ddh33
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Well, it's a win...and a pretty impressive one at that. The Cowboys didn't play particularly well in some facets of the game, but I was very impressed by the competitiveness and resilience of the team. Things didn't always go well, but they battled and played hard all night, and they worked their way to the win.
Injuries are quickly catching up to this team, and I would imagine that is going to be the story line that a lot of people take home. At one point in the first half, I thought we were going to be down to third stringers for both teams fighting to determine a winner...And speaking of, I said BOTH TEAMS. What was up with NBC acting like the Giants were the only team dealing with injuries? I mean, Terry Glenn, Jason Ferguson, Greg Ellis, and Terence Newman is quite a missing list. Add to that the very limited time I saw someone like Burnett, and it's not like that was a completely healthy Cowboys team either.
But again, it just goes to show you the character of this team. They should be proud of that. Now, they need to clean up a few areas...
I was pleased with some of the coaching tonight. First of all, I thought Wade Phillips set a tone for this team this week by talking about overcoming adversity and not crying. His sideline demeanor does help some too. As everyone has talked about repeatedly, he's completely different from Bill in a lot of ways. He seemed more energetic on the sideline though. In fact, I thought Wade has carried himself with a great deal of confidence since Day One. Tonight he went for it on fourth down early in the game, I thought that was big. I might have been tempted to just kick there, but he sent a message, and his guys responded. That was big.
Beyond the head coach, Jason Garrett was clearly a coaching star tonight. I think everyone had to be impressed with his play-calling and feel for the game. I loved the way the team worked the middle all night long. They were very balanced on offense, and when crunch time rolled around, Garrett went for the throat by calling several pass plays that ended up leading to a touchdown and helped put the game just out of reach. Just a very impressive debut for him.
The defensive side of the ball wasn't nearly as clean. The group didn't get a ton of pressure, and the coverage really struggled at times. I do believe that the Giants deserve more credit though. Eli played very well, and those receivers can cause problems - especially when you are missing your best cover guy. I guess I was more concerned with players not always looking confident in what they were doing. Some guys seemed a little hesitant, and it hurt the team at times. It's sure nice to work through those things after a win though. And that's the most important factor - the good guys won.
Tony Romo was amazing tonight. He started off a little shaky, but it didn't take him long to get into the swing of things. He was great at avoiding the pressure and checking down tonight. He showed great touch over the middle, and his accuracy continues to be one of his greatest attributes. Actually, about the only thing better than his accuracy is his courage and confidence. After throwing a tough pick in the fourth quarter that got the Giants in prime position to steal a win, Romo responded by drilling the ball into a pretty tight window in the face of pressure for a long touchdown. He really is special...
Julius Jones may not have had a ton of room to run, but he did churn out some yards. I won't complain. HOWEVER, I will say that Marion Barber continues to clearly establish himself as the better back on this team. He brings such a swagger and toughness, and I think the rest of the offense feeds off of him. Whether it's fair or not, a few plays just sort of seem to sum up the way I viewed these players and their games tonight. I think of Julius Jones running out of bounds late in the fourth quarter when the game was in question and stopping the clock, and I think of Marion Barber turning a critical 4th and 1 into an 18 yard touchdown in the first quarter just because he was tougher and wanted it more than anyone else. I'm not one of these fans who will complain about something that's working - and 27 carries for 130 yards with a touchdown is working - but Barber is the best running back on this team.
I think you have to be pretty proud of the receiver tonight too. I'll throw the TEs into this group as well, so let's start with Jason Witten. Witten worked the middle all night long. He took several shots, but he kept going out there and moving the chains. I think plenty of football people already know it, but I believe that virtually everyone is going to know it very soon. Jason Witten is an elite TE: 6 catches for 116 yards and a TD. TO was huge too! I don't mean to make him an afterthought either because I'm afraid too many media people with an agenda will anyway. TO was good. He didn't touch the ball in the first half, and the Giants seemed pretty intent on keeping him out of things. He sure got involved in the second half though. He went across the middle and had two big touchdowns. It was actually the things that won't show up on the stat sheet that impressed me most though. TO did some good work blocking on the edges, and he drew so much attention that a lot of other guys were able to benefit over the middle. That shouldn't be overlooked. His mere presence was a boost to this team. Crayton and Hurd delivered in a big way tonight too. Crayton had a few key grabs to help move the chains, and Hurd had one of the big plays of the night when he took that pass 51 yards for a touchdown. He also showed more speed that people thought too. Can't complain about them.
Gotta give the O-Line a lot of credit tonight too. When you rack up nearly 500 yards of total offense, somebody up front is doing their job. They had a shaky series in the first half that was pretty ugly and littered with penalties. Otherwise, they simply imposed their will on the game. That was beautiful to see. Romo usually had plenty of time, and there seemed to be lanes to run through. Good stuff from them.
I thought the special teams were solid. Tyson Thompson's fumble in the first half made me about rip off my eyebrows, and Tony Curtis whiffing on that block didn't help either. That group did respond and do some good things later in the game though. Folk was perfect tonight too. Granted, the team didn't ask him to do much, but then, the team hadn't asked a lot of kickers to do much the last few years, and they couldn't even do that. I thought the coverage team needed a little work though.
I was disappointed with the D-Line tonight. I'm sure the loss of Ferguson had a big impact on that, but too many times there were holes to run through and not enough pressure being put on. Not enough from those guys. Actually, I thought Ratliff was probably the best player on the D-Line tonight. He's going to need to be good considering Ferguson seems to be done for the year. Tough break.
The Linebackers weren't great tonight either. Ware was putting on pressure, but he didn't have enough help, and the Giants seemed pretty determined to make someone else do the damage. Anthony Spencer looked better tonight too. Again, he wasn't great, but he did make himself known. Bradie James and Akin Ayodele seemed to get a ton of snaps tonight. I don't know if that says a ton about them or more about their backups. I would have liked to have seen better tackling though.
The DBs were an issue again. Newman being gone is tough, but you've still got to play. The team seemed pretty soft with their coverage. Reeves got picked on quite a bit, but he probably wasn't as bad as some made him out to be. Burress is a good receiver though, and when Eli has time, he's a good QB too. Roy Williams was a much bigger concern to me. I'm a big Roy fan, and I don't think it's fair when he gets blamed for things that aren't his reponsibility, but he didn't look good tonight. He was one of the guys who just seemed unsure. I won't pretend to know everything about the coverages, so I won't throw anyone under the bus. There's plenty to work on though. To balance out some of the criticism, I thought Roy did a pretty admirable job of taking on guards all night long. I can't imagine that's a fun job for a 225 pound guy, but he did it. Again though, there's still plenty to work on for the whole group...
I'm always surprised - even thought I shouldn't be - at the negativity after a win. Hey, I don't like the injuries any more than anyone else. And no, I don't think the defense looked good at all. But I'd rather work through those things with a win than a loss. Big picture, you've got to beat the other team. Dallas did. I'll take it for now.
Injuries are quickly catching up to this team, and I would imagine that is going to be the story line that a lot of people take home. At one point in the first half, I thought we were going to be down to third stringers for both teams fighting to determine a winner...And speaking of, I said BOTH TEAMS. What was up with NBC acting like the Giants were the only team dealing with injuries? I mean, Terry Glenn, Jason Ferguson, Greg Ellis, and Terence Newman is quite a missing list. Add to that the very limited time I saw someone like Burnett, and it's not like that was a completely healthy Cowboys team either.
But again, it just goes to show you the character of this team. They should be proud of that. Now, they need to clean up a few areas...
I was pleased with some of the coaching tonight. First of all, I thought Wade Phillips set a tone for this team this week by talking about overcoming adversity and not crying. His sideline demeanor does help some too. As everyone has talked about repeatedly, he's completely different from Bill in a lot of ways. He seemed more energetic on the sideline though. In fact, I thought Wade has carried himself with a great deal of confidence since Day One. Tonight he went for it on fourth down early in the game, I thought that was big. I might have been tempted to just kick there, but he sent a message, and his guys responded. That was big.
Beyond the head coach, Jason Garrett was clearly a coaching star tonight. I think everyone had to be impressed with his play-calling and feel for the game. I loved the way the team worked the middle all night long. They were very balanced on offense, and when crunch time rolled around, Garrett went for the throat by calling several pass plays that ended up leading to a touchdown and helped put the game just out of reach. Just a very impressive debut for him.
The defensive side of the ball wasn't nearly as clean. The group didn't get a ton of pressure, and the coverage really struggled at times. I do believe that the Giants deserve more credit though. Eli played very well, and those receivers can cause problems - especially when you are missing your best cover guy. I guess I was more concerned with players not always looking confident in what they were doing. Some guys seemed a little hesitant, and it hurt the team at times. It's sure nice to work through those things after a win though. And that's the most important factor - the good guys won.
Tony Romo was amazing tonight. He started off a little shaky, but it didn't take him long to get into the swing of things. He was great at avoiding the pressure and checking down tonight. He showed great touch over the middle, and his accuracy continues to be one of his greatest attributes. Actually, about the only thing better than his accuracy is his courage and confidence. After throwing a tough pick in the fourth quarter that got the Giants in prime position to steal a win, Romo responded by drilling the ball into a pretty tight window in the face of pressure for a long touchdown. He really is special...
Julius Jones may not have had a ton of room to run, but he did churn out some yards. I won't complain. HOWEVER, I will say that Marion Barber continues to clearly establish himself as the better back on this team. He brings such a swagger and toughness, and I think the rest of the offense feeds off of him. Whether it's fair or not, a few plays just sort of seem to sum up the way I viewed these players and their games tonight. I think of Julius Jones running out of bounds late in the fourth quarter when the game was in question and stopping the clock, and I think of Marion Barber turning a critical 4th and 1 into an 18 yard touchdown in the first quarter just because he was tougher and wanted it more than anyone else. I'm not one of these fans who will complain about something that's working - and 27 carries for 130 yards with a touchdown is working - but Barber is the best running back on this team.
I think you have to be pretty proud of the receiver tonight too. I'll throw the TEs into this group as well, so let's start with Jason Witten. Witten worked the middle all night long. He took several shots, but he kept going out there and moving the chains. I think plenty of football people already know it, but I believe that virtually everyone is going to know it very soon. Jason Witten is an elite TE: 6 catches for 116 yards and a TD. TO was huge too! I don't mean to make him an afterthought either because I'm afraid too many media people with an agenda will anyway. TO was good. He didn't touch the ball in the first half, and the Giants seemed pretty intent on keeping him out of things. He sure got involved in the second half though. He went across the middle and had two big touchdowns. It was actually the things that won't show up on the stat sheet that impressed me most though. TO did some good work blocking on the edges, and he drew so much attention that a lot of other guys were able to benefit over the middle. That shouldn't be overlooked. His mere presence was a boost to this team. Crayton and Hurd delivered in a big way tonight too. Crayton had a few key grabs to help move the chains, and Hurd had one of the big plays of the night when he took that pass 51 yards for a touchdown. He also showed more speed that people thought too. Can't complain about them.
Gotta give the O-Line a lot of credit tonight too. When you rack up nearly 500 yards of total offense, somebody up front is doing their job. They had a shaky series in the first half that was pretty ugly and littered with penalties. Otherwise, they simply imposed their will on the game. That was beautiful to see. Romo usually had plenty of time, and there seemed to be lanes to run through. Good stuff from them.
I thought the special teams were solid. Tyson Thompson's fumble in the first half made me about rip off my eyebrows, and Tony Curtis whiffing on that block didn't help either. That group did respond and do some good things later in the game though. Folk was perfect tonight too. Granted, the team didn't ask him to do much, but then, the team hadn't asked a lot of kickers to do much the last few years, and they couldn't even do that. I thought the coverage team needed a little work though.
I was disappointed with the D-Line tonight. I'm sure the loss of Ferguson had a big impact on that, but too many times there were holes to run through and not enough pressure being put on. Not enough from those guys. Actually, I thought Ratliff was probably the best player on the D-Line tonight. He's going to need to be good considering Ferguson seems to be done for the year. Tough break.
The Linebackers weren't great tonight either. Ware was putting on pressure, but he didn't have enough help, and the Giants seemed pretty determined to make someone else do the damage. Anthony Spencer looked better tonight too. Again, he wasn't great, but he did make himself known. Bradie James and Akin Ayodele seemed to get a ton of snaps tonight. I don't know if that says a ton about them or more about their backups. I would have liked to have seen better tackling though.
The DBs were an issue again. Newman being gone is tough, but you've still got to play. The team seemed pretty soft with their coverage. Reeves got picked on quite a bit, but he probably wasn't as bad as some made him out to be. Burress is a good receiver though, and when Eli has time, he's a good QB too. Roy Williams was a much bigger concern to me. I'm a big Roy fan, and I don't think it's fair when he gets blamed for things that aren't his reponsibility, but he didn't look good tonight. He was one of the guys who just seemed unsure. I won't pretend to know everything about the coverages, so I won't throw anyone under the bus. There's plenty to work on though. To balance out some of the criticism, I thought Roy did a pretty admirable job of taking on guards all night long. I can't imagine that's a fun job for a 225 pound guy, but he did it. Again though, there's still plenty to work on for the whole group...
I'm always surprised - even thought I shouldn't be - at the negativity after a win. Hey, I don't like the injuries any more than anyone else. And no, I don't think the defense looked good at all. But I'd rather work through those things with a win than a loss. Big picture, you've got to beat the other team. Dallas did. I'll take it for now.
