News: DMN: Sturm's Decoding Linehan: Cowboys offense found something in Giants loss

[NewsBot]

*** Message was removed by demand from DMN ***

 

[WoodysGirl]

Sturm's take..

 

[Seven]

I can't bring myself to read this.......

 

[gmoney112]

Sturm is the man.

It's not a new take, it just backs everything your eyes told you in that game, which is Cassel is a much, much better QB for us than Weeden. The offense really opened up, and if he hadn't turned the ball over 3 times, we might have won that game by 20 points.

I think we'll see a ton of 2-TE and 3-TE sets against Seattle. If Dez returns, that'll be a very strong grouping for us. I hadn't really noticed how often we were rolling out that alignment, but it looks to be a significant strength.

Zack Martin is also awesome to watch in space. It's incredible to think he's only in his second year. Wow

 

[Aven8]

Good stuff! Martin is baccckkkkk!

 

[AKATheRake]

Bob Sturm has written many football witty articles but I must say!

This is quite possibly the most football and best article I have ever read from him.

Not just him, but maybe all columnists.

Not even a joke.

 

[Doc50]

Sturm is the man.

It's not a new take, it just backs everything your eyes told you in that game, which is Cassel is a much, much better QB for us than Weeden. The offense really opened up, and if he hadn't turned the ball over 3 times, we might have won that game by 20 points.

I think we'll see a ton of 2-TE and 3-TE sets against Seattle. If Dez returns, that'll be a very strong grouping for us. I hadn't really noticed how often we were rolling out that alignment, but it looks to be a significant strength.

Zack Martin is also awesome to watch in space. It's incredible to think he's only in his second year. Wow

Yeah, I don't disagree with his take on the game.

What bothers me is the amount of time it took during the season (and needing a bye week) to implement any new looks or variations. And the in-game adaptations and adjustments and anticipation of opponents' changes have been even more scant. Garrett is conservative by nature, which means resistant to change. Last years' team was consistent with that, reminding me a bit of the '60s Packers. But the league is now ready for that, and we can't make it work anyway without a sharp QB.

Which brings me to my next point: Romo is like an OC on the field. JG can game plan with the vanilla offense, and Tony will make the D pay if they try to overload anything; he is probably second only to P. Manning in his ability to read defenses and modify plays. So he makes the coaches look brilliant, while making many of those key adjustments himself.

It seems that that offensive coaches have therefore been somewhat exposed -- they don't have Romo to create and make the plays, and also manage the clock.

 

[CowboyStar88]

Great read, Great break down... Thank you sir Mr. Sturm

 

[Super_Kazuya]

Sturm is the man.

It's not a new take, it just backs everything your eyes told you in that game, which is Cassel is a much, much better QB for us than Weeden. The offense really opened up, and if he hadn't turned the ball over 3 times, we might have won that game by 20 points

lol... you have to laugh at the cluelessness of some fans. "If Matt Cassel hadn't done what Matt Cassel does, he'd be Tony Romo." It will be just as funny reading their excuses next Monday too.

 

[Tusan_Homichi]

lol... you have to laugh at the cluelessness of some fans. "If Matt Cassel hadn't done what Matt Cassel does, he'd be Tony Romo." It will be just as funny reading their excuses next Monday too.

Well, if special teams hadn't been a complete disaster, we probably would have won too or at least had the ball with the game tied only needing a field goal to win it.

 

[CATCH17]

Sturm is the man.

It's not a new take, it just backs everything your eyes told you in that game, which is Cassel is a much, much better QB for us than Weeden. The offense really opened up, and if he hadn't turned the ball over 3 times, we might have won that game by 20 points.

I think we'll see a ton of 2-TE and 3-TE sets against Seattle. If Dez returns, that'll be a very strong grouping for us. I hadn't really noticed how often we were rolling out that alignment, but it looks to be a significant strength.

Zack Martin is also awesome to watch in space. It's incredible to think he's only in his second year. Wow

It took switching to Cassell to not be so predictable on first down and to throw in a few wrinkles here and there?

No.


Weeden was just as much of a victim of bad coaching as the coaches were of him.

 

[Kevinicus]

Good stuff! Martin is baccckkkkk!

Yup. Not wearing his neck roll thing anymore either. Add Collins plowing people and you've got something. If the OL continues to play the rest of the season like they did Sunday, then this offense is going to explode once Dez and Tony are back. Three more games...have too win at least 2.

 

[Tusan_Homichi]

Yup. Not wearing his neck roll thing anymore either. Add Collins plowing people and you've got something. If the OL continues to play the rest of the season like they did Sunday, then this offense is going to explode once Dez and Tony are back. Three more games...have too win at least 2.

If we're going to win 2, I think our best chances come after Seattle.

Though, I'd be really curious how many teams lose 5 in a row in a season and then come back to make the playoffs. I already know that teams that start 2-4 only make the playoffs 7% of the time. I'd imagine 2-5 is worse and if those 5 were in a row? Probably even worse than that. We're approaching lottery odds here.

 

[punchnjudy]

Will be interesting to see how they attack Seattle. I watched Carolina drive almost the length of the field by pounding it up Seattle's gut. With their guards/center, Dallas has the advantage there. However, I'll be surprised if the receivers get much action. Could see them trying to create mismatches with their TE's like Sturm mentioned, but I wonder how much, if any, they'll try to do the opposite in the running game--spread them out and then pound them inside. IIRC (and I may not), they had some success with that last year.

 

[30yrheel]

It took switching to Cassell to not be so predictable on first down and to throw in a few wrinkles here and there?

No.


Weeden was just as much of a victim of bad coaching as the coaches were of him.

Any armchair coach could defend the bland crap that we were running. The run game works better when the defense is kept off balance a little. Wow, Linehan is a genius!

 

[VACowboy]

Though, I'd be really curious how many teams lose 5 in a row in a season and then come back to make the playoffs. I already know that teams that start 2-4 only make the playoffs 7% of the time. I'd imagine 2-5 is worse and if those 5 were in a row? Probably even worse than that. We're approaching lottery odds here.

I think it depends why you lose. There's a big difference between losing because your QB went down and losing just because you suck. The losses themselves count identically, but if you're going to get your QB and #1 receiver back at some point, you're talking about two completely different teams.

Pundits and football people like to throw out numbers and make cause and effect arguments all the time. Like, teams that run the ball 35 times a game win a lot. Or, if you go 2-4, you only have a 7% chance to make the playoffs! I would argue that teams run the ball 35 times a game because they're winning, or go 2-4 and miss the playoffs because they suck. Dallas is a 2-5 because a bunch of players got hurt. Here's hoping they're still mathematically alive when Romo's back.

 

[gmoney112]

lol... you have to laugh at the cluelessness of some fans. "If Matt Cassel hadn't done what Matt Cassel does, he'd be Tony Romo." It will be just as funny reading their excuses next Monday too.

Don't worry Mr. Weeden, your son will be back home for Thanksgiving. You might want to go ahead and fix up his old room, he'll be staying a while.

 

[Sasquatch]

Weeden was just as much of a victim of bad coaching as the coaches were of him.

True. Why they had TWill running fades to the corner of the end zone a la Dez is beyond me. That was a combination that was destined to fail. And it did, a few times.

 

[sbark]

Speaking of L.Collins: look for a 10 second segment after the Butler int. in the middle of the field, Collins was like a man possessed as he attempted to tackle the CB, I swear the Gints CB went to the ground to avoid the wrath of Collins...........Collins has a little "hardy" in him?

 

[Doomsay]

Don't worry Mr. Weeden, your son will be back home for Thanksgiving. You might want to go ahead and fix up his old room, he'll be staying a while.

Post of the Century. Thanks!