Chuck 54
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It's way too early to panic fellas. I've been accused of being negative and possibly of not being a true Cowboys fan because when something stinks, I don't mind pointing it out, but holy cow, our season isn't over...it hasn't even begun.
Last year's team finished 6-10, and while Vinnie was just what I said he was from the beginning (a strong-armed QB who is too old and had never been a winner), it wasn't the offense that kept us from winning 8 or 9 games and slipping into the playoffs. It was one of the worst defenses in the league.
This year's team is clearly better than last year's team. If the changes you want to make are about finishing 11-5 this year and threatening for the SB, then you are foolish indeed. I believe this team is going to finish 8-8 or 9-7, a marked improvement over last season. I believe we'll be more competitive (last year we were beaten soundly in most of our losses). Could this team finish 10-6? Of course, anything can happen, but it's unlikely. Rome wasn't built in a day, and it wasn't built with rookies leading the way.
But some of you who wanted to argue that we might even unseat the EAgles without T.O. (a truly foolish thought) are now ready to implode due to QB play, slow WR's, the worst OL in the league, and no pass rush.
RELAX !!!
Our QB situation at worst is as good as last season. With a better defense, we'd have won as many or more than we lost, especially since we lost some leads in the 4th quarter. Even if Bledsoe isn't an upgrade over Vinnie (though I think he will be), the other two guys have to be better than they were.
Our RB situation is tons better. JJ is healthy and ready to pick up where he left off; only now there are actual players behind him on the depth chart, players good enough that we may have to keep at least 4 RB's.
Our WR's are immediately better because they start the season all healthy...our starters are back in place, and Creighton is looking great as the #3.
Our TE's are better because Witten is still getting better, while Campbell will be back in the lineup.
Our OL drove us crazy in the preseason game, but Adams is still in his prime, Allen is looking much better than last year, we have the same Center with competition for him this year, we have an instant upgrade at RG, and while some are panicing about the RT position, even without Rogers, we have the same two young guys who manned the position last year, along with some new depth.
The offense is better, but the offense isn't why we lost 10 games last year.
The defense is the key to this team. We have improved on the DL through FA and the draft...improved so much that we had our two best players on the line worried about losing their spots...that's incredible.
We're better at LB simply because we added Burnett, while the young kids have gained a year in the NFL with Brady looking like he might finally come on this year.
Most importantly, despite all the talk about pass rush, this team sucked on defense last year because the secondary was horrid. We never had a RCB all season, which means our nickel back corners were guys who shouldn't have even made the team. We also played without Woodson, forcing Roy to play coverage. Newman had a sophomore slump...it was horrible.
This season we have probably the best 3 CB's we've had in Dallas in 20 years...even if we had better individuals like Deon, we never had three like this year with Henry, Glenn, and TNew playing like he was billed. We now have Roy playing his natural position. And while we don't have a top FS, we do have options, and we will find a starter among Davis, Berriault, and Reese. Heck, even Lynn Scott can probably get the job done without all the weaknesses we had in the secondary last year.
Our punter looks to be improved, and we have the same kicker.
WE are not a finished product yet. You can't go from chicken crap to chicken salad in one offseason despite the popular beliefs about that in today's league of parity. You may see a team of talented players who underachieve for a season due to youth, bad coaching, injuries, or the lack of a key player on offense or defense suddenly go from last to first in one year, but you don't see truly crappy teams like we were go that route in one year. We are in a rebuilding mode, hopefully deeper into the 2nd part of it than the first part of it.
This team still has no identity at QB, which means no real identity on offense. Even with a RB like Barry Sanders, it's hard to be successful without your QB being the identity of the team. We still need to find a stud at WR, a go to guy who can get open and make the tough catch even when everyone in the stadium knows it's going to him, and we still are less than the best OL in the league.
ON defense, we still have no clear FS, but that's not the worst thing to be missing as we found out last year with the corner spot.
I would say this about the pass rush...we played base defense against the Cardinals with little or no blitzing. We played quite a bit of 3-4...the 3-4 is not designed to get any pressure on the QB without bringing the OLB (Ware). I'm not worried about the pass rush...it will come along or it won't, but there's no way it's going to be anything less than last year. This year we have guys who can actually cover, which will give the rush a little more time to get there.
Come on guys...don't panic...We're not going to trade away valuable draft picks to get a RT. WE're not going to find a RT from another team's cuts who will be better than Vollers. We're not going to trade for a young rising QB who was drafted, like Matt Shaub. We might send a RB or a late draft pick for a FS if the right deal comes along, but this team is pretty much set for the starters for this season...it's too late to address all the areas you guys are upset about.
I still haven't figured out the logic behind arguing that 1 preseason game is not enough to make a final decision on Romo and Henson, but you guys are ready to make final judgments on the OL, WR's, etc after that same 1 preseason game. We're going to have games where our OL lets us down, just like last year...but we're also going to have games where they lead the way for JJ to rush for 150 yards and give the QB time to pass for 250-300 yards.
Last season, Roy Williams, Julius Jones, and Glover were arguably the only guys on our team to be excited about. We've added quality in Ferguson, Henry, Rivera, along with the best draft in ages, while watching Newman suddenly look like a star again. There are other players we're talking about who are possibly about to burst onto the scene.
This is going to be an exciting team to watch when everything settles down and the coaches begin to game plan and call plays on both sides of the ball that are intended to do more than simply evaluate players...how refreshing it is that the coaches need games like this last one to evaluate...in the past we could have told them who was going to make the team because there wasn't much talent.
Even with the young guys and new guys who will make mistakes and take time to gel as a team, this team will surely go 8-8 or 9-7, and due to the defense, the losses will be close ones.
We won't see the real Dallas Cowboys of 2005 till the final two preseason games. We know we have weak spots that will need to be addressed in the next two years to get this team to the level we want it to be, but we will compete for a playoff spot down to the wire this season, and it's going to be fun. That first preseason game did not show all that we have on the OL, at WR, at FS, or at QB. Let's see what the next week brings.
Last year's team finished 6-10, and while Vinnie was just what I said he was from the beginning (a strong-armed QB who is too old and had never been a winner), it wasn't the offense that kept us from winning 8 or 9 games and slipping into the playoffs. It was one of the worst defenses in the league.
This year's team is clearly better than last year's team. If the changes you want to make are about finishing 11-5 this year and threatening for the SB, then you are foolish indeed. I believe this team is going to finish 8-8 or 9-7, a marked improvement over last season. I believe we'll be more competitive (last year we were beaten soundly in most of our losses). Could this team finish 10-6? Of course, anything can happen, but it's unlikely. Rome wasn't built in a day, and it wasn't built with rookies leading the way.
But some of you who wanted to argue that we might even unseat the EAgles without T.O. (a truly foolish thought) are now ready to implode due to QB play, slow WR's, the worst OL in the league, and no pass rush.
RELAX !!!
Our QB situation at worst is as good as last season. With a better defense, we'd have won as many or more than we lost, especially since we lost some leads in the 4th quarter. Even if Bledsoe isn't an upgrade over Vinnie (though I think he will be), the other two guys have to be better than they were.
Our RB situation is tons better. JJ is healthy and ready to pick up where he left off; only now there are actual players behind him on the depth chart, players good enough that we may have to keep at least 4 RB's.
Our WR's are immediately better because they start the season all healthy...our starters are back in place, and Creighton is looking great as the #3.
Our TE's are better because Witten is still getting better, while Campbell will be back in the lineup.
Our OL drove us crazy in the preseason game, but Adams is still in his prime, Allen is looking much better than last year, we have the same Center with competition for him this year, we have an instant upgrade at RG, and while some are panicing about the RT position, even without Rogers, we have the same two young guys who manned the position last year, along with some new depth.
The offense is better, but the offense isn't why we lost 10 games last year.
The defense is the key to this team. We have improved on the DL through FA and the draft...improved so much that we had our two best players on the line worried about losing their spots...that's incredible.
We're better at LB simply because we added Burnett, while the young kids have gained a year in the NFL with Brady looking like he might finally come on this year.
Most importantly, despite all the talk about pass rush, this team sucked on defense last year because the secondary was horrid. We never had a RCB all season, which means our nickel back corners were guys who shouldn't have even made the team. We also played without Woodson, forcing Roy to play coverage. Newman had a sophomore slump...it was horrible.
This season we have probably the best 3 CB's we've had in Dallas in 20 years...even if we had better individuals like Deon, we never had three like this year with Henry, Glenn, and TNew playing like he was billed. We now have Roy playing his natural position. And while we don't have a top FS, we do have options, and we will find a starter among Davis, Berriault, and Reese. Heck, even Lynn Scott can probably get the job done without all the weaknesses we had in the secondary last year.
Our punter looks to be improved, and we have the same kicker.
WE are not a finished product yet. You can't go from chicken crap to chicken salad in one offseason despite the popular beliefs about that in today's league of parity. You may see a team of talented players who underachieve for a season due to youth, bad coaching, injuries, or the lack of a key player on offense or defense suddenly go from last to first in one year, but you don't see truly crappy teams like we were go that route in one year. We are in a rebuilding mode, hopefully deeper into the 2nd part of it than the first part of it.
This team still has no identity at QB, which means no real identity on offense. Even with a RB like Barry Sanders, it's hard to be successful without your QB being the identity of the team. We still need to find a stud at WR, a go to guy who can get open and make the tough catch even when everyone in the stadium knows it's going to him, and we still are less than the best OL in the league.
ON defense, we still have no clear FS, but that's not the worst thing to be missing as we found out last year with the corner spot.
I would say this about the pass rush...we played base defense against the Cardinals with little or no blitzing. We played quite a bit of 3-4...the 3-4 is not designed to get any pressure on the QB without bringing the OLB (Ware). I'm not worried about the pass rush...it will come along or it won't, but there's no way it's going to be anything less than last year. This year we have guys who can actually cover, which will give the rush a little more time to get there.
Come on guys...don't panic...We're not going to trade away valuable draft picks to get a RT. WE're not going to find a RT from another team's cuts who will be better than Vollers. We're not going to trade for a young rising QB who was drafted, like Matt Shaub. We might send a RB or a late draft pick for a FS if the right deal comes along, but this team is pretty much set for the starters for this season...it's too late to address all the areas you guys are upset about.
I still haven't figured out the logic behind arguing that 1 preseason game is not enough to make a final decision on Romo and Henson, but you guys are ready to make final judgments on the OL, WR's, etc after that same 1 preseason game. We're going to have games where our OL lets us down, just like last year...but we're also going to have games where they lead the way for JJ to rush for 150 yards and give the QB time to pass for 250-300 yards.
Last season, Roy Williams, Julius Jones, and Glover were arguably the only guys on our team to be excited about. We've added quality in Ferguson, Henry, Rivera, along with the best draft in ages, while watching Newman suddenly look like a star again. There are other players we're talking about who are possibly about to burst onto the scene.
This is going to be an exciting team to watch when everything settles down and the coaches begin to game plan and call plays on both sides of the ball that are intended to do more than simply evaluate players...how refreshing it is that the coaches need games like this last one to evaluate...in the past we could have told them who was going to make the team because there wasn't much talent.
Even with the young guys and new guys who will make mistakes and take time to gel as a team, this team will surely go 8-8 or 9-7, and due to the defense, the losses will be close ones.
We won't see the real Dallas Cowboys of 2005 till the final two preseason games. We know we have weak spots that will need to be addressed in the next two years to get this team to the level we want it to be, but we will compete for a playoff spot down to the wire this season, and it's going to be fun. That first preseason game did not show all that we have on the OL, at WR, at FS, or at QB. Let's see what the next week brings.
