My Thoughts... no Knee-Jerk

[Chuck 54]

The defense did a nice job against a very limited Philly Defense. I don't understand the horsecollar by Roy on McNabb...he's going to get a huge fine, and he should...that was a tackle that he was right there and could have leaned forward and tackled McNabb by the waist with his arms around him...why Horse-collar? I had no problem with the defensive gameplan...we got pressure on the QB and gave up some first downs, but we didn't want to give up the big play against a team that wasn't going to do much damage otherwise...we truly did a nice job containing Westbrook until that final run.

Romo was the problem today. Philly had a great game plan on defense...contrary to some beliefs, they did come with a different game plan...they played lots of zone in the first game, and they played lots of man coverage in this game with doubling of T.O.

The problem for Dallas with Philly blitzing and playing Man was that Tony was so inaccurate today...even before the thumb. He stunk it up terribly...even the passes he completed were thrown low and behind receivers or were thrown too soon when he wasn't under pressure. While he threw fewer INT's, this may have been an even worse game than his performance vs. Buffalo. He never seemed to settle into a rhythm that matched the game...he seemed "frantic" all day, even when the blocking was there...it seemed that he sometimes went to the dumpoff and just forced it without really looking...he also seemed to stare down his receivers and often threw it to them too soon before they were breaking clear, and many times he wasn't forced to throw early...he was just out of sync.

Tony cost us 7 points when he threw the endzone int, and he gave them 7 off the 2nd int at midfield. To me the killer was when we had the ball on their 45 and didn't pick up a single yard and had to punt...that was terrible. That was the drive I was most upset over not running the ball at all.

14 games...Tony has sucked in two of them...we're 1-1 in those two games.

Next week the offense must get untracked against Carolina, or we will have a reason to be concerned going into the playoffs.

 

[DBoys]

Great post.

No question this game on Romo. I would also add that Garrett play calling considering we were 4 points down and Romo struggling was putrid.

 

[CanadianCowboysFan]

In all fairness, the first INT cost us four points as we still ended up with a field goal. However, not scoring a td then did hurt given we got the ball back right away after Mikkel's fumble.

The Sheppard INT was an atrocious throw by Romo.

 

[Woods]

I think we will play much better all around versus the Panthers.

This was definitely a wake-up call for the team.

 

[MichaelWinicki]

Romo was horrible today.


But the play calling was abysmal also... 2 runs in the second half-- ouch.

 

[bysbox1]

Romo was horrible today.


But the play calling was abysmal also... 2 runs in the second half-- ouch.

This team has concerened me a little over the past 3 weeks and I could not put a finger on it until I read a pos in another thread about our run game or lack thereof.

We have better pick it up in the run game. I will not panic now because this is just one game, but if we come out like this for the Carolina and Washington games then there will be cause for alarm.

 

[Chuck 54]

Since we are all complaining about the running game, I'll add this:

I have not been at all impressed with Hoyte's blocking. He may be able to hit a LB harder in the hole, but I think we really miss Anderson's blocking all around. Anderson was better in space and very pesty and he got on guys and in their way and kept moving.

When we got the ball on the Philly 45, I thought sure we'd mix in some runs just to get to some 3rd and short situations when we'd have been in 4 down territory.

 

[arglebargle]

Romo was injured today. The coaching staff lacked the cojones to pull him when he was obviously affected by it. Shades of Martz/Warner. Really, they should not have continued on with an obviously impaired QB.

 

[Tobal]

worst Romo has looked, it happens. I think he bounces back with a good game next week

 

[Mash]

I thought the game plan was fine....

Its hard to run on the Eagles....

Romo missed alot of passes and played a bad game.......if his thumb was the problem....and I dont think it was.....they should of taken him out then..

Our offence all yr has been pass to set up the run.......

Romo missed a open TO in the Endzone.......threw a pick in the endzone....forced a terriable pass to Owens for a pick and fumbled a few times......thats not Big Red fault.

 

[Real1st]

Romo was beyond horrible

The play calling didn't help him out either but i think we will get right on track in this next game.(i hope)

 

[Real1st]

I thought the game plan was fine....

Its hard to run on the Eagles....

Romo missed alot of passes and played a bad game.......if his thumb was the problem....and I dont think it was.....they should of taken him out then..

Our offence all yr has been pass to set up the run.......

Romo missed a open TO in the Endzone.......threw a pick in the endzone....forced a terriable pass to Owens for a pick and fumbled a few times......thats not Big Red fault.

That has been the biggest lie all season..

We cannot run because we hardly run.. we are a pass first team.

If we commit to running the ball and not give up on it because the first couple times we aren't successful we can run the ball

 

[AmishCowboy]

I thought the game plan was fine....

Its hard to run on the Eagles....

Romo missed alot of passes and played a bad game.......if his thumb was the problem....and I dont think it was.....they should of taken him out then..

Our offence all yr has been pass to set up the run.......

Romo missed a open TO in the Endzone.......threw a pick in the endzone....forced a terriable pass to Owens for a pick and fumbled a few times......thats not Big Red fault.

The good side today was the Play of the Defense, miles above the Detroit game.

 

[noletime95]

Given the early positive vibes regarding the injuries, I feel much better. Here are some other positive viewpoints:

1) As long as Gurode and Canty are back for the playoffs, Dallas has some pretty quality depth to fill in for a stop gap.

2) Its not like either Carolina or Washington will be playing with a full deck themselves.

3) The defense looked much better today.

4) Resting players vs Washington might have been nice, but there is another way to look at this........not playing a meaningful game for two weeks can have a negative impact on a team (see Indy two years ago and SD last year....heck, its not CHI looked like world beaters vs SEA last year). Winning at Washington could really help keep the team sharpe heading into the bye.

5) I think Dallas was at a point where it needed an L for a wake up call. After a while, a team just figures its going to find a way to win no matter how poorly it plays early in games. Let's hope this results in a focused Cowboys team next week.........

All that said, Dallas needs to lay the wood to Carolina next week and make a statement to the rest of the NFC and more importantly, themselves.

 

[Derinyar]

What I'm begining to dislike is that they have everything scripted apperantly regardless as to whats happening on the field. First play of the game, 5 yard carry. My thoughts would be why not try that again?

Or the third series, first play, 5 yard gain. Romo is off. Why not do that again right there. Makes sense to me, make them prove they can stop you. Maybe right then they bring some extra up into the box and that would open up Witten or another reciever up the middle most likely. But instead we throw the ball for two more incompletions.

Mostly I think one of our major problems with running the balll is that we don't have a high quality RB that makes our aggressive OC make sure they get carries in close games. Barber is a nice complemntary back, now we just need to find the lead back.

 

[zack]

5) I think Dallas was at a point where it needed an L for a wake up call. After a while, a team just figures its going to find a way to win no matter how poorly it plays early in games. Let's hope this results in a focused Cowboys team next week.........

Tony got some last night, that was the problem. But seriously, I agree. I think a Loss is what they needed for a wake up call. I would rather lose this game than in the playoffs.

 

[big dog cowboy]

Romo was the problem today.

Understatement of the year.

 

[BourbonBalz]

Romo played horribly today and the play-calling was also horrible. We have to run the ball. The killer for me was the series when we kicked our second field goal. We had a 3rd and 3 and threw the ball. Normally I wouldn't have a problem, but I did today due to how badly the O played. We had two down to run for a first down and we didn't give ourselves a chance. We should have made our minds up to go for it on 4th down and ran the ball twice. Just my opinion.

 

[FCBarca]

A lot of scary injuries today that reminds us how fragile the balance of good/bad in the NFL can be.

Romo was not great today, obviously...Thumb clearly had something to do with that and some of it was clearly on him...Some of it was simply missing his receivers, there were at least a couple of plays where he didn't see the open receiver (Barber at least twice)...Also, he took some sacks that he shouldn't have...Not saying he should've pulled a Houdini but throw the ball away...At least two sacks weren't necessary, IMHO...Still, I think some of it HAS to go on Jason Garrett as well...The plays that worked, we never saw them repeated...Delay draw, seemed to be a great call but we may have seen it twice the whole game...Screens (Not the middle ones)?...Where were they?...Why until late in the game was TO running those quick slants that are ALWAYS available??

Also, Crayton, Hurd and Austin...Either they didn't show up or they weren't used properly because as we know, they're going to work hard to take away TO and/or Witten...That means that the other WR is going to get the more advantageous coverage...A game where a Glenn would've made a big difference, in all likelihood.

Running game...2nd game in a row where it was demonstrated that not being loyal to the running game, especially early really puts you in a hole...A lot of 3 and outs and a lot of that could be traced back to the running game...We've got a near 1,000 yard rusher like Barber and we're still trying to squeeze out even the most anemic plays outta pile magnet, aka JJ...Get the ball in Marion's hands, either on those direct running plays or nice short passes in the flat.

Roy Williams...Utility for him just diminishes more and more each game...I'd even concede that his 'trade value' just is disappearing with each passing horsecollar...And was he honestly griping about that call???...What an idiot...Seriously, what kind of moron continually makes the kind of tackles he does that was singled out for creation of a penalty call in the first place...Over and over again?

Spears...I think I saw him collectively make more plays today than I can remember in over a season.

ILBs...Someone please remind which one of these guys actually excels at wrapping up and tackling?...Cuz I can't tell.

I haven't read up on the injuries but hope Canty, Gurode, Fasano and Romo are ok.

Give the Eagles credit, they played a pretty solid game and JJohnson really gameplanned well...McNabb did enough to win and didn't throw those INTs he can to kill their chances...Westbrook was his typical Ironman self...Gotta give him some props on that last drive where he avoided the endzone...Smart heads up play and not just because it allowed them to run out the clock, also, they didn't drive the score up.

Just one loss since the NE game but more troubling is how poorly they have looked the last couple of weeks...December slide?...And talk of how to 'blueprint' the boys continues as teams are going to work overtime to take TO out of the game and so Garrett et al are going to have to figure out how to get TO the ball and get the others involved.

 

[sbark]

Do we know Romo's Thumb was not "bruised" even prior to the Game...

Anyone have a guess as to when it happened during the game??

on one of the sacks have to be my guess