Yakuza Rich
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1. Much better day from the long snapper.
2. I’m about 90% sure that Julius is hurt and if not, then he’s thinking too much when he carries the ball. It’s pretty obvious that there’s something about him when he carries the ball in the last 3 games that he doesn’t seem to be going full bore like he usually does.
3. In defense of Bledsoe, 3 of the sacks against him weren’t his fault and there was a tough wind today that really affected the passing and kicking game for both teams. That’s a big reason why the game was lower scoring than expected. Also, his 1 INT was on a hail mary. He didn’t play good by any means, but he wasn’t as bad as his numbers appear. Also, there’s big issues I have with Sean Payton, that you’ll see below.
4. That being said, my two big complaints against Bledsoe is he never looks Witten’s way (although there’s another problem with that unrelated to Bledsoe) and he seemed very slow getting out into the pocket yesterday.
5. I love Rob Pettiti and all that, but he was pretty poor today. He was getting killed by a 3rd rate pass rusher.
6. The refs were awful on both sides. The roughing the passer call on Sapp was one of the worst calls I’ve ever seen and they missed two blatant holds by Rivera. Then they had a bunch of makeup calls for the Raiders. I’m not blaming the refs in any regard for the loss, just wish they didn’t look so bush league for the 2nd time out of 4 games the Cowboys have played so far.
7. The new trend these days against the 3-4 or defenses like Washington’s is to either utilize 3 WR sets or go max protect. Dallas defends the 3 WR set by staying with their base defense and getting the LB’s to bump the WR’s at the line of scrimmage. With that, it makes it more difficult for the defense to blitz and when the opponent has Randy Moss, it was even MORE impossible to blitz and tougher to stop the run. In all, I have no problem with how Zimmer coached the defense yesterday. Especially since they gave up only 1 TD and 4 field goals.
8. Kickers simply DO NOT MISS AGAINST THE COWBOYS. If Cortez was kicking against us he’d look like the second coming of Jan Stenerud.
9. If there wasn’t a concern about his endurance since he’s a rookie, I think Canty would be starting right now. He’s that good.
10. I’m sure Nate Jones is decent and all that, but by cutting Lance Frazier we gave up a pretty good punt returner from last season for Crayton who thankfully is a good WR, but a lousy returner.
11. I’m still not sold on Al Johnson being good enough to justify a 2nd round pick for him. He simply does not play effectively against big DT’s. He’s not the worst pick ever, just not 2nd round material.
12. The main stats I look at when it comes to a team are the QB stats, turnover margin, and sacks. Those statistics typically correlate strongly to winning and losing. Right now Bledsoe is on pace to having a Pro Bowl year. We are +1 in turnover margin (we lost the turnover battle to the Raiders on a hail mary pass). And we are on pace to have 48 sacks on the season. Sacks have always been a big point with me as statistically, sacks have the strongest correlation out of any statistic to winning in the NFL…even stronger than turnover margin. Below are a list of teams that have had around 48 sacks each of the last 3 years:
YEAR.............TEAM…………..SACKS………..RECORD
2004…………Atlanta……………48……………..11-5
2004…………Philly……………..47……………..13-3
2003…………Baltimore………....47……………..10-6
2002…………Miami…………….47………………9-7
2002…………Atlanta……………47………………9-6-1
So I see more good than I see bad for this team. And remember, we just played our THIRD road game and came away 2-1 on the road. That’s much different than the Eagles who have played 2 games at home, the Giants who’ve played 3 games at home, and the Skins who have played 2 out of their 3 games at home.
That being said, I’m more concerned about the Coordinators as I think Zimmer’s brain farts against Washington cost us that game and Payton didn’t do us any favors in the Oakland game.
13. Okay, here comes my gripes against Payton. I’m pretty much at my threshold for saying we should still stick with him. There’s a lot of things I don’t like, but generally he’s kept Drew protected and has gotten him off to a fast start. Plus, I don’t blame the running game problems on him as the run blocking isn’t very good and like I said, I think Julius is hurt.
One of the problem is that we don’t use Witten very well. Granted, Bledsoe doesn’t look his way much. But, I don’t see many passing plays where Witten is the primary receiver. FURTHERMORE, last year we used to line up Witten to the outside and ALWAYS throw to him when we did so because it was a mismatch. It worked and it was something that not only we could rely on, but build upon this season.
But with Payton calling the plays, I can’t recall seeing them doing it that many times. Remember, when Payton last called plays for a team (the Giants) and later got them stripped away, Shockey exploded afterwards. I really don’t think the guy likes to use the TE’s or knows how to use them or both.
Another thing that bothers me is that Payton seems to be fine for the most part between the 20’s, but once they get into the red zone he gets either too conservative or too cute. The Washington and Oakland games where big examples.
Lastly, he was ticking me off to no end in the Oakland game because the only thing that was working to a degree was passing the ball on a 5 or 7 step drop. Yet, Payton kept calling 3 step drop plays that were getting eaten alive by Oakland. That leads to another problem that it appears that if you tell Bledsoe to do a 5 or 7 step drop, he’ll get out into the pocket quickly. But, when he has a 3 step drop, he’s S-L-O-W.
ONE LAST THING, the offensive coaches seem to have no clue on how to preserve Julius. How many times does Parcells need to see Julius taken out of the game to get a breather when they are near the red zone?
In all, I’m not panicking as I thought this was a 9-7 team and about 4 weeks from now the schedule strongly favors them. But, I’m a bit frustrated at the coaching of some of the assistants.
14. One more last thing, the trick play pass from Keyshawn was idiotic when you have a former QB in Crayton that could’ve thrown the ball……you’re fighting a tough wind….and you’re throwing it to Julius who is a poor receiver. I’m sure it will fool a team, but doesn’t mean that it will be executed either.
Rich………..
2. I’m about 90% sure that Julius is hurt and if not, then he’s thinking too much when he carries the ball. It’s pretty obvious that there’s something about him when he carries the ball in the last 3 games that he doesn’t seem to be going full bore like he usually does.
3. In defense of Bledsoe, 3 of the sacks against him weren’t his fault and there was a tough wind today that really affected the passing and kicking game for both teams. That’s a big reason why the game was lower scoring than expected. Also, his 1 INT was on a hail mary. He didn’t play good by any means, but he wasn’t as bad as his numbers appear. Also, there’s big issues I have with Sean Payton, that you’ll see below.
4. That being said, my two big complaints against Bledsoe is he never looks Witten’s way (although there’s another problem with that unrelated to Bledsoe) and he seemed very slow getting out into the pocket yesterday.
5. I love Rob Pettiti and all that, but he was pretty poor today. He was getting killed by a 3rd rate pass rusher.
6. The refs were awful on both sides. The roughing the passer call on Sapp was one of the worst calls I’ve ever seen and they missed two blatant holds by Rivera. Then they had a bunch of makeup calls for the Raiders. I’m not blaming the refs in any regard for the loss, just wish they didn’t look so bush league for the 2nd time out of 4 games the Cowboys have played so far.
7. The new trend these days against the 3-4 or defenses like Washington’s is to either utilize 3 WR sets or go max protect. Dallas defends the 3 WR set by staying with their base defense and getting the LB’s to bump the WR’s at the line of scrimmage. With that, it makes it more difficult for the defense to blitz and when the opponent has Randy Moss, it was even MORE impossible to blitz and tougher to stop the run. In all, I have no problem with how Zimmer coached the defense yesterday. Especially since they gave up only 1 TD and 4 field goals.
8. Kickers simply DO NOT MISS AGAINST THE COWBOYS. If Cortez was kicking against us he’d look like the second coming of Jan Stenerud.
9. If there wasn’t a concern about his endurance since he’s a rookie, I think Canty would be starting right now. He’s that good.
10. I’m sure Nate Jones is decent and all that, but by cutting Lance Frazier we gave up a pretty good punt returner from last season for Crayton who thankfully is a good WR, but a lousy returner.
11. I’m still not sold on Al Johnson being good enough to justify a 2nd round pick for him. He simply does not play effectively against big DT’s. He’s not the worst pick ever, just not 2nd round material.
12. The main stats I look at when it comes to a team are the QB stats, turnover margin, and sacks. Those statistics typically correlate strongly to winning and losing. Right now Bledsoe is on pace to having a Pro Bowl year. We are +1 in turnover margin (we lost the turnover battle to the Raiders on a hail mary pass). And we are on pace to have 48 sacks on the season. Sacks have always been a big point with me as statistically, sacks have the strongest correlation out of any statistic to winning in the NFL…even stronger than turnover margin. Below are a list of teams that have had around 48 sacks each of the last 3 years:
YEAR.............TEAM…………..SACKS………..RECORD
2004…………Atlanta……………48……………..11-5
2004…………Philly……………..47……………..13-3
2003…………Baltimore………....47……………..10-6
2002…………Miami…………….47………………9-7
2002…………Atlanta……………47………………9-6-1
So I see more good than I see bad for this team. And remember, we just played our THIRD road game and came away 2-1 on the road. That’s much different than the Eagles who have played 2 games at home, the Giants who’ve played 3 games at home, and the Skins who have played 2 out of their 3 games at home.
That being said, I’m more concerned about the Coordinators as I think Zimmer’s brain farts against Washington cost us that game and Payton didn’t do us any favors in the Oakland game.
13. Okay, here comes my gripes against Payton. I’m pretty much at my threshold for saying we should still stick with him. There’s a lot of things I don’t like, but generally he’s kept Drew protected and has gotten him off to a fast start. Plus, I don’t blame the running game problems on him as the run blocking isn’t very good and like I said, I think Julius is hurt.
One of the problem is that we don’t use Witten very well. Granted, Bledsoe doesn’t look his way much. But, I don’t see many passing plays where Witten is the primary receiver. FURTHERMORE, last year we used to line up Witten to the outside and ALWAYS throw to him when we did so because it was a mismatch. It worked and it was something that not only we could rely on, but build upon this season.
But with Payton calling the plays, I can’t recall seeing them doing it that many times. Remember, when Payton last called plays for a team (the Giants) and later got them stripped away, Shockey exploded afterwards. I really don’t think the guy likes to use the TE’s or knows how to use them or both.
Another thing that bothers me is that Payton seems to be fine for the most part between the 20’s, but once they get into the red zone he gets either too conservative or too cute. The Washington and Oakland games where big examples.
Lastly, he was ticking me off to no end in the Oakland game because the only thing that was working to a degree was passing the ball on a 5 or 7 step drop. Yet, Payton kept calling 3 step drop plays that were getting eaten alive by Oakland. That leads to another problem that it appears that if you tell Bledsoe to do a 5 or 7 step drop, he’ll get out into the pocket quickly. But, when he has a 3 step drop, he’s S-L-O-W.
ONE LAST THING, the offensive coaches seem to have no clue on how to preserve Julius. How many times does Parcells need to see Julius taken out of the game to get a breather when they are near the red zone?
In all, I’m not panicking as I thought this was a 9-7 team and about 4 weeks from now the schedule strongly favors them. But, I’m a bit frustrated at the coaching of some of the assistants.
14. One more last thing, the trick play pass from Keyshawn was idiotic when you have a former QB in Crayton that could’ve thrown the ball……you’re fighting a tough wind….and you’re throwing it to Julius who is a poor receiver. I’m sure it will fool a team, but doesn’t mean that it will be executed either.
Rich………..
