I am an optimist as far as the team is concerned but I also see individual players that need to step up:
Roy Williams - I LOVE his downfield blocking and his attitude but he simply is NOT producing in the passing game like he should be. Hes been here for a full year now and he shouldn't still be having problems with the routes. Nothing has changed between last year and this year in terms of the pass plays so what's the deal? Nagging injuries? Not intelligent enough to get it? Not studying enough? What is it?
Not only is he not getting open but he's dropping passes. He was supposed to have sure hands but we are not seeing it so far. He is definitely not living up to his contract so far this season.
Patrick Crayton - I am thrilled that Crayton has finally decided to actually try running with the ball on punt returns instead of just fair-catching it every time. He has looked great the last two games in that area. My complaint though is that he is still not doing much as a receiver. He's catching a decent number of passes but considering he was the starter for the first 5 games he should have more than 20 receptions on the season.
My biggest complaint is that he only has two receptions for 20+ yards and both were in week-1. Since then he has had nothing over 18 yards. He's not breaking any tackles and doesn't seem to know what to do with the ball once he catches it. Maybe he is still fair-catching that ball. Also he' had more than his share of dropped passes.
These two WRs were our starters at the beginning of the season but neither of them is getting the job done in the passing game. Neither guy is making big plays for us and neither one is breaking tackles or getting yards after the catch. Too many drops and too many poorly run routes. I would blame it on the WRs coach Ray Sherman but he's done a great job getting Miles Austin up to speed and even Sam Hurd is making some plays so...
Defense - I'll cover the defense as a unit and focus on one particular area of concern because if we get this area fixed it would solve a lot of problems for us: Tackling. Other than Keith Brooking, none of these guys knows how to tackle properly. I saw the article posted yesterday about why teams don't tackle in practice/TC and I understand the reasoning behind it but these guys have been playing tackle football for years, from Pop Warner to the NFL, and should know how tackle properly by now.
It is my experience that good tacklers are guys who WANT to stop someone. You have to be more than just willing, but anxious to put your body on the line and crush the guy with the ball. You also have to wrap up and not just launch yourself at the guy. I see our guys either arm tackling because they don't want to get hurt or trying to impale the guy so they can end up on Sports Center. Neither is effective in the NFL. The players are too athletic to be caught/stopped like that in most cases and it just doesn't work.
There is a famous clip of Vince Lombardi yelling at his players about arm tackling, "Grab, grab, grab, that's all I'm seeing out there today!". I would say the same thing about our guys, too many guys trying to arm tackle a runner. We've had a couple of games where the tackling was better and we were really hitting some people but mostly the tackling has been pretty poor, particularly by the DBs.
The killer, obliteration hit can serve a purpose in making a receiver think twice when going over the middle but looking for it on every play is not smart. They come at special moments and are awesome when they happen but you can't try to do that all the time. I see some of our DBs doing that and missing or just plowing into the guy but not wrapping up.
Overall, I am happy with how we have been playing for most of this season. The two losses were to good teams and we had several chances to win both of them. We are not being outclassed, just outplayed. Too many dumb, costly penalties; too many missed opportunities for big plays; too many missed blocks, tackles, INTs, receptions, etc.
Romo has been smarter with the ball this year but he has also been a bit inaccurate at times, missing open guys. He's never going to be Troy Aikman in that area but it is an area he needs to improve in. I think part of it is the timing of his release. In his first 2 years he got the ball out amazingly quickly and his accuracy was very good. But the last 2 seasons his accuracy has slipped but so has his quickness in getting the ball out. I believe the two are related.
I think it is a combination of things, that are both good and bad, that are making Tony hold the ball longer than he used to. One is that he is running for his life too often as our pass-protection hasn't been very good the last two years.
Second is that he is not that confident in his receivers and is waiting for them to get into their routes before letting it go. All QBs throw the ball to where the receiver is GOING TO BE. If the guy doesn't go where he is supposed to then the ball falls incomplete or is picked off. Tony seems to be waiting on them too often and then his passes are rushed or off target. He seems to have more confidence in Austin and it is working well for us.
Third is that he is trying to be more judicial in not turning the ball over. The Giants game was an aberration and some of those picks were flukes (Witten's heel). Other than that game he has thrown only one INT all season. I think Romo is holding the ball a bit longer, taking that extra second to read the defense and his receivers and avoid a possible turnover.
Maybe this is a big reason why Williams and Crayton seem to have no timing with Romo but then how does Austin seem to click so well with him? It also doesn't account for their drops.
I don't know if this is something we want to correct at this point and believe that over time he will get better at reading the defenses more quickly and return to getting the ball out faster.
OK, that's it for now. I know people will come in and blast me again for saying anything negative about Patrick Crayton but I just call it like I see it folks and I'm not seeing much contribution from him as a receiver so bring it on.
