My meaningless thoughts on the game...

[Yakuza Rich]

- Biggest win for this organization in the past 10 years, easily. Unlike the wins in 2003, this roster is more set for the future with younger players that the coaching staff brought in and that fit the offensive and defensive schemes.


- From a quick scan of things, the 2 culprits in the run blocking problems were Flozell (a few times Freeney fooled him with easy on faking an outside more and going inside) and Rivera.


- To Phil Simms' credit, he got the coverage right (unlike Aikman in the Philly game), but I'm not so sure that was Newman's coverage on the TD. Even when you're playing man-to-man, more often than not the defenders are supposed to switch when the receivers run a twist pattern like that, otherwise teams would run those type of routes all day long with great success.


- The rooks looked pretty good today. Too bad they really didn't run many isolation plays with Hoyte because there were a bunch of blocks where he was leveling defenders.


- Okay, let's go over the *questionable* calls by the refs.

1. The Burnett TD - Agreed, he was *touched* by Harrison as he went down. I just think the rule is quite stupid. At no point did Harrison make any effort to bring Burnett down. Bad call, but really a bad rule to begin with as there was no semblence of a tackle or effort to bring Burnett down.

2. The *illegal chucks* - Even Peyton said after the game that those were both legal as they were within the 5 yards. Not to mention on the last play there was a blatant hands to the face on Jason Hatcher by LT Tarik Glenn that the refs missed.


- I guess it's okay to be within the halo and destroy a punt returner, but when Spears barely bumps Manning after a pass, it's penalty flag time. Oh yeah, don't forget Dwight Freeney spearing Romo on one play either. In other words, don't give me any nonsense about the refs.


- In golf, the thing that seperates the good amatuers from the pros is the quality of bad shots, not the quality of their good shots. There's plenty of good amatuers that can hit great shots just like Tiger Woods, Ernie Els or Phil Mickelson. The difference is that the pros' poor shots are still relatively decent and rarely hurt them that badly. I think the same thing applies to decent NFL QB's and elite QB's. A guy like Vick caught fire for a couple of weeks and looked All-World. But he still has those bad games. The one thing that impressed me today with Romo is despite being a little bit off and having a rough start, his *poor* game didn't hurt the team that much.


- +6 in turnover margin for the season. When's the last time we've been that good this late in the season?


- Give the offensive coaching staff and Parcells credit. The main goals seemed to be to keep the game close and win the time of possession battle no matter what. They stuck with the run when I probably would've bailed on it a long time ago. They treated Indy's Cover 2 scheme is a unique fashion. Even though Indy doesn't blitz much, because their D-Line runs up the field so hard to get to the QB, they ran a ton of draw plays and mixed in a few screen plays as well....something normally reserved for heavy blitzing teams.

At halftime they realized that they needed to move the ball better and that Indy was having their CB's play very soft to protect against the deep ball. So they started using quick slants and just as Indy played against that quick slant, they faked it and went deep to Glenn. They stuck to a unique gameplan and just altered it slightly when it wasn't working very well. Tremendous job.


- My question for the Zimmer supporters is "where's this defense been all year long?" Like I stated a few weeks ago, I think Zimmer is probably around the 16th best defensive coordinator in the NFL. We could do much worse, but we could do better. One of his biggest issues is getting his defense's to disguise their blitz. I saw better disguise of the blitz against Arizona and yesterday was the best job, yet. Keep it up and I'll change my mind on Zimmer. Don't and it will come back to haunt us.


- Overall, I'm extremely happy about the win. Even both of my friends who are Cowboys haters said "I have to give Dallas credit, they just simply outplayed Indy today." Now we've got to see if they can handle the success and the short week and hopefully reach 7-4. I don't want to count my chickens before they hatch, but it's a distinct possibility that not only does Dallas win the NFC East, but winds up as a #2 seed in the playoffs as well.



YAKUZA

 

[pancakeman]

Too bad they really didn't run many isolation plays with Hoyte because there were a bunch of blocks where he was leveling defenders.

His lead blocking on MB3's last TD was a thing of beauty.

 

[Maikeru-sama]

To Phil Simms' credit, he got the coverage right (unlike Aikman in the Philly game), but I'm not so sure that was Newman's coverage on the TD. Even when you're playing man-to-man, more often than not the defenders are supposed to switch when the receivers run a twist pattern like that, otherwise teams would run those type of routes all day long with great success.

Newman is not a "God" and is capable of making a mistake. With that said, Keith Davis is also to blame on that TD. He had deep responsibility on that side and was too far inside to make a play. I just logged on to the forum in about 2 days, so hopefully there is a thread where people are expressing their disappointment in Davis' play last night. The TD pass we are talking about, the play where got flattened near the end zone on which the next play the Colts would score and he could have easily got called for a PI in the End Zone when we stopped the Colts on their attempt to tie it 21-21.

My question for the Zimmer supporters is "where's this defense been all year long?" Like I stated a few weeks ago, I think Zimmer is probably around the 16th best defensive coordinator in the NFL. We could do much worse, but we could do better. One of his biggest issues is getting his defense's to disguise their blitz. I saw better disguise of the blitz against Arizona and yesterday was the best job, yet. Keep it up and I'll change my mind on Zimmer. Don't and it will come back to haunt us.`

This is just an opinion, but I think due to the fact that Ellis was out of the line up and maybe a little "fear" of the Colts' passing game probably made Parcells/Zimmer alot more aggressive and alot more creative.

Those delayed, fake and cobra blitzes by Newman was extremely well done.

- Mike G.

 

[superpunk]

What "halo"?

 

[Chocolate Lab]

This is just an opinion, but I think due to the fact that Ellis was out of the line up and maybe a little "fear" of the Colts' passing game probably made Parcells/Zimmer alot more aggressive and alot more creative.

It seems to me we've played some of our best games when Parcells feels he's forced to gamble a little and try some things he'd really rather not do (e.g. last year's first game vs. Philly on offense, matching up Newman on Smith & Moss).

 

[Dayton Cowboy]

I believe that I need to point out a near bonehead play by Fasano. After making a great catch, he then almost gave up the ball by not holding onto it and making the assumption on a close call that he was down. Had the defender not just barely touched him on his way down, would we not have had a fumble? Its similar to how Burnett was touched by Harrison on the INT for the return for the TD. Had the Colts called for a review I believe it would have been overturned and the Boys would have had the ball at the spot of the pick and not had the TD, who knows what the outcome might have been. The Boys had moment, but would they have had enough to overcome a good Colts team? I'd have liked to think so, but I don't know that anybody could say with 100% certainty that its a guaranteed win if that happens.

 

[Doomsday]

Freeney showed yesterday why sacks are the most overrated stat in football. He is a force to be wreckoned with and he single handily had Dallas' entire offense on the fritz in the first half. Its amazing how last year we thought Adams was the glue to the Oline and this year he has probably been the weakest link.

In Fasano's defense the whistle had been blown, what else is he suppose to do? That play should not of even been reviewable in my opinon.

 

[jwhardin]

Don't forget the boys were in position to score again when they just sit on the ball to run the clock out.

 

[JPM]

Koiser had a couple of nice block too. He has been playing pretty good this year.

 

[Yakuza Rich]

Freeney showed yesterday why sacks are the most overrated stat in football. He is a force to be wreckoned with and he single handily had Dallas' entire offense on the fritz in the first half. Its amazing how last year we thought Adams was the glue to the Oline and this year he has probably been the weakest link.

I quickly scanned over the first half again and Flozell had some major issues with Freeney when Dallas ran the ball. For example, on one of the first carries of the game Freeny got out of his 3 point stance and raised his arm making it look like he was going to use the "bump" on Flozell. Flozell was fooled in a rather horrible fashion as Freeney then just went inside unabeited to Julius.

In Fasano's defense the whistle had been blown, what else is he suppose to do? That play should not of even been reviewable in my opinon.

I 1,000% agree. I was thinking the same thing as well. The whistle was clearly blown.



YAKUZA

 

[ZeroClub]

Very nice post, YR.

- Okay, let's go over the *questionable* calls by the refs.

Yeah, that Spears bump of Manning was amazing.

That isn't a foul even in touch football.

Toward the end of the game, they called a 15 yard face mask against the Colts for a brief touch of MBIII's head gear. Well, at least the refs are being consistent - so that's good. But I gotta say, I don't think there is a 5-yard facemask penalty anymore. Everything is 15.

--------------------

I was both awed by and in love with the aggressive offensive playcalling by the Cowboys at the end of the game.

Parcells earned his paycheck this week - no doubt about it.

 

[Yakuza Rich]

What "halo"?

There's a small "Halo" that every punt returner is supposed to get, whether it's on a fair catch or a returned punt. Newman never got that. If there was no halo, then teams would force tons of fumbles as they could just tell their punter to kick it up high and that would allow their coverage unit to time a hit precisely.


YAKUZA

 

[superpunk]

There's a small "Halo" that every punt returner is supposed to get, whether it's on a fair catch or a returned punt. Newman never got that. If there was no halo, then teams would force tons of fumbles as they could just tell their punter to kick it up high and that would allow their coverage unit to time a hit precisely.


YAKUZA

That has been taken away, no? It's either fair catch or face the consequences. Newman made a bad decision there. IIRC, the rules only state that you can't interfere with the returners ability to catch the punt. If he doesn't signal fair catch, you can kill him the second the ball touches his hands.

 

[joseephuss]

-
- In golf, the thing that seperates the good amatuers from the pros is the quality of bad shots, not the quality of their good shots. There's plenty of good amatuers that can hit great shots just like Tiger Woods, Ernie Els or Phil Mickelson. The difference is that the pros' poor shots are still relatively decent and rarely hurt them that badly. I think the same thing applies to decent NFL QB's and elite QB's. A guy like Vick caught fire for a couple of weeks and looked All-World. But he still has those bad games. The one thing that impressed me today with Romo is despite being a little bit off and having a rough start, his *poor* game didn't hurt the team that much.


YAKUZA

I thought you were going to apply this to Vandy.

 

[Yakuza Rich]

This is just an opinion, but I think due to the fact that Ellis was out of the line up and maybe a little "fear" of the Colts' passing game probably made Parcells/Zimmer alot more aggressive and alot more creative.

Those delayed, fake and cobra blitzes by Newman was extremely well done.

- Mike G.

Outside of the Arizona game, the Cowboys have been pretty agressive lately with their blitzing. Their defensive creativity has never been there, but that's the issue either. In fact, they weren't all that creative in the Colts game. But the disguise was much better.

I think people get disguise and "exotic" screwed up. Running a blitz from the slot CB or a ILB blitz or having Ware blitz isn't really exotic. But, it's the ability to make it look like the blitzer is actually going in coverage when he's coming at the QB is a good disguise. If I had my druthers, I'll take a well disguised blitz package over an exotic and creatively schemed blitz package.

It's not a clear cut "execution vs. scheme" theory as a good disguised blitz package is a bit of both. My gripe against Zimmer is that our blitz disguise has been weak every year he's been D-Coordinator. I can't help but think that it's not a personnel issue every single year.

But anyway, if he can disguise the blitz like they've done the past 2 weeks throughout this year, then we'll be onto something.


YAKUZA

 

[Yakuza Rich]

I thought you were going to apply this to Vandy.

People can talk about nerves and whatnot and talk about baseball players like Steve Sax who couldn't throw to first because of nerves or a guy like Ian Baker Finch who couldn't golf anymore because of nerves. But the real issue with guys like that is their mechanics are off. If you have sound mechanics you're going to succeed more often than not.

There was a thing where A-Rod struggled throwing to 1st base and everybody kept stating it was due to nerves of playing for the Yankees. But the real reason was he was throwing with too much of a sidearm delivery and that cause the ball to go high on him. And when he had to make a quick play to first, it just amplified the problem. If he was using proper mechanics, he wouldn't have the problem throwing to first base to begin with.

I don't know enough about kicking mechanics to judge, but I'm certain that if Vandy's mechanics were right he'd be making those kicks more often than not. I don't know what Vandy's methods of working the kinks out are, but if they are just practicing on the same thing and think it was just a case of nerves, he's going to be an issue later on this season. Get the mechanics straightened out and we'll be okay.



YAKUZA

 

[joseephuss]

People can talk about nerves and whatnot and talk about baseball players like Steve Sax who couldn't throw to first because of nerves or a guy like Ian Baker Finch who couldn't golf anymore because of nerves. But the real issue with guys like that is their mechanics are off. If you have sound mechanics you're going to succeed more often than not.

There was a thing where A-Rod struggled throwing to 1st base and everybody kept stating it was due to nerves of playing for the Yankees. But the real reason was he was throwing with too much of a sidearm delivery and that cause the ball to go high on him. And when he had to make a quick play to first, it just amplified the problem. If he was using proper mechanics, he wouldn't have the problem throwing to first base to begin with.

I don't know enough about kicking mechanics to judge, but I'm certain that if Vandy's mechanics were right he'd be making those kicks more often than not. I don't know what Vandy's methods of working the kinks out are, but if they are just practicing on the same thing and think it was just a case of nerves, he's going to be an issue later on this season. Get the mechanics straightened out and we'll be okay.



YAKUZA

I think he is stepping too far in front of the ball with his plant foot. That causes most of his kicks to drift right whether it is a FG, a PAT or a kick off.

 

[superpunk]

I think he is stepping too far in front of the ball with his plant foot. That causes most of his kicks to drift right whether it is a FG, a PAT or a kick off.

Call Bill. Maybe he can develop a computer program that tells him convincingly that French people are better at long-snapping than former Rams TEs.

 

[Clove]

- To Phil Simms' credit, he got the coverage right (unlike Aikman in the Philly game), but I'm not so sure that was Newman's coverage on the TD. Even when you're playing man-to-man, more often than not the defenders are supposed to switch when the receivers run a twist pattern like that, otherwise teams would run those type of routes all day long with great success.

I was thinking the same thing. When you're man on man and the receivers switch, you're supposed to switch off like in basketball setting picks, switching men. It looked like Newman switched off and took the inside man, but so did Henry.

 

[kingwhicker]

My fear is that in recent history after big wins this teams messes the bed the next week- they need to lay the hammer down on the Bucs.