Stop And Lets Think

[Billy Bullocks]

Ok, so let's slow all this craziness down and analyze where we are at right now...

Today's loss, much like Washington was incredibly, and still is hard to stomach. Again, we domninate a team and let it slip away.

- Blaming Parcells is absolute none sense. Parcells doesn't bank on Cortez missing from 27 yards. Think about how differently this game plays out at 13-3 rather than 10-3. Cortez cost us Washington with his misses, and today it cost us again.

- No disrespect, MB3, you played well, but Seattle had no fear of us running on them.

___________________________________________________________

Enough about the game. Lets take a look at things.
4-3. We play Arizona at home next week...we should win.

Let's win a winnable game and we are sitting at 5-3 going into our Bye Week. Does that really look so bad? Most of you wouldn't even have believed that would be our record at the BYe. That leaves us in a pretty good position.

I said it in previous posts, if we are at or above .500 at the Bye we are positioned well for a run. 5-3, well thats not too shabby.

I think if we take some momentum into the bye week, sitting above .500, and work some things out, we can take at least 4 or the last 8 games.

I had a bad feeling about this game, but not this bad.

I hate Cortez, I knew he would cost us games...he's a profesional kicker, and he may have saved himself last week, but this guy has no confidence. He kicks oneout of bounds. 27 yards out!!!!!!! Last week he missed 2 40's, and that almost cost us.

 

[ghosttown cowboy]

When SF is glad to be rid of him, you know there is something to it!

 

[Kilyin]

- No disrespect, MB3, you played well, but Seattle had no fear of us running on them.

I think you have that backwards. They loaded the box with 8 to stop Barber, because they had no fear of our abandoned passing game.

 

[Billy Bullocks]

At first they had no repect for the run.

 

[CanadianCowboysFan]

I thought Barber and Thompson ran decently today. We just had a terrible passing game.

 

[Dale]

I had a terrible feeling entering today's game. I really thought this was the game our defense would get exposed -- especially being a road game -- and we'd really come out and just look like an utterly inferior team.

So, in that sense, I was very impressed by the fact that we were tied or leading for, what, 59:59 of the game? But, these close losses still add up and count as losses; thus the disappointment.

It's great we're looking "good" in losses so to speak (as opposed to getting blown out), but if we finish the season 9-7 and miss the playoffs, but lost six games we "should have won," it ain't gonna matter.

I think, for such a young defense, this unit is really maturing fast. I love just about everything we do, though I would still like a more consistent pass rush and would like to see an improvement in our ability to wrap up on a quarterback. We could have had five or six sacks today if we just wrapped up better, or so it seemed.

Offensively, I fear we have simply lost too many key parts to be at the top of our game -- much like last year without Glenn, Campbell and Jones. Crayton is obviously a key component of our third down offense. Barber and Thompson have looked good, but even a subpar Julius just seems to provide a more consistent run-by-run performance (though I am thoroughly impressed with both rookie backs, who are continuing to improve).

Also, without Flozell and with Petitti getting exposed today, our offensive line looked horrendous. Larry Allen looked like the only guy who knew what he was doing.

Can we go through one game without botching a snap at center? And Marco Rivera seems to have picked up where Flozell has left off in years past in the penalty department.

If we could play a crisper brand of football (lack of talent?), this team would be in real contention. Just look at the Philly game. We're just too error prone at this point. We get a 20-yard gain, only to wipe it out with a meaningless penalty that kills the drive. This seems to happen way too many times each game, and in all three phases of the game.

 

[ddh33]

Well said, Dale. The penalties and mental mistakes are the hardest things for me to accept. I suspect they are for Parcells too.

 

[·[A]koN·]

..Still tho' we had Washigton beat with less than 2 minutes left. IT WAS IN THE BAG BOOK IT!! and we had Seattle Beat within 2 minutes left! BOOK THAT ONE!

we'd be 5-2 EASILY!!!....cuz even tho we did eventually lose those two games, because of our stupidity and lackness of execution, this would be our record. and havin Arizona @ home, i think this team SHOULD OF BEEN 6-2 by the BYE WEEK.

Its gonna cost us!! Especiall in the NFC East, these losses..are KILLERS....

Only good thing today is OUR DEFENSE! Our lack of execution (FG, TDS) is just killin us....

 

[ZRO]

That whole "Who would have thought we'd be 4-3" crap is a loser's mentality. This team has let THREE extremely winnable games slip trough their fingertrips, and two of them where they dominated the entire game and then blew it at the end.

So I really don't care what I THOUGHT at the beginning of the year.

And no, Arizona is not a gimmie win anymore than Seattle was.

 

[Paniolo22]

Can anyone believe the prayers and ducks Hasselback was tossing in the air. I couldn't believe that receivers were coming up with the freakin catches. That was hard for me to stomach. Ferggy has QB in the grasp (what ever happend to that rule?) QB is still able to blindly fling a pass for a 6 yd gain. Unbelievable!

 

[Sarge]

I said at the beginning of the year, before one game was played, that Cortez would cost us at least 2 games. I was wrong. Looks like it's probably going to be in the 3-4 range if he's not fired first.

 

[Kittymama]

I said at the beginning of the year, before one game was played, that Cortez would cost us at least 2 games. I was wrong. Looks like it's probably going to be in the 3-4 range if he's not fired first.

And since you're such a genius--what names, pray tell, are out there who we should sign? We didn't cut a healthy Cundiff, remember--we cut a Cundiff with an injury. So what Pro-Bowl kickers did we pass up to sign Cortez? You know, so we could go 4-12.

 

[dbair1967]

And since you're such a genius--what names, pray tell, are out there who we should sign? We didn't cut a healthy Cundiff, remember--we cut a Cundiff with an injury. So what Pro-Bowl kickers did we pass up to sign Cortez? You know, so we could go 4-12.

your right there are none now, but there were several options early in the offseason that could have been had for minimal investment...with all the caproom we had, somebody should ahve been added to compete with the inconsistent Cundiff

it was also utter nonsense on Parcells' behalf to cut Jeff Robinson...I counted at least 3 more bad snaps yesterday

David

 

[burmafrd]

Cortez was the best available. BUt I would certainly rather have Cundiff.
As regards the losses- we also won a couple that we very well could have lost- so that is balancing out as it does when you have an inconsistent team.
We barely pulled out SD and SF and we LUCKED out against the Giants.
WE COULD be 1-6.

 

[Mr Cowboy]

This team has always had the mentality that a place kicker in unimportant, andyou can find one on the cheap somewhere. Look at NE, they have had Vinatierri for years, so has Indy, Philly and many of the better teams. They see it as an important positions and have no problem paying for a good one and keeping him.

Every offseason there are a number of FA PK available, and we always seem to choose the wrong one. Even Cundiffe wasn't very good, and now we are desiring he was on this team............amazing.

 

[vicjagger]

I said it in previous posts, if we are at or above .500 at the Bye we are positioned well for a run.

I don't understand this reasoning. In the second half we have road games at PHI, WAS, NYG, CAR, and home games against DEN & KC. The schedule is murderous. We needed to jump out to a lead in the standings, ala 2003. Being in last place with the schedule we've played is not a good thing.

 

[kartr]

Ok, so let's slow all this craziness down and analyze where we are at right now...

Today's loss, much like Washington was incredibly, and still is hard to stomach. Again, we domninate a team and let it slip away.

- Blaming Parcells is absolute none sense. Parcells doesn't bank on Cortez missing from 27 yards. Think about how differently this game plays out at 13-3 rather than 10-3. Cortez cost us Washington with his misses, and today it cost us again.

- No disrespect, MB3, you played well, but Seattle had no fear of us running on them.

___________________________________________________________

Enough about the game. Lets take a look at things.
4-3. We play Arizona at home next week...we should win.

Let's win a winnable game and we are sitting at 5-3 going into our Bye Week. Does that really look so bad? Most of you wouldn't even have believed that would be our record at the BYe. That leaves us in a pretty good position.

I said it in previous posts, if we are at or above .500 at the Bye we are positioned well for a run. 5-3, well thats not too shabby.

I think if we take some momentum into the bye week, sitting above .500, and work some things out, we can take at least 4 or the last 8 games.

I had a bad feeling about this game, but not this bad.

I hate Cortez, I knew he would cost us games...he's a profesional kicker, and he may have saved himself last week, but this guy has no confidence. He kicks oneout of bounds. 27 yards out!!!!!!! Last week he missed 2 40's, and that almost cost us.

Don't blame Parcells, he built this team and he coaches this team. He's gotten rid of almost all of the players from the previous regime. If the players are at fault, he picked and coached them.

 

[kartr]

I thought Barber and Thompson ran decently today. We just had a terrible passing game.

At exactly, 136 yards passing and a qb rating of 50, that's Hutchesque, and from a former first round qb with 12 years experience.

 

[kartr]

I had a terrible feeling entering today's game. I really thought this was the game our defense would get exposed -- especially being a road game -- and we'd really come out and just look like an utterly inferior team.

So, in that sense, I was very impressed by the fact that we were tied or leading for, what, 59:59 of the game? But, these close losses still add up and count as losses; thus the disappointment.

It's great we're looking "good" in losses so to speak (as opposed to getting blown out), but if we finish the season 9-7 and miss the playoffs, but lost six games we "should have won," it ain't gonna matter.

I think, for such a young defense, this unit is really maturing fast. I love just about everything we do, though I would still like a more consistent pass rush and would like to see an improvement in our ability to wrap up on a quarterback. We could have had five or six sacks today if we just wrapped up better, or so it seemed.

Offensively, I fear we have simply lost too many key parts to be at the top of our game -- much like last year without Glenn, Campbell and Jones. Crayton is obviously a key component of our third down offense. Barber and Thompson have looked good, but even a subpar Julius just seems to provide a more consistent run-by-run performance (though I am thoroughly impressed with both rookie backs, who are continuing to improve).

Also, without Flozell and with Petitti getting exposed today, our offensive line looked horrendous. Larry Allen looked like the only guy who knew what he was doing.

Can we go through one game without botching a snap at center? And Marco Rivera seems to have picked up where Flozell has left off in years past in the penalty department.

If we could play a crisper brand of football (lack of talent?), this team would be in real contention. Just look at the Philly game. We're just too error prone at this point. We get a 20-yard gain, only to wipe it out with a meaningless penalty that kills the drive. This seems to happen way too many times each game, and in all three phases of the game.

Didn't you leave out someone on offense to blame. I mean, Bledsoe as much as gave Seattle the winning score by throwing to a double-covered Glenn. If either of our last two qbs had thrown that pick, people would have been all over them.

 

[Alexander]

Didn't you leave out someone on offense to blame. I mean, Bledsoe as much as gave Seattle the winning score by throwing to a double-covered Glenn. If either of our last two qbs had thrown that pick, people would have been all over them.

There was very little reason to put him in that position to make that error.

There were 40 seconds left.

It was raining.

We did not protect Bledsoe very well all day long. Petitti was a turnstyle to Fisher, our expensive guards were letting Darby get penetration.

Our snapper had a poor day.

Our kicker cannot make a 29 yard FG, let alone a 50 yard FG.

We should have taken our chances in overtime.