I think the media just under estimates football. This isn’t madden.
- 3 games in 12 days. Add in two road games to boot. An emotional road loss in OT, followed by beating your rival last week.
- A lot of guys getting experience. They want to prove they belong in the league. These are all professionals.
- Short week. Thursdays are difficult for every team.
- Team is already locked into the 5. They want to keep the play along vanilla.
- No Tony Pollard and at least 6 defensive starters out.
If this was on a Sunday, I feel it would’ve been different.
I actually think he is right on with his assessment, and, without malice, I call BS on the reasons given here.
3 games in 12 days - well how about we look at it this way. We lose a game we should of won against the Jags on a sunday. Then we beat the Eagles a week later on a Sat, then we scrape by almost a week later against the Titans so the three games were balanced out time in between. I mean when you look at it, teams usually play 3 games in 14 days normally so this line is overused
A lot of guys getting experience - well being professionals, it doesn't matter when they go out they should be playing lights out, if not then it is on the coaches for giving them playing time
Short week - (see above) not that short, we played Saturday before this game, extra day. aside from that, teams deal with this every week.
Team is already locked into the 5 - so with our history in the playoffs, you want to give our players the perception that we are not in it to win it, to go cold right before playoff time??? how many times have we, or any team been successful with that strategy? Before you say teams will bench starters before playoffs, did we? actually I believe we struggled against a team that basically had second teamers in all over the place. Never bought into that losing strategy and winning teams shouldnt
No Tony Pollard and at least 6 defensive starters out - well not much to argue here except that we played a good defense against the run and it showed, Zeke got nothing despite getting good effort by Malik. As far as 6 defensive starters out, ehh injuries happen to every team. if anyone is at fault, its jerry.
It may sound like I am bashing this team as no good, actually I am not. I actually think this team as it stands now has all the talent it needs to win it all, no doubt about it. the fault isn't due to, and hasn't been for many years, a lack of talent, it is something else - management? coaching? culture? All I am saying is Rich Eisen is correct here in questioning why, why cant this team be more consistent. It should be.
Funny thing is the other day having dinner with my son and his fiance, who of course is a Cowboy fan as well, he asked me how I felt about this game with a smirk (like is it even worth watching being the Cowboys should walk over them). I said well we will see which led him to question me, and I told him well it depends on which Cowboy team shows up. who knows..... that is honest to God assessment of that conversation (not exact cuz at my age, exact is really approx. lol)
Anyways, this team needs to find focus and never lose it. Needs to stop playing down to its opponents. Needs to put teams away, and never relent every single week.