TheDude
McLovin
- Messages
- 12,203
- Reaction score
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I think most need to reasses their view of this team. The talent is just not there. Combine that with or blame it on coaching, and it is not surprising to anyone who watches other good teams play that Dallas struggles against better teams (which means we are not upper echelon).
I chalked last year up to injuries first then coaching. This "chemistry" bit was a rouse and red herring. The best "leadership and chemistry we have had in years" has us exactly at 8-5 like last year (alas with Romo playing ALL the games this year ). If you watch the other good teams (i.e. San Diego, Indy, Minn, N.O., etc). There is a different pace they work at. Their teams are more aware. Take Indy, granted, Peyton is the best ever, but he goes no huddle to take advantage of other teams players celebrating a tackle for no gain (i.e. Dallas). Their defense is more crisp also
The frustrating thing about this team is that they do have talent and it can show up against lesser teams where we look like world beaters. We can overcome the false starts, offsides,etc and go on to dominate. We can even pull out an occassional win (i.e. Philly) when the mistakes are minimized.
The players that do have talent, are usually not fundamentally sound. Witten must be the most penalized TE for false starts in the league. Not even mentioning the OL. I don't know how you fix that flukey stuff, but it happens way too often to be an abberation
The play calling is predictable and most of the audibles are 2 plays that the Defense always knows (even though the draw does still work sometimes). Anyone notice the lack of down field scripted passes we lack (i.e. arching bombs)? They are gone and the only long passes come from Romo buying time. The Defense doesn't even bother looking for it anymore. Notice how Rivers goes ahead with the play and expects his receivers to make a play.
The coaching is the primary reason this team struggled in late 2007 and their failure to get backups ready in 2008 (i.e. Choice, keeping BJ, Holland vs Proctor, etc.) was inexcusible. But some of this is one the players.
So, it is a collective failure. The coaching is not getting everything out of the team like Miami, Denver, Cincy, etc does. The team plays with no urgency (as noted by the 20 seconds it takes to run a no huddle play). The film study or tutelage is missing.
Aside from the coaching, Everytime this version of the team (with its core) has been challenged man to man, nut up, etc. in a do or die situation - they do cave. You could clearly see the difference in the first series with penalties, settling for a FG and then SD answering with a TD. Some of that is there play calling is better, they have better players, and some of it is everyone on that team just looking more crisp.
I don't even have emotion about this loss as I have seen it all too many times before. I expected them to lose this game. The worst part is people think it may have come down to Folk's missed FG. It didn't.... SD didn't even try to score a TD on their last possession, just a FG. The game was over after SD answered out TD to go up 17-10. If you watched closely, SD could throw at will down field and Rivers is one of the most accurate QB's Ive seen.
I wanted the coaching staff out last year and still say that is the only hope. Every coach from strength and conditioning to HC should be gone except for the ST coach.
It may not matter as the window is closing on this group so people like B james, Newman, Flo, should also be sent packing. If you are middle of the road making top 10 money and over 32 - bye.
Jenkins, Austin, felix, choice, Romo, Ware (but he has fallen off the cliff this year), and Witten (sans penalties), Ratliff are the only real keepers everyone else is likely no better than the opposition we play.
Today Rivers>>>>Romo. Whether that is from the scheme, play calling, etc, it was unexpected. He went deep and really never missed. I saw too many Romo passes batted, broken up, etc. Sadly, Romo had a good day. Rivers had a better day. This loss wasn't on Romo, but SD doesn't win without Rivers.
Maybe that is playcalinng, maybe not.
I chalked last year up to injuries first then coaching. This "chemistry" bit was a rouse and red herring. The best "leadership and chemistry we have had in years" has us exactly at 8-5 like last year (alas with Romo playing ALL the games this year ). If you watch the other good teams (i.e. San Diego, Indy, Minn, N.O., etc). There is a different pace they work at. Their teams are more aware. Take Indy, granted, Peyton is the best ever, but he goes no huddle to take advantage of other teams players celebrating a tackle for no gain (i.e. Dallas). Their defense is more crisp also
The frustrating thing about this team is that they do have talent and it can show up against lesser teams where we look like world beaters. We can overcome the false starts, offsides,etc and go on to dominate. We can even pull out an occassional win (i.e. Philly) when the mistakes are minimized.
The players that do have talent, are usually not fundamentally sound. Witten must be the most penalized TE for false starts in the league. Not even mentioning the OL. I don't know how you fix that flukey stuff, but it happens way too often to be an abberation
The play calling is predictable and most of the audibles are 2 plays that the Defense always knows (even though the draw does still work sometimes). Anyone notice the lack of down field scripted passes we lack (i.e. arching bombs)? They are gone and the only long passes come from Romo buying time. The Defense doesn't even bother looking for it anymore. Notice how Rivers goes ahead with the play and expects his receivers to make a play.
The coaching is the primary reason this team struggled in late 2007 and their failure to get backups ready in 2008 (i.e. Choice, keeping BJ, Holland vs Proctor, etc.) was inexcusible. But some of this is one the players.
So, it is a collective failure. The coaching is not getting everything out of the team like Miami, Denver, Cincy, etc does. The team plays with no urgency (as noted by the 20 seconds it takes to run a no huddle play). The film study or tutelage is missing.
Aside from the coaching, Everytime this version of the team (with its core) has been challenged man to man, nut up, etc. in a do or die situation - they do cave. You could clearly see the difference in the first series with penalties, settling for a FG and then SD answering with a TD. Some of that is there play calling is better, they have better players, and some of it is everyone on that team just looking more crisp.
I don't even have emotion about this loss as I have seen it all too many times before. I expected them to lose this game. The worst part is people think it may have come down to Folk's missed FG. It didn't.... SD didn't even try to score a TD on their last possession, just a FG. The game was over after SD answered out TD to go up 17-10. If you watched closely, SD could throw at will down field and Rivers is one of the most accurate QB's Ive seen.
I wanted the coaching staff out last year and still say that is the only hope. Every coach from strength and conditioning to HC should be gone except for the ST coach.
It may not matter as the window is closing on this group so people like B james, Newman, Flo, should also be sent packing. If you are middle of the road making top 10 money and over 32 - bye.
Jenkins, Austin, felix, choice, Romo, Ware (but he has fallen off the cliff this year), and Witten (sans penalties), Ratliff are the only real keepers everyone else is likely no better than the opposition we play.
Today Rivers>>>>Romo. Whether that is from the scheme, play calling, etc, it was unexpected. He went deep and really never missed. I saw too many Romo passes batted, broken up, etc. Sadly, Romo had a good day. Rivers had a better day. This loss wasn't on Romo, but SD doesn't win without Rivers.
Maybe that is playcalinng, maybe not.
