DMN Blog: Are Cowboys better designed to win in December?

[Idgit]

Guess you weren't paying attention... Kosier missed 13 games, and his backup, Holland, missed 9... which means that THIRD STRING guard Corey Procter wound up playing 13 games...

Meanwhile, Flozell Adams played all 16 games, but while battling through a fairly serious arm injury... Leonard Davis also battled injuries while playing all 16 games...

It could be argued that at no point last season did the Cowboys have the offensive line they planned on having back in training camp...

And even then, Romo wasn't sacked nearly as frequently as posters in this thread would have you believe... he went down 31 times, in 578 pass attempts, or once every 18.7 attempts... I think if you took the time to compare that to the other teams around the league, that average would be a little above average... indeed, the Steelers allowed one sack in every 11.3 attempts, the Pats gave up one in every 12.1 attempts...

Just took the time to go through the stats, and only 12 teams last year did better than the Boys did at protecting their quarterbacks, using the number of attempts per sack stat...

The Boys were also tenth in the league in yards per attempt rushing, but were 21st in total yards rushing, suggesting that they needed to feature their running game more... so I'm unsurprised that they're now saying they're planning on doing just that...

Of course, that's a tribute to lousy coaching, isn't it?? The Boys need to employ press coverage more, and run the ball more... that, and staying healthier than they did last year, is the key to a solid turnaround this year...

Flozell also played 3-4 games with a nasty hand infection in his left (ie, outside) hand. Report was it was swollen to twice the size of the right hand.

We also played, what, 8 top-5 defenses last year? And gave up less than the league average in sacks/attempt? That's not a normal distribution of defenses we were up against, no matter how you slice it.

 

[Doomsday101]

I have seen Romo scramble for his life, be forced to get rid of the ball when he is not ready, be forced into bad throws, for two years now.

I am sick and tired of excuses for poor performances by this line. The stats of how poor they are, may be non existent, by you can't say Romo has had an easy time of it. Romo could be one of the most accurate arms in the NFL, but we will never find out when he has to scamble 3/4ths of the time, or makes poor decisions because he is hearing footsteps on his heals. Romo has been injured because of the poor perfomance and his confidence suffers because he nevers knows when the hit will be coming that could end his season or even career. Romo has almost never been able to stand in a pocket and step up to make his passes.

Now we are forced to run first in order to set up the pass. We will see how this goes when teams start lining up 8 or 9 men in the box, in order to force us to pass.

I think too much gets made out of run to setup the pass or pass to setup the run. I think you need a good blend of both running and passing. I don't want Dallas to run on 1st and 2nd then get forced into throwing on 3rd I would like to see mixing it up between run and pass on early downs. I do however want to see more of a commitment to the run, Dallas ranked 25th in the league in rushing attempts that has to improve especially late in the season.

 

[tecolote]

Considering 3 of our last 4 games of the season will be indoors, will all this emphasis on the running game really be necessary?

 

[jobberone]

Still. the question is: Can this old OL get the job done, when it comes to the running game. They sure as heck can't protect Romo, without him fearing for his saftey. I am just not sure if they can be a better run blocking line. Will have to wait and see. Sure hope so!

You're right. This team will go as far as Romo takes it. And he'll go as far as the OL let's him. Not entirely that simple but....

 

[Doomsday101]

Considering 3 of our last 4 games of the season will be indoors, will all this emphasis on the running game really be necessary?

Yes because it is not just about the weather as it is imposing your will on the opponent. I would also add this is the time of year when teams are fighting for their playoff lives so you are going to get the best from the opponent you are facing and nothing wears down a defense like a crushing running game where the Oline is now attacking instead of defending

 

[jday]

Guess you weren't paying attention... Kosier missed 13 games, and his backup, Holland, missed 9... which means that THIRD STRING guard Corey Procter wound up playing 13 games...

Meanwhile, Flozell Adams played all 16 games, but while battling through a fairly serious arm injury... Leonard Davis also battled injuries while playing all 16 games...

It could be argued that at no point last season did the Cowboys have the offensive line they planned on having back in training camp...

And even then, Romo wasn't sacked nearly as frequently as posters in this thread would have you believe... he went down 31 times, in 578 pass attempts, or once every 18.7 attempts... I think if you took the time to compare that to the other teams around the league, that average would be a little above average... indeed, the Steelers allowed one sack in every 11.3 attempts, the Pats gave up one in every 12.1 attempts...

Just took the time to go through the stats, and only 12 teams last year did better than the Boys did at protecting their quarterbacks, using the number of attempts per sack stat...

The Boys were also tenth in the league in yards per attempt rushing, but were 21st in total yards rushing, suggesting that they needed to feature their running game more... so I'm unsurprised that they're now saying they're planning on doing just that...

Of course, that's a tribute to lousy coaching, isn't it?? The Boys need to employ press coverage more, and run the ball more... that, and staying healthier than they did last year, is the key to a solid turnaround this year...

Good post silveerbear, but the one thing this stat doesn't capture is how good each QB is at avoiding the sack. Romo, is actually one of the better QB's at avoiding the sack.

Why don't you go back and add in how many times each QB was pressured, and see how that turns out? And I'm not trying to be a smart ***, I really want to know.