OG- Free

CowboyStar88

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I'm watching the game again and I keep coming away saying man Free looks like a natural guard. He was athletic kept his feet moving and his head on a swivel. There were times where he stood his man straight up or he was able to get to the 2nd level with ease and speed. For a guy who never played Guard I keep coming away with the thought should he have been a guard the whole time?
He seems to work really well with a Center next to him and a tackle on the other side of him. You saw some chemistry with Fred as well which was encouraging. Maybe I'm being a homer or overly optimistic but right now I like Free at guard and I am thrilled he took to heart how terrible his play was last year. He manned up and was a team guy and very happy with what he's displayed. 3 practices and he looked pretty solid.
 
CowboyStar88 said:
I'm watching the game again and I keep coming away saying man Free looks like a natural guard. He was athletic kept his feet moving and his head on a swivel. There were times where he stood his man straight up or he was able to get to the 2nd level with ease and speed. For a guy who never played Guard I keep coming away with the thought should he have been a guard the whole time?
He seems to work really well with a Center next to him and a tackle on the other side of him. You saw some chemistry with Fred as well which was encouraging. Maybe I'm being a homer or overly optimistic but right now I like Free at guard and I am thrilled he took to heart how terrible his play was last year. He manned up and was a team guy and very happy with what he's displayed. 3 practices and he looked pretty solid.
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To be fair, Free has had a pretty good training camp at tackle too.
 
I didn't see anything natural about his performance, there were definitely times he and Parnell got whipped. That said, there were also times where they were able to create some movement. I actually though he looked worse in pass pro than run blocking, which is not what I expected.
 
MichaelWinicki said:
To be fair, Free has had a pretty good training camp at tackle too.
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I agree I wasn't dismissing his work at a OT this offseason actually I have been very happy with his play there and felt that he was going to have a solid year. But this was more about him at guard.
 
8. Not surprisingly, the Doug-Free-at-right-guard experiment was a flop. Free had never played a single snap at guard in the NFL … or college … or high school. Suddenly – because of injuries to Ron Leary and Nate Livings and the ensuing shuffling of linemen - he’s lined up against Geno Atkins, one of the best defensive tackles in the NFL. On the Cowboys’ first snap Free miscommunicated with right tackle Jeremy Parnell, leading to a sack of Tony Romo. By my count, Free had a false start penalty and allowed two sacks. I’ve seen enough.
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http://www.nbcdfw.com/blogs/blue-st...-My-Top-10-Whitty-Observations-220969311.html
 
Wow a flop? Meh... I think Free did good. Especially since it was his first game at RG and facing someone like Atkins.
 
I was happy with Free, the jury is still out on Parnell for me
 
I'm surprised he looked as good as he did last night, too. Not that he looked like a world-beater, but he played well against a DL that was the strength of that team. I didn't see him having particular problems anchoring, and we already knew that technically he's nimble enough to handle that job from a footwork perspective.
Parnell didn't look as good at RT, but even he was serviceable. Plus, it's harder job. I do think he still looks hobbled, though.

I still don't like our tackle depth, and so I hate the idea of playing our only three starting-capable players all the time. The idea that Mack might be a better LG than RG is intriguing, I have to admit. Makes me wonder how Leary might take to RG when he gets back and if that might even out the strength of our OL so what we're stronger across the board rather than really strong just on the left side.
 
Idgit said:
Wow. That's really bad. From the 'smuggling boos' line on down.
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It never ceases to amaze me how much fans of this team love to hate this team. Is there another fanbase in the NFL that does this like Dallas?

I was pretty pleased with Free - overall I'm cautiously optimistic about our OL this season.
 
Wheeltax said:
It never ceases to amaze me how much fans of this team love to hate this team. Is there another fanbase in the NFL that does this like Dallas?

I was pretty pleased with Free - overall I'm cautiously optimistic about our OL this season.
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Yeah, well, that's another whole topic, and I agree.

But the Richie Whitt stuff..man. Not only is the analysis just...bad. Like, really bad. You also have to sit through stuff like "got an earful of Romo’s increased leadership." Whose got time for writing that bad? "Smuggled boos." "Jumbo-Jerry scoreboard." Yuck. It makes my eyes water in embarrassment for him, just knowing the guy is doing his best and understanding how bad that really is. "Whitty Obsvervations." Somebody doesn't know what the word 'whitty' really means.
 
Idgit said:
Yeah, well, that's another whole topic, and I agree.

But the Richie Whitt stuff..man. Not only is the analysis just...bad. Like, really bad. You also have to sit through stuff like "got an earful of Romo’s increased leadership." Whose got time for writing that bad? "Smuggled boos." "Jumbo-Jerry scoreboard." Yuck. It makes my eyes water in embarrassment for him, just knowing the guy is doing his best and understanding how bad that really is. "Whitty Obsvervations." Somebody doesn't know what the word 'whitty' really means.
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Just replace the w with an s.
 
Idgit said:
Yeah, well, that's another whole topic, and I agree.

But the Richie Whitt stuff..man. Not only is the analysis just...bad. Like, really bad. You also have to sit through stuff like "got an earful of Romo’s increased leadership." Whose got time for writing that bad? "Smuggled boos." "Jumbo-Jerry scoreboard." Yuck. It makes my eyes water in embarrassment for him, just knowing the guy is doing his best and understanding how bad that really is. "Whitty Obsvervations." Somebody doesn't know what the word 'whitty' really means.
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What is with this guy? I don't get it.
 
I dont think it was all terrible, but I certainly wouldnt call him "good."

The run blocking was pretty putrid, and the pass blocking was decent for the whole line. Free still just looks like he is not strong enough to be an NFL offensive lineman.
 
CowboyStar88 said:
What is with this guy? I don't get it.
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I don't know. There are lots of good writers who know football and who criticize the team a fair bit at the same time. Whitt's not very good, whether he's being positive or negative.
 
Future said:
I dont think it was all terrible, but I certainly wouldnt call him "good."

The run blocking was pretty putrid, and the pass blocking was decent for the whole line. Free still just looks like he is not strong enough to be an NFL offensive lineman.
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I didn't see that at all. He actually anchored very well and there were times he stood his man straight up. He was also good at sealing off his man and getting to the 2nd level to block. Free also did a solid job working well with Fred and Parnell. Lets be honest this guy has had 3 practices here and after 3 practices he looked solid.
 
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