dbair1967
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I was originally going to ban myself for awhile, just got too hot at some really dimwitted people, but after cooling off and letting the disappointment of the loss itself sink in further, decided to throw my two cents out there. Besides, this is therapy.
I cant say I am shocked we lost. I knew it was probably going to be a very tough game for us. I am shocked at how we lost though. After watching Minnesota struggle so badly against the Cards, Bears and Panthers I thought with the way we were playing we'd put up at least 24 pts on them. I really didnt see the kind of OL meltdown we had coming, especially in terms of pass protection.
1) I guess the word is Wade will be back, and he's probably earned it. The team did have progress this year on both sides of the ball. They won the division and beat Philly 3 times. They played hard and played good at the end of the year, which is a huge difference from past years. The defense seemed to turn the corner and the offense set alot of team records. We have a good coaching staff in place, despite what some of you cry and whine about with Wade and Garrett. DeCammilis was a coup this past offseason. With another yr to implement his ideas and upgrade the players there, we could easily have the best ST in football next year.
2) I read how everyone is citicizing Wade over not going for it on 4th and 1+. Lets face it, picking up short yardage has not been our strong suit this year. Wade is a defensive coach and probably believes the game is going to be low scoring, so taking the 3 makes sense to him. I have no problem with it. A FG kickers job is to make field goals. 48-49 yarders arnt gimmee's outside in the elements, but they should be made more often than not inside a dome if your kicker has a decent leg, and Suisham does. I'm hopeful the plan all along was for Folk to get 100% and come back in the offseason and TC, and hopefully regain the form he had in 07 and 08 when he was arguably the leagues best kicker. If it isnt him, its gotta be somebody else. Suisham is awful.
3) I dont know if Barber's days in Dallas are done, but he has been a pretty significant disappointment since the day he got that large contract. It isnt all his fault, but he has been injury prone, has had some fumbling problems and has become almost useless in short yardage. I know he has absolutely no trade value, but he is taking reps away from Choice, who is a far better RB at this point IMO. If it were me, I'd strongly consider cutting Barber and then drafting a 3rd RB later in this draft. Let Jones and Choice split time. Felix Jones is a potential star and needs to be a focal point of the offense. If they cant cut Barber, then I'd consider trading Tashard Choice for the right offer. Unlike Barber, Chocie DOES have trade value and this draft appears to be very weak at RB. I'd hate to see him go, but if they have no intention to use him as anything other than a 3rd down back/wildcat player, he'd better serve us with as a tradable commodity so we can improve another area of the team.
4) The OL lost the game yesterday, period. End of discussion. The staff for the most part has done a good job in covering up the weakness for some time, but if they want to take the next step and become a dominant, championship calibar team the OL has to be addressed. For those that have been making idiots of themselves saying Adams needed to be the one to go, well you saw a preview yesterday of what that was like. Colombo and Kosier played terrible yesterday and both guys looked like guys who needed to be upgraded. Davis has been up and down all year but he has a massive cap charge, so he's gonna be here for awhile. Gurode has been hurt all year but is a very good player, especially when he's 100%. Free has upside and looks like a future starter at one tackle spot, but they need one or two new starters up front IMO. Maybe Brewster has a future at one spot on the OL, that would be a huge bonus. I wouldnt sign any high priced free agents, but I would invest a premium draft pick (1st or 2nd rd) and probably another middle to late rounder as well.
5) We have a very good defense. Until we start forcing turnovers and dramatically effecting games because of them, it wont be a dominant defense. We dont force alot of turnovers for one reason IMO, and thats because the two guys starting at safety are lousy at it. They have no feel or instincts for playing the ball in the air. Hamlin got no interceptions and only 2 passes defensed all year. He had 1 pick and 2 passes defensed last year. That is horrendous from a FS. He has no role other than to play centerfield, and never makes a play. Sensabaugh isnt much better and his no play on that TD was just awful yesterday.. We are getting ZERO production from the two safety spots the last 2+ seasons. If it were me, we'd have two new safeties in the starting lineup next year. As good as our CB's are, the safeties in this defense should be having a field day making plays. Hamlin's deal is the worst contract we've ever given a player IMO. We've gotten NOTHING from it.
6) Roy Williams will be back at WR. I'm willing to give him somewhat of a pass for this year. But if in TC, preseason and certainly by early next season he isnt showing he can be a consistent threat, his playing time has to decrease or disappear altogether. Austin, like Felix Jones is a star in the making. We're set there. Crayton is a very dependable player and is one of the best slot WR's in football, and vastly improved his punt return skill this yr. I like Ogletree's upside and he seems to be heading towards a significant role here. Hurd can be upgraded.
7) Like Choice, we have another young player who will have significant trade value in Martellus Bennett. I'd hate to see us part with the guy, because he has tremendous upside. He played well yesterday and was part of the passing attack for the first time in awhile. I have no doubt he could be a 40-50 catch TE here even with Witten getting his share. He's a tremendous blocker and has the speed to stretch the field in the seams. But if they have no intent of using him, (like Choice, above) he might be more valuable in terms of what we can get via trade. I wouldnt trade him for anything other than a late first however.
8) I wouldnt be surprised if Hudson Houck retires, if so its the end of a great coaching career. He's had a tremendous impact on the development of a ton of bigtime players. If he does, somebody has big shoes to fill.
9) Chan Gailey to the Bills. Just freaking hilarious. They dont come much more mediocre than Gailey.
10) As disappointing as yesterday was, we have a bright future. We have a number of bigtime players just entering their primes. We do have a few holes (OL spot or two, FS & SS, kicker) but we can all be looking forward to having a big year next year. Felix Jones is a potential big time star. Nobody has OLB bookends like Ware & Spencer, who really came on this year. He's definitely a 10-12-14 sack a yr guy in the making, which will only make Ware even more dominant. Jay Ratliff is a star. Mike Jenkins will be a probowler for years to come. Miles Austin is a star in the making. Tony Romo is one of the best QB's in the league and took a huge step this year as a player. Jason Witten is the best TE in football. We have impact players dotted all over the roster at the most important positions, there arnt alot of teams who can say that.
11) The draft that only had one or two players contribute to us this yr (albeit Buehler had a major impact) is gonna be a bonus for us next year. I cant wait to see guys like Jason Williams, Brandon Williams, Stephen Hodge, M Hamlin and Brewster begin to contribute. A couple of these guys could be significant role players for us next year.
12) The #1 goal for next year has to be getting home field advantage. We lost a bye this year because of the season sweep by the Giants and the loss to that awful Broncos team. Win one of those, yesterdays game wouldnt have been in Minnesota, it'd been in Dallas. Win two, and we'd have been the #1 seed. I think we all saw what a huge advantage we had over Philly in our new stadium those two games, we need that for the entire postseason. We could potentially be the first team to ever play in a super bowl that city hosted.
I cant say I am shocked we lost. I knew it was probably going to be a very tough game for us. I am shocked at how we lost though. After watching Minnesota struggle so badly against the Cards, Bears and Panthers I thought with the way we were playing we'd put up at least 24 pts on them. I really didnt see the kind of OL meltdown we had coming, especially in terms of pass protection.
1) I guess the word is Wade will be back, and he's probably earned it. The team did have progress this year on both sides of the ball. They won the division and beat Philly 3 times. They played hard and played good at the end of the year, which is a huge difference from past years. The defense seemed to turn the corner and the offense set alot of team records. We have a good coaching staff in place, despite what some of you cry and whine about with Wade and Garrett. DeCammilis was a coup this past offseason. With another yr to implement his ideas and upgrade the players there, we could easily have the best ST in football next year.
2) I read how everyone is citicizing Wade over not going for it on 4th and 1+. Lets face it, picking up short yardage has not been our strong suit this year. Wade is a defensive coach and probably believes the game is going to be low scoring, so taking the 3 makes sense to him. I have no problem with it. A FG kickers job is to make field goals. 48-49 yarders arnt gimmee's outside in the elements, but they should be made more often than not inside a dome if your kicker has a decent leg, and Suisham does. I'm hopeful the plan all along was for Folk to get 100% and come back in the offseason and TC, and hopefully regain the form he had in 07 and 08 when he was arguably the leagues best kicker. If it isnt him, its gotta be somebody else. Suisham is awful.
3) I dont know if Barber's days in Dallas are done, but he has been a pretty significant disappointment since the day he got that large contract. It isnt all his fault, but he has been injury prone, has had some fumbling problems and has become almost useless in short yardage. I know he has absolutely no trade value, but he is taking reps away from Choice, who is a far better RB at this point IMO. If it were me, I'd strongly consider cutting Barber and then drafting a 3rd RB later in this draft. Let Jones and Choice split time. Felix Jones is a potential star and needs to be a focal point of the offense. If they cant cut Barber, then I'd consider trading Tashard Choice for the right offer. Unlike Barber, Chocie DOES have trade value and this draft appears to be very weak at RB. I'd hate to see him go, but if they have no intention to use him as anything other than a 3rd down back/wildcat player, he'd better serve us with as a tradable commodity so we can improve another area of the team.
4) The OL lost the game yesterday, period. End of discussion. The staff for the most part has done a good job in covering up the weakness for some time, but if they want to take the next step and become a dominant, championship calibar team the OL has to be addressed. For those that have been making idiots of themselves saying Adams needed to be the one to go, well you saw a preview yesterday of what that was like. Colombo and Kosier played terrible yesterday and both guys looked like guys who needed to be upgraded. Davis has been up and down all year but he has a massive cap charge, so he's gonna be here for awhile. Gurode has been hurt all year but is a very good player, especially when he's 100%. Free has upside and looks like a future starter at one tackle spot, but they need one or two new starters up front IMO. Maybe Brewster has a future at one spot on the OL, that would be a huge bonus. I wouldnt sign any high priced free agents, but I would invest a premium draft pick (1st or 2nd rd) and probably another middle to late rounder as well.
5) We have a very good defense. Until we start forcing turnovers and dramatically effecting games because of them, it wont be a dominant defense. We dont force alot of turnovers for one reason IMO, and thats because the two guys starting at safety are lousy at it. They have no feel or instincts for playing the ball in the air. Hamlin got no interceptions and only 2 passes defensed all year. He had 1 pick and 2 passes defensed last year. That is horrendous from a FS. He has no role other than to play centerfield, and never makes a play. Sensabaugh isnt much better and his no play on that TD was just awful yesterday.. We are getting ZERO production from the two safety spots the last 2+ seasons. If it were me, we'd have two new safeties in the starting lineup next year. As good as our CB's are, the safeties in this defense should be having a field day making plays. Hamlin's deal is the worst contract we've ever given a player IMO. We've gotten NOTHING from it.
6) Roy Williams will be back at WR. I'm willing to give him somewhat of a pass for this year. But if in TC, preseason and certainly by early next season he isnt showing he can be a consistent threat, his playing time has to decrease or disappear altogether. Austin, like Felix Jones is a star in the making. We're set there. Crayton is a very dependable player and is one of the best slot WR's in football, and vastly improved his punt return skill this yr. I like Ogletree's upside and he seems to be heading towards a significant role here. Hurd can be upgraded.
7) Like Choice, we have another young player who will have significant trade value in Martellus Bennett. I'd hate to see us part with the guy, because he has tremendous upside. He played well yesterday and was part of the passing attack for the first time in awhile. I have no doubt he could be a 40-50 catch TE here even with Witten getting his share. He's a tremendous blocker and has the speed to stretch the field in the seams. But if they have no intent of using him, (like Choice, above) he might be more valuable in terms of what we can get via trade. I wouldnt trade him for anything other than a late first however.
8) I wouldnt be surprised if Hudson Houck retires, if so its the end of a great coaching career. He's had a tremendous impact on the development of a ton of bigtime players. If he does, somebody has big shoes to fill.
9) Chan Gailey to the Bills. Just freaking hilarious. They dont come much more mediocre than Gailey.
10) As disappointing as yesterday was, we have a bright future. We have a number of bigtime players just entering their primes. We do have a few holes (OL spot or two, FS & SS, kicker) but we can all be looking forward to having a big year next year. Felix Jones is a potential big time star. Nobody has OLB bookends like Ware & Spencer, who really came on this year. He's definitely a 10-12-14 sack a yr guy in the making, which will only make Ware even more dominant. Jay Ratliff is a star. Mike Jenkins will be a probowler for years to come. Miles Austin is a star in the making. Tony Romo is one of the best QB's in the league and took a huge step this year as a player. Jason Witten is the best TE in football. We have impact players dotted all over the roster at the most important positions, there arnt alot of teams who can say that.
11) The draft that only had one or two players contribute to us this yr (albeit Buehler had a major impact) is gonna be a bonus for us next year. I cant wait to see guys like Jason Williams, Brandon Williams, Stephen Hodge, M Hamlin and Brewster begin to contribute. A couple of these guys could be significant role players for us next year.
12) The #1 goal for next year has to be getting home field advantage. We lost a bye this year because of the season sweep by the Giants and the loss to that awful Broncos team. Win one of those, yesterdays game wouldnt have been in Minnesota, it'd been in Dallas. Win two, and we'd have been the #1 seed. I think we all saw what a huge advantage we had over Philly in our new stadium those two games, we need that for the entire postseason. We could potentially be the first team to ever play in a super bowl that city hosted.
