Sturm: Marinelli Report - Kicked In the Teeth

[plasticman]

We knew or should have anticipated defensive struggles. This defense relies on high energy performance from the defensive line which can only be successful through rotation of good talent.

Half the defensive line is out, so limited rotation and that equaled late game fatigue. The guys out there were never meant to be in so many plays. Some of them were specifiably situational like pass rushing on 3rd down but forced to play every down.

They missed both McClains and Mincey especially.

This is why it was critical for the Cowboys to sustain drives, keep their defense on the bench, but the running game disappeared after the 1st quarter like it has done so far this season and the undermanned Cowboy defense was forced to pay the price.

 

[Brooksey]

Watching the gifs is depressing. Offensively Altlanta really kicked our rear in the trenches. Hitchens looked terrible, Lee not even close to last week, Wilbur terrible, Coleman and Bishop were laughable, Ryan Russell was terrible. Crawford not bad but not great, he needs help across that line.

Nick Hayden nice hustle, sad to say. Our LB's have to maintain their angles and keep there outside arms free, taking the inside route (cheating under the block) with this group of D-Lineman is a recipe for disaster.

 

[perrykemp]

Watching the gifs is depressing. Offensively Altlanta really kicked our rear in the trenches. Hitchens looked terrible, Lee not even close to last week, Wilbur terrible, Coleman and Bishop were laughable, Ryan Russell was terrible. Crawford not bad but not great, he needs help across that line.

Nick Hayden nice hustle, sad to say. Our LB's have maintain their angles and keep there outside arms free, taking the inside route (cheating under the block) with this group of D-Lineman is a recipe for disaster.

My totally unscientific non-"All-22" view is that Lee and Hitchens both look light in the britches and are both great running from sideline to sideline running down RBs, however, if you are a power running team and run right at them they have trouble holding up.

Some of these can be attributed to the DL, however, both Crawford and Hayden, the starters, are playing so it's a bit discouraging.

I'm not a fan of all the drama Ro brings to the club, however, if his head is on straight I think he'd be the thumper in the run game that would change the dynamic quite a bit against power-running attacks.

 

[RunDMC]

In the collection of GIFs included in Sturm's article, Hitchens looked absolutely horrid.

Everyone was horrid except for Lawrence and Hayden.

 

[Brooksey]

My totally unscientific non-"All-22" view is that Lee and Hitchens both look light in the britches and are both great running from sideline to sideline running down RBs, however, if you are a power running team and run right at them they have trouble holding up.

Some of these can be attributed to the DL, however, both Crawford and Hayden, the starters, are playing so it's a bit discouraging.

I'm not a fan of all the drama Ro brings to the club, however, if his head is on straight I think he'd be the thumper in the run game that would change the dynamic quite a bit against power-running attacks.

The fix was screaming Rolando in the middle with Lee chasing it down.

 

[Fletch]

Brutal.

Can you imagine what the coaches are saying to the players in their meetings and on the field of practice? I mean if the fan base is this disgusted about the performance, imagine what the coaching staff thinks.

It better be a very spirited and crisp practice today and tomorrow!

 

[Derinyar]

Hopefully we will have more horses back on the line this week, and even more next week. That will help the defense more then anything else I think. This is an undersized defense that was running out of bodies to rotate. I think we missed T McClain also. Weeden isn't blameless, but I'd argue he's not the biggest offender on the offense. I think our vaunted line, while not playing terribly, didn't play good either. The WR's one can't really say much about without looking at all 22 because frankly they weren't thrown too.

 

[Zman5]

I wish we had Atlanta's FB.

 

[FuzzyLumpkins]

Anybody still want to make the case that the real problem was the backup QB completing 85% of his passes on mostly check downs?

Weeden was going for 10 YPA and an 85 QB rating. People aren't just dumb. They are gibbering idiots at times.

 

[Aven8]

In the collection of GIFs included in Sturm's article, Hitchens looked absolutely horrid.

Cue Latin Mind to come tell us how Hitch is superior to Ro!! Lol

 

[Aven8]

Has it occured to anybody that when your 2 star players, actually 2 best players, are out that the team kind of deflates with them? It's sort of like when Bledsoe was the QB and we went through the motions, and then Romo came in and the team just lifted up and eveybody started playing better etc.

 

[Dave_in-NC]

Anybody still want to make the case that the real problem was the backup QB completing 85% of his passes on mostly check downs?

Still failed to score any thing for 30 minutes. That didn't help.

 

[NextGenBoys]

Again, why is it so hard for people to put blame on multiple areas?

Why are some of you so hell bent on trying to place majority of the blame on just one person or one group?

That loss falls at the feet of multiple areas - coaching, the crappy defense, the awful QB.

Why are people trying to make this out to be much harder than it is? The defense was brutal. But the offense, with that backup QB, managed 50 yards of offense over 30 minutes of football. That's horrid.

Summed up very well, and I agree 100%.

When this team loses, it's usually because every facet of the team fails one another. We are talented enough to be able to overcome one area or another, just not the whole team playing poorly for stretches at a time.

 

[Doomsday101]

Still failed to score any thing for 30 minutes. That didn't help.

True, flip side they did not get many opportunities with the ball Atl was able to maintain long drives giving Dallas few chances. I agree offense needed to do more instead the runs became negative runs with Randle getting 11 carries for 2 yards and some untimely penalties putting us in long situations. No excuse other than the fact I still expect the defense to hold an opponent to under 28 points.

 

[PA Cowboy Fan]

True, flip side they did not get many opportunities with the ball Atl was able to maintain long drives giving Dallas few chances. I agree offense needed to do more instead the runs became negative runs with Randle getting 11 carries for 2 yards and some untimely penalties putting us in long situations. No excuse other than the fact I still expect the defense to hold an opponent to under 28 points.

Pretty much the defense and Atlanta's ability to stop our running game did us in. Maybe Weeden could have tried to go deep but then I think more turnovers would have happened.

 

[Doomsday101]

Pretty much the defense and Atlanta's ability to stop our running game did us in. Maybe Weeden could have tried to go deep but then I think more turnovers would have happened.

Hard to say, I think Dallas tried to keep Weeden in a comfort zone. I do think they will have to open things up as we move forward. I think Brandon did some good things in this game but I do think Cowboys will not be able to play safe. Ideally defense should be able to prevent 38 points being put up, even the poor defense we had I would expect at least that. Never the less the defense was unable to do much and of course with Romo and Dez it is hard to expect a lot more than 28 point game. Honestly had someone told me the offense would produce 28 this past game I would say we were going to win that game.

 

[Tusan_Homichi]

Has it occured to anybody that when your 2 star players, actually 2 best players, are out that the team kind of deflates with them? It's sort of like when Bledsoe was the QB and we went through the motions, and then Romo came in and the team just lifted up and eveybody started playing better etc.

It wouldn't surprise me if there's some of that. As soon as we fell behind against the Falcons, the hope of actually coming back was minuscule in my mind and I'm sure the team was thinking the same thing. Having Romo/Dez around means we always have a shot even when things are looking really dark.

 

[Idgit]

Still failed to score any thing for 30 minutes. That didn't help.

Don't want to derail the defensive meltdown discussion, but my take on the 2nd half offense is here, if you wanted to discuss that in the other thread.

http://cowboyszone.com/threads/quick-game-review-falcons.332486/page-2#post-6308062

 

[Dave_in-NC]

True, flip side they did not get many opportunities with the ball Atl was able to maintain long drives giving Dallas few chances. I agree offense needed to do more instead the runs became negative runs with Randle getting 11 carries for 2 yards and some untimely penalties putting us in long situations. No excuse other than the fact I still expect the defense to hold an opponent to under 28 points.

Agreed. But you have to play deeper than ten yards from the line of scrimmage. That's on the QB or coaches. We will never know for sure who was at fault that game.

 

[Dave_in-NC]

Don't want to derail the defensive meltdown discussion, but my take on the 2nd half offense is here, if you wanted to discuss that in the other thread.

http://cowboyszone.com/threads/quick-game-review-falcons.332486/page-2#post-6308062

Sure, then you can say I'm stalking you. I know how you work.