Doug Free, revisited after 36 hours

[cnhnyy]

Doug Free played poorly but he did not exactly become Winston Justice overnight. Orapko is a great pass rusher and it is not exactly a crime for Free to hold him once (how many times did Trent Williams have to hold/tackle D Ware?). I mean, ESPN announcers could not get off Orakpo's jock for the whole night while he registered no stats against Free.

Can Doug Free be better, of course. But what we see from him is probably who he is. A solid good tackle who can handle most of DEs but would struggle dealing with elite passrushers. Yes, Joe Thomas is better but he costs you 85M.

 

[SilverStarCowboy]

Doug Free played poorly but he did not exactly become Winston Justice overnight. Orapko is a great pass rusher and it is not exactly a crime for Free to hold him once (how many times did Trent Williams have to hold/tackle D Ware?). I mean, ESPN announcers could not get off Orakpo's jock for the whole night while he registered no stats against Free.

Can Doug Free be better, of course. But what we see from him is probably who he is. A solid good tackle who can handle most of DEs but would struggle dealing with elite passrushers. Yes, Joe Thomas is better but he costs you 85M.

:explode:
Free is your Daddy.

 

[bbgun]

Doug Free played poorly but he did not exactly become Winston Justice overnight. Orapko is a great pass rusher and it is not exactly a crime for Free to hold him once (how many times did Trent Williams have to hold/tackle D Ware?). I mean, ESPN announcers could not get off Orakpo's jock for the whole night while he registered no stats against Free.

Can Doug Free be better, of course. But what we see from him is probably who he is. A solid good tackle who can handle most of DEs but would struggle dealing with elite passrushers. Yes, Joe Thomas is better but he costs you 85M.

Didn't Free get called for holding twice? Plus, he nearly got Tony killed when he couldn't block Orakpo's undistinguished replacement.

 

[baj1dallas]

well typical overreaction. Either you're the greatest player ever (witness the Sean Lee hysteria) or you're a bum. I mean Lee will probably have a game where he gets 2 tackle and no big plays (and the Cowboys win anyway) and there will be threads about how he disappeared. Free gets beat a handful of times early in a season with no offseason and 3 new starters on the line including a new center and all of a sudden he can't play.

 

[Idgit]

I bet we see Free's play improve. I think he's probably playing through a minor, unpublicized injury. He just doesn't look like he's got the great footwork he normally has right now.

 

[ThreeSportStar80]

Free looks out of shape...

 

[speedkilz88]

Scouts Eye
Bryan Broaddus


OFFENSIVE LINE

Last week, the offensive line wasn’t at their best until the fourth quarter. When studying this Commanders defense, it presented a whole different set of problems for this line.

Outside linebackers Brian Orakpo and Ryan Kerrigan put a great deal of pressure on teams' offensive lines, not only with the way they rush the passer, but also with the way they play the run.

Last week, Doug Free had one of the worst games he's had since he was named as a starter before the 2010 season. Free was off-balance with his footwork, his punch and his ability to control San Francisco’s Justin Smith in the running game, as well.

Free drew a tough assignment with Orakpo. Early in the game, it appeared that he was on that same path of struggles that he had in San Francisco. Orakpo is an explosive, pressure player. He is a relentless rusher and if he gets the corner, he can make you look terrible.

On one series, Free missed Orakpo with his punch and allowed him to grab that corner, quickly giving up a pressure. Free also gave up a sack to Rob Jackson because he was unable to get his hands on him to carry him wide around Romo. Free’s footwork on the play was terrible. He was slow and overextended. Free also gave up a holding call to Stephen Bowenon a reach block when all he could do his grab his jersey.

As the game wore on, Free was able to catch himself, find his technique and do a much better job in his sets and punch. One of Free’s greatest strengths is his ability to use his feet to stay in front of his man. There are times where he will struggle with power, but again as the game wore on, he was much better dealing with that, too.

http://espn.go.com/blog/dallas/cowb...w-2?utm_source=twitterfeed&utm_medium=twitter

 

[jaybird]

well typical overreaction. Either you're the greatest player ever (witness the Sean Lee hysteria) or you're a bum. I mean Lee will probably have a game where he gets 2 tackle and no big plays (and the Cowboys win anyway) and there will be threads about how he disappeared. Free gets beat a handful of times early in a season with no offseason and 3 new starters on the line including a new center and all of a sudden he can't play.

Sort of agree, but let's not sugar coat it too much. Right now now we are not seeing the free of last year. Let's hope its tempoary. I'm starting to think like Spags---is something wrong?

 

[JoeCorrado]

Doug Free played poorly but he did not exactly become Winston Justice overnight. Orapko is a great pass rusher and it is not exactly a crime for Free to hold him once (how many times did Trent Williams have to hold/tackle D Ware?). I mean, ESPN announcers could not get off Orakpo's jock for the whole night while he registered no stats against Free.

Can Doug Free be better, of course. But what we see from him is probably who he is. A solid good tackle who can handle most of DEs but would struggle dealing with elite passrushers. Yes, Joe Thomas is better but he costs you 85M.

I agree wth you 100 percent.

I am not worried about Free at this point. Could he have played better in the last two games? Sure, but he IS our left tackle and he will typically be expected to protect Romo's blind side against the very best that the defense can muster each and every week. He won't survive every game unscathed. That would be like Romo never throwing a pick, eh?

With that in mind, I am happy with his efforts, although I do expect even better from him. Why? Because he has EARNED my expectations from what he has done in the past. I do not forget all that came before because of a sub-par game or two. And I have not forgotten that we are talking about a guy here who has by far exceeded even our wildest expectations.

 

[Padd]

well typical overreaction. Either you're the greatest player ever (witness the Sean Lee hysteria) or you're a bum. I mean Lee will probably have a game where he gets 2 tackle and no big plays (and the Cowboys win anyway) and there will be threads about how he disappeared. Free gets beat a handful of times early in a season with no offseason and 3 new starters on the line including a new center and all of a sudden he can't play.

 

[burmafrd]

he is not as good as he was last year. Fact. He is not horrid yet. But the signs right now are NOT good. I disagree with the scout that claimed he was doing fine by the fourth; he was better but certainly not fine.

 

[NoLuv4Jerry]

far be it that a SCOUT actually does not have the love many zoners have for Bradie James.

 

[Hoofbite]

[youtube]1lWJXDG2i0A[/youtube]

 

[21Savage]

Great point!

The most disappointing part of his play was almost getting Romo killed by some nondescript rusher; he just whiffed on that block.

One of the holds was on a running play where he actually was in good position so I usually throw those out.

But with the job he did against Orakpo overall, if that was Ware that was being shut down like that we would all be asking what's wrong with Ware.

I love how Jaws is always quick to jump over that if Ware hasn't shown up in a while whereas Orakpo was getting shut down with single blocking all game save for one hold.

 

[realtick]

Didn't Free get called for holding twice? Plus, he nearly got Tony killed when he couldn't block Orakpo's undistinguished replacement.

Yes, he did. Once on a pass play and the other on a running play (Murray run).

 

[realtick]

far be it that a SCOUT actually does not have the love many zoners have for Bradie James.

Not sure why you brought up Bradie James name, but he had a poor game against the Commanders.

Just rewatched the game last night and keyed in on him. He struggled all game getting off of blocks. He was getting washed out on blocks and driven back. He whiffed on a tackle of Helu that Ware ended up cleaning up. He has 5 tackles in three games, two of the tackles he registered against the Skins were of the jump-on-the-guy-on-the-ground variety. His blitzing was impotent. There are some plays where Bradie has to maintain a lane and effectively take himself out of a play. I've factored those in.

 

[Yakuza Rich]

Yes, he got called for holding twice.

One time was one of those 'you got beat initially and you intended to hold, but you sorta didn't hold, but it was enough and more of the fact you got beat and intended to hold for us to throw the flag.'

The play he got beat by Jackson, the ball could've came out sooner, but I blaem the WR for that. You'd like to see better blocking, but that doesn't mean your LT is a turnstile either. WR runs the route correctly and there's probably no hit.

I thought he struggled more in the first half against the Skins than the Niners. But he did get better like Broaddus says...as the game went along.






YR

 

[FLcowboy]

I bet we see Free's play improve. I think he's probably playing through a minor, unpublicized injury. He just doesn't look like he's got the great footwork he normally has right now.

I read last week he had an injured left arm or shoulder. I haven't seen anything else on it though.

 

[Stash]

I read last week he had an injured left arm or shoulder. I haven't seen anything else on it though.

I've seen rumors of an injury refuted.

But it seems obvious to many that Free hasn't played up to his own usual standards the past two weeks.

Hopefully he picks it up.

Given the number of moving parts and issues elsewhere on the line, I'd rather not have to worry about one of our two veteran linemen as well.

 

[FuzzyLumpkins]

Orakpo is an amazing athlete and overexerted himself. He was pushing himself hard and getting results in the first half. Orakpo burned himself out to muscle failure by the second half. Also Free never bailed out like Trent Williams was doing with his kick step. Now i agree he certainly looked a bit sluggish and there have been reports of of a back issue.

He is 27 years old. He will be fine unless its something serious with his back.