Mickey Spagnola is worthless

[Galian Beast]

He and Broaddus legitimately don't understand time of possession.

A caller called in and talked about how huge that is for our defense, and Mickey said, it didn't matter, and that both teams have the same amount of possessions...

If you have 20 minutes to score against a team that has 40 minutes to score... Not only does that tire out your defense, but it also quite literally is just less time to attack. TOP matters quite a bit, and is one of the biggest differences in this defense compared to last year.

Mickey tried to say it was 3rd downs on defense, but if you look at the numbers, they aren't far off from last year.

 

[nablives]

Mick is a company man and a joke. I stopped listening to him a long time ago.

 

[JohnnyHopkins]

The title alone was pretty spot on, but the actual post had some good content as well.

 

[erod]

He's right in a sense though.

Let's say you score on two 80-yard pass plays, a punt return, and an interception return. That will kill your time of possession, but you'll have 28 points to show for it.

Time of possession means nothing if you don't score touchdowns.

 

[maxdallasfan]

yeah I heard that too and was a little perplexed. Not sure what his motive was.

 

[Doomsday101]

He and Broaddus legitimately don't understand time of possession.

A caller called in and talked about how huge that is for our defense, and Mickey said, it didn't matter, and that both teams have the same amount of possessions...

If you have 20 minutes to score against a team that has 40 minutes to score... Not only does that tire out your defense, but it also quite literally is just less time to attack. TOP matters quite a bit, and is one of the biggest differences in this defense compared to last year.

Mickey tried to say it was 3rd downs on defense, but if you look at the numbers, they aren't far off from last year.

TOP matter but defense has to do their part to gain the TOP not just offense. Teams are not converting on 3rd down vs the Dallas defense if in last weeks game NY is doing better than 5 of 13 then the TOP difference is not that great. I agree offense is important to the equations but if defense does not hold up their end then TOP is much closer.

 

[CaptainMorgan]

He's right in a sense though.

Let's say you score on two 80-yard pass plays, a punt return, and an interception return. That will kill your time of possession, but you'll have 28 points to show for it.

Time of possession means nothing if you don't score touchdowns.

You're right of course but in our case we are scoring touchdowns. Our defense in reality is probably only marginally improved over last season but opposing offenses just aren't getting the same amount of opportunities to hurt us.

Not to mention. It has to be frustrating to the other teams offenses spending so much time on the sideline especially those that rely on rhythm.

 

[Yakuza Rich]

Time of Possession is often over-inflated in terms of importance. But, when a team scores points and wins TOP, now you're talking about a tough team to beat and the TOP being a huge factor.

If you win TOP, but can't score points then the opponent is usually within reach of beating you. But, if you can score a lot of points and win TOP, now the opponent's offense becomes 1-dimensional and they have to throw the ball in order to catch up.

Dallas reminds me a lot of the Broncos Super Bowl winning teams. An aging QB that can't carry the team and they ran the ball with a RB who was gaining yards at a historic rate. The defense wasn't very good, but because they could score points and win TOP, it put them at a considerable advantage.





YR

 

[Verdict]

If you are just figuring this out about Mickey, you are late to the party. Pull up a chair and have a drink!

 

[Galian Beast]

He's right in a sense though.

Let's say you score on two 80-yard pass plays, a punt return, and an interception return. That will kill your time of possession, but you'll have 28 points to show for it.

Time of possession means nothing if you don't score touchdowns.

All things being equal, those are rare variances. Over the course of an entire game, an entire season... If you're getting significantly better time of possession, you're helping your defense out. We were a pass happy offense, and as a result our defense was on the field a lot longer. This is what happens when you score quickly or have incomplete passes.

Let's put it this way. Imagine there are two drives left in the game, there is 7 minutes left. Are the drives equal if one team has the ball for 6 minutes and the other only has 1 minute left to score?

Obviously not.

Not all drives are equal, especially if your defense is rested and can get off the field. If you've noticed our defense hasn't really allowed teams to drive on them the full distance of the field very many times.

 

[Baileyneverfailey]

I feel like maybe he was trying to drive at if both teams have the same number of possessions, then they both had the same opportunities to score and it was not the fact that they were kept off the field that cost them.

Like, if the Cowboys have 7 offensive possessions in a game and the other team has 7 offensive possessions, then you really shouldn't be looking at TOP as an indicator of the outcome of the game. You should be looking at the fact that IF the Cowboys won the TOP battle it's probably because their 3rd down defense was better than the opposing team.

It seems very pedantic to argue that TOP doesn't matter, because you can look at TOP to get a picture of how well your team is converting 3rd downs on offense and how well they're getting off the field on defense too.

 

[CATCH17]

This defense is by far better than last years defense. I don't care what the numbers say. You barely see a blown assignment by anyone.

With that said they still are just a average at best group and the time of possession has been a huge reason they have looked good.

It's really the Linehan effect.

 

[EST_1986]

He's right in a sense though.

Let's say you score on two 80-yard pass plays, a punt return, and an interception return. That will kill your time of possession, but you'll have 28 points to show for it.

Time of possession means nothing if you don't score touchdowns.

See Denver game last year. If the defense can't stop anything on two legs TOP means a lot regardless of how much we score.

 

[theSHOW]

Scoring to quick too often really does hurt the defense. Example. Say team A scores quick on team B by two 75 yard pass plays and throw in a kickoff return 100 yard TD also. These three possessions literally keep Team A's defense on the field for two consecutive drives and that happened three times in my example. I've seen these quick scores come back to biter the defense because they literally were exhausted from being on the field so much. The run game we got "gets our defense off the field". Burns clock & gives our defense rest. And 3rd down stops get the defense off the field too and they stay fresh during the home stretch of the game while our offense rolls against a tuckered out and spend D. Long drives on O and short drives on D. I almost rather give up a long play when we are on D and rest the defense in some cases where they are getting worn out.

 

[VACowboy]

He's right in a sense though.

Let's say you score on two 80-yard pass plays, a punt return, and an interception return. That will kill your time of possession, but you'll have 28 points to show for it.

Time of possession means nothing if you don't score touchdowns.

That works the other way too. If you run an up-tempo offense and don't score, you're doomed. If you hold on to the ball and don't score, at least you rest your own defense and give the other team less time to score.

Scoring is ultimately important, but just possessing the ball has benefits as well.

 

[TwoDeep3]

He and Broaddus legitimately don't understand time of possession.

A caller called in and talked about how huge that is for our defense, and Mickey said, it didn't matter, and that both teams have the same amount of possessions...

If you have 20 minutes to score against a team that has 40 minutes to score... Not only does that tire out your defense, but it also quite literally is just less time to attack. TOP matters quite a bit, and is one of the biggest differences in this defense compared to last year.

Mickey tried to say it was 3rd downs on defense, but if you look at the numbers, they aren't far off from last year.

Did you hear Garrett after the game? When asked, he talked about being in front of or behind the chains on third down. This game is built around third down. On ESPN they were having a round table chat and one of the hosts - thew quarterback,,,forget his name - talked about third downs and how drives are centered around third downs and making firsts.

NFLN had a similar discussion Sunday evening.

I understand your point. I agree with it, and this is what has made the Dallas D better. It stands to reason if you give the other guys less plays on offense, its translates to less opportunities to score.

But this game is based on third down. For both sides of the ball. So while the offense helps a great deal, the Dallas D has to get off the field on third downs.

So Mickey - while a nimrod - was about one quarter right.

 

[WPBCowboysFan]

I looked at that thread title and I thot, . . . . . . . . . . . . . . "and this is new news?"

 

[jterrell]

He and Broaddus legitimately don't understand time of possession.

A caller called in and talked about how huge that is for our defense, and Mickey said, it didn't matter, and that both teams have the same amount of possessions...

If you have 20 minutes to score against a team that has 40 minutes to score... Not only does that tire out your defense, but it also quite literally is just less time to attack. TOP matters quite a bit, and is one of the biggest differences in this defense compared to last year.

Mickey tried to say it was 3rd downs on defense, but if you look at the numbers, they aren't far off from last year.

It is 3rd down % primarily. Getting off the field is how you build a massive time of possession advantage.

Time of possession is often overrated but is hardly meaningless.
I've watched uptempo college offenses score 70 and win by 50 with a time of possession loss.
But if you get off the field on 3rd downs you contribute mightily to winning.
Sustained drives is what wears defenses down.
If you are converting 3rd downs and the opponent isn't you are going to win time of possession and the game.

 

[Crown Royal]

If I remember correctly, we lost games last year where we won the TOP battle. TOP is important, but defense has a lot to do with it as well. If it takes you 10 minutes to score a TD but the other team can do it in 2, the TOP only matters if you can keep it close at the end.

 

[blindzebra]

What he was talking about is TOP limits the amount of possessions both teams have.

It does not matter if you win TOP 40 to 20 if in those 40 you score 10 and in those 20 they score 28.

I am also wondering if by 3rd down conversions he was talking about how the offense is 21 percentage points better than last year and you just misunderstood.