Success has a thousand fathers, defeat is an orphan and some defeats come down to a few very, very basic things.
You aren’t going to win when you are starting two UDFA tackles. Losing Tyron Smith is basically a 7 point swing. Tony Pollard gave Seattle 9 points in his endzone braincramp. Add in execution mistakes because of the lack of a preseason and this game shouldn’t have been close playing against Russell Wilson. Our passing game kept us in the game, which was a minor miracle. But Dallas didn’t get a gift to win it like last week.
Remember Amari Cooper last year saying Gallup was a #1? He was right.
Our DBs were bad yesterday (moreso in the first half) but sometimes you have to look at the long term under the salary cap. Dallas had an upper tier RB in Demarco Murray, who left for a greatly overpaid contract. Dallas signed Darren McFadden and got good production at a bargain rate, then drafted Zeke. For that one year DeMarco was a better player but it was the right move to suffer through one downgraded year instead of overpaying DeMarco. Continuing the analogy, its better over the long term to have Worley at a bargain than to break the bank for Byron Jones. Even if this year is a downgrade.
Jourdan Lewis averaged 2 TFL a season for three years, 2 yesterday. At this point I would gamble on giving the boom-or-bust Lewis more reps at CB with Worley and Carr taking the Free Safety snaps now.
Our 4th WR Cedric Wilson had 107 receiving yards yesterday. Our 4th WR two years ago, Deonte Thompson (who had four starts that year) had 124 yards for the season. We are going to make that kind of upgrade to the defensive back group next year.
Trysten Hill and Antwuan Woods are the backup DTs but better than the starters. Hill got more snaps than Crawford (53 to 39) but Woods got less than Poe (32 – 52).
Glad we listened to fans and cut Dalton Schutz after the first game. Schultz is going to be an average starter, which is fine for a backup that cost us a 4th round pick.
On the swing pass to Zeke that looked like a facemask initially, it was a legal tackle. Why? Because you can grab a player by the back of the helmet but not the shoulder pads. Shouldn’t they amend this rule?
ARTICLE 16. HORSE-COLLAR TACKLE
No player shall grab the inside collar of the back or the side of the shoulder pads or jersey, or grab the jersey at the name plate or above, and pull the runner toward the ground. This does not apply to a runner who is in the tackle box or to a quarterback who is in the pocket.