The Emperor
Marcus Aurelius Maximus
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Some Cowboys fans boast about what they've given up to see Cowboys games. I remember this one guy I used to interact with on another message board bragged about how he gave up weddings and some of his own scions' births just so he wouldn't miss Cowboys games.
I used to be impressed, until I read about a guy named Hostile who would miss games to attend weddings and births, the things that really matter. After all, Coach Landry enumerated our duties as 1) God, 2) family, then 3) football.
Consequently, I spent Wednesday night talking to my girlfriend, with whom I someday hope to start a family, and who understands zilch, not only about football, but about sports overall. It's okay. I put the TV on mute and had a calm, engaging conversation with her about the mid-week mundanities during this second week of teaching high school algebra. Then, in the following days, thanks to the hairic charitable works, I watched the game on replay a couple of times.
If you read my posts in the game thread, you'll notice I wasn't calm, especially during the early going of the game. During that first quarter and up until Romo's pick to Michael Boley (I get tired of hearing that name associated with Romo), we looked like the same old Cowboys. You know, we heard all about Oxnard and Garrett and accountability and crankiness and leadership and churning the roster, yet it looked like the same old crap we've seen the past -- the past... 15 years? It looked like suck. It didn't look like some of the old replays of the early '90s Garrett is throwing back towards. And that's why I was upset.
However, we did finish like those old Cowboys. When it was 1st and 30 inside field goal range midway through the fourth quarter, we didn't run a few leads and whams to set up a field goal, a la Bill Parcells. Instead, we went for the jugular, a la Jimmy Johnson. We held onto the lead, and made that one, crucial first down when it was necessary.
These weren't the same old Cowboys.
Redemptive Romo -- No one is going to read my whole post; I'm not as informative or insightful like Wulfman (great stuff, by the way), but here's a stat you all need to know. In fact, upon Cowboys&LakersFan reading this, he will make it a thread of its own. In the fourth quarter, Romo went 5/5 for 112 yards and 1 TD, thus earning a 158.3 passer rating. That's Tony Romo, the same infidel that the mediots tell you chokes in the fourth quarter. Earning the perfect passer rating in the final period is a great way to recover after an inauspicious start to the game wherein he threw that pick that reminded us of 2008 Romo. He's already in November form. If the defense holds up as it did, along with Romo's November form, we could jump out to a nice little start to the season.
Don Juan Demarco -- He's got great vision and has improvisation skills for busted run plays similar, though not quite as polished, as Romo's impromptu skills for passing plays. However, the thing that impresses me the most about Demarco Murray is his football intelligence. Whenever we needed that first down, he got it and immediately slid down. He didn't try to get more yards. He didn't pull a Tatard Choice and run out of bounds. He's a guy that, while not making big plays, you can always count on to make the smart play, which is something we've lacked since 1999. Finally, I feel like we have players looking to make smart decisions in the running and passing games.
Cook County -- Josh Ellis, the DallasCowboys.com writer who looks like he's still a senior in high school, wrote that if Ryan Cook played at all like Montrae Holland, then that would justify our sending a 7th-round pick to Miami. Cook played well enough for the Cowboys to win Wednesday night; he wasn't like a Cory Proctor job. I'll reserve my judgment on him until there's more tape out on Cook. I haven't studied him to know his weaknesses. However, it was so nice that this organization traded for a player who was able to step in and do his job. This is the second time that Phil Costa has gone down in a Giants game and someone else has had to fill in to replace him. Remember Week 14 when Kevin Kowalski filled in for an injured Phil Costa? Anyway, Cook is an adequate fill in. This is another small example of how this organization is different now than some think it isn't going back to 1997.
Witten Reed -- That's pretty much all he did was come out of the locker room. It was inspirational; he's a warrior, as evidenced by what was taped to his locker room after the game. In the game itself, you could tell he wasn't the Jason Witten we all know. He was respected as though he was, but he didn't play like it at all. 2 catches for 10 yards? If you would have told people Witten would have 2 catches for 10 yards in a Cowboys win, people might have thought you were more delusional than dboy214 after sniffing a Marks-A-Lot. But that's an example of how this offense has geared more towards A) wide receiver play and B) the running game. In a piece I wrote elsewhere, I said that we could win without Witten, but it won't be sustainable.
Pass Rush Postulations -- The theory coming out of free agency was that with Carr and Jenkins, the Cowboys would be able to play more press coverage and buy more time for the pass rush to do its thing. I didn't believe it, especially when DeMarcus Ware accounted for about 60% of our sacks last season. You need to have pressure coming from multiple sources to have a successful pass rush. But the optimists here said a better secondary would help that. Fine. Well, it did help it Wednesday night. Carr and Claiborne were very difficult to throw on. So was Scandrick; he was isolated on Cruz a couple times. Aside from some pick plays, Hixon beating Scandrick, and Martellus Bennett getting lucky, the Giants weren't able to burn us like last season. Furthermore, Eli Manning was pressured for enough of the game to disrupt his rhythm. Spencer was his "almost" self, but he was still pushing Diehl into Eli Manning just enough to alter the play. Jason Hatcher was disruptive too. He's been a nice replacement for Stephen Bowen, who Rob Ryan liked once he was first hired.
Diminishing Returns -- There's a term Simus1974 uses called "sewage," and that's where Felix Jones is at currently. Without incurring the wrath of Joker28, let me clarify it's not Felix Jones' fate. He's still injured or something. It's clear that he's not himself, even on the kickoff returns. It's sad to see that the best years of his career were wasted on average teams. We'd be threatening in all three phases if we had that 2008 Felix Jones who punked the Eagles in Week 2. Then again, Dez Bryant wasn't that spectacular either. Maybe he needed Matt Dodge punting to him. It was nice to see Dwayne Harris back there. I had a bad feeling he would fumble that punt. I wish he would have just fair caught it.
Penal Colony -- The penalties were atrocious and undercut any notion this team "got fresher" in the fourth quarter. From quarters one through three, we had five penalties total. In the fourth quarter, we had nine freakin' penalties! It's true two of them were declined (Ware's offsides and Church's interference with Bennett on the touchdown), but you can't excel at playoff football with seven penalties in the quarter that counts. The good news is Garrett knows that and probably lectured the team on Thursday. I expect to see improvement in this area.
The Cowboys gave us reasons to be optimistic after Week 1. I noticed some people changed their predictions. Not me. I'm sticking with 11-5 for this bunch. We've got a tough schedule, and there's not enough tape on us yet. There will be, and that's when we'll know what we've got. Nonetheless, I think we'll definitely get into the dance with this team. I'm looking forward to meeting the challenge in Seattle this Sunday. It's a tough place to play and it's been a House of Horrors for us since 2005.
I used to be impressed, until I read about a guy named Hostile who would miss games to attend weddings and births, the things that really matter. After all, Coach Landry enumerated our duties as 1) God, 2) family, then 3) football.
Consequently, I spent Wednesday night talking to my girlfriend, with whom I someday hope to start a family, and who understands zilch, not only about football, but about sports overall. It's okay. I put the TV on mute and had a calm, engaging conversation with her about the mid-week mundanities during this second week of teaching high school algebra. Then, in the following days, thanks to the hairic charitable works, I watched the game on replay a couple of times.
If you read my posts in the game thread, you'll notice I wasn't calm, especially during the early going of the game. During that first quarter and up until Romo's pick to Michael Boley (I get tired of hearing that name associated with Romo), we looked like the same old Cowboys. You know, we heard all about Oxnard and Garrett and accountability and crankiness and leadership and churning the roster, yet it looked like the same old crap we've seen the past -- the past... 15 years? It looked like suck. It didn't look like some of the old replays of the early '90s Garrett is throwing back towards. And that's why I was upset.
However, we did finish like those old Cowboys. When it was 1st and 30 inside field goal range midway through the fourth quarter, we didn't run a few leads and whams to set up a field goal, a la Bill Parcells. Instead, we went for the jugular, a la Jimmy Johnson. We held onto the lead, and made that one, crucial first down when it was necessary.
These weren't the same old Cowboys.
Redemptive Romo -- No one is going to read my whole post; I'm not as informative or insightful like Wulfman (great stuff, by the way), but here's a stat you all need to know. In fact, upon Cowboys&LakersFan reading this, he will make it a thread of its own. In the fourth quarter, Romo went 5/5 for 112 yards and 1 TD, thus earning a 158.3 passer rating. That's Tony Romo, the same infidel that the mediots tell you chokes in the fourth quarter. Earning the perfect passer rating in the final period is a great way to recover after an inauspicious start to the game wherein he threw that pick that reminded us of 2008 Romo. He's already in November form. If the defense holds up as it did, along with Romo's November form, we could jump out to a nice little start to the season.
Don Juan Demarco -- He's got great vision and has improvisation skills for busted run plays similar, though not quite as polished, as Romo's impromptu skills for passing plays. However, the thing that impresses me the most about Demarco Murray is his football intelligence. Whenever we needed that first down, he got it and immediately slid down. He didn't try to get more yards. He didn't pull a Tatard Choice and run out of bounds. He's a guy that, while not making big plays, you can always count on to make the smart play, which is something we've lacked since 1999. Finally, I feel like we have players looking to make smart decisions in the running and passing games.
Cook County -- Josh Ellis, the DallasCowboys.com writer who looks like he's still a senior in high school, wrote that if Ryan Cook played at all like Montrae Holland, then that would justify our sending a 7th-round pick to Miami. Cook played well enough for the Cowboys to win Wednesday night; he wasn't like a Cory Proctor job. I'll reserve my judgment on him until there's more tape out on Cook. I haven't studied him to know his weaknesses. However, it was so nice that this organization traded for a player who was able to step in and do his job. This is the second time that Phil Costa has gone down in a Giants game and someone else has had to fill in to replace him. Remember Week 14 when Kevin Kowalski filled in for an injured Phil Costa? Anyway, Cook is an adequate fill in. This is another small example of how this organization is different now than some think it isn't going back to 1997.
Witten Reed -- That's pretty much all he did was come out of the locker room. It was inspirational; he's a warrior, as evidenced by what was taped to his locker room after the game. In the game itself, you could tell he wasn't the Jason Witten we all know. He was respected as though he was, but he didn't play like it at all. 2 catches for 10 yards? If you would have told people Witten would have 2 catches for 10 yards in a Cowboys win, people might have thought you were more delusional than dboy214 after sniffing a Marks-A-Lot. But that's an example of how this offense has geared more towards A) wide receiver play and B) the running game. In a piece I wrote elsewhere, I said that we could win without Witten, but it won't be sustainable.
Pass Rush Postulations -- The theory coming out of free agency was that with Carr and Jenkins, the Cowboys would be able to play more press coverage and buy more time for the pass rush to do its thing. I didn't believe it, especially when DeMarcus Ware accounted for about 60% of our sacks last season. You need to have pressure coming from multiple sources to have a successful pass rush. But the optimists here said a better secondary would help that. Fine. Well, it did help it Wednesday night. Carr and Claiborne were very difficult to throw on. So was Scandrick; he was isolated on Cruz a couple times. Aside from some pick plays, Hixon beating Scandrick, and Martellus Bennett getting lucky, the Giants weren't able to burn us like last season. Furthermore, Eli Manning was pressured for enough of the game to disrupt his rhythm. Spencer was his "almost" self, but he was still pushing Diehl into Eli Manning just enough to alter the play. Jason Hatcher was disruptive too. He's been a nice replacement for Stephen Bowen, who Rob Ryan liked once he was first hired.
Diminishing Returns -- There's a term Simus1974 uses called "sewage," and that's where Felix Jones is at currently. Without incurring the wrath of Joker28, let me clarify it's not Felix Jones' fate. He's still injured or something. It's clear that he's not himself, even on the kickoff returns. It's sad to see that the best years of his career were wasted on average teams. We'd be threatening in all three phases if we had that 2008 Felix Jones who punked the Eagles in Week 2. Then again, Dez Bryant wasn't that spectacular either. Maybe he needed Matt Dodge punting to him. It was nice to see Dwayne Harris back there. I had a bad feeling he would fumble that punt. I wish he would have just fair caught it.
Penal Colony -- The penalties were atrocious and undercut any notion this team "got fresher" in the fourth quarter. From quarters one through three, we had five penalties total. In the fourth quarter, we had nine freakin' penalties! It's true two of them were declined (Ware's offsides and Church's interference with Bennett on the touchdown), but you can't excel at playoff football with seven penalties in the quarter that counts. The good news is Garrett knows that and probably lectured the team on Thursday. I expect to see improvement in this area.
The Cowboys gave us reasons to be optimistic after Week 1. I noticed some people changed their predictions. Not me. I'm sticking with 11-5 for this bunch. We've got a tough schedule, and there's not enough tape on us yet. There will be, and that's when we'll know what we've got. Nonetheless, I think we'll definitely get into the dance with this team. I'm looking forward to meeting the challenge in Seattle this Sunday. It's a tough place to play and it's been a House of Horrors for us since 2005.
