NewyScruggs: Ten Thoughts On The Cowboys Win

[WoodysGirl]

Published September 8, 2008

1. Say what you want about head coach Wade Phillips running training camps being “soft” or “easy”, but make sure you say they are effective. The Cowboys as Wade said, “We ready to play.”

2. The Cowboys were marvelous on 3rd downs. On offense they were 8 of 11 for 72%. That will win a lot of ballgames. And on defense, the Cowboys were outstanding. The Browns only converted three of nine attempts.

3. The Browns never got to run. You have to run to win in this league. The Cowboys defense only allowed 91 yards of rushing. Jamal Lewis was 13 for 62 yards.

4. Tony Romo spends time on football. All that stuff about him playing too much golf in the offseason and hanging out with Jessica Simpson too much is wrong. Romo threw for 327 yards. That is his 11th 300-yard game in three seasons. Troy Aikman had just 13 in his entire career.

5. Patrick Crayton is a legit number two receiver. Six catches 82 yards. That is big time. Go look around the NFL and you’ll see he’s really good when you start to stack up the numbers.

6. The Cowboys drafted really well. Rookies Orlando Scandrick, Felix Jones, and Tashard Choice played well.

7. The offensive line got the game ball. They simply knocked Cleveland around. They didn’t allow a sack and you never saw their blitzes work.

8. Matt McBriar had two punts.

9. 11 penalties. Way too many. The Cowboys have to focus better if they are going to win in the playoffs. The Browns first touchdown came off two Cowboys penalties on third downs.

10. The name Skip Peete will be one to remember this week. If Pro Bowl running back Marion Barber can’t play because of sore ribs, Peete, the Cowboys running backs coach, will have to make sure rookies Tashard Choice and Felix Jones can pick up the Eagles blitzes.

http://newdawgblog.wordpress.com/2008/09/08/ten-thoughts-on-the-cowboys-win/

 

[kmd24]

3. The Browns never got to run. You have to run to win in this league. The Cowboys defense only allowed 91 yards of rushing. Jamal Lewis was 13 for 62 yards.

I think the causation tends to be the other way. When you win, you end up running a lot. When you lose, you can't afford to run as much.

 

[Brandon4Cowboys]

[9. 11 penalties. Way too many. The Cowboys have to focus better if they are going to win in the playoffs. The Browns first touchdown came off two Cowboys penalties on third downs.
/B]

I do hope Wade spends some time this week reminding the Boyz that penalties are from bad concentration.

 

[TwentyOne]

I think the causation tends to be the other way. When you win, you end up running a lot. When you lose, you can't afford to run as much.

yeah but the game was close for a long time. even if the score doesn't look like that. for the whole first have the browns tried to run on us and they had no success at all.

our run D was really good yesterday.

 

[TellerMorrow34]

Yeah the run defense was pretty solid because Anderson got 16 of those yards on one scramble at one point. We really didn't allow anything that hurt us too bad.

As for the Romo 'revelation' it's a shame that there still will be people who will complain that he doesn't spend enough time on football and too much time on having a life.

 

[Thick 'N Hearty]

Something that wasn't talked about was the Special Teams play. 2 punt returns for 23 yards and 5 kick off returns for 90. An 11 yard average on punts and 18 yard average on kick offs. Pretty good play compared to the preseason.

 

[Apollo Creed]

11. Even when they knew we were going to run, we still punched them in the mouth. Even when we were just running out the game, our back averaged 7 yards a pop. We can really move people around.

12. A healthy Newman is going to allow us to get a little more creative up front, expect a lot more exotic looks for McNabb this week.

13. Look out for a gadget play early against the Eagles, keep Jim Johnson honest and we'll win this one easily.