Chuck 54
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Everyone seems to have their "morning after" threads, but unlike the "morning after pill," the emotional pain of Monday night's unfortunate encounter in our beloved Cowboys home stadium against our most hated rival, the Commanders, nothing we can say or post or look forward to can erase the reality of that ugly loss. Nevertheless, ...
The Obvious
Go Cowboys!!!!
The Obvious
- Linehan had his first real hiccup as playcaller. Despite fumbles by two running backs, our run game was as good or better than it's been all year. As a team, our three running backs averaged 6.6 yards per carry. Mysteriously, Linehan never strayed from his game plan to run successfully on first down and then play-action on 2nd down. Even early in the game, Murray was chewing up 4,5,6 yards with a few 10 yard runs, but Linehan must have seen something in the game film that convinced him play-action was the key to success. How else can one explain continually dropping back to pass when Romo wasn't seeing the blitz, wasn't getting the ball out, and even when given time, wasn't finding open receivers? How else can one explain Murray's first handoff from Weeden going for 51 yards for first and goal at the 6, his next handoff gaining 2 yards, but then deciding to pass on 2nd and 3rd down to come away with a disappointing FG rather than powering it into the end zone when we were clearly moving their DL. How else can one explain a run for 8 yards on first down in overtime and then dropping back to pass the next 3 downs when Romo was clearly not in command against the defensive pressure? No, this was clearly a case when film study and bright minds playing X's and O's all week and during the game overshadowed a common sense approach that could be called by anyone outside of the brain trust watching the game.
- The defense under-performed, finally. The LBs, in my opinion had a very poor game, though Durrant had a good first half and a series or two in the 2nd half. Most of the time, they were taking poor angles and not making plays when they saw what was happening in front of them. McClain ended up with good stats, but he was not as aggressive as needed, and standing in the middle watching McCoy take off on the QB draw, he froze and never attacked, just stood a yard in the end zone and waited for the TE block that came from the side when he could have stepped forward and made a play. Carr was again lost in coverage at times. Orlando Scandrick deserves every dollar he is paid and part of what all the other DB's earn. What struck me is that we didn't play our usual game of clogging all running lanes and keeping the QB in the pocket, a scheme that worked against some very mobile QBs in previous games. Instead, it seemed we were so determined to get sacks and hits that we left our lanes and allowed some untimely running gains and the QB to hurt us with his legs. 3 sacks don't look as good on paper in a loss where the defense was undisciplined, does it?
- This game was not lost on two fumbles or the gambling, max blitzes by the Commanders or by a defense that at times tackled poorly and made mistakes, or by Dez dropping a TD pass. While all of that is true, this game was lost because our offensive coaches out-coached themselves and refused to stray from the plan, handing Murray the ball only 19 times in a game that was close from kickoff to final whistle.
- The blitzing of the Skins is not why Romo was hit or why we lost. If we'd continued to run the ball with draws and pitch-outs, those max blitzes would have been backed off. No one wants all those guys standing up in the tackle box when your OL fires off on a running play. That's how you give up huge plays when a blitzer is pushed to the side and the RB breaks open. Romo is not a QB to stand there in the face of a hit to deliver the last second throw to the hot receiver and slow down the blitzing...that's no comment on him courage, he's tough as nails, but that has never been who he is, and with his back, it never will be. He sees a guy unblocked, he's going to try to scramble or collapse to the ground. He did not react to the blitzes well. The OL couldn't have blocked any better....there were no "olay's"...everyone was on a man. They were bringing more guys than we had blockers. In my opinion, that is not the time to go max protection, which is the mistake Romo made. Pulling in your TE's and RB's and having only 2 options for a pass is not ideal. You need that TE or RB burning the blitz and giving you a quick short outlet to get the ball out of your hands. The more guys he pulled in when he saw blitz, the more he played into their hands because they could just bring another guy and eventually Tony has only his wideouts, who are split quite wide out!
- We tried to pressure and sack Colt McCoy in so many ways that we gave up the running yards in the 2nd half that we were stifling in the first half. Colt McCoy? Do you really care whether or not you sack him? If we'd stayed the course and continued to focus on shutting down the run game since their OL is not a strength, they would have needed to go to McCoy more and more, which is what we wanted. Sometimes we have been at our best this year only rushing 3-4 guys, keeping the QB in the pocket, and putting everyone else in coverage with safeties refusing to give up the big play.
- Ultimately, in a very close game that was there for the taking, we spent the second half allowing the Skins to run the ball by getting out of position, which then made their short passing attack more effective. At the same time, we spent the entire game, especially the 2nd half, running the ball less than we could have and should have and dropping back to pass more often than ever, playing right into the hands of the only thing the Skins defense is actually very good at, blitzing. We never really ran the ball enough to make them respect the play-action pass, we just assumed they'd see our film and go for it. I'm sure they loved seeing us pass more than we ran.
- Dallas is still 6-2 at the halfway mark; it's not 7-1, but if you can't go 4-4 or better in the 2nd half, you're not a playoff team anyway. For this week, we're still in first place, and we got a serious wake up call and lesson.
- Another starting LB lost for the season---no one's crying for us because we've been pretty lucky in season so far----NEXT!
- Cross your fingers that Leary's groin injury isn't serious...otherwise, the OL gets weaker and the depth at two positions is gone.
- I want to see Free back with Parnell back at short yardage TE....that's unstoppable on short yardage.
- Tony Romo is a franchise QB and does a lot of special things, but his whole career and last night proves once again that while he can win in crunch time, he's not a guy who can take a team on his back and carry it----get back to running the freakin' ball and the team identity!
- Stop talking about trades! We have a much better team than we ever imagined and a better record than any sane person expected, and we have a running game that can be depended on. However, the playoffs are our goal this year---we all know our defense is not championship caliber. We need our money in FA and we need our draft picks for next year. No way we should trade for a veteran just to fill a gap at WLB or any other spot. You maybe do that if you're a championship team on a run, and if you think we're a SB team this year just because we won 6 games in a row, you just might be delusional.
Go Cowboys!!!!