Chocolate Lab
Run-loving Dino
- Messages
- 37,104
- Reaction score
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As mentioned in another post, the parking nightmare was a false alarm, at least for me. I paid $20 to park at a small business across from Six Flags and walked past Rangers Ballpark right to the stadium.
It was a nice walk to the Stadium, though, even though it might be longish for some people. You could definitely feel the excitement in the air as everyone was experiencing this for the first time.
The best and most ingenious part of the stadium IMO was the use of the arches. Until you see those concrete footings up close, it's hard to describe how massive they are. I'd expect to see more of this in the future in massive stadiums, if the economy allows the building of them.
I only went to Texas Stadium a few times, but were you only allowed certain access points there depending on your seat? I had to walk all the way to the far endzone access point for my ticket. Not a big deal, just something I didn't expect.
It's pretty cool that you walk in and you're already on the second (or third?) level. I was in section 229 -- theebs' seat -- and I walked in off the street and was already on the correct level. Access to my seat was a piece of cake.
The trumpeting of the national anthem was one of the coolest and classiest things of the night. Bravo, Jerry.
The Jerrytron really is so huge that it's almost distracting. I had a pretty good seat and I still almost couldn't stop watching it. I finally had to make myself watch the action on the field, except sometimes when the play was at the far end of the field.
Please, why do we have to show crowd scenes between plays? Especially with that hi-def screen. Do we really want to see every pore on that 43 year old soccer mom's face? And if you insist on showing that, at least be sure you at least get back to the action on the field in time. This whole experience is getting a little too close to an NBA game for my tastes. It's almost like the peripheral things are equal to the game.
While I'm on that subject, they need to do something about the down and distance. It was way too small and hard to locate.
I had several texts not go in or out. I know they talked about ramping up cell service for the facility, but maybe they need to work on that a little more.
On to the game itself:
I was really pleased with Romo's protection. Tennessee has a good team and a good defense in particular, as we all know, but he was never in much trouble.
I don't know what it looked like on TV, but it sure felt like as real a game as a preseason game can. There may not have been game-planning, but the starters were in for a long time and, with the excitement of the stadium, were playing hard.
As everyone has said, we pretty much dominated in the first half even if the score didn't indicate it. What did Tennessee have, something like 30 yards on offense most of the way through the first half? And on offense, I like the more methodical execution down the field as opposed to going for so many home runs. That's going to wear defenses out, and as well as Tony sees the field, I think he can consistently hit our TEs and WRs in the seams of zones all season.
Felix is like an artist with the ball. I can't remember anyone in a long time who sets up defenders and freezes them with the most subtle of moves the way he does.
Not that it's any surprise, but seeing him in person, Keith Bullock is one hell of a ball player.
Yeah, Witten really is that good. Even without any one outstanding physical feature in any part of his game, he just is.
Maybe I've been underestimating our defense. I still think it's going to be hard to have a top-five D like people predict while playing in a dome. Make no mistake, the Steelers, Pats, and Eagles have a huge advantage stat-wise playing in horrible weather late in the year, but we looked really good. And this was with Ware not doing much.
Jenkins still worries me mentally, but it sure is nice to not have to cover for Henry's lack of speed anymore.
Did anyone notice that Siavii played on (IIRC) the third defensive series of the game with the rest of the starters? And from where I sat, he played very well. The DL were doing pregame drills right below me, and he's the biggest DL on the team by quite a bit. Seawright may be listed as heavier, but he looks tall and lean like an offensive tackle more than a nosetackle.
Speaking of that, Brandon Williams may be listed as an inch and 8-10 lbs heavier than Butler, but on the field he looked significantly bigger than Victor IMO. Hope he's okay, because with Rogers also hurt, we're suddenly very light at OLB.
We kept wondering if we were seeing an optical illusion, because it sure looked like some punts were going high enough to hit the Jerrytron but off to the side of it. Guess it wasn't an illusion.
Spencer was very good IMO, getting some pressure and corralling Chris Johnson in the open field. He's going to be just fine. And speaking of Chris Johnson, where's the "CJ > FJ" fan club today?
It doesn't matter, but I like how Felix flares his elbows out to the side when his hands are on his hips before the snap. That's the way a lot of I-formation tailbacks used to do it back in the day.
Newman is not only a great cover man, but he's one of our best tacklers. Nice to see him swooping in and wrapping up ballcarriers.
Did they ever say who that unsportsmanlike conduct penalty on the sideline was on? At first Kristi Scales thought maybe it was on Wade, but then she checked and confirmed that it wasn't on him. I'd bet you a nickel it was on Campo when the side judge ran into him. Wade and Jason were usually out closest to the field with the rest of the coaches behind them, except for Campo. He had to be out front like he was the head coach or something. Fricking Campo... Have I ever mentioned that I can't stand him?
Overall, a very successful night on almost all fronts. Just have to clean up the special teams, which I still think Coach D will do.
It was a nice walk to the Stadium, though, even though it might be longish for some people. You could definitely feel the excitement in the air as everyone was experiencing this for the first time.
The best and most ingenious part of the stadium IMO was the use of the arches. Until you see those concrete footings up close, it's hard to describe how massive they are. I'd expect to see more of this in the future in massive stadiums, if the economy allows the building of them.
I only went to Texas Stadium a few times, but were you only allowed certain access points there depending on your seat? I had to walk all the way to the far endzone access point for my ticket. Not a big deal, just something I didn't expect.
It's pretty cool that you walk in and you're already on the second (or third?) level. I was in section 229 -- theebs' seat -- and I walked in off the street and was already on the correct level. Access to my seat was a piece of cake.
The trumpeting of the national anthem was one of the coolest and classiest things of the night. Bravo, Jerry.
The Jerrytron really is so huge that it's almost distracting. I had a pretty good seat and I still almost couldn't stop watching it. I finally had to make myself watch the action on the field, except sometimes when the play was at the far end of the field.
Please, why do we have to show crowd scenes between plays? Especially with that hi-def screen. Do we really want to see every pore on that 43 year old soccer mom's face? And if you insist on showing that, at least be sure you at least get back to the action on the field in time. This whole experience is getting a little too close to an NBA game for my tastes. It's almost like the peripheral things are equal to the game.
While I'm on that subject, they need to do something about the down and distance. It was way too small and hard to locate.
I had several texts not go in or out. I know they talked about ramping up cell service for the facility, but maybe they need to work on that a little more.
On to the game itself:
I was really pleased with Romo's protection. Tennessee has a good team and a good defense in particular, as we all know, but he was never in much trouble.
I don't know what it looked like on TV, but it sure felt like as real a game as a preseason game can. There may not have been game-planning, but the starters were in for a long time and, with the excitement of the stadium, were playing hard.
As everyone has said, we pretty much dominated in the first half even if the score didn't indicate it. What did Tennessee have, something like 30 yards on offense most of the way through the first half? And on offense, I like the more methodical execution down the field as opposed to going for so many home runs. That's going to wear defenses out, and as well as Tony sees the field, I think he can consistently hit our TEs and WRs in the seams of zones all season.
Felix is like an artist with the ball. I can't remember anyone in a long time who sets up defenders and freezes them with the most subtle of moves the way he does.
Not that it's any surprise, but seeing him in person, Keith Bullock is one hell of a ball player.
Yeah, Witten really is that good. Even without any one outstanding physical feature in any part of his game, he just is.
Maybe I've been underestimating our defense. I still think it's going to be hard to have a top-five D like people predict while playing in a dome. Make no mistake, the Steelers, Pats, and Eagles have a huge advantage stat-wise playing in horrible weather late in the year, but we looked really good. And this was with Ware not doing much.
Jenkins still worries me mentally, but it sure is nice to not have to cover for Henry's lack of speed anymore.
Did anyone notice that Siavii played on (IIRC) the third defensive series of the game with the rest of the starters? And from where I sat, he played very well. The DL were doing pregame drills right below me, and he's the biggest DL on the team by quite a bit. Seawright may be listed as heavier, but he looks tall and lean like an offensive tackle more than a nosetackle.
Speaking of that, Brandon Williams may be listed as an inch and 8-10 lbs heavier than Butler, but on the field he looked significantly bigger than Victor IMO. Hope he's okay, because with Rogers also hurt, we're suddenly very light at OLB.
We kept wondering if we were seeing an optical illusion, because it sure looked like some punts were going high enough to hit the Jerrytron but off to the side of it. Guess it wasn't an illusion.
Spencer was very good IMO, getting some pressure and corralling Chris Johnson in the open field. He's going to be just fine. And speaking of Chris Johnson, where's the "CJ > FJ" fan club today?
It doesn't matter, but I like how Felix flares his elbows out to the side when his hands are on his hips before the snap. That's the way a lot of I-formation tailbacks used to do it back in the day.
Newman is not only a great cover man, but he's one of our best tacklers. Nice to see him swooping in and wrapping up ballcarriers.
Did they ever say who that unsportsmanlike conduct penalty on the sideline was on? At first Kristi Scales thought maybe it was on Wade, but then she checked and confirmed that it wasn't on him. I'd bet you a nickel it was on Campo when the side judge ran into him. Wade and Jason were usually out closest to the field with the rest of the coaches behind them, except for Campo. He had to be out front like he was the head coach or something. Fricking Campo... Have I ever mentioned that I can't stand him?
Overall, a very successful night on almost all fronts. Just have to clean up the special teams, which I still think Coach D will do.
