jterrell
Penguinite
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It is easy to just rip Lombardi here but the truth is he was being fair....
If by fair we mean looking at a single game and making a bunch of sweeping generalizations.
Dallas is 3-2 and let's look at the schedule a bit to try and establish a bit broader look.
1) Tampa Bay ... Awful team that Dallas beat 34-21. The Dallas defense simply couldn't tackle anyone. Lombardi's homeboy Crayton had 135 yards receiving though and Dallas dominated the second half of the game.
2) Dallas gets the Giants in their home opener and lose 33-31. Neither defense could get stops and the team that had it last won. The Giants are undefeated and they have been smashing teams.
3) Dallas finally has its defense wake up and it dominates Carolina with a 21-7 win where the offense did pretty much nothing.
4) Dallas heads to Denver and plays an undefeated team on the road to a draw but can't close the deal att he end and ends up losing 10-17.
5) Dallas head to KC and it takes OT to get the win 26-21. KC is plainly awful but Dallas manages to let up on defense at the worst time and to get penalized and have costly turnovers throughout.
End of the day what does it all add up to?
Dallas has flashed great ability in mostly all areas while showing they can be beaten in any of them as well.
They took away Steve Smith and throttled the Carolina offense but Tampa Bay with an anemic pass offense and Eli with a bunch of average WRs torched them.
They have run the ball to the tune of the the league's 3rd best attack yet couldn't run a lick against Denver.
A missed FG and a fumbled KO return have haunted this team but they have also shown they can win the special teams phase of a game handily.
Romo has been off-kilter like in Denver where he channeled some QCar flashback but then he showed better decision making and still precise passes in other games such as against KC/NYG.
All in all this team is good enough to play with anyone.
At the same time they are all over the place enough to lose any game in any area.
This is a team that needs to find an identity. It needs to find the match up problems it presents then press those advantages.
It needs to practice a lot to eliminate mistakes. Reps are often over-valued but not with this group.
If by fair we mean looking at a single game and making a bunch of sweeping generalizations.
Dallas is 3-2 and let's look at the schedule a bit to try and establish a bit broader look.
1) Tampa Bay ... Awful team that Dallas beat 34-21. The Dallas defense simply couldn't tackle anyone. Lombardi's homeboy Crayton had 135 yards receiving though and Dallas dominated the second half of the game.
2) Dallas gets the Giants in their home opener and lose 33-31. Neither defense could get stops and the team that had it last won. The Giants are undefeated and they have been smashing teams.
3) Dallas finally has its defense wake up and it dominates Carolina with a 21-7 win where the offense did pretty much nothing.
4) Dallas heads to Denver and plays an undefeated team on the road to a draw but can't close the deal att he end and ends up losing 10-17.
5) Dallas head to KC and it takes OT to get the win 26-21. KC is plainly awful but Dallas manages to let up on defense at the worst time and to get penalized and have costly turnovers throughout.
End of the day what does it all add up to?
Dallas has flashed great ability in mostly all areas while showing they can be beaten in any of them as well.
They took away Steve Smith and throttled the Carolina offense but Tampa Bay with an anemic pass offense and Eli with a bunch of average WRs torched them.
They have run the ball to the tune of the the league's 3rd best attack yet couldn't run a lick against Denver.
A missed FG and a fumbled KO return have haunted this team but they have also shown they can win the special teams phase of a game handily.
Romo has been off-kilter like in Denver where he channeled some QCar flashback but then he showed better decision making and still precise passes in other games such as against KC/NYG.
All in all this team is good enough to play with anyone.
At the same time they are all over the place enough to lose any game in any area.
This is a team that needs to find an identity. It needs to find the match up problems it presents then press those advantages.
It needs to practice a lot to eliminate mistakes. Reps are often over-valued but not with this group.
