Barber was a nonfactor in the game. The Giants started three drives inside our 40, and Barber had five carries for 17 yards on those drives. He didn't make a single big play (his longest run was 9 yards, his only catch was for 5). If we didn't shut him down, we certainly kept him from having ANY positive effect for the Giants.
All I'm saying about Barber is it didn't always look like the Cowboys could stop him and if I were the Giants, and he's averaging 4+ yards a carry, I would have run Barber a lot more, especially after it looked like Eli was going to have problems with the Cowboys defense. Coughlin is a strange cat when it comes to running the ball. I have no idea where that rookie who hadn't take a single snap came from for that goalline stand. Reminds me of coaches who get too methodical, and forget their players are humans.
Your personal rankings aside, we held Portis to about half his average yardage this season (52 yards against us, 98.0 in his other games). And we held him to his lowest per-carry average by more than half a yard per carry.
Clinton Portis: Is he overrated or underrated? You decide! Seriously though, that would take entire new post.
You can go with the opinion that the Commanders are one of the best running teams in the league, I don't agree. See some of Silverbear's comments about Portis above. I've always though some of those Skins linemen were overrated too.
And our defense isn't better than it was early in the season?
Exactly. Teams change. I'm not arguing about that at all. This is one reason why I bring up Seattle. They've always been a strong running team and if not for some WR injuries that will allow the Cowboys defense to probably not worry about coverage as much as they normally would, they would be a great barometer of this new defense's ability to stop the run.
That's not unusual for Tomlinson. He had 19 against us, 19 aganst Denver, 18 against Pittsburgh and a whopping 21 against the Gaints (when he rushed for 192 yards). If you go back throughout his career, Tomlinson has had 20 carries or less in almost HALF of his games and only 21 or 22 carries in many more.
As far as Tomlinson, I know he has averaged anywhere from 18 to 30 carries a game, but I still don't feel like we played the Chargers that are now winnig most of their games. I'm not making excuses for our team, that's the way the game goes, I just don't feel LT was used right in that Cowboys game. I'm also still confused as to why they suspended Antonio Gates for a contract holdout. Thank god we didn't have to execute with him in the game.
Westbrook (a Pro Bowl running back last year) against a nickel defense typically averages about 5 yards per carry and breaks some long runs. Against us, he averaged 2.0 YPC, and his longest run was 3 yards.
Out of curiosity, where did you get that stat about Westbrook and what he averages against nickel defenses? I didn't know any internet sites had stats with that much detail. I'd like to take a look at it if you don't mind. Sounds like a cool site.
Apparently, most of us disagree.
That's fine, you're more than welcome to disagree with me. If we all agreed on the team, this message board wouldn't be necessary. My only issue is I think some people have gotten my whole message wrong. I'm not knocking on our defense. I feel like people are replying as if they're offended and think I just wrote that the defense is fake, which I did not write anywhere. I think they'e one of the best in the league, but I'd like to see them move up to that elite level. I want to know that our defense is going to compete for #1 in the league by the end of the year, and I'd feel a lot more comfortable if they played just a few more strong offensive lines with good running backs. More Oakland Raider style offensive lines.
