-3 at home in November. Managing to only score a FG in the 4th quarter. Brady was 22 for 38 and threw 3 Int and no TDs.
Championship teams do have these types of games.

Yes, but championship team don't <typically> have defenses ranked in the middle or bottom third of the league (depending on if you looking at yards or points). It's not the stomping @ Denver bothers me, it's what the defense looks like when they can't force turnovers.

 

[Creeper]

Every team has one of those days. It looked bad because the Cowboys were flat in every phase of the game. But let's consider they had 10 TFLs and a blocked punt. None of it mattered but they were doing something right.

I think the problems on defense to some degree can be fixed. It would have helped if the offense kept the ball for a few drives. #1, they need to tackle better. This is not any great revelation. Any football novice who watched the game yesterday could see there were too many Broncos that got too many yards after contact. It wasn't missed tackles, it was being outmuscled. That 38 yard run was an embarrassment. The RB was in the grasp of about 4 or 5 guys and they could not stop his progress. Then they just let him go for some reason. I think the problem with the Cowboys defense is they tackle too high. No one goes for the legs anymore. Watching the Titans beat the Rams last night I couldn't help but notice what sure tacklers the Titans appeared to be in this game. I also noticed how many Titans tackle the legs bringing Rams RBs down almost immediately.

This has been a problem for Dallas all year. Their defensive linemen are in position to make a tackles and throw a "leaky arms" effort at the RB allowing him to get extra yards. That can be fixed. Also, when a defender wraps up a RB, every other guy on the team should swarm the ball carrier until he is down. I see some Cowboys watching the play instead of helping to finish the play.

The other problem is also something Dallas has struggled with. The Broncos were running inside Gregory and Basham/Golston all day and with great success. Their mediocre and banged up offensive line was opening huge holes for RBs. This is not necessarily the DEs fault, Of course you'd like them to collapse that hole and make the tackle but first they need to make sure the RB does not get outside them. Turn him inside where he gets caught up in the pursuit. The problem for Dallas is the pursuit wasn't there. I think Gregory just needs to be more disciplined but Basham and Golston just aren't good enough. DLaw will help this to some degree. But who is supposed to fill that gap?

Which brings me to a bigger problem that is more difficult to fix. The Cowboys LBs and safeties can't get off blocks quick enough. This was a big problem for Dallas yesterday and the reason why the Bronco ran for 190 yards.

It is one game and if the offense had been able to do anything at all, it could have been a very different game. Dak was off. Receivers were dropping passes. and they could not catch a break. The game was within reach for a long time but the Cowboys could not get one drive going. Several dropped passes or bad passes would have kept drives going and possibly ended in a few scores. The bad throw on 4th down to Cedric Wilson was a first down in the red zone. The Pass Cooper dropped looked like a big play. The Pollard drop also looked like a big play with his speed and elusiveness. Those plays not only pick up first downs, they can reverse the momentum of the game.

But to me, the most egregious error was McCarthy going for it on 4th down at around the Broncos 20 yard line. I would have kicked the FG and gotten the 1st points on the board. Some people say they should be able to pick up one yard. maybe that is true, but they have struggled in those short yardage situations all year. Dallas's 4th down conversion rate is just 35%.

 

[Zman5]

Yes, but championship team don't <typically> have defenses ranked in the middle or bottom third of the league (depending on if you looking at yards or points). It's not the stomping @ Denver bothers me, it's what the defense looks like when they can't force turnovers.

I agree. I've read somewhere all SB winning teams last 20 years all had both top 10 offense and defenses. Most of them in top 5.

 

[Carson]

TB last year got stomped by NO 38-3 at home in November. Managing to only score a FG in the 4th quarter. Brady was 22 for 38 and threw 3 Int and no TDs.
Championship teams do have these types of games.

Peyton’s record against Bruce is crazy. I believe he’s around 8-1 or 9-2

 

[Cowboyny]

That's fine, if you want to make excuses for losing, fine. I'd rather continue to look at trends by this team which I mentioned. There's already players talking about how poorly they practiced last week. By no means am I saying the season is over. We just have some issues that need to change and even if we do change and continue to roll, there's no guarantee that we get out of the playoffs alive because the NFC is loaded this year.

Clearly have to clean up some things, when you are winning there is less urgency, but when you have a bad loss, players seem to get more focused in. Clearly the Cowboys aren't a lock to come out of the NFC by any means, but if they play well, they have enough talent to beat those teams.

 

[pitt33]

Good teams rarely lose like this.

Enough said.

That statement says it all.

I will say the offense had an off day. Huge understatement I know.

The run defense is awful and probably won’t get better. They have been smoke and mirrors on that end.

 

[MRV52]

I have zero faith in this team, this looks so familiar, l expect familiar results. From here on out they will be lucky to win 4 more games

 

[NeonNinja]

I want to see how the team responds next game. That will tell me a lot. One of those days or a problem?

 

[gmb1]

I have zero faith in this team, this looks so familiar, l expect familiar results. From here on out they will be lucky to win 4 more games

Cowboy fans can be so annoying. Zero faith? Why be a fan? LOL

 

[gimmesix]

Good teams rarely loose like this. I don't mind losing games but we just didn't show up. That worries me. Along with Mike's arrogance in the beginning with the first two 4th down calls. It feels like we are always a good team until someone punches us in the mouth and they we are too busy crying and picking our teeth up versus getting ready to hit back. I'll see how we come out this week but I believe we all need to be worried.

Denver has a top 10 defense and our offense missed play after play. The thing that makes me not worry about this too much is that there were a lot of unusual mistakes by the offense. Does Dak normally miss that easy fourth-down throw to Wilson? Do Pollard and Cooper normally drop wide-open passes going over the middle? Are Dak and Lamb normally out of sync on deep passes the way they were Sunday

At the moment, we can consider those things abnormal and they turned maybe a close game into a really bad game. Yes, the team could follow it up with another or more bad games, but there's not a pattern showing that will happen. We've played good football, especially on offense, in the other seven games this year.