Quick thoughts from Week 3

[DogFace]

Is it any less "irrational" to now anoint him after one good game? Against a defense completely ravaged by injuries? I don't think so. But there's a double standard of acceptable for positive and negative comments. One is acceptable while the other isn't for some people.



I won't criticize much with regard to the play calling, but that one and the 3rd and short toss play late stood out to me as particularly dumb calls. Given your quarterback situation, do you really want to subject Prescott to a situation like that unnecessarily?



Miller's doing a fine job with what he's working with in Houston. Their offensive line is depleted and his quarterback is playing lousy. He would be doing well here as well and there's no evidence for anyone to talk any "told ya so!" with regard to him.



The pass rush is the disappointment we all said it would be. Nobody can be surprised about it now, least of all the people responsible for putting it together. We have neither speed nor flexibility on the outside. 'Trying really hard' won't get it done in this league. They played arguably the worst set of tackles and worst quarterback they will face all year last night and did little or nothing. We can only hope that Lawrence is a huge difference maker when he returns because a quality quarterback will destroy this defense.



I would have asked for a measurement late in the game when they were trying to run out the clock. I was surprised that he didn't. On the plus side, it looked to me like he sat Williams for a bit after his latest blunder and, if so, I credit him for holding players accountable.

Great outlook!!

I'm happy now

 

[haleyrules]

What's wrong with the QB sneak?

Patriots run it all the time. It worked. QB's are going to get hit time from time. Sure there's less of a chance on a sneak for an injury compared to a blind side hit.

I believe everyones complaint is regarding an injury at a position that has no viable back up. QB sneaks are ok after that.

 

[strollinruss]

I was just thinking how a Romo led team would have let the Bears hang around a while and make a game of it. It was good to see them put on the gas and get a lead.

 

[NextGenBoys]

I'm always happy with a W. The offense looked good. I'm just not sure we can tell much about the Cowboys from a game against a depleted Bears team that was bad to begin with.

Anyway...

I was thrilled to see a couple of rub routes. They worked great because Witten knows exactly how to pick off DBs without touching them. More please! I will never get the complete absence of slants and crossing routes to Dez, though. That is a total head shaker for me. M. Collins had a good game and Green had his issues but I thought played surprisingly well.

Dez scored his only TD on a slant route.

 

[Carson]

I love this "depleted Bears crap"

Starters out
Romo
Smith
Collins
Lawrence
Gregory
Scandrick
McClain

... Yet they get a pass. Smh

Oh and last week Wentz shredded them but hey, that's ok.

 

[waving monkey]

EE should not only have 20+ carries a game-- he needs to be used a lot more in the passing game.

He should have 5+ screens or flat routes a game and he should be motioned out wide a few times as well to mess with the D scheme and personnel.

And Zeek should fly too ,yea that's it, he should over the field like a cannon that's the ticket

 

[AmericanCowboy]

EE had a good game but our O-line dominated. I didn't really see him make too many people miss.

He had what looked like had the potential to be HUGE gains but he was tripped up by someone. The stats look slightly better than how he played, though he still played well.

He is always falling forward for like another 2 yards it seems, that part is nice. His pass blocking is good as well.

I still need to see more from him though. With Ezekial Elliott he got 140 yards in this game, Alfred Morris would have gotten 130 had he been given the same touches.

 

[VACowboy]

Dez scored his only TD on a slant route.

Exactly my point. How many more slants or crossing routes of any kind did we see from Dez last night?

ZERO.

They are obviously his best plays. They don't require a lot of route precision and accentuate his strength as a runner. Why isn't he running these routes all the time?

 

[NextGenBoys]

Exactly my point. How many more slants or crossing routes of any kind did we see from Dez last night?

ZERO.

They are obviously his best plays. They don't require a lot of route precision and accentuate his strength as a runner. Why isn't he running these routes all the time?

Well I think that we went away from him due to his injury. But yeah I hear you. We run more of a vertical offense, and his role is typically to get downfield. Slants and crosses are used as a compliment, not the base. On his TD, he set up his slant route by coming off the line like he was getting up the field, and then cut across the defender to get inside position. I don't think the defender falls for that had we been running slants all day.

 

[Sarek]

Bears suck, but it's the Cowboys job to win and they did that, next team up 49ers.

 

[FuzzyLumpkins]

Garrett is going to run him into the ground giving him 30 carries a game.

 

[InDakWeTrust]

Chaz, Leary, Mo, Swaim and Collins all have stepped up big time. With McClain showing great improvement and Byron giving us the best safety play in years.

Chaz had some struggles but showed his potential to actually start in the NFL.

TWill killed any chance of us seeing Sanchez with his fumble. We had a chance to put it away early scoring on that drive.

Our playoff chances ride on us continuingstaying positive on turnovers and getting to the QB. Our offense can drive and score from anywhere on the field with either QB.

 

[VACowboy]

Well I think that we went away from him due to his injury. But yeah I hear you. We run more of a vertical offense, and his role is typically to get downfield. Slants and crosses are used as a compliment, not the base. On his TD, he set up his slant route by coming off the line like he was getting up the field, and then cut across the defender to get inside position. I don't think the defender falls for that had we been running slants all day.

Excellent points.

 

[Doomsday101]

Garrett is going to run him into the ground giving him 30 carries a game.

He is avg 23 carries a game, he is not going to get 30 every week. Hell in 91 season Emmitt had 5 games where he had 30 or more carries I don't recall anyone concerned that Dallas was running him into the ground. Will there be games that Zeke will get 30 plus carries yes and a lot more that will be less than 30.

 

[Deep_Freeze]

Garrett is going to run him into the ground giving him 30 carries a game.

Well I actually liked it for the conditioning of Zeke, but I don't think he should be getting this many carries either on a consistent basis.

 

[Deep_Freeze]

EE had a good game but our O-line dominated. I didn't really see him make too many people miss.

He had what looked like had the potential to be HUGE gains but he was tripped up by someone. The stats look slightly better than how he played, though he still played well.

He is always falling forward for like another 2 yards it seems, that part is nice. His pass blocking is good as well.

I still need to see more from him though. With Ezekial Elliott he got 140 yards in this game, Alfred Morris would have gotten 130 had he been given the same touches.

Basically everyone is saying he didn't break one.

Thing is, breaking one in the NFL doesn't happen that often anymore, but I do feel it will happen sooner rather than later with Zeke. If you are close that many times, eventually it will happen real soon.

Let him get used to zone blocking and such, I still think he needs to lose 10 pounds, and you will see it. I liked the hurdle, but he fell right down afterward. In college he was still on his feet after that, I just think he is carrying a lil too much weight right now.

Give it time, it will happen, and I figure it will start happening in bunches once the damn breaks.

 

[Londonboy]

He ran pretty well.
His best play may have been His blitz pick-up after Collins got flattened.

 

[DFWJC]

First let me start with Ezekiel Elliott, because there were so many irrational haters out there calling for him to be benched and calling him a bad pick, potentially even a bust.

This kid had a great game. 140 yards rushing and 20 yards receiving. I could only imagine what would have happened with Romo in the game. McFadden had a year high of 152 yards last year. Elliott is knocking on that door after just three games.

Not sure why we can utilize him better in the red zone though. He got robbed of 3 touchdowns generated much by his own contributions to the offense. I know it looks like he took himself out on one (with Dunbar), but the touchdowns for Morris and especially Prescott (which was poorly executed and only got him concussed) should have been Zeke's.

After 3 games (minus MNF) finds himself tied for 2nd among all NFL rushers. Ahead of Lamar Miller who so many of us wanted in the offseason. He's only going to get better. Is he going to get the rookie rushing record? Probably not, but I do think by midseason you're going to see him get some 200 yard games when Romo returns, so I don't think it's not worth discussing.

Defense continues to do their best out there, but it clearly still isn't enough. The lack of a pass rush will continue to haunt us. We really need Lawrence out there. I think with him and Crawford as book ends, we might have significant improvement. Still need to see more out of Sean Lee though.

I don't think Garrett did a great job, but I don't think he did a poor one either. His teams tend to take care of the bad teams like this one. I do question his decision to throw that challenge flag though. And with the resources we put into the line and the running back position, I'd like to see us go for it on 4th and short (with properly field position) a lot more. Definitely need to see more running in red zone. We saw more of it last night which was great.

I hear you GB, but unless you have Zeke on your fantasy team, who cares who scores the TDs?

Also, although Zeke is tied for 2nd in rushing, it's hard to compare different backs to those running behind our line. I mean, DMC was 4th in rushing last year and didn't even start until week 4 or 5.

He DID look good though.

 

[Stash]

Basically everyone is saying he didn't break one.

Thing is, breaking one in the NFL doesn't happen that often anymore, but I do feel it will happen sooner rather than later with Zeke. If you are close that many times, eventually it will happen real soon.

Let him get used to zone blocking and such, I still think he needs to lose 10 pounds, and you will see it. I liked the hurdle, but he fell right down afterward. In college he was still on his feet after that, I just think he is carrying a lil too much weight right now.

Give it time, it will happen, and I figure it will start happening in bunches once the damn breaks.

I agree with you on the vast majority of this, except for the hurdle. Personally, I was worried that the linebacker was going to smash him and the ball was going to come out. Moves like that expose players to big hits and possible injuries and always make this fan more than a bit nervous.

 

[Stash]

He ran pretty well.
His best play may have been His blitz pick-up after Collins got flattened.

Agreed. That was impressive.