My prediction for this season

[fortdick]

11-5.

I have read alot lately, and other than a few smart aleck comments, have not added much. I just finished reading the thread by DaBoys4Life in which he predicted a 5-11 season. Before the draft, I started a thread asking where any one thought a rookie would step in an be an upgrade. No one offered a convincing argument for any position with the picks we had.

There were a lot of good comments made in the 5-11 thread, but the one that I agreed with most was:

QB: Tony Romo
RB: Marion Barber, Felix Jones
FB: Deon Anderson
TE: Jason Witten
WR: Roy Williams
WR: Miles Austin
RT: Marc Columbo
RG: Leonard Davis
C: Andre Gurode
LG: Kyle Kosier
LT: FLozell Adams


NT Jay Ratliff
RE Igor Olshansky
LE Marcus Spears
OLB Demarcus Ware
OLB Anthony Spencer
ILB Bradie James
ILB Keith Brooking
CB Terrence Newman
CB Orlando Scandrick
FS Ken Hamlin
SS Gerald Sensebaugh

While I think some of those positions will be manned by even better players that I am not listing here, I look at that and there is no way, even with a fragile psychy like the one the team displayed late last year, that this team goes 5-11. This team is better than 9-7 and Ill give my full prediction far closer to the regular season. Sometime Cowboy fans make me wonder if they all live in a psycho ward with the crap they spew!

I don't see a better offense in the NFC. Romo, Barber, F. Jones, Witten and hopefully R. Williams are all playmakers. The offensive line is good, when healthy. Other than TO and J. Jones, this is the same offense that set records and went 13-3. Add F. Jones as an upgrade and Williams as a slight downgrade from the TO of 2007, and I say we are as good this year. Improved running game will help the passing game.

Defensively, if Newman stay healthy our secondary is improved. Three solid CB's and hopefully Hamlin gets back into form. Sensabaugh is an upgrade over what the other R. Williams turned out to be, and I see a solid front 3. LB will tell how good this Defense will be. Is Spencer for real? Can Carpenter demonstrate the skills that got him selected in the first round? Will Brooking step it up and play as well as Thomas, or even Justin Rogers or Oliver Hoyte ( I believe he and Burnett platooned at WILB in 07). Spencer and Brooking are the only unknowns in this mix and I am not concerned about them.

Special teams will be greatly improved. That would have been a great help last year.

As far as people saying that last year was because of this, or because of that, bottom line is injuries exposed the team's lack of depth. Hopefully we either filled those holes or no one gets hurt. If they stay healthy, this is the best team in the NFC east, and by default, the NFC.

I like the move of getting rid of the head cases and adding some youngsters with athletic ability. We have a couple years before they have to step up and I think this draft was to build on talented kids and solidify special teams.

5-11? Not this team.

 

[davey999]

You don't see a better offense in the NFC? Really?

 

[Aven8]

Totally agree!

Great post. It's funny how people forget how good we were/are. We had a ton of injuries last year. Distractions...etc. There will be NO SB or bust metality this year with the national media...maybe in Dallas though.

Romo will be better....Felix will be better, and the two rookie corners will be better.

For anyone who thinks different...put in the tape of the Steeler game last year. We dominated that game. Yes, Romo had some bonehead plays...but the play that lost that game to me was Santonio Holmes punt return. The ST's will be better this year...they can't get any worse.

I like our team. Outside of Romo....no celebrities. Workman like. Kind of reminds you of the Pats teams....and IMO that's a real good thing!

 

[fortdick]

You don't see a better offense in the NFC? Really?

I think the Bears have a shot.

 

[HoosierCowboy]

I think the Bears have a shot.

 

[Sarge]

I think the Bears have a shot.

The Saints sure do and this year Colston will be healthy.

 

[cobra]

I don't see why you have Scandrick starting over Jenkins.

But I do agree that our offense has the ability to be #1 in the NFC. I think it is definitely a top 3.

 

[davidb257]

Its when the Cowboys were counted out that we did our best. When we were counted in that we did our worst.

Well, we are being counted WAY out.

How bout them Cowboys?

 

[AKATheRake]

Totally agree!

Great post. It's funny how people forget how good we were/are. We had a ton of injuries last year. Distractions...etc. There will be NO SB or bust metality this year with the national media...maybe in Dallas though.

Romo will be better....Felix will be better, and the two rookie corners will be better.

For anyone who thinks different...put in the tape of the Steeler game last year. We dominated that game. Yes, Romo had some bonehead plays...but the play that lost that game to me was Santonio Holmes punt return. The ST's will be better this year...they can't get any worse.

I like our team. Outside of Romo....no celebrities. Workman like. Kind of reminds you of the Pats teams....and IMO that's a real good thing!

This all sounds reasonable and I would add a much better RW11 to these thoughts as well. Another year of the defense playing in the same system is a plus as well.

Guys that are new to the D like Igor ad Brooking already know this system having played for Cupcake in the past. Sensabaugh has worked with Campo back in Jax.

I don't see anyone having to play catch up on D other than the rookies. If Wade can get this team having some physical practices again and have us back to tackling properly this can be a top 5 unit.

Without T.O here, expect 8 men in the box until RW11 and Austin can consistently burn our opposition. I feel we should have a slid running game but the first few weeks may be a little lackluster until teams are convinced we can still throw effectively.

Because our division is so brutal I think we go 10-6 or 11-5. Thank God Was didn't get Cutler but they have improved greatly regardless. Philly and NY are both top 10 teams in this league, 1 or the other is surely a top 5 team.

 

[zeromaster]

10-6, possibly 11-5. A lot of it has to do with what's between their ears.

Injuries will play a part as well.

 

[physeter]

Totally agree!

Great post. It's funny how people forget how good we were/are. We had a ton of injuries last year. Distractions...etc. There will be NO SB or bust metality this year with the national media...maybe in Dallas though.

Romo will be better....Felix will be better, and the two rookie corners will be better.

For anyone who thinks different...put in the tape of the Steeler game last year. We dominated that game. Yes, Romo had some bonehead plays...but the play that lost that game to me was Santonio Holmes punt return. The ST's will be better this year...they can't get any worse.

I like our team. Outside of Romo....no celebrities. Workman like. Kind of reminds you of the Pats teams....and IMO that's a real good thing!

Same thing during the divisional playoff in 2007 against the Giants, a punt return was the difference.:bang2:

 

[theogt]

The Saints sure do and this year Colston will be healthy.

They do if they have a schedule anything like last year.

If you only look at games played with Romo, they were the only NFC team that had more yards per game than us (370 YPG vs. 410). That's a large difference, but you have to consider their strength of schedule.

The average rank of our defensive opponent (with Tony playing) was 10.9. The average rank of New Orleans' defensive opponents was 19.3, quite possibly the easiest schedule in the league. We played a top 5 defense in seven games (eight games if you count Brad Johnson playing New York). New Orleans only faced one top 5 defense all season. Not to mention in nearly half of our games Tony was playing through injury.

A team could only be so lucky to face an easy schedule like New Orleans faced. Of course, if we faced that schedule and only came away with an 8-8 record (and our QB was healthy the entire time) I would go berserk at how poor our team performed.

 

[CF74]

We would have been better last year if we allowed Jenkins to play for Henry around mid-late season imo. This year we are counted out as was already mentioned so I like our odds now even more. This group plays better when everyone says they suck.

 

[Tractor1]

If your prediction (11-5) comes true, I hope the Cowboys are 6-5 at some point.

 

[TellerMorrow34]

They do if they have a schedule anything like last year.

If you only look at games played with Romo, they were the only NFC team that had more yards per game than us (370 YPG vs. 410). That's a large difference, but you have to consider their strength of schedule.

The average rank of our defensive opponent (with Tony playing) was 10.9. The average rank of New Orleans' defensive opponents was 19.3, quite possibly the easiest schedule in the league. We played a top 5 defense in seven games (eight games if you count Brad Johnson playing New York). New Orleans only faced one top 5 defense all season. Not to mention in nearly half of our games Tony was playing through injury.

A team could only be so lucky to face an easy schedule like New Orleans faced. Of course, if we faced that schedule and only came away with an 8-8 record (and our QB was healthy the entire time) I would go berserk at how poor our team performed.

Totally agree. Excellent job with this post Theo.

 

[BourbonBalz]

As has been stated many times, we have as much talent as any team in the league, not just the NFC. Talent is not a problem. We got younger this off-season and I believe we will be a hungry and motivated team this fall. We will run the ball more often and more effectively, we still have a very good stable of WRs and TEs. We have a huge O-line that I think will be better when the staff becomes more dedicated to the run. This will take someof the pressure off Romo to have to wing it every game. On defense we have the best OLB in the business, a big physical DL, and a young, deep, athletic secondary. We will go 11-5/12-4 this season, barring crippling injuries.

 

[The Quest for Six]

9-7 miss the playoffs AGAIN, wade Phillips fired after the regular season, Garrett fired too and Cowher or Shanahan hired as the headcoach..

 

[links18]

We finish somewhere between 7-9 and 9-7.

 

[zeroburrito]

9-7 10-6 possibly making the playoffs. GO COWBOYS!

 

[GimmeTheBall!]

You don't ship off your best offensive weapon and bring in defensive help like over-the-hill Brookings and keep the dispassionate Clown Wade Phillips and not fully address the safeties and hope to be as good as last year.

Still, with Felix running all over the place, 10-6, and that is because of our schedule.

No. I cannot do it. 9-7.
Wade's magnetic field of mediocrity is too strong to resist. Must say . . . 9-7.