The Level Headed Thread

[BigDFan5]

No that isn't rose colored, but calling people Drama Queens for asking for Bledosoe to be benched is certainly and exaggeration. So people are drama queens if they think Romo might be able to do better than Bledsoe? Even if Romo throws picks at least he will be a 1st year starter making bad decisions and not a 11 year veteran doing the same. I personally would like to see Romo play next week against the Texans and take over for the rest of the season. That is not being a drama queen, but merely a realist. Bledsoe cannot take this team to the next level, and this is a good team. You can't insult people for having an opinion.

Take a look around the board and then you will figure out who the drama queens are

 

[Bach]

How's it rose colored?? I assessed my opinions on the game and who I thought performed and I criticized what I didn't like. It's looking through rose colored glasses if I don't scream for the heads of everyone in the organization? If so, then guilty as charged.

So everyone's a drama queen who realizes Bledsoe is a crappy QB who has a history of constantly throwing games away?

Guilty.

I don't see what's so level-headed to bury your head in the sand.

 

[SDogo]

Drama queen it is then. This team has proved nothing during Parcells time here and it does not look like it's getting better. At some point it's time to panik.

 

[fanfromvirginia]

Drama queens not allowed...
--------------------------------------------------------------------------

We played a bad game, no question.

Bledsoe was bad, the OL was bad, the playcalling was bad, TO was dropping passes, the secondary got shredded, we got no pressure from 4 man rushes.

Everyone knew this game was going to be a war going in. The Cowboys are always in for a war in Philly. With TO on the team, that only adds to it. And that's exactly what we got. It was a war, and we had our chances.

IMO the only two guys that had good to decent games were Demarcus Ware and Julius. Ware was the only one who was getting any pressure, and he wasn't rushing that often it didn't seem. JJ was great. Personally, I thought we should have grinded it out on the ground when we got up.
That's why I thought the playcalling was bad.

Bledsoe was bad... I think the pass rush obviously had him rattled. The throw to TGlenn could have been a TD if he hadn't underthrown him. At least that underthrow wasn't picked, and as bad as Drew played, we still had a chance to win. There's no disputing Drew is a bus driver, that's been the deal since he's been here. And the bus driver, as bad as he played, still gave us a chance to win. I'm not going to sit here and defend him in this thread. I know however that he will likely be starting next week, and it's going to take at least a couple more stinkers for BP to pull him.

I think the worst parts were the adjustments (or lack thereof) in pass protection, and the ineptness of the defense. When Drew got sacked those two times setting up the 4th and 18 on the last drive, the Eagles were rushing 3. That's why he held the ball so long IMO. When they rush three, Bledsoe should have a few more seconds, and should be able to step up into a pocket. That wasn't the case. The OL couldn't stop Howard.

ON defense... when you face the Philly Eagles you typically don't have to worry about the running game beating you. ESPECIALLY when Brian Westbrook is hampered with a knee injury. You have to worry about McNabb beating you. There is no excuse for letting them throw for 330+ yards with the secondary we have... none.

Bottom line. We're in second place in the division, at 2-2... 1 1/2 games behind Philly with them at our place on Christmas. This season is a long way from being over.

Philly guys, PT, etc. Congrats on the win. It was hard fought, like we knew it would be. See you on Christmas.

I'm hunkering down in this thread.

It was an exciting game -- somebody's gotta say it. I could see this coming though, when people were consistently picking us as having a 75% - 100 percent chance of winning. Against the 3-1 Eagles on the road.

That crowd had as much to do with the loss as anything else.

And I'll say this -- there had to be more than 2 players who played well if we had a chance to tie the game and a first and goal with about 40 seconds left. Don't press me to pick those players though...

 

[peplaw06]

No that isn't rose colored, but calling people Drama Queens for asking for Bledosoe to be benched is certainly and exaggeration. So people are drama queens if they think Romo might be able to do better than Bledsoe? Even if Romo throws picks at least he will be a 1st year starter making bad decisions and not a 11 year veteran doing the same. I personally would like to see Romo play next week against the Texans and take over for the rest of the season. That is not being a drama queen, but merely a realist. Bledsoe cannot take this team to the next level, and this is a good team. You can't insult people for having an opinion.

I've seen people calling for Bledsoe and TO to be CUT outright and BP to be FIRED tomorrow. THAT'S a drama queen. I never said what criteria made a drama queen, and I never called you one. And saying Bledsoe needs to be benched isn't necessarily drama queenish if you at least deliberate over what Romo could give us and recognize what he won't give us. If you just see the stat line and a couple of bad plays and immediately call for a benching, you're a drama queen.

 

[Bach]

Drama queen it is then. This team has proved nothing during Parcells time here and it does not look like it's getting better. At some point it's time to panik.

Exactly.

I'm sure these same guys thought they were level headed last year while we fell to 9-7 and missed the playoffs with this loser at QB and BP coaching not to lose.

 

[ZeroClub]

No that isn't rose colored, but calling people Drama Queens for asking for Bledosoe to be benched is certainly and exaggeration. So people are drama queens if they think Romo might be able to do better than Bledsoe? Even if Romo throws picks at least he will be a 1st year starter making bad decisions and not a 11 year veteran doing the same. I personally would like to see Romo play next week against the Texans and take over for the rest of the season. That is not being a drama queen, but merely a realist. Bledsoe cannot take this team to the next level, and this is a good team. You can't insult people for having an opinion.

I agree, there are good, level headed reasons for wanting Romo to start.

I think we've seen Bledsoe's ceiling. Given Bledsoe's ceiling, now is a good time to give Romo a chance to show if he can or can't be a quality starter.

The Cowboys need to find out about Romo soon. Draft day decisions hinge on it.

 

[DragonCowboy]

Here's what I think:

OFFENSE

QB - Drew Bledsoe - yeah, not the greatest game, but some of his bad plays can be attributed to the OL.
OL - This wasn't a good day for these guys pass protecting, they made things much harder for Bledsoe
RB - Julius played well, Marion, not so well
WR - Glenn had a good game, Crayton made a clutch catch, Owens was nonexistant
TE - Witten had a pretty good game, Fasano missed on some blocks

Overall: If the OL would have protected Bledsoe more, our WR's could have picked on the Eagles secondary more. So while Bledsoe does deserve a share of the blame, so does the OL.

DEFENSE

CB - our corners gave a bit much of a cushion on plays
S - blew some plays, I didn't see the LJ Smith play, but I saw Watkins'. The thing with Watkins is, he's going to have growing pains, everyone does. Don't worry, he'll be fine.
LB - With the exception of Ware, these guys didn't play so well
DL - minimal pass rush

Overall: If we were able to create some more pressure, the defense wouldn't have been burnt as much.

The thing is guys, most of our players didn't play well, but we still only lost by 7 (I'm not counting that trash time TD). We had a huge chance to win. We'll learn off this game. We're a young team for the most part, so we'll be ok.

I still say we start Romo against Houston. I want to see what he's got. Bledsoe's play in Houston won't matter, because I'm sure he'll rip up on them. The thing I'm worried about is, will Bledsoe be able to rip up on the good teams?

 

[fanfromvirginia]

Drama queens not allowed...
--------------------------------------------------------------------------

We played a bad game, no question.

Bledsoe was bad, the OL was bad, the playcalling was bad, TO was dropping passes, the secondary got shredded, we got no pressure from 4 man rushes.

Everyone knew this game was going to be a war going in. The Cowboys are always in for a war in Philly. With TO on the team, that only adds to it. And that's exactly what we got. It was a war, and we had our chances.

IMO the only two guys that had good to decent games were Demarcus Ware and Julius. Ware was the only one who was getting any pressure, and he wasn't rushing that often it didn't seem. JJ was great. Personally, I thought we should have grinded it out on the ground when we got up.
That's why I thought the playcalling was bad.

Bledsoe was bad... I think the pass rush obviously had him rattled. The throw to TGlenn could have been a TD if he hadn't underthrown him. At least that underthrow wasn't picked, and as bad as Drew played, we still had a chance to win. There's no disputing Drew is a bus driver, that's been the deal since he's been here. And the bus driver, as bad as he played, still gave us a chance to win. I'm not going to sit here and defend him in this thread. I know however that he will likely be starting next week, and it's going to take at least a couple more stinkers for BP to pull him.

I think the worst parts were the adjustments (or lack thereof) in pass protection, and the ineptness of the defense. When Drew got sacked those two times setting up the 4th and 18 on the last drive, the Eagles were rushing 3. That's why he held the ball so long IMO. When they rush three, Bledsoe should have a few more seconds, and should be able to step up into a pocket. That wasn't the case. The OL couldn't stop Howard.

ON defense... when you face the Philly Eagles you typically don't have to worry about the running game beating you. ESPECIALLY when Brian Westbrook is hampered with a knee injury. You have to worry about McNabb beating you. There is no excuse for letting them throw for 330+ yards with the secondary we have... none.

Bottom line. We're in second place in the division, at 2-2... 1 1/2 games behind Philly with them at our place on Christmas. This season is a long way from being over.

Philly guys, PT, etc. Congrats on the win. It was hard fought, like we knew it would be. See you on Christmas.

And another thing -- the Eagles had, until the pass interference at the end, just one penalty for five yards I think. They were very disciplined today.

 

[peplaw06]

IAnd I'll say this -- there had to be more than 2 players who played well if we had a chance to tie the game and a first and goal with about 40 seconds left. Don't press me to pick those players though...

You're probably right... I was trying to say those were the guys who stood out to me as having solid games.

 

[LaTunaNostra]

Drama queens not allowed...
--------------------------------------------------------------------------

We played a bad game, no question.

Bledsoe was bad, the OL was bad, the playcalling was bad, TO was dropping passes, the secondary got shredded, we got no pressure from 4 man rushes.

Everyone knew this game was going to be a war going in. The Cowboys are always in for a war in Philly. With TO on the team, that only adds to it. And that's exactly what we got. It was a war, and we had our chances.

IMO the only two guys that had good to decent games were Demarcus Ware and Julius. Ware was the only one who was getting any pressure, and he wasn't rushing that often it didn't seem. JJ was great. Personally, I thought we should have grinded it out on the ground when we got up.
That's why I thought the playcalling was bad.

Bledsoe was bad... I think the pass rush obviously had him rattled. The throw to TGlenn could have been a TD if he hadn't underthrown him. At least that underthrow wasn't picked, and as bad as Drew played, we still had a chance to win. There's no disputing Drew is a bus driver, that's been the deal since he's been here. And the bus driver, as bad as he played, still gave us a chance to win. I'm not going to sit here and defend him in this thread. I know however that he will likely be starting next week, and it's going to take at least a couple more stinkers for BP to pull him.

I think the worst parts were the adjustments (or lack thereof) in pass protection, and the ineptness of the defense. When Drew got sacked those two times setting up the 4th and 18 on the last drive, the Eagles were rushing 3. That's why he held the ball so long IMO. When they rush three, Bledsoe should have a few more seconds, and should be able to step up into a pocket. That wasn't the case. The OL couldn't stop Howard.

ON defense... when you face the Philly Eagles you typically don't have to worry about the running game beating you. ESPECIALLY when Brian Westbrook is hampered with a knee injury. You have to worry about McNabb beating you. There is no excuse for letting them throw for 330+ yards with the secondary we have... none.

Bottom line. We're in second place in the division, at 2-2... 1 1/2 games behind Philly with them at our place on Christmas. This season is a long way from being over.

Philly guys, PT, etc. Congrats on the win. It was hard fought, like we knew it would be. See you on Christmas.

Fair enough assessment.

But I disagree that 'the bus driver, as bad as he played, gave us a chance to win'.

The defense, until the long plays kicked in, gave us a chance to win. Bledsoe from the first drive was a liabiity.

Drew "I Dare You to Blitz" Bledsoe was the complete package today...slow of mind and foot, not sensing the rush or seeing it and not throwing the ball away in time, short-hopping, misjudging receivers, happy footed, ball patting, seeing shadows, unable to evade the rush one whit, and making the kind of poor judgments expected in a rookie. Seeing him on the sidelines blaming Witten (if the commentators had it right, and I'd bet they did) for the last pick was pure Bledsoe, as well.

His rushing TD was the sole example of leadership I witnessed today. He looked fr***led and rattled even before Howard moved set up camp in the backfield. Pressure up the middle against him is nothing new, but the oline that protects him will always look worse than it actually is.
Sorry to be a drama queen, but no one could review that movie without getting melodramatic.

And sadly, the schedule (Houston next week) will allow the scenario to play itself out once more in which Bledsoe "rebounds" against inferior competition.

The real storyline is the team overall is not good enough to win against the better teams with a substandard QB.

It's still early season, but I do not think playoffs is in the future of any team whose QB falls apart to that extent...you can live with picks OR with sacks OR with slow reads OR with holding on too long OR with arthitic level immobility...but you can't live with all of the above and make the playoffs.

 

[fanfromvirginia]

Here's what I think:

OFFENSE

QB - Drew Bledsoe - yeah, not the greatest game, but some of his bad plays can be attributed to the OL.
OL - This wasn't a good day for these guys pass protecting, they made things much harder for Bledsoe
RB - Julius played well, Marion, not so well
WR - Glenn had a good game, Crayton made a clutch catch, Owens was nonexistant
TE - Witten had a pretty good game, Fasano missed on some blocks

Overall: If the OL would have protected Bledsoe more, our WR's could have picked on the Eagles secondary more. So while Bledsoe does deserve a share of the blame, so does the OL.

DEFENSE

CB - our corners gave a bit much of a cushion on plays
S - blew some plays, I didn't see the LJ Smith play, but I saw Watkins'. The thing with Watkins is, he's going to have growing pains, everyone does. Don't worry, he'll be fine.
LB - With the exception of Ware, these guys didn't play so well
DL - minimal pass rush

Overall: If we were able to create some more pressure, the defense wouldn't have been burnt as much.

The thing is guys, most of our players didn't play well, but we still only lost by 7 (I'm not counting that trash time TD). We had a huge chance to win. We'll learn off this game. We're a young team for the most part, so we'll be ok.

I still say we start Romo against Houston. I want to see what he's got. Bledsoe's play in Houston won't matter, because I'm sure he'll rip up on them. The thing I'm worried about is, will Bledsoe be able to rip up on the good teams?

Very good points.

 

[Avery]

The sky's not falling - we're 2-2 and hopefully above .500 next week.

What I am noticing is that certain players are simply not going to make us the cream of the crop in the NFC.

 

[utrunner07]

Thanks for the level headedness, I think we all need a little bit right now. This was easy to swallow after the first loss, but its much tougher this time. Gonna be next to impossible if there is a next time. The thing that bothers me is Bledsoe's past record, we all know how he performs the last two months of a season...things dont look to bright from that standpoint

 

[neosapien23]

I've seen people calling for Bledsoe and TO to be CUT outright and BP to be FIRED tomorrow. THAT'S a drama queen. I never said what criteria made a drama queen, and I never called you one. And saying Bledsoe needs to be benched isn't necessarily drama queenish if you at least deliberate over what Romo could give us and recognize what he won't give us. If you just see the stat line and a couple of bad plays and immediately call for a benching, you're a drama queen.

You are right about that. But if it becomes painfully obvious that the Tuna will not bench Bledsoe after he continues to have bad games, than I would like to see Jeff Fisher brought in. Parcells is stubborn to a fault, and I don't think Bledsoe will be benched even though he should be. We have talent on defense, now is the time to get young talent on the offense. I personally would rather go 6-10 with Romo and see if he is the future than go 9-7 with Bledsoe and have an early exit from the playoffs. But hey, maybe Romo can go 10-6 if he would continue to improve. I hate seeing Bledsoe throwing picks when a young QB can do just as bad and at least improve.

 

[fanfromvirginia]

It's also hard to say which was more damaging: having a QB who plays badly when pressured or having an OL which has gotten quite a bit better but definitely not enough to keep Bledsoe protected from the Eagles pass rushers.

They weren't up to the task today, that's for sure, especially in the second half.

I'll admit it would be awfully exciting to see Romo play but I still think it's premature. We've got the next 2 at home, both very winnable. If we do win them, we're actually in pretty good shape.

 

[peplaw06]

You are right about that. But if it becomes painfully obvious that the Tuna will not bench Bledsoe after he continues to have bad games, than I would like to see Jeff Fisher brought in. Parcells is stubborn to a fault, and I don't think Bledsoe will be benched even though he should be. We have talent on defense, now is the time to get young talent on the offense. I personally would rather go 6-10 with Romo and see if he is the future than go 9-7 with Bledsoe and have an early exit from the playoffs. But hey, maybe Romo can go 10-6 if he would continue to improve. I hate seeing Bledsoe throwing picks when a young QB can do just as bad and at least improve.

Fair enough. I can see you're trying to be level headed. I agree on most of that. I am 95% sure Bledsoe won't be benched though and that's the reason I try to keep an even keel.

And I disagree that it's okay if we go 6-10 with Romo starting. I think that would be giving up on the season, and I'm not ready to do that after 4 games. It may come in a month or so though

 

[peplaw06]

It's also hard to say which was more damaging: having a QB who plays badly when pressured or having an OL which has gotten quite a bit better but definitely not enough to keep Bledsoe protected from the Eagles pass rushers.

The pregame show was calling it a perfect storm with all the story lines and such. I think it applies to the OL/Bledsoe too. When you get bad protection and Bledsoe rattled and making bad decisions, you get this type of meltdown.

 

[Mattsdad]

can anyone help me with two questions?

1. Why did we wait till late in the 4th quarter to roll Bledsoe out?
2. Why did we wait till very late in the 4th quarter to put Bledsoe in the Shotgun?

Now, I realize I am not a coach or as educated as others in coaching....but Christ...........I was calling this from my couch. Just my opinion.

 

[jrumann59]

The sad thing is if Aikman was back there he would have done pretty much the same thing.