jday
Well-Known Member
- Messages
- 9,321
- Reaction score
- 13,284
For those of you unfamiliar with this concept, the following is me scatter-shooting at various topics that have dominated the board as well as local/national media. It is certainly not for the TL/DR crowd, but feel free to let me know it’s too long therefore you didn’t read anyway, as I actually enjoy trolling trolls and am facing another otherwise boring day at the office.
Land of the Blind
If you at any point over the past few days have asked the question, “How will the Cowboys replace Dez/Witten’s production,” the following is for you:
On the surface, it seems to be a valid question; particularly when you consider that on TV and found in print via various media outlets there’s a lot of people whom I’d otherwise describe as intelligent, parroting this non-sense. To understand why it is illogical, you have to look beyond the words and actually visualize the question they are asking as pertains to the Cowboys.
They look at the left-behind receivers currently on the roster and their accrued stats to date, compare it to the stats of Witten and Dez, clearly see that the numbers are decidedly lopsided in the departing pass catchers favor, and assume based on that disparity that the current receivers are incapable of replacing that lost production. With me so far?
Here’s the problem with that question: How in the hell were those receivers supposed to do any better than what they did, while playing on the same team as the departing players? See how the logic just crumbled in the face of that question? Furthermore, Hurns, Gallup, Thomson, and Austin were not even on the team, so clearly much of that so-called “lost production” will be found in every catch each player is accountable for in the upcoming season.
At times, we football fans have a tendency to make things far more complicated than they need to be. Each play within a game is an island. The only difference from last year to this year is Dak will be throwing the football to different people. It really is that simple. The loss we should question is not necessarily Dez and Witten’s on-the-field production, but rather, the impact there absence will have on the lockerroom, the practice field and in meeting rooms.
In the case of Dez, his absence, in my opinion, makes Dak’s life easier because the latter will no longer feel the pressure to keep Dez involved in the game in an attempt to avoid his sideline tantrums. I honestly believe a good bit of the interceptions Dak threw last year was as a result of him attempting to force the ball to Dez.
Furthermore, as revealed by the recently released series All or Nothing, Dez, in my opinion, was terrible for the development of the younger players on this team. I will dive further into that in the next topic, but suffice to say I believe Dez may have unintentionally had the same negative effect that Deon’s short tenure had on the team in the late 90’s. Deon and Dez were elite talents, to be sure, but elite talents generally don’t have to work as hard as every other player. And when young players see elite talents behave that way, they have a tendency to adopt that persona, without having elite talent to back up the lack of work they put in.
Therein is the rub of harboring elite talents on your team. If they don’t have Jerry Rice’s work ethic, eventually the young player attempting to emulate those talents will learn all the wrong lessons from what should be a great example.
In the case of Witten, the Cowboys will absolutely miss his locker room presence and leadership. But, you are fooling yourself if you think Witten’s production is not replaceable on the field. Think about it! Granted, Witten is a polished route runner, a solid blocker and consistent pass catcher…no question there. But who do you believe can do more with the ball in his hands after the catch: Witten or literally any other pass catcher currently on the Cowboys roster? I will miss the player, not the production…or lack thereof.
All or Nothing
I both love and hate this show, and have only watched the scenes that have graced these pages as well as YouTube. Allow me to begin with why I hate it:
Every time the Cowboys have allowed cameras to follow their day to day interactions, it has marked what became a terrible season; without fail, every time. Remember HBO’s Hard Knocks? Those cameras followed the Cowboys in 2002 and 2008. How did those seasons fair? They finished 5 & 11 and 4th in the NFCE in 2002 and 9 & 7 in 2008 finishing 3rd in the NFCE. How did they fair last year? Eerily similar: 9 & 7 and in 2nd place; that “2nd place” however is misleading largely because the Commanders and Giants were terrible last year.
Some may say that it is simply coincidence, and go back to blaming whomever their favorite person to blame is. I’m not saying your favorite scapegoat isn’t culpable…especially if that’s Jerry, because he is likely the most responsible for those cameras in the first place. And I will grant you, that the odds are those seasons would have ended in failure anyway. Clearly those teams had more problems than the negative impact of being in front of cameras.
But I just can’t help but feel that instead of focusing on practice and getting better every day, the players are instead worried about how they appear in front of the cameras. In place of doing the movements required over and over until it’s perfected, they are show-boating for what be a national audience. After all, the beauty and truth of football is that the results are not decided by which team has more talent, but, more often than not by which team worked harder in the week leading up to Sunday. I honestly believe it’s hard to work harder than the opposition when you are simultaneously worried about being a Reality TV Star.
Why I love it:
Truth be told, 2017 was most likely doomed to fail regardless of the cameras. But there has been some unintended positives that have resulted from this otherwise terrible idea by the front office to allow this charade to occur in the first place.
1. The Cowboys timing of the Dez release was perfect. Because initially the front office was painted as the bad guy. Then Dez’s antics (likely manufactured for the cameras in the first place) were displayed for everyone to see in a training meeting leading up to the embarrassing loss to the Broncos. In short, Derek Dooley was rightfully attempting to get the receiver’s room prepared for what he believed was going to be a battle. Paraphrasing, Dez wanted to downplay the Broncos talent, further asking “What about us? You shouldn’t be building them up; you should be building us up!” Dooley summarily apologized and said “I’ll be more careful going forward how I word things.” Really? You just agreed to walk on egg shells for the benefit of an egotistical monster who just stole the room from you and subsequently the attention of every other receiver in the room. And guess what, that small sample size of life with Dez spoke volumes to why not only he had to go this offseason but so did the weak leadership of one Derek Dooley.
2. We’ve got to see a different side of Jason. Now, to be fair, I would not be surprised to learn if Jason too, may have been giving a little extra for the benefit of the camera’s….but not by much. I think what we have seen in large part is, in fact, a true reflection of who Jason really is as a person. To be clear, I’m not saying I of a sudden think he’s a better coach than I initially thought. Nothing regarding my opinion of his coaching job has changed. That said, he’s not the corporate no-nonsense robot I initially thought, either.
3. Fans are being afforded a bigger part of the whole picture in what being a football team in the NFL is like and all about. Often times we fans have a tendency to make sweeping proclamations about the team, players, coaches, front office and are doing so with very little information at our disposal. As a result, those assertions have a tendency to be extremely misguided at times. All or Nothing will obviously fail to put a complete stop to these random bouts of ignorance, but for the next few months it may act as a bandaid…which is nice.
With all of that having been said and as compelling as this watching experience may be for Cowboys faithful, I truly hope the front office never invites cameras into practice and their classroom environment again. That is a distraction this young team absolutely doesn’t need.
Journey over Destination
Recently, I was accused of being (paraphrasing) a Sunshine Pumping, drunk on the blue&silver koolaid, homer Cowboys fan. I can see how one might draw that conclusion. After all, as a general rule, I do tend to focus more on the positive than the negative, dependent on the concept piece I’m writing or opinion I am spouting off. Take for instance my Ring Side Seats concept I contribute from time to time.
The idea behind Ring Side Seats is to give voice to my inner-optimist (ME), pessimist (MYSELF) and realist (I), in that order. By design, these pieces can be a bit long, so if you only read the ME portion, you may come away with the impression that I am a hopeless optimist. That is by design, as I tend to oversell these various mind states to make the whole piece work and read better. For future reference, if you really want to get a good idea of what I ultimately believe and think, you should skip the “ME” and “MYSELF” sections all together and go directly to the “I” portion, as the former segments tend to be a reflection of my immediate gut reaction to Dallas Cowboys related news, whereas the “I” portion is what I think after having removed the emotional element from the topic. After all, any belief that is fueled by any emotion is, in my opinion, typically misguided.
But the individual responsible for the latest accusation made it clear from the beginning he hadn’t even read the original post. If he had, he would have had a better understanding about my brand of optimism. At this point in my fanship, I have learned to embrace the journey and for the most part ignore the desired destination. My only concern is if the Cowboys are competitive and therefore entertaining on Sunday. Therefore, enjoying the watching experience is not contingent on the conclusion of that game (win or lose) or the season at large (playoffs or no).
So when I say the Cowboys are in for a potentially entertaining season, I’m not necessarily saying they will be in the playoffs…much less, the Super Bowl. In fact, it is my feeling that based on the deficiencies of their defense, in my opinion, that very well could end up being their Achilles Heel once again. As for the offense, despite potentially being in the minority on this viewpoint, I really like its current construction. They are young, they are exuberant, and as far as I can tell, there isn’t a single diva among them. They love football and from what I’ve watched and read of all of them, possess the requisite talent and skillsets necessary to win.
As a fan, a competitive team is the very most you can really ask for. And if your team of choice doesn’t deliver entertainment value, my recommendation is turn the TV off and move on to something else more enjoyable…that is unless, you can quickly switch gears and instead focus on individual performance. Sometimes I’ll do that; other times, I’ll switch on Madden and get my revenge. It really depends on my mood in that given moment.
Wrap It Up
Can the season hurry up and get here? I’m running out of stuff to talk about!
Thoughts?
Land of the Blind
If you at any point over the past few days have asked the question, “How will the Cowboys replace Dez/Witten’s production,” the following is for you:
On the surface, it seems to be a valid question; particularly when you consider that on TV and found in print via various media outlets there’s a lot of people whom I’d otherwise describe as intelligent, parroting this non-sense. To understand why it is illogical, you have to look beyond the words and actually visualize the question they are asking as pertains to the Cowboys.
They look at the left-behind receivers currently on the roster and their accrued stats to date, compare it to the stats of Witten and Dez, clearly see that the numbers are decidedly lopsided in the departing pass catchers favor, and assume based on that disparity that the current receivers are incapable of replacing that lost production. With me so far?
Here’s the problem with that question: How in the hell were those receivers supposed to do any better than what they did, while playing on the same team as the departing players? See how the logic just crumbled in the face of that question? Furthermore, Hurns, Gallup, Thomson, and Austin were not even on the team, so clearly much of that so-called “lost production” will be found in every catch each player is accountable for in the upcoming season.
At times, we football fans have a tendency to make things far more complicated than they need to be. Each play within a game is an island. The only difference from last year to this year is Dak will be throwing the football to different people. It really is that simple. The loss we should question is not necessarily Dez and Witten’s on-the-field production, but rather, the impact there absence will have on the lockerroom, the practice field and in meeting rooms.
In the case of Dez, his absence, in my opinion, makes Dak’s life easier because the latter will no longer feel the pressure to keep Dez involved in the game in an attempt to avoid his sideline tantrums. I honestly believe a good bit of the interceptions Dak threw last year was as a result of him attempting to force the ball to Dez.
Furthermore, as revealed by the recently released series All or Nothing, Dez, in my opinion, was terrible for the development of the younger players on this team. I will dive further into that in the next topic, but suffice to say I believe Dez may have unintentionally had the same negative effect that Deon’s short tenure had on the team in the late 90’s. Deon and Dez were elite talents, to be sure, but elite talents generally don’t have to work as hard as every other player. And when young players see elite talents behave that way, they have a tendency to adopt that persona, without having elite talent to back up the lack of work they put in.
Therein is the rub of harboring elite talents on your team. If they don’t have Jerry Rice’s work ethic, eventually the young player attempting to emulate those talents will learn all the wrong lessons from what should be a great example.
In the case of Witten, the Cowboys will absolutely miss his locker room presence and leadership. But, you are fooling yourself if you think Witten’s production is not replaceable on the field. Think about it! Granted, Witten is a polished route runner, a solid blocker and consistent pass catcher…no question there. But who do you believe can do more with the ball in his hands after the catch: Witten or literally any other pass catcher currently on the Cowboys roster? I will miss the player, not the production…or lack thereof.
All or Nothing
I both love and hate this show, and have only watched the scenes that have graced these pages as well as YouTube. Allow me to begin with why I hate it:
Every time the Cowboys have allowed cameras to follow their day to day interactions, it has marked what became a terrible season; without fail, every time. Remember HBO’s Hard Knocks? Those cameras followed the Cowboys in 2002 and 2008. How did those seasons fair? They finished 5 & 11 and 4th in the NFCE in 2002 and 9 & 7 in 2008 finishing 3rd in the NFCE. How did they fair last year? Eerily similar: 9 & 7 and in 2nd place; that “2nd place” however is misleading largely because the Commanders and Giants were terrible last year.
Some may say that it is simply coincidence, and go back to blaming whomever their favorite person to blame is. I’m not saying your favorite scapegoat isn’t culpable…especially if that’s Jerry, because he is likely the most responsible for those cameras in the first place. And I will grant you, that the odds are those seasons would have ended in failure anyway. Clearly those teams had more problems than the negative impact of being in front of cameras.
But I just can’t help but feel that instead of focusing on practice and getting better every day, the players are instead worried about how they appear in front of the cameras. In place of doing the movements required over and over until it’s perfected, they are show-boating for what be a national audience. After all, the beauty and truth of football is that the results are not decided by which team has more talent, but, more often than not by which team worked harder in the week leading up to Sunday. I honestly believe it’s hard to work harder than the opposition when you are simultaneously worried about being a Reality TV Star.
Why I love it:
Truth be told, 2017 was most likely doomed to fail regardless of the cameras. But there has been some unintended positives that have resulted from this otherwise terrible idea by the front office to allow this charade to occur in the first place.
1. The Cowboys timing of the Dez release was perfect. Because initially the front office was painted as the bad guy. Then Dez’s antics (likely manufactured for the cameras in the first place) were displayed for everyone to see in a training meeting leading up to the embarrassing loss to the Broncos. In short, Derek Dooley was rightfully attempting to get the receiver’s room prepared for what he believed was going to be a battle. Paraphrasing, Dez wanted to downplay the Broncos talent, further asking “What about us? You shouldn’t be building them up; you should be building us up!” Dooley summarily apologized and said “I’ll be more careful going forward how I word things.” Really? You just agreed to walk on egg shells for the benefit of an egotistical monster who just stole the room from you and subsequently the attention of every other receiver in the room. And guess what, that small sample size of life with Dez spoke volumes to why not only he had to go this offseason but so did the weak leadership of one Derek Dooley.
2. We’ve got to see a different side of Jason. Now, to be fair, I would not be surprised to learn if Jason too, may have been giving a little extra for the benefit of the camera’s….but not by much. I think what we have seen in large part is, in fact, a true reflection of who Jason really is as a person. To be clear, I’m not saying I of a sudden think he’s a better coach than I initially thought. Nothing regarding my opinion of his coaching job has changed. That said, he’s not the corporate no-nonsense robot I initially thought, either.
3. Fans are being afforded a bigger part of the whole picture in what being a football team in the NFL is like and all about. Often times we fans have a tendency to make sweeping proclamations about the team, players, coaches, front office and are doing so with very little information at our disposal. As a result, those assertions have a tendency to be extremely misguided at times. All or Nothing will obviously fail to put a complete stop to these random bouts of ignorance, but for the next few months it may act as a bandaid…which is nice.
With all of that having been said and as compelling as this watching experience may be for Cowboys faithful, I truly hope the front office never invites cameras into practice and their classroom environment again. That is a distraction this young team absolutely doesn’t need.
Journey over Destination
Recently, I was accused of being (paraphrasing) a Sunshine Pumping, drunk on the blue&silver koolaid, homer Cowboys fan. I can see how one might draw that conclusion. After all, as a general rule, I do tend to focus more on the positive than the negative, dependent on the concept piece I’m writing or opinion I am spouting off. Take for instance my Ring Side Seats concept I contribute from time to time.
The idea behind Ring Side Seats is to give voice to my inner-optimist (ME), pessimist (MYSELF) and realist (I), in that order. By design, these pieces can be a bit long, so if you only read the ME portion, you may come away with the impression that I am a hopeless optimist. That is by design, as I tend to oversell these various mind states to make the whole piece work and read better. For future reference, if you really want to get a good idea of what I ultimately believe and think, you should skip the “ME” and “MYSELF” sections all together and go directly to the “I” portion, as the former segments tend to be a reflection of my immediate gut reaction to Dallas Cowboys related news, whereas the “I” portion is what I think after having removed the emotional element from the topic. After all, any belief that is fueled by any emotion is, in my opinion, typically misguided.
But the individual responsible for the latest accusation made it clear from the beginning he hadn’t even read the original post. If he had, he would have had a better understanding about my brand of optimism. At this point in my fanship, I have learned to embrace the journey and for the most part ignore the desired destination. My only concern is if the Cowboys are competitive and therefore entertaining on Sunday. Therefore, enjoying the watching experience is not contingent on the conclusion of that game (win or lose) or the season at large (playoffs or no).
So when I say the Cowboys are in for a potentially entertaining season, I’m not necessarily saying they will be in the playoffs…much less, the Super Bowl. In fact, it is my feeling that based on the deficiencies of their defense, in my opinion, that very well could end up being their Achilles Heel once again. As for the offense, despite potentially being in the minority on this viewpoint, I really like its current construction. They are young, they are exuberant, and as far as I can tell, there isn’t a single diva among them. They love football and from what I’ve watched and read of all of them, possess the requisite talent and skillsets necessary to win.
As a fan, a competitive team is the very most you can really ask for. And if your team of choice doesn’t deliver entertainment value, my recommendation is turn the TV off and move on to something else more enjoyable…that is unless, you can quickly switch gears and instead focus on individual performance. Sometimes I’ll do that; other times, I’ll switch on Madden and get my revenge. It really depends on my mood in that given moment.
Wrap It Up
Can the season hurry up and get here? I’m running out of stuff to talk about!
Thoughts?
