DMN Blog: Inside the NFL on Cowboys

[WoodysGirl]

You can't go 'Inside the NFL' without the Cowboys

12:22 AM Thu, Nov 20, 2008 | Permalink
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It's safe to say Showtime's weekly Wednesday night show has a Cowboys fetish.

Here's last night's Cowboys talk:

Chris Collinsworth on Sunday's win over the Commanders: "Tony Romo, I think, helped the defense more than anybody. What I think this game is all about is raw emotion. For the first time all season, the Dallas Cowboys weren't assuming they were going to the playoffs. They were scared; they were shook up. They were afraid their season was going to end in Washington that night. And defensively, they brought passion to the game that I had not seen."


Phil Simms on why he thinks the Cowboys are doomed: "What bothers me about everything is that you think, 'Oh, one game, now the Cowboys have turned it around.' Their starting quarterback, their star, goes down. They've got eight first-round draft picks on defense. They've got an offensive line that's supposed to be, if not the best, one of the best in the NFL. Why didn't they turn this on when they lost their star quarterback three games earlier? That's what bothers me. And that's why I can't be a believer."

Warren Sapp on what it takes to win a Super Bowl: "Whenever your star quarterback goes away, your defense has to tow the line. In 1999, we were on a run when Trent Dilfer goes out in the Kingdome and busts up his shoulder. We got Shawn King who is a rookie. I looked at (Derrick) Brooks and Hardy (Nickerson), and all of us came together to have a meeting and said, 'Let's tow this line until we get our quarterback back.' We never did and we made it to the championship game."

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[Dave_in-NC]

It's hard not to agree with any of them.

 

[Temo]

8 First round picks on defense when Romo went down? Is that true?

I count 4- Ware, Spears, Carpenter, Ellis- and one of those guys isn't even a starter.

I mean, if you count Pacman, Newman, Spencer, and Roy Williams, that's 8. But all of those guys weren't there for the games after Romo went down. So how does that support his point?

Same thing with Sapp. Also it's hard to maintain your "top offensive line" moniker when your center and left tackle are playing injured and you're missing your left guard. And when you try to run the ball, you have a QB who can't throw more than 15 yards downfield so you're constantly seeing 8 and 9 man fronts. Plus the QB is a statue who can't escape any kind of pressure.

In any case, I'm not trying to make excuses. Obviously the cowboys did not play well. But the only game I have a real problem with was the Rams game; the team just quit on that one. They played well against Tampa Bay and were simply overmatched against the Giants.

 

[Oh_Canada]

Frankly, I have no problem with any of there points.

I was VERY disappointed with the defense over that stretch, especially in that St.Louis game where they just didn't compete.

 

[AmishCowboy]

Frankly, I have no problem with any of there points.

I was VERY disappointed with the defense over that stretch, especially in that St.Louis game where they just didn't compete.

There were so many distractions that week with Romo's injury, Pacman suspension and the Roy Williams trade.

 

[SDogo]

So easy to forget, this team was struggling before Romo went down

 

[AdamJT13]

So easy to forget, this team was struggling before Romo went down

We were 4-1 when Romo was hurt. When we "struggle" with Romo, we still almost always win.

 

[AdamJT13]

Warren Sapp on what it takes to win a Super Bowl: "Whenever your star quarterback goes away, your defense has to tow the line. In 1999, we were on a run when Trent Dilfer goes out in the Kingdome and busts up his shoulder. We got Shawn King who is a rookie. I looked at (Derrick) Brooks and Hardy (Nickerson), and all of us came together to have a meeting and said, 'Let's tow this line until we get our quarterback back.' We never did and we made it to the championship game."

Losing Trent Dilfer isn't the same as losing Tony Romo. And Shaun King outplayed Dilfer that season. He had a higher completion percentage, higher TD percentage, lower interception percentage, higher passer rating and lower sack percentage.

It's not difficult to win with your backup QB when he plays better than your starting QB did. (Except, that is, when you allow 45 points, as Sapp, Nickerson and company did when they got blown out by a mediocre Raiders team.) It's much more difficult to win when your backup QB plays terribly and keeps committing turnovers, which is why we went 1-2 without Romo.

 

[Oh_Canada]

We were 4-1 when Romo was hurt. When we "struggle" with Romo, we still almost always win.

True...but the problem is that the team was showing signs of slopiness/poor execution before he went down.

 

[Temo]

True...but the problem is that the team was showing signs of slopiness/poor execution before he went down.

Which is different from last year... how? In fact, I thought the defense played some of the finest football it's played against the Commanders and the Bucs... last year included.

The Rams game, I'll grant you. And the Giants just over matched the defense on the ground, something they've done to plenty of other defenses as well. I wouldn't be surprised if the Cowboys gave the Giants some 8 man fronts next time they meet. If Newman stays healthy and Pacman can contribute, they can man up against the Giant's WRs, who I think are a bit overrated.

 

[jobberone]

Give me a break. Sapp's team lost it's QB. We lost ours and got worse than a rookie. We got 'QB Who Can't Throw No Mo' and lost two out of three of our starting CBs, our starting SS, and counting Flo as out the left side of our OL plus our Pro Bowl TE gets injured.

I've never seen that many injuries at one time. No one is gonna role their sleeves up and roll thru that.

 

[cowboyjoe]

what they say is true, its like the cowboys players on defense in 1971 when had their back to the wall, they had a team meeting, got out all of the finger pointing, the anger, frustration, and said basically, no one will cross the endzone on our defense, unless its over dead bodies. If you remember, the cowboys had the most dominating defense that year, and hardly anyone scored touchdowns on them.

thats what the players said, and what the players have to do now;

now, lets see,
ware, carpenter, spencer, ellis, roy williams safety, newman, jenkins, adam jones,

thats 8 that i count, but you have to take away roy williams since he is on injured reserve, and adam jones wont play on defenes for 2 weeks, so that really leaves 6.

tank johnson, hamlin, burnett, their 2nd round draft choices,

 

[hockix]

But why wait till they have their back to the wall before giving it all?

 

[TNCowboy]

8 First round picks on defense when Romo went down? Is that true?

I count 4- Ware, Spears, Carpenter, Ellis- and one of those guys isn't even a starter.

I mean, if you count Pacman, Newman, Spencer, and Roy Williams, that's 8. But all of those guys weren't there for the games after Romo went down. So how does that support his point?

Same thing with Sapp. Also it's hard to maintain your "top offensive line" moniker when your center and left tackle are playing injured and you're missing your left guard. And when you try to run the ball, you have a QB who can't throw more than 15 yards downfield so you're constantly seeing 8 and 9 man fronts. Plus the QB is a statue who can't escape any kind of pressure.

In any case, I'm not trying to make excuses. Obviously the cowboys did not play well. But the only game I have a real problem with was the Rams game; the team just quit on that one. They played well against Tampa Bay and were simply overmatched against the Giants.

You forgot Jenkins.

 

[NextGenBoys]

There were so many distractions that week with Romo's injury, Pacman suspension and the Roy Williams trade.

Bingo. We have a winner.

For the first time in awhile last week, it was just football. No distractions. Just football. Let's keep it that way.

 

[Temo]

You forgot Jenkins.

Ah, true. So I guess he wasn't counting Pacman (he was from another team).

 

[HoosierCowboy]

8 First round picks on defense when Romo went down? Is that true?

I count 4- Ware, Spears, Carpenter, Ellis- and one of those guys isn't even a starter.

I mean, if you count Pacman, Newman, Spencer, and Roy Williams, that's 8. But all of those guys weren't there for the games after Romo went down. So how does that support his point?

Same thing with Sapp. Also it's hard to maintain your "top offensive line" moniker when your center and left tackle are playing injured and you're missing your left guard. And when you try to run the ball, you have a QB who can't throw more than 15 yards downfield so you're constantly seeing 8 and 9 man fronts. Plus the QB is a statue who can't escape any kind of pressure.

In any case, I'm not trying to make excuses. Obviously the cowboys did not play well. But the only game I have a real problem with was the Rams game; the team just quit on that one. They played well against Tampa Bay and were simply overmatched against the Giants.

 

[Coy]

At the end of the program Collisnworth said, "you better watch out for the cowboys, they could do to the Giants exactly what the Giants did to them last year"
Meaning that we could get on a hot streak and beat them in the playoffs.

 

[khiladi]

The differenece is obvious...The coaching philosophy totally changed this game.Wade played way more press man-to-man coverage, which helped the defensive pressure up-front big time. One reason is that Newman came back totally healthy giving Wade more confidence to go to man. The QBs weren't dumping the ball off like they were previously doing with the Cowboys, controlling the TOP and not allowing the DL to make an impact. Jason Garrett was moving TO way more in motion and was consistent in attacking the Commanders front-line with Barber. He was goign after the edges all day long. The problem clearly was in the coaching philosophy, which had to change this game. Whether it was a result of players being brought back from injury or not, the fact is, the coaching philosophy changed which gave them the edge.Coaching makes a huge difference.

 

[Temo]

The differenece is obvious...The coaching philosophy totally changed this game.Wade played way more press man-to-man coverage, which helped the defensive pressure up-front big time. One reason is that Newman came back totally healthy giving Wade more confidence to go to man. The QBs weren't dumping the ball off like they were previously doing with the Cowboys, controlling the TOP and not allowing the DL to make an impact. Jason Garrett was moving TO way more in motion and was consistent in attacking the Commanders front-line with Barber. He was goign after the edges all day long. The problem clearly was in the coaching philosophy, which had to change this game. Whether it was a result of players being brought back from injury or not, the fact is, the coaching philosophy changed which gave them the edge.Coaching makes a huge difference.

And the coaching philosophy changed because the players changed. We go in circles all day with this.

You can't do with Brad Johnson what you can do with Tony Romo. Same with Terrence Newman. Remember that one play where Randel-El worked over Ant Henry in solo coverage for a big gain? Now imagine Henry on Santana Moss in man coverage, for the entire game.

Wade's "soft zone" worked beautifully in Tampa bay and was still good against the giants. He changed it up to suit his players and the opponent (we all saw how Campbell likes to dink and dunk).