Just some feel good facts

[Typhus]

--LB DeMarcus Ware has six sacks on the season and is a good bet to be the Cowboys' first double-digit sacker since Tony Tolbert had 12 in 1996. Nobody has had more than nine in that time span.

--WR Terrell Owens is having a down season by most standards. Yet he leads the Cowboys in catches (61), yards (831) and touchdowns (8) and also ranks among the league leaders in all categories. Owens has been hurt by his injuries, an accidental overdoes and too many dropped passes. The scary part is that he has gotten better as the season has gone along and could still unleash that monster game.

--RB Julius Jones remains the starter a running back but backup Marion Barber has been more productive in two of the last three games. No one is alarmed because it remains a good mix for the Cowboys, who prefer the committee approach at running back. But there is also no question that Barber is the more complete back in terms of running, blocking and catching. Jones is the supposedly the home run threat, although there have been no big runs this season.

--S Roy Williams is not known for his coverage skills. But he ranks second in the NFC with five interceptions. IF he gets six it will be the first time a Cowboys has had more the five picks in 11 years. Both Larry Brown and Brock Marion had six 1995. No player has had more than six since 1985 when Everson Walls recorded nine

--FB Oliver Hoyte is a big reason for improvement in the Cowboys' running game. Hoyte, who made the team as a linebacker/special teams player before being moved to fullback, blocks aggressively and with tenacity. The Cowboys didn't get that with former starter Lousaka Polite. Cowboys coach Bill Parcells said Hoyte is just a football player who has attributes you can't see.

--K Carlos Martinez, who played for the Dallas Desperados of the Arena Football League, will be signed to the active roster.

--QB Tony Romo has proven to be quite pressure performer. He leads the league in third down completion percentage of 78.7. He is also strong in the second half. Over the last three games, Romo has completed 29 of 31 passes for 409 yards and three touchdowns in the second half. He has been officially placed on the Pro Bowl ballot for the NFC, replacing Drew Bledsoe. Romo owns the NFL's highest quarterback rating and has completed 69.4 percent of his passes with 13 touchdowns and five interceptions.

 

[YosemiteSam]

--QB Tony Romo has proven to be quite pressure performer. He leads the league in third down completion percentage of 78.7. He is also strong in the second half. Over the last three games, Romo has completed 29 of 31 passes for 409 yards and three touchdowns in the second half. He has been officially placed on the Pro Bowl ballot for the NFC, replacing Drew Bledsoe. Romo owns the NFL's highest quarterback rating and has completed 69.4 percent of his passes with 13 touchdowns and five interceptions.

Thats just plain stupid. :abuseme:

 

[Richmond Cowboy]

I thought he was signed to the PS.

 

[LittleBoyBlue]

--WR Terrell Owens is having a down season by most standards. Yet he leads the Cowboys in catches (61), yards (831) and touchdowns (8) and also ranks among the league leaders in all categories. Owens has been hurt by his injuries, an accidental overdoes and too many dropped passes. The scary part is that he has gotten better as the season has gone along and could still unleash that monster game.

I would really like to see Owens have a BREAKOUT game... but as we are more balanced... he may just be a really good contributor... his drops continue to limit his FULL effectiveness

with that said.. I want to see the BREAKOUT game or games....

 

[austintodallas]

--K Carlos Martinez, who played for the Dallas Desperados of the Arena Football League, will be signed to the active roster.

Hmmm...active roster as in 53 man or PS?

 

[HighTechDave]

Thats just plain stupid. :abuseme:

I know, stupid in a good way. Even in pre-season, I didn't see this coming. hell if "Alligator Arms" would catch just half of the drops, Romo's numbers would be Insain!

 

[dmq]

I just want TO happy. 100yds and a touchdown pregame for me seems fine. Anyone notice that it seems like now Romo is actually getting some chemistry down with Terry Glenn? They couldn't seem to get it together the first few games, but now seem to be getting much more in sync.

 

[DanTanna]

I wish all our WRs had 100 yds and 1 TD pregame every game!

 

[Yakuza Rich]

--LB DeMarcus Ware has six sacks on the season and is a good bet to be the Cowboys' first double-digit sacker since Tony Tolbert had 12 in 1996. Nobody has had more than nine in that time span.

He'll have to have 4 sacks in the next 5 games. He'll need to probably get 2 sacks in 1 game. Since he's in coverage around 20% of the time and I'm not sure whether or not teams will find ways to protect against him when he moves around, I'd say his chances are 50/50 at best.

--WR Terrell Owens is having a down season by most standards. Yet he leads the Cowboys in catches (61), yards (831) and touchdowns (8) and also ranks among the league leaders in all categories. Owens has been hurt by his injuries, an accidental overdoes and too many dropped passes. The scary part is that he has gotten better as the season has gone along and could still unleash that monster game.

I don't understand the statement. Outside of his drops, he's producing at an extremely high level. And if he got rid of half of the drops, he'd be the most productive WR in the game this year. Consider that he had Bledsoe QB'ing the first 6 games of the season, I don't see this as a down year in any shape or form.

But there is also no question that Barber is the more complete back in terms of running, blocking and catching. Jones is the supposedly the home run threat, although there have been no big runs this season.

I agree and that's a gripe I've got against Julius this year. He's better and he's a better receiver and is decent at times up the middle, but he's a poor "home run" threat this season. I think it's obvious that he's more "consistent" than most people recognize.

--S Roy Williams is not known for his coverage skills. But he ranks second in the NFC with five interceptions. IF he gets six it will be the first time a Cowboys has had more the five picks in 11 years. Both Larry Brown and Brock Marion had six 1995. No player has had more than six since 1985 when Everson Walls recorded nine

Roy isn't known for his coverage because most people either watch highlights or don't understand coverages or both. In one-on-one coverage this year he's almost had no problems covering TE's, RB's and WR's. In help he's had some issues, but usually that's the primary defender's fault to begin with. I'd like to see him come in on a nice blitz and sack the QB this year, but he once again is having an excellent season.

--FB Oliver Hoyte is a big reason for improvement in the Cowboys' running game. Hoyte, who made the team as a linebacker/special teams player before being moved to fullback, blocks aggressively and with tenacity. The Cowboys didn't get that with former starter Lousaka Polite. Cowboys coach Bill Parcells said Hoyte is just a football player who has attributes you can't see.

The stats disagree. I include the first Giants game as "Games w/o Hoyte as fullback"

JONES - 121 CARRIES, 524 YARDS, 4.3 YPC
BARBER - 43 CARRIES, 215 YARDS, 5.0 YPC
TOTAL - 164 CARRIES, 739 YARDS, 4.5 YPC
AVERAGE PER GAME - 27 CARRIES, 123 YARDS


Games w/Hoyte

JONES - 92 CARRIES, 329 YARDS, 3.6 YPC
BARBER - 57 CARRIES, 277 YARDS, 5.1 YPC
TOTAL - 149 CARRIES, 606 YARDS, 4.1 YPC
AVERAGE PER GAME - 30 CARRIES, 121 YARDS


Julius has done worse with Hoyte, but Barber's #'s have improved ever so slightly. A closer look shows that Julius and Barber both run the ball more effectively out of the lone back formation than the I-formation.

I don't think it's Hoyte's fault and I'd love to see the numbers of carries for a loss with Hoyte and w/o Hoyte (my bet is we have less carries for a loss w/Hoyte). But what the stats show is we haven't run the ball better with Hoyte. Whether that's a Hoyte issue, or teams focusing on stopping the run now or some other factor I really don't know.



YAKUZA

 

[YosemiteSam]

Yakuza,

Odd thing is Romo has been lighting it up during those games also. You figured the run defense would losen up after getting burned through the air, yet it hasn't.

 

[LittleBoyBlue]

Yakuza,

Odd thing is Romo has been lighting it up during those games also. You figured the run defense would losen up after getting burned through the air, yet it hasn't.

I thought the same thing... but arent we just.... balanced?

 

[Yakuza Rich]

Yakuza,

Odd thing is Romo has been lighting it up during those games also. You figured the run defense would losen up after getting burned through the air, yet it hasn't.

Teams have been playing a lot of Cover 2 against us mainly because it's either their base defense (i.e. Tampa and Indy) or it's a defense they just play quite a bit of (Washington and Carolina).

Even though the Cover 2 isn't very stout against the run, it can be if you press your LB's close to the line of scrimmage and focus on the run. Makes sense....attempt to take away the deep ball and keep Parcells from doing what he loves to do....run the ball.

Teams may still use that philosophy but I think after awhile if they keep getting burned they'll try a new strategy. In the Colts game, Julius wasn't running bad and Hoyte played a superb game, but Flozell in particular kept screwing up.



YAKUZA

 

[YosemiteSam]

I thought the same thing... but arent we just.... balanced?

Counting the first (5) games with Bledsoe at QB and the last (5) games with Romo at QB. (not using the Giants game as they split time)

First 5 games we avg 352 yards per game and 29.4 points per game.
Last 5 games we avg 400 yards per game and 28.0 points per game.

Of course in the first 5 games we dropped 45 on the Titans and 34 on the Texans, but we have 48 more yards of offense each game now.

 

[YosemiteSam]

In the Colts game, Julius wasn't running bad and Hoyte played a superb game, but Flozell in particular kept screwing up.

He doesn't play well against speed rushers. He just doesn't have the lateral movement.

 

[Yakuza Rich]

I thought the same thing... but arent we just.... balanced?

I think so.

I think teams play a lot of Cover 2 and focus on the run. Romo starts beating them with the short and intermediate stuff and then when they look to take that away, it leaves them open to giving up the deep ball which Romo has killed them on.

The run stats in the last 5 games are still good. Perhaps defenses will change their ways, but I still think Romo is extremely hard to defend against, especially with these weapons at WR, TE, and RB.



YAKUZA

 

[Screw The Hall]

Yakuza,

Odd thing is Romo has been lighting it up during those games also. You figured the run defense would losen up after getting burned through the air, yet it hasn't.

One of the more obscure elements that affect rushing stats is down and distance. I'm not speaking from any research I've done just off the cuff so don't hold me to it but the rushing stats could be looking worse because of the success we are having on early downs in the passing game.

It should be alot harder to run on 2nd and 3 than it is on 2nd and 16. Obviously that's an exaggeration to try and make a point. It seems like we've had alot more short yardage attempts for first downs since Romo's insertion which would lend itself to lowering your yds per carry. I know we've been in the red zone alot more often where every yard you get is harder to come by as well.

In addition the 3rd down draw up the middle for 10 yards on 3rd and forever is a thing of the past since we can actually try and go for the first down thru the air with Romo and have confidence a catastrophe isn't about to occur.

This theory is a bit simplistic and probably doesn't ring completely true but I bet it has some merit.

 

[burmafrd]

JJ seems particularly cursed in one respect since it seems he gets victimized by missed O line blocks or penaltys on his good runs quite often.

 

[sjordan6]

JJ seems particularly cursed in one respect since it seems he gets victimized by missed O line blocks or penaltys on his good runs quite often.

Thats a very good point because there have been a number of runs by jones that have been called back for whatever reason. I think jones stats are also down because he has not been playing in the fourth quarter or not as much. I think in the last four games that jones has not played as much in the 4th quarter as barber.

I think parcells wants to keep jones fresh and not use him alot so he can have a healthy back for the playoffs and down the stretch. It is likely we may end up with two 1000 yards rushers when you think of having to play philly and detroit at home the last two games.

 

[CanadianCowboysFan]

I would really like to see Owens have a BREAKOUT game... but as we are more balanced... he may just be a really good contributor... his drops continue to limit his FULL effectiveness

with that said.. I want to see the BREAKOUT game or games....

One of the colour guys earlier in the season said that Owens catches the ball differently than most receivers in that he uses his body, not his hands, hence more drops.

I have watched him and the commentator was right. Guys like Key use their hands, Owens his body.

Still, despite his flaws, he still has near 60 catches. I can live with that

 

[LittleBoyBlue]

One of the colour guys earlier in the season said that Owens catches the ball differently than most receivers in that he uses his body, not his hands, hence more drops.

I have watched him and the commentator was right. Guys like Key use their hands, Owens his body.

Still, despite his flaws, he still has near 60 catches. I can live with that

The drops I remember... over the top from Romo agains the skins = off his fingertips

The Short Cross = off his hands, fingertips


I seem to recall more than a few catches that he reaches over his head and catches the ball... all hands, no body...

not disputing your post... just posting what I remember seeing