Day After Thoughts

[JPM]

He is a great owner. Not sure how anyone can argue differently.

Great GM, yeah thats debatable. But he's made good decisions for the most part since he hired Parcells.

Look at what you are arguing with.

 

[casmith07]

4 catches, 72 yds and 0 tds.

IIRC we need him to catch 39+ to upgrade our pick. He had his best game yesterday, catching 3 for 57 yds.

Dez Bryant has 14 catches for 158 yds, and the great punt return for TD as well.

He'll get there. That offense needs something to get going and it's a matter of time before he starts coming around. Rivers was already looking for him in the clutch at the end of the game.

 

[Gaede]

Great post David.

I'm also disappointed with Ball. Don't hear about him much, but when you do see him, he's missing a tackle or trailing someone into the endzone. Thought for sure he'd be better than Hamlin, but so far, their play is identical

 

[Bach]

He is a great owner. Not sure how anyone can argue differently.

Great GM, yeah thats debatable. But he's made good decisions for the most part since he hired Parcells.

The one thing that keeps him from being a great owner is that a great owner wouldn't have kept a GM that bad for so long. I do agree our drafting has been better the last several years, with the exception of '09. Probably has alot to do with Ciskowski and even Stephen taking a more prominent role. Either way, we've been getting better talent, just need to get a solid HC and stop meddling in their affairs.

 

[Cowboysfan570]

Great post David.

I'm also disappointed with Ball. Don't hear about him much, but when you do see him, he's missing a tackle or trailing someone into the endzone. Thought for sure he'd be better than Hamlin, but so far, their play is identical

Hamlin was serviceable but not great, if Ball is identical to Hamlin's play and is doing it for millions less per season and can still be a decent starting CB too?

I'll take that, although him being a great safety would be preferable.

I do agree our drafting has been better the last several years, with the exception of '09.

Am I the only guy who thinks that draft class is going to turn out pretty well?

So you don't have any headliner players out of the draft yet. McGee is looking better, Buehler is doing his job, and we have 3-4 other guys who are developing behind starters to get a bigger role.

 

[Stash]

Huge win yesterday. The season wasnt over with a loss, but historically once your 0-3 your a good bet to be sitting home in January.

1) Props to Wade and the entire coaching staff yesterday. After two lackluster efforts and poor preparation in general, yesterday was a really solid effort. The team was ready to play and responded to whatever it was they did during the week. Hopefully the same sense of urgency the coaches (and players) displayed yesterday will continue.

2) I said it yesterday and its worth repeating today, we have the best trio of WR's in the NFL right now. Roy Williams is a different player this year. THIS is the guy Jones thought he was trading for. He had a great game and is having a very good season. Dez Bryant has superstar written all over him. The long pass that didnt count was a sensational catch, and it should have drawn a PI call. Miles Austin is already a superstar. Agreed. I think the 3 WR formation should be a staple of this offense. It presents a matchup nightmare for opposing defenses.

3) After Romo appeared off to me last week, he was really on yesterday. There were really only one or two off throws the entire game. He brought the A game yesterday. Appeared to have more zip on the ball, and the ball seemed to have more of his trademark spiral to it. I thought he looked sharp overall, like you said, one or two he'd like to have back.

4) I dont know what it is, but I hate the Texans. I cant stand their team or their fans, and I dont even live there. Some of the junk they said was just really comical. But hey, you guys got that Governor's Cup. I think they're a good team, but can do without the 'little brother syndrome' they have.

5) Do we really have idiots in this forum who think DeMarcus Ware and Jason Witten are overrated? How many posts were there this week of people genuinely HOPING the team would lose? Some days I come here and read some of this stuff and cant believe how incredibly moronic it is. There's alot of good posters here and some are really knowledgeable about the game, but alot of the good is offset by the pinheaded threads/posts that we have to weed through. I'll admit that I expected more from Ware againt the poor Bears offensive linemen, but I was thrilled with his game yesterday.

6) What a bunch of goofs that officiating crew was yesterday. That head official is the epitome of what I think of when picturing NFL officials right now. They missed a ton of stuff during the game too. Bryant should have gotten a defensive PI on that long catch he had, and the refs blew the call on his TD too, there should have been an offsettting call for illegal contact because the Hosuton DB looked like he chucked Bryant out of bounds well past 5yds. Fortunately, they were equally terrible for both teams. How about that 12-men penalty we avoided when Brooking couldn't get off the field?

7) Buehler nailed two field goals, very encouraging. That said, he is kicking hurt. Maybe someone can remember the details, but wasnt there a story about him hurting himself late in preseason or training camp? The guy absolutely destroyed the ball on kickoffs during most of preseason. I think he only had a couple of kickoffs that were retornable all preseason. Most were 5-8 yds deep in the endzone. He's still getting it to the endzone or just inside, but its not booming deep into the endzone like it was last yr or especially in preseason. I think the bye week will be good for him. Don'ty know about him being hurt, but I thought yesterday's game presented a good opportunity for him to gain some needed confidence. Good for him.

8) Janikowski missed 3 (albeit one was from 58) including a chip shot game winner. The Saints kicker totally gagged on a 28yd FG and REALLY cost them a game. Surely the coaches of those teams must cut those guys and find replacements asap.

9) I think the bye week coming early is going to end up being good for us. We still have alot of guys nicked up or playing through some stuff. I think the staff can also look at these first 3 games and start making some adjustments to the schemes and the personnel groupings too. One of the major adjustments I think they have to look at is Brooking and James playing so much in pass defense, especially Brooking. Hopefully Sean Lee is getting closer to 100% and can get alot of practice time in for the nickel, we need him. I'm not a fan of bye weeks, but I'm glad we have one, given the team's early-season struggles. Hopefully they get some good work done and correct some flaws.

10) Hopefully Kosier is ok, but this is another knee injury for him and he's in the last year of his contract. Holland has performed very well IMO, but if they find out Kosier is going to miss significant time today then maybe its worth making a call to New England about Mankins. Holland will also be a free agent I believe too and Davis has been ok, but not much better than ok. Guard is gonna be an area of need. I wouldnt give up a 1st rd pick for him, but if the price was a 2nd or perhaps a player (maybe one of our DE's or Tashard Choice) and a pick (middle rounder) I'd think about it. The Pats need defensive help bigtime. I was thinking this same thing. Personally, I'm tired of Davis' underachieving and would have no problem trading for Mankins and getting rid of him in this uncapped year. That said, for this season, I think a deal for Mankins makes sense for two reasons, Kosier can't stay healthy, and he's a free agent next season anyway. I think the team has developing options at tackle and center but guard is another story.

11) A few disappointments for me after 3 games (other than the record): FS Alan Ball, who's been a 100% clone of Ken Hamlin on the field. DE Stephen Bowen, who appeared ready to take the next step but has been mostly invisible IMO. And Anthony Spencer has been decent, but he was another I thought was really going to take that next step and maybe get into that extremely good/dominant class of OLB. Still plenty of time for these guys to pan out, and I'm not worried about Spencer. But in the case of Ball, I'd start looking at other options if I was the team. If they dont make a play for Mankins, maybe finding a FS is an option.

Free safety play has been non-existant for the most part. Ball looks like a stop-gap option thus far.

I think Spencer has been solid, but I had hoped for more growth as a pass-rusher and I haven't see much of that yet.

I put some responses in bold above.

 

[visionary]

good post as usual david

this was much needed game for this team and while TR may not admit it, there is a lot of relief in that locker room right now.

the team played a very good game and beat a very good team on the road.

romo played a flawless game yesterday

spencer played better that we think

i think that on safety, long term, church will become SS and AOA/Hamlin will take over FS and ball will go back to #4 corner.

we need to get nickel LB issue resolved.

I would be OK with trading for mankins if kosier will miss time as long as the price is reasonable and we know what mankins will demand for a contract.

choice is a good RB who is frustrated with his role and is seeing his best years slipping away, he needs to be traded for the situation to get better because right now he thinks he is better than what he is doing and that is always a dangerous situation.

my biggest concern with this team is the fact that they play to potential once their backs are against the wall and drink the cool-aid too readily, that will come back to bite us.

 

[theogt]

4 catches, 72 yds and 0 tds.

IIRC we need him to catch 39+ to upgrade our pick. He had his best game yesterday, catching 3 for 57 yds.

Dez Bryant has 14 catches for 158 yds, and the great punt return for TD as well.

It's hard to believe they're actually getting Dez involved so early, particularly after missing preseason and much of training camp.

He's on pace for nearly 900 yards right now and I think that pace will grow as the season continues.

 

[theogt]

Great post David.

I'm also disappointed with Ball. Don't hear about him much, but when you do see him, he's missing a tackle or trailing someone into the endzone. Thought for sure he'd be better than Hamlin, but so far, their play is identical

I've seen Ball making some boneheaded mistakes that Hamlin would never make. To say it's been "identical" is being extremely generous to Ball. That was a downgrade and there's no other way to cut it.

Hopefully he can improve over the season.

 

[Gaede]

o say it's been "identical" is being extremely generous to Ball. That was a downgrade and there's no other way to cut it.

Hopefully he can improve over the season.

Yeah, certainly seems like it so far...

 

[casmith07]

I've seen Ball making some boneheaded mistakes that Hamlin would never make. To say it's been "identical" is being extremely generous to Ball. That was a downgrade and there's no other way to cut it.

Hopefully he can improve over the season.

It has been a downgrade, I agree. The only benefit is in the cost column, I suppose.

 

[ZeroClub]

It's hard to believe they're actually getting Dez involved so early, particularly after missing preseason and much of training camp.

He's on pace for nearly 900 yards right now and I think that pace will grow as the season continues.

I agree. Given the missed time, Dez's progress is very impressive.

And by now it is obvious that, if he can stay healthy, he's going to be very special.

 

[JohnsKey19]

I've seen Ball making some boneheaded mistakes that Hamlin would never make. To say it's been "identical" is being extremely generous to Ball. That was a downgrade and there's no other way to cut it.

Hopefully he can improve over the season.

I'm going to give Ball another 5-6 games to show something. But i agree at this point it looks like a downgrade to a position where we needed improvement.

 

[RS12]

9) I think the bye week coming early is going to end up being good for us. We still have alot of guys nicked up or playing through some stuff. I think the staff can also look at these first 3 games and start making some adjustments to the schemes and the personnel groupings too. One of the major adjustments I think they have to look at is Brooking and James playing so much in pass defense, especially Brooking. Hopefully Sean Lee is getting closer to 100% and can get alot of practice time in for the nickel, we need him.

10) Hopefully Kosier is ok, but this is another knee injury for him and he's in the last year of his contract. Holland has performed very well IMO, but if they find out Kosier is going to miss significant time today then maybe its worth making a call to New England about Mankins. Holland will also be a free agent I believe too and Davis has been ok, but not much better than ok. Guard is gonna be an area of need. I wouldnt give up a 1st rd pick for him, but if the price was a 2nd or perhaps a player (maybe one of our DE's or Tashard Choice) and a pick (middle rounder) I'd think about it. The Pats need defensive help bigtime.

I prefer the bye come later, if for no other reason than to try and build momentum from yesterday. On the other hand it would have been a miserable two weeks if yesterdays result were different. I look at Mankins regardless if the price is right, you always need to look at ways to improve the team.