jday
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Hattip goes to @Idgit – our recent conversation inspired the following:
I’ve been quiet as of late. The reasons for that are numerous, but I suspect the biggest contributing factor is I have allowed my general and natural apathy regarding thoughts manufactured outside of my own head to lead me towards not even bothering with trying anymore. After all, once someone adopts an agenda, it’s hard to shake it, regardless of the logic it defies or the truth it ignores. The general discussion of late has been tired, ill-informed, and lazy in its analysis. The Cowboys lose, and the consensus immediately becomes the coaches screwed up or the front office failed the offseason without even for a moment considering the possibility that when it mattered most on a handful of fateful plays, one of the eleven players donning a blue star failed to execute their assignment, as is normally the case when any team in the league loses. It happens to every team regardless of coach or front office.
In a recent conversation I had, I outlined many of the misguided commentaries; a few of those are in no particular order as follows: Jason Garrett sucks, the front office botched the offseason, Zeke wasn't worth the fourth overall pick, the Cowboys defense sucks and the Cowboys are what their record says. The following is my (wasted on most) effort to Hulk Smash these ill-conceived narratives.
Jason Garrett Sucks
I honestly think the first problem fans have with Jason is he is nothing like Bill Belichick. He is not an elite tactician, he is by no means an innovator, and he is not a risk-taker, though he does rubberstamp the occasional few and far between calculated risk, such as the fake punt from the shade of the Cowboys own goal post dialed up against the Eagles last year when down by double-digits.
My issue with this stance against Jason is the fact that there is only one Bill Belichick, and firing Garret certainly doesn’t change that; it’s not like we can trust the front office to find a Bill Belichick clone following Garrett’s dismissal. My second issue with this approach to Jason-hate is that as great as Bill is, he doesn’t win the Super Bowl every year which means there is more than one way to skin a cat.
I’m not saying Jason is above reproach. However, I would recommend caution in your criticisms. Jason has lived, breathed, and consumed football his entire life; name an informed fan, analyst, so-called expert not presently employed by the NFL and I feel pretty confident Garrett knows more than they do…a lot more. My own personal issue with Garrett stems from the fact that I think he can play it a little too safe at times (e.g. cutting better players to maintain the services of Kellen while grooming Cooper, seemingly taken the foot off the offensive pedal when nursing a double-digit lead, valuing experience at times over natural God-given youthful ability). But like all humans, I also think he is capable of learning from his mistakes, so patience on our part is key.
The Front Office Botched the Offseason
I have to say, of all the threads being devoted to false-premises, this one is quite possibly the most annoying given the lack of logic deployed in its wake. The Cowboys release Nolan Carroll, Stephen Paea retires, and the Cowboys shortly thereafter release Demontre Moore and the general assumption is the Cowboys do not know how to evaluate talent. They should have known Jourdan Lewis would outplay Carroll thereby negating Nolan’s necessity on the 53. They should have known Stephen would retire mid-season. They should have known Demontre Moore would get in trouble off the field again prompting his release.
With the loss of all 3 priority free agents, a narrative was born that the Cowboys don’t know how to evaluate football players. Seriously? They might not be all that great at predicting the future – I’ll concede that with ease considering that no front office is – but evaluating talent just might be one of their strong suits considering the league at large. That offensive line, which is still one of the best in the league, is for the most part homegrown, as is the majority of the team. That speaks volumes to their ability to identify and acquire talent. Every fan should be so lucky to have a front office nailing talent acquisition like the Cowboys have over the past 5 or 6 years.
The other side of this criticism is the assertion that the Cowboys are not willing to over-spend for talent. From my point of view, that’s a compliment. People look at players such as Calais Campbell, lamenting “we could have had him and, as a result, the best passrush in the league!” One, again are front office cannot be held accountable for their inability to predict what Calais would do (or not do) now at the ripe age of 31 after getting paid and two, the Cowboys may not be able to look with 20/20 at the future, but they can certainly look backwards at all the times over-paying for free agents bit them in the butt…and I suspect they wisely do so every time a scout, coach, or member of the front office pounds the table for their free agent pet cat.
Zeke was not worth the Fourth Overall Pick
I get it. This gripe I fully understand. When hidden-gem players like Kareem Hunt, for instance, arise from obscurity and take the NFL by storm, fans have a tendency to wonder why the Cowboys would waste such a high pick on a player they could potentially find later in the draft. After all, running backs simply don’t last that long playing in the NFL and generally speaking, keeping them beyond a 5 year contract is either cap restrictive or quite simply stupid due to the poor odds of them finishing that second contract at the same level of productivity they displayed at the end of their first contract. Like I said…I get it.
Having said that, Zeke is a special case. In my opinion, Zeke is a generational talent. While he may not be the best at any one thing a running back might be asked to do, there isn’t a single thing you might ask him to do that he doesn’t do better than most. Having a running back that can do everything well is a huge advantage for an offensive coordinator. It means he doesn’t have to tip his hand in regards to what he wants to do; he can keep the opposing defensive coordinator and by extension the defensive players guessing when it matters most.
There is no exact science in drafting and there certainly isn’t a reliable method to determine why certain players hit the ground running in the NFL regardless of draft positions while the majority does not. In other words, Kareem Hunt’s are not in every draft…though, admittedly, it happens enough to warrant the discussion. The problem with that line of thinking is that typically when people say you can find running backs later they site the few examples out of the thousands that never amounted to anything in the NFL. In other words, for every Kareem Hunt there are 10 to 15 running backs that do a whole lot of nothing in every draft. Therein is the risk on waiting on a position of need, which running back absolutely was for the Cowboys in 2016.
So, when you identify a talent such as Zeke and you know all that he is capable of doing with the football, particularly behind a line such as Dallas, you take him and you don’t even consider thinking twice. If your logic is grounded in the fact that Zeke is having legal problems and may be one suspension away from a lifetime NFL banishment, I can only point out that this issue stems from a situation that occurred after he was drafted, and we can’t fault the front office for not knowing the future…once again.
The Cowboys Defense still Sucks
For years now, this has been a partial truth; it simply isn’t anymore. I say “partial truth” because the Cowboys at various times have had the dogs to compete on that side of the ball but due to overwhelming poor luck on the health front, from one week to the next, the defensive coordinator has had to put a squad on the field complete with duct tape and 550 cord hoping they can slow the opposition down enough for the Cowboys offense to pull out a win.
A recent stat emerged displaying the difference in point/yards allowed when Lee has been healthy versus when he has not been. Many asked “is Lee really that important to the Cowboys defense?” The answer to that question is both “yes” and “no.” Lee is a stud…no arguing that. As both a leader and a student of the game who constantly watches film, his contribution is huge. He makes the calls. He make sure players are in the correct position. And his instincts typically puts him in the frame of every tackle the Cowboys record when he is on the field. His contribution is huge and it is clearly noticeable when he is not on the field.
That said, his importance is further supported by the fact that the linebacker position, in general, is a ridiculously important position to Marinelli’s scheme. In Marinelli’s scheme, the dl is typically charged with the responsibility of attacking 1 gap, dependent on the play called. It is the linebacker’s job to quickly diagnose the play and fill the unmanned gaps…ideally for a loss, but within 2 yards of the line of scrimmage is typically acceptable, dependent on the situation.
With Hitchens and Lee on the sideline, Jaylon Smith, in particular, continuously allowed the action to come to him as opposed to reacting and meeting it at the hole and/or, took poor angles to the ball on designed outside runs. This led to an unacceptable amount of 5 and 6 yard runs allowed by the Cowboys defense in the Packers and Rams games this season, which I believe, is the predominant reason the Cowboys ended up losing those games.
To be clear, I’m not saying the Cowboys defense is great or dominant right now…they still have their warts…I’ll even name two of their warts: Heath and Youth. But I do think they are much better than what the national media and many Cowboys fans are willing to give them credit for. For starters, for the first time since Ware’s prime the Cowboys have a passrush…and it could potentially become the best passrush we’ve seen since the 90’s considering the Cowboys just might have two War Daddy’s in Tank Lawrence and David Irving. Secondly, the now infamous youth movement that was kicked off with a bang this past offseason has exhibited flashes of potential excellence.
Jourdan Lewis has been as advertised. He is even garnering consideration for one of the better defensive backs taken in the draft this year. Xavier Woods has also flashed, though his opportunities have been few and far between, the fact that as a safety they have been able to plug him in as a corner in his first year as an NFL player speaks volume to his football acumen and overall athleticism. Chidobe has been hampered by nagging injuries, but he too has demonstrated the ability to explode to the ball carrier and make sound textbook wrap-up tackles.
Albeit Taco has done a whole lot of nothing, but I’ve been saying since we drafted the guy he was going to need a year or two (like Demarcus Lawrence did) to scratch the surface of his potential; in a manner of speaking, he was a futures pick. For context, Aaron Donald only managed 5 sacks in his first season and that was rightfully considered elite. And so you understand, I’m not saying Taco is the next Donald; I’m merely pointing out that for defensive lineman, in general, the expectations should be tempered in their first year.
If the Cowboys can survive the upcoming stretch of brutal games, this defense very well could be great by season end….when it matters most. It will require luck on the health front and continued development of the youth, but a top 10 defense in the closing quarter of the season is not outside of the realms of possibility for this unit.
Bill Parcells
The Tuna is responsible for this movement. Without fail, just about any time an analyst claims a team is better than what their record suggest, someone will utter the quote: “The great Bill Parcells once said you are what your record says you are!” I think it is important we place that quote in the proper context. Bill Parcells was a Head Coach. Line one of your job description as the Head Coach is to keep your players grounded regardless of wins and losses. As a Head Coach, you don’t want your players to get too low following losses and yet, alternatively, you don’t want them overly-celebrating wins unless said win is the only win that really matters: A Championship!
Everything Parcells ever said to the media, he said with the understanding that his players would either read it for themselves, see it quoted while watching sport center, or hear about it from friends and family. As a result, he tailored his responses with that in mind. That quote was for the players…not the fans. As fans we are free to project what we think a team can be all we like. As a player your best bet is to keep your focus on the next game and the next game only.
The truth is, often times, a team is what their circumstances allows them to be. There is no question in my mind that in many of the early dismissals from the playoffs the Cowboys have suffered over the past few years, the better team did not always win that day…circumstances trumped performance. Circumstance dictates the ball bounce, the weather, the injuries, the attitude of players and their subsequent performance on that day, the missed penalty calls and the mistaken penalty calls, and, of course, the infamous was it or wasn’t it a catch (it totally was a catch, okay?). Circumstances for the Cowboys of the last several years has been a vindictive Mother-in-law.
The fact that analyst and fans of late have been throwing around about our beloved Cowboys is that in 2017 they have only won against teams with losing records and have lost against the teams with winning records. That is a fact…I’m not ignoring or dismissing it. The question is how much weight should we allow that fact to carry?
Are they the 8 & 8 team their record suggest or should they be viewed as a team on the rise? Had they merely squeaked past the 49ers, I would completely understand the sentiment that this team is still on the outside looking in. But the Cowboys man-handled the 49ers to the tune of 40 to 10, the 49ers lone touchdown coming in garbage time well after the game was out of reach. The Cowboys did what good teams do to bad teams; they did not play down to the competition…they dominated their competition. Therein, in my opinion, is a huge difference.
For starters, the real Zeke finally stood up. Granted, he had good showings against both the Rams and the Packers, but clearly the Cowboys underwent some self-evaluation during the bi-week, assessing their strengths and weaknesses subsequently subtracting plays that were not working and implementing more of what has worked. The end result was an absolute thrashing of the 49ers.
Secondly, the defense got healthy. With the return of Hitchens and Lee, the difference was significant. Lee and Hitchens combined to absolutely shut down everything the 49ers wanted to do on the ground, which led to more passing on the 49ers part and more sacks on the Cowboys part.
Lastly, youth has been served. The Cowboys coaches have gradually increased the snaps of young players who have earned the reps. As the season progresses, look for this trend to continue and pay dividends (particularly when it means Heath is not on the field).
Transversely, with the return of Hitchens and Lee, the Cowboys were able to decrease Jaylon’s snaps which has improved his ability to have an impact on the game as evidenced by his sack strip against the 49ers this past weekend. With a return to the Cowboys coaches ideal scenario where they can bring players along slowly, we should see a week to week improvement in the defense overall.
Wrap it Up
The Cowboys are not out of the woods (so-to-speak) yet. I can admit that. The Commanders (despite their many injuries) still represent a huge challenge for the Boys. Like the Cowboys, the Commanders have flashed on both sides of the ball, exhibiting an ability to move the ball both on the ground and through the air and have demonstrated an ability to get after the opposing quarterback and shut down the run.
In this divisional contest, a win by even 1 point should absolutely be considered acceptable because the Commanders offensively can be a challenge for any defense in the NFL, particularly with their TE duo of Jordan Reed and Vernon Davis and the run-after-the-catch ability of WR Jamison Crowder and RB Chris Thompson. The play these Skins run that scares me the most is their screen game. Given how aggressive the Cowboys have been up front this season, I suspect getting the ball to their playmakers in space will be a big part of the Commanders gameplan going into Sunday.
On the defensive side of the ball, I am expecting them to attempt duplicating the coverage blueprint the Broncos made successful earlier this year. They’ll put their best on an island with Dez and attempt to take away Witten and Beasley underneath and between the hash marks on the back end, while crowding the box to discourage/shut down the Cowboys ground game. Linehan will have to be clever in his play calling and Dak will have to trust their gameplan and the ol to execute.
The last thing as a fan you want to hear from Dak on Sunday is “kill, kill, kill,” because that could potentially mean they are allowing the defense to dictate what the offense subsequently does. When you hear that, bad things have a tendency to happen. I respect Dak’s ability to diagnose defenses presnap but a part of me does wonder if at the moment the opposing defense hear’s those fateful words they don’t also “kill, kill, kill” whatever their alignment says they are about to do….something to watch for.
Thoughts?
I’ve been quiet as of late. The reasons for that are numerous, but I suspect the biggest contributing factor is I have allowed my general and natural apathy regarding thoughts manufactured outside of my own head to lead me towards not even bothering with trying anymore. After all, once someone adopts an agenda, it’s hard to shake it, regardless of the logic it defies or the truth it ignores. The general discussion of late has been tired, ill-informed, and lazy in its analysis. The Cowboys lose, and the consensus immediately becomes the coaches screwed up or the front office failed the offseason without even for a moment considering the possibility that when it mattered most on a handful of fateful plays, one of the eleven players donning a blue star failed to execute their assignment, as is normally the case when any team in the league loses. It happens to every team regardless of coach or front office.
In a recent conversation I had, I outlined many of the misguided commentaries; a few of those are in no particular order as follows: Jason Garrett sucks, the front office botched the offseason, Zeke wasn't worth the fourth overall pick, the Cowboys defense sucks and the Cowboys are what their record says. The following is my (wasted on most) effort to Hulk Smash these ill-conceived narratives.
Jason Garrett Sucks
I honestly think the first problem fans have with Jason is he is nothing like Bill Belichick. He is not an elite tactician, he is by no means an innovator, and he is not a risk-taker, though he does rubberstamp the occasional few and far between calculated risk, such as the fake punt from the shade of the Cowboys own goal post dialed up against the Eagles last year when down by double-digits.
My issue with this stance against Jason is the fact that there is only one Bill Belichick, and firing Garret certainly doesn’t change that; it’s not like we can trust the front office to find a Bill Belichick clone following Garrett’s dismissal. My second issue with this approach to Jason-hate is that as great as Bill is, he doesn’t win the Super Bowl every year which means there is more than one way to skin a cat.
I’m not saying Jason is above reproach. However, I would recommend caution in your criticisms. Jason has lived, breathed, and consumed football his entire life; name an informed fan, analyst, so-called expert not presently employed by the NFL and I feel pretty confident Garrett knows more than they do…a lot more. My own personal issue with Garrett stems from the fact that I think he can play it a little too safe at times (e.g. cutting better players to maintain the services of Kellen while grooming Cooper, seemingly taken the foot off the offensive pedal when nursing a double-digit lead, valuing experience at times over natural God-given youthful ability). But like all humans, I also think he is capable of learning from his mistakes, so patience on our part is key.
The Front Office Botched the Offseason
I have to say, of all the threads being devoted to false-premises, this one is quite possibly the most annoying given the lack of logic deployed in its wake. The Cowboys release Nolan Carroll, Stephen Paea retires, and the Cowboys shortly thereafter release Demontre Moore and the general assumption is the Cowboys do not know how to evaluate talent. They should have known Jourdan Lewis would outplay Carroll thereby negating Nolan’s necessity on the 53. They should have known Stephen would retire mid-season. They should have known Demontre Moore would get in trouble off the field again prompting his release.
With the loss of all 3 priority free agents, a narrative was born that the Cowboys don’t know how to evaluate football players. Seriously? They might not be all that great at predicting the future – I’ll concede that with ease considering that no front office is – but evaluating talent just might be one of their strong suits considering the league at large. That offensive line, which is still one of the best in the league, is for the most part homegrown, as is the majority of the team. That speaks volumes to their ability to identify and acquire talent. Every fan should be so lucky to have a front office nailing talent acquisition like the Cowboys have over the past 5 or 6 years.
The other side of this criticism is the assertion that the Cowboys are not willing to over-spend for talent. From my point of view, that’s a compliment. People look at players such as Calais Campbell, lamenting “we could have had him and, as a result, the best passrush in the league!” One, again are front office cannot be held accountable for their inability to predict what Calais would do (or not do) now at the ripe age of 31 after getting paid and two, the Cowboys may not be able to look with 20/20 at the future, but they can certainly look backwards at all the times over-paying for free agents bit them in the butt…and I suspect they wisely do so every time a scout, coach, or member of the front office pounds the table for their free agent pet cat.
Zeke was not worth the Fourth Overall Pick
I get it. This gripe I fully understand. When hidden-gem players like Kareem Hunt, for instance, arise from obscurity and take the NFL by storm, fans have a tendency to wonder why the Cowboys would waste such a high pick on a player they could potentially find later in the draft. After all, running backs simply don’t last that long playing in the NFL and generally speaking, keeping them beyond a 5 year contract is either cap restrictive or quite simply stupid due to the poor odds of them finishing that second contract at the same level of productivity they displayed at the end of their first contract. Like I said…I get it.
Having said that, Zeke is a special case. In my opinion, Zeke is a generational talent. While he may not be the best at any one thing a running back might be asked to do, there isn’t a single thing you might ask him to do that he doesn’t do better than most. Having a running back that can do everything well is a huge advantage for an offensive coordinator. It means he doesn’t have to tip his hand in regards to what he wants to do; he can keep the opposing defensive coordinator and by extension the defensive players guessing when it matters most.
There is no exact science in drafting and there certainly isn’t a reliable method to determine why certain players hit the ground running in the NFL regardless of draft positions while the majority does not. In other words, Kareem Hunt’s are not in every draft…though, admittedly, it happens enough to warrant the discussion. The problem with that line of thinking is that typically when people say you can find running backs later they site the few examples out of the thousands that never amounted to anything in the NFL. In other words, for every Kareem Hunt there are 10 to 15 running backs that do a whole lot of nothing in every draft. Therein is the risk on waiting on a position of need, which running back absolutely was for the Cowboys in 2016.
So, when you identify a talent such as Zeke and you know all that he is capable of doing with the football, particularly behind a line such as Dallas, you take him and you don’t even consider thinking twice. If your logic is grounded in the fact that Zeke is having legal problems and may be one suspension away from a lifetime NFL banishment, I can only point out that this issue stems from a situation that occurred after he was drafted, and we can’t fault the front office for not knowing the future…once again.
The Cowboys Defense still Sucks
For years now, this has been a partial truth; it simply isn’t anymore. I say “partial truth” because the Cowboys at various times have had the dogs to compete on that side of the ball but due to overwhelming poor luck on the health front, from one week to the next, the defensive coordinator has had to put a squad on the field complete with duct tape and 550 cord hoping they can slow the opposition down enough for the Cowboys offense to pull out a win.
A recent stat emerged displaying the difference in point/yards allowed when Lee has been healthy versus when he has not been. Many asked “is Lee really that important to the Cowboys defense?” The answer to that question is both “yes” and “no.” Lee is a stud…no arguing that. As both a leader and a student of the game who constantly watches film, his contribution is huge. He makes the calls. He make sure players are in the correct position. And his instincts typically puts him in the frame of every tackle the Cowboys record when he is on the field. His contribution is huge and it is clearly noticeable when he is not on the field.
That said, his importance is further supported by the fact that the linebacker position, in general, is a ridiculously important position to Marinelli’s scheme. In Marinelli’s scheme, the dl is typically charged with the responsibility of attacking 1 gap, dependent on the play called. It is the linebacker’s job to quickly diagnose the play and fill the unmanned gaps…ideally for a loss, but within 2 yards of the line of scrimmage is typically acceptable, dependent on the situation.
With Hitchens and Lee on the sideline, Jaylon Smith, in particular, continuously allowed the action to come to him as opposed to reacting and meeting it at the hole and/or, took poor angles to the ball on designed outside runs. This led to an unacceptable amount of 5 and 6 yard runs allowed by the Cowboys defense in the Packers and Rams games this season, which I believe, is the predominant reason the Cowboys ended up losing those games.
To be clear, I’m not saying the Cowboys defense is great or dominant right now…they still have their warts…I’ll even name two of their warts: Heath and Youth. But I do think they are much better than what the national media and many Cowboys fans are willing to give them credit for. For starters, for the first time since Ware’s prime the Cowboys have a passrush…and it could potentially become the best passrush we’ve seen since the 90’s considering the Cowboys just might have two War Daddy’s in Tank Lawrence and David Irving. Secondly, the now infamous youth movement that was kicked off with a bang this past offseason has exhibited flashes of potential excellence.
Jourdan Lewis has been as advertised. He is even garnering consideration for one of the better defensive backs taken in the draft this year. Xavier Woods has also flashed, though his opportunities have been few and far between, the fact that as a safety they have been able to plug him in as a corner in his first year as an NFL player speaks volume to his football acumen and overall athleticism. Chidobe has been hampered by nagging injuries, but he too has demonstrated the ability to explode to the ball carrier and make sound textbook wrap-up tackles.
Albeit Taco has done a whole lot of nothing, but I’ve been saying since we drafted the guy he was going to need a year or two (like Demarcus Lawrence did) to scratch the surface of his potential; in a manner of speaking, he was a futures pick. For context, Aaron Donald only managed 5 sacks in his first season and that was rightfully considered elite. And so you understand, I’m not saying Taco is the next Donald; I’m merely pointing out that for defensive lineman, in general, the expectations should be tempered in their first year.
If the Cowboys can survive the upcoming stretch of brutal games, this defense very well could be great by season end….when it matters most. It will require luck on the health front and continued development of the youth, but a top 10 defense in the closing quarter of the season is not outside of the realms of possibility for this unit.
Bill Parcells
The Tuna is responsible for this movement. Without fail, just about any time an analyst claims a team is better than what their record suggest, someone will utter the quote: “The great Bill Parcells once said you are what your record says you are!” I think it is important we place that quote in the proper context. Bill Parcells was a Head Coach. Line one of your job description as the Head Coach is to keep your players grounded regardless of wins and losses. As a Head Coach, you don’t want your players to get too low following losses and yet, alternatively, you don’t want them overly-celebrating wins unless said win is the only win that really matters: A Championship!
Everything Parcells ever said to the media, he said with the understanding that his players would either read it for themselves, see it quoted while watching sport center, or hear about it from friends and family. As a result, he tailored his responses with that in mind. That quote was for the players…not the fans. As fans we are free to project what we think a team can be all we like. As a player your best bet is to keep your focus on the next game and the next game only.
The truth is, often times, a team is what their circumstances allows them to be. There is no question in my mind that in many of the early dismissals from the playoffs the Cowboys have suffered over the past few years, the better team did not always win that day…circumstances trumped performance. Circumstance dictates the ball bounce, the weather, the injuries, the attitude of players and their subsequent performance on that day, the missed penalty calls and the mistaken penalty calls, and, of course, the infamous was it or wasn’t it a catch (it totally was a catch, okay?). Circumstances for the Cowboys of the last several years has been a vindictive Mother-in-law.
The fact that analyst and fans of late have been throwing around about our beloved Cowboys is that in 2017 they have only won against teams with losing records and have lost against the teams with winning records. That is a fact…I’m not ignoring or dismissing it. The question is how much weight should we allow that fact to carry?
Are they the 8 & 8 team their record suggest or should they be viewed as a team on the rise? Had they merely squeaked past the 49ers, I would completely understand the sentiment that this team is still on the outside looking in. But the Cowboys man-handled the 49ers to the tune of 40 to 10, the 49ers lone touchdown coming in garbage time well after the game was out of reach. The Cowboys did what good teams do to bad teams; they did not play down to the competition…they dominated their competition. Therein, in my opinion, is a huge difference.
For starters, the real Zeke finally stood up. Granted, he had good showings against both the Rams and the Packers, but clearly the Cowboys underwent some self-evaluation during the bi-week, assessing their strengths and weaknesses subsequently subtracting plays that were not working and implementing more of what has worked. The end result was an absolute thrashing of the 49ers.
Secondly, the defense got healthy. With the return of Hitchens and Lee, the difference was significant. Lee and Hitchens combined to absolutely shut down everything the 49ers wanted to do on the ground, which led to more passing on the 49ers part and more sacks on the Cowboys part.
Lastly, youth has been served. The Cowboys coaches have gradually increased the snaps of young players who have earned the reps. As the season progresses, look for this trend to continue and pay dividends (particularly when it means Heath is not on the field).
Transversely, with the return of Hitchens and Lee, the Cowboys were able to decrease Jaylon’s snaps which has improved his ability to have an impact on the game as evidenced by his sack strip against the 49ers this past weekend. With a return to the Cowboys coaches ideal scenario where they can bring players along slowly, we should see a week to week improvement in the defense overall.
Wrap it Up
The Cowboys are not out of the woods (so-to-speak) yet. I can admit that. The Commanders (despite their many injuries) still represent a huge challenge for the Boys. Like the Cowboys, the Commanders have flashed on both sides of the ball, exhibiting an ability to move the ball both on the ground and through the air and have demonstrated an ability to get after the opposing quarterback and shut down the run.
In this divisional contest, a win by even 1 point should absolutely be considered acceptable because the Commanders offensively can be a challenge for any defense in the NFL, particularly with their TE duo of Jordan Reed and Vernon Davis and the run-after-the-catch ability of WR Jamison Crowder and RB Chris Thompson. The play these Skins run that scares me the most is their screen game. Given how aggressive the Cowboys have been up front this season, I suspect getting the ball to their playmakers in space will be a big part of the Commanders gameplan going into Sunday.
On the defensive side of the ball, I am expecting them to attempt duplicating the coverage blueprint the Broncos made successful earlier this year. They’ll put their best on an island with Dez and attempt to take away Witten and Beasley underneath and between the hash marks on the back end, while crowding the box to discourage/shut down the Cowboys ground game. Linehan will have to be clever in his play calling and Dak will have to trust their gameplan and the ol to execute.
The last thing as a fan you want to hear from Dak on Sunday is “kill, kill, kill,” because that could potentially mean they are allowing the defense to dictate what the offense subsequently does. When you hear that, bad things have a tendency to happen. I respect Dak’s ability to diagnose defenses presnap but a part of me does wonder if at the moment the opposing defense hear’s those fateful words they don’t also “kill, kill, kill” whatever their alignment says they are about to do….something to watch for.
Thoughts?
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