Michael Irvin thinks he knows exactly why the Cowboys lost to the Packers in the playoffs

[DFWJC]

For my various favorite sports teams, there seemed to be a string of really crushing loses over the last few years...(Rangers World Series fail with two outs and two strikes in the 9th as just one example).
The 2014 Cowboy loss at Green Bay and how that went down was kind of the culmination...I got to the point where the truth that we of course have no control over the outcome of these games played by grown-ups, and that one tiny instance can change everything for that season.
It was borderline final straw....not quite or I wouldn't still be following as I do...but much closer.

The only upside to that was that this 2016 loss didn't hurt quite as much.
Still sux in a big way....but I'm the emotional sting is not quite the same anymore.

 

[School]

So since it is a "fact" that conveniently ignores the circumstances that make it so. Gotcha.

How does it ignore circumstances? I'm not even sure what circumstances you're referring to. I have no agenda here. I made no claim about Garrett, nor did I even mention him.

I just think it's a copout when I say Belichick/Payton/etc. did x/y/z and this is what happened, and then the only response that elicits from you is "Garrett not as good".

 

[aikemirv]

I agree with him that we were not ready to play. That I think was part of the reason they lost. The other part was starting Claiborne instead of putting him in situationally at the beginning.

 

[Alexander]

How does it ignore circumstances? I'm not even sure what circumstances you're referring to. I have no agenda here. I made no claim about Garrett, nor did I even mention him.

I just think it's a copout when I say Belichick/Payton/etc. did x/y/z and this is what happened, and then the only response that elicits from you is "Garrett not as good".

The circumstances are we don't have a Belichick/Payton level coach. We have what we have.

If it makes you feel better to ignore those two doing what other coaches could not, be my guest. Those are the circumstances.

It takes a really good coach to navigate their way to a title. Those two did it there way, Belichick has done it both ways.

Not many others who can say they country clubbed it late in the year and ended up winning it all. The only reason Dungy did it is because he faced one of the least qualified teams to make it to the SB in that Bears team.

It is pretty clear after several failures across two different regimes, resting the starters is not the way to go. Culturally, success and keeping our edge are tough for Dallas.

 

[Direwolf63]

We lost to the Packers because the defense isn't good enough. More specifically, the pass rush.

 

[DejectedFan1996]

Actually that was a tight game against detriot and didn't need any miracle or help from the ref to win it.

We shut out Philly in week 17 and the next week we beat them again by double digits to win our first playoff game in almost 20 years.......whats your point

My point is it doesn't matter whether we play hard the last game (week 17) or not, we still lose in the divisional round.

We were assisted with a controversial call, and Romo had to record his 29th 4th quarter comeback. Other than that, we played very sloppy in the beginning, as we did this year. That year in particular, we completely destroyed the Commanders 44-7 with nothing to play for which was my original point.

The cowboys just don't come out prepared in playoff games. And for years people blamed Tony for our playoff woes. Same when they blamed Romo for "checking out of runs" only for Garrett to have Kyle Orton throw the ball 41 times in his first game as a starter in 2 years.

The one constant is JG.

So Irvin is wrong.

 

[cowboyblue22]

we lost to the packers because the team the coaches were not good enough

 

[DejectedFan1996]

While we're at it, though not the Cowboys, the Saints went into the playoffs in 2009 losing their last 3 games. They won the SB that year.

B-B-But MOMENTUM!

 

[Proof]

Yep, one of the healthiest teams in the NFL.

And who was Dallas missing in the playoffs? Nobody.

You're moving the goal posts. You were talking about their inflated record and how they "stayed" healthy. (Key word suggesting you were talking about the entirety of the season, not the solitary playoff game)

Any who on the season they dealt with not having their:

Starting QB
# 1 WR
LT
#1 CB
And best DE

that's the money five right there correct?

Throw in scandrick, church, Collins (Malik and La'el) tapper...

That enough?

But yes they were pretty healthy in the playoff game

 

[MRV52]

Resting players is ridiculous you play all out and stop worrying about injuries. This team does not know how to handle bye weeks.

 

[DC Cowboy]

The sad part is if the Cowboys get back into that position the fans will still be calling for safe spaces and how smart that approach is. They didn't learn from 2007. They won't learn from 2016.

And if Jason Garrett is the head coach you can take it to the bank he will go coward in crunch time. He's got no backbone. He's a fake tough guy. Like Mike Zimmer.

i think there was a middle ground here. We could have left Romo, other starters, and McFadden in and still competed. Once we went Sanchez it was throwing in the towel kind of mentality.

 

[erod]

You're moving the goal posts. You were talking about their inflated record and how they "stayed" healthy. (Key word suggesting you were talking about the entirety of the season, not the solitary playoff game)

Any who on the season they dealt with not having their:

Starting QB
# 1 WR
LT
#1 CB
And best DE

that's the money five right there correct?

Throw in scandrick, church, Collins (Malik and La'el) tapper...

That enough?

But yes they were pretty healthy in the playoff game

Generally, they were one of the healthiest teams all year long. Look at what other teams had to deal with. Dallas got lucky this year.

I don't count the Collins injury because Ron Leary was a significant improvement at RG.

 

[Irvin88_4life]

Who knows better about the mental game of football than Michael Irvin?

I wish he chose to go into coaching after playing. Would love to have his mindset leading this team.

I agree with you there man. Irvin would never let this team or any team he was a part of to have a mental let down. It's so easy to see that Irvin needs a role here........well easy to everybody but our incredible smart staff we have

 

[Irvin88_4life]

My point is it doesn't matter whether we play hard the last game (week 17) or not, we still lose in the divisional round.

We were assisted with a controversial call, and Romo had to record his 29th 4th quarter comeback. Other than that, we played very sloppy in the beginning, as we did this year. That year in particular, we completely destroyed the Commanders 44-7 with nothing to play for which was my original point.

The cowboys just don't come out prepared in playoff games. And for years people blamed Tony for our playoff woes. Same when they blamed Romo for "checking out of runs" only for Garrett to have Kyle Orton throw the ball 41 times in his first game as a starter in 2 years.

The one constant is JG.

So Irvin is wrong.

No Irvin isn't wrong. You like to cherry pick certain games but for every game you can show I can show the opposite.

This team didn't play to win for 3 weeks. To think that had nothing to do with losing to GB is silly and wrong

 

[Toruk_Makto]

Garrett was here for 2007. He did the same thing in 2016. He's not learning from anything. He doesn't have the stones to do it any other way. He will blink in the future. That's why he should be fired yesterday.

You should have seen it coming. When you actually try to rationalize the intelligence of playing Lance Dunbar on 3rd downs while Ezekiel Elliott is on your bench you know you have a weak leader at head coach. Someone who does that also gives the team a vacation before the playoffs. Safety over preparation. The Football Gods don't reward cowards. Ask Bill Belichick. He farts in Jason Garrett's direction.

Zeke was handed the ball more than any RB in football. Overusing a rookie RB is stupid. Alluding we essentially ignored Zeke on 3rd down is obtuse and alternative facts.

Also Bill is the best coach of all-time. It's not an insult when you say Garrett doesn't measure up.

Who does love our defense? A homer? It's bad. So no, I'm not liking that side of the ball or the archaic coordinator and his motivational t-shirts. I actually want a defense that performs on the field. Color me unreasonable.

You want the defense to perform...but last offseason you're on record saying go offense at 4 because Zeke would have the 'most impact.'

You can't be so upset saying you want performance on the defensive side of the ball and our greatest resource of the last decade you pounded the table for offense despite our team having consistently been among the best offenses in football since 2007.

Nuance. Get some.

 

[Idgit]

How does it ignore circumstances? I'm not even sure what circumstances you're referring to. I have no agenda here. I made no claim about Garrett, nor did I even mention him.

I just think it's a copout when I say Belichick/Payton/etc. did x/y/z and this is what happened, and then the only response that elicits from you is "Garrett not as good".

You're addressing the argument in the thread. Alexander is addressing a desire to interpret the topic negatively in some way. You're not talking about the same things.

You did what I did earlier when I saw this thread. Except I was lazy and only went to NE this season and then stopped. You make a great point.

For my part, I generally fall on the side of playing all non-injured starters the entire game. For guys with pulls and strains, I'd have kept them out myself. And we had a lot of those guys this season. I would have played Dak and Zeke the whole game, though. Then again, the play of Dak and Zeke was not really even remotely an issue in the GB game. Nor was the play of the injured guys we held out like Smith and Crawford and Lawrence. The real issue with the GB game is we were unable to keep pace with Rodgers early, and our defense just doesn't not match up to teams who can protect an elite QB well. The coverage eventually breaks down, and the really good QBs get their points in the red zone. It ended up being a great game by two very good teams, and somebody had to lose.

 

[Toruk_Makto]

You're addressing the argument in the thread. Alexander is addressing a desire to interpret the topic negatively in some way. You're not talking about the same things.

You did what I did earlier when I saw this thread. Except I was lazy and only went to NE this season and then stopped. You make a great point.

For my part, I generally fall on the side of playing all non-injured starters the entire game. For guys with pulls and strains, I'd have kept them out myself. And we had a lot of those guys this season. I would have played Dak and Zeke the whole game, though. Then again, the play of Dak and Zeke was not really even remotely an issue in the GB game. Nor was the play of the injured guys we held out like Smith and Crawford and Lawrence. The real issue with the GB game is we were unable to keep pace with Rodgers early, and our defense just doesn't not match up to teams who can protect an elite QB well. The coverage eventually breaks down, and the really good QBs get their points in the red zone. It ended up being a great game by two very good teams, and somebody had to lose.

Had we played all our starters week 17 i'm sure we'd have had a better pass rush or something.

 

[Floatyworm]

Throwing the season finale away and not playing our starters enough gave them too much time off by the time the Packers game rolled around. We repeated the same damn mistake Wade made in 07 and again it led to another one and done after a 13-3 season put us in ideal position to reach the SB. I have posts all over this board showing frustration over how we handled the season finale.

That is what is wrong w/ this team!!!! Playing not to get hurt...gets more people hurt...and it enables a soft mentality.

 

[JoeKing]

Bottom-line... blame it on Garrett.

 

[School]

The circumstances are we don't have a Belichick/Payton level coach. We have what we have.

If it makes you feel better to ignore those two doing what other coaches could not, be my guest. Those are the circumstances.

It takes a really good coach to navigate their way to a title. Those two did it there way, Belichick has done it both ways.

Not many others who can say they country clubbed it late in the year and ended up winning it all. The only reason Dungy did it is because he faced one of the least qualified teams to make it to the SB in that Bears team.

It is pretty clear after several failures across two different regimes, resting the starters is not the way to go. Culturally, success and keeping our edge are tough for Dallas.

I appreciate the more thorough response. I admitted earlier that I think it would've been beneficial to play to win in week 17. Just my opinion of course, and nothing really to back it up with.

However I think it's a huge leap to just say that after only two instances of the Cowboys resting starters, at least that I'm aware of, that it's decidedly not the way to go. I think those losses had more to do with a lightning in a bottle defense (NYG) and an all-time great QB on a record-setting hot streak (GB).