Wulfman
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The Wulf Den: Injuries and Controversy Mar Preseason Win
August 28, 2009
I don’t know about the rest of you, but I have enjoyed a camp with less drama. Oh sure, there’s always going to be a little here and there. After all, this is America’s Team. But compared to the last few years, this year has been a picnic. At least up until now.
It seems that everyone was waiting with bated breath for there to be something worthy of a tweet, article, or blog. And whether you agree that the topic was worthy or not, it finally happened last Friday night when back-up Tennessee Titans punter A. J. Trapasso hit the scoreboard hanging over the field at Cowboys Stadium during the Cowboys’ second preseason game—their first at their new home field. Based on the reactions in the media and by fans around the league—not to mention opposing Head Coach Jeff Fisher—you would have thought the thing plummeted to the field and nearly killed everyone.
Can we please get a wake-up call for everyone involved? Whether Fisher, Commissioner Roger Goodell, or anyone in the media likes it or not, the league’s mandate for the height of such things is 85 feet. No matter how long the rule has been in the books, it’s still the rule. After all, you can have a law on the books for hundreds of years, and unless it is removed or updated, it is still in effect. If you have studied law at all, you know that you can be amazed at some of the things that are still there. But until it is updated, the rule is the rule.
And yet, as pedestrian as this story should have been—if it was a storyline at all—it has been so blown out of proportion that even folks like myself have been drawn into the debate, if for no other reason than to refute the importance of it. What’s even worse is that there is a much bigger story to tell, and not all of it is good.
And so, rather than talking anymore about the scoreboard or the “controversy” that has arisen because of it, I will instead look at the good, the bad, and the ugly of this second preseason game, and what we can look ahead to next week.
The Good
The Cowboys offense was rolling. Sure they had another short-lived drive to start the game. But they then proceeded to march the ball down the field on a sustained drive that resulted in a TD. A lot of people have been wondering who was going to “replace” the Cowboys former #1 receiver, and in this game once again the answer seems to be….everyone else. Add to this the fact that the Titans defense is a pretty good one, and that the offense showed the flexibility to not only sustain long drives, but to get the ball down the field quickly with explosive plays (Is Felix Jones electric or what?), and I’d say this offense has the potential to be as good as last year’s.
The defense played rather well, bottling up the run game and applying pressure fairly consistently. Considering that Wade doesn’t like to do much blitzing in the preseason, it was a decent showing. Of course, the defense was helped by an apparent lack of coordination on the part of the Titans’ offense, so we have to allow that at least a part of the defensive success was attributable to a poor offensive showing. Still, I’d rather the defense show up than not—especially if the other team’s offense is struggling.
The Bad
There are a couple of things that seem to come back to bite you every time. One is penalties, another is turnovers, and yet another is losing the field position battle with your special teams. The Cowboys had way too many penalties and too much poor special teams play to feel at all comfortable. And while they didn’t turn the ball over, they certainly seemed to be trying to do so, muffing two punts and being fortunate to fall back on them.
Now sure, some of the penalties were questionable. I’ve long been a proponent of changing the defensive pass interference penalty from being a spot foul to being a 15-yard penalty and automatic first down, as it is in college. And Friday’s game was one more argument that the change should happen. I don’t think it will, mind you. But I believe it should. But not all of the penalties were mistaken calls. Add in that many of them were mental errors, and it’s certainly a cause for concern.
I fully expect the special teams under new coach Joe DeCamillis to be significantly improved from the previous few years. But it’s clearly still a work in progress. The best offense can have drives stall because of penalties, and even the best defenses will give up points if the field position battle or turnovers happen at the wrong time or with any consistency. The Cowboys have two more weeks to get this part of their game corrected, or we could be in for a bumpy ride.
The Ugly
I didn’t mention the second FG miss for kicker Nick Folk in “The Bad” section above, basically because having a kicker who was as good as Folk was last year who has missed his only two attempts of the preseason while still recovering from offseason hip surgery is nothing short of ugly. And let’s be honest, we don’t really want Buehler to have to step up and make FGs on a regular basis. If he was any good at it, he would have been doing it at USC as well as kicking off. But that was not the case. I know Folk was kicking off of the infield dirt against Oakland, and that he hit the upright on a 49-yarder against Tennessee. But in the regular season, they would be misses as surely as if they didn’t have the distance or were wide right. A miss is a miss, and I hope we see Folk get into some kind of rhythm before the season starts.
The other really ugly thing to me was the injury bug. The Cowboys had avoided it for the most part thus far in the preseason, but when it bit, it bit at a position that was already questionable in depth. I know there are some of you who felt comfortable with two 4th round picks as the primary back-ups at OLB. I wasn’t comfortable, and I’m even less so now that Brandon Williams has torn his ACL and is now done for the season. And while I’m not one of those who are suddenly complaining about the fact that Greg Ellis isn’t here anymore, I do have to wonder about the depth at that position even more now that we’ll be depending on someone that likely wouldn’t have made the roster if the team had made their final cuts on Friday before the game.
Closing Thoughts
The Cowboys have made some roster moves since the game against Tennessee, and they were specifically done with depth on the roster in mind. Veteran back-up offensive lineman Duke Preston was signed just a day after he was released by Green Bay, and has starting experience at both center and guard. This could spell the end (finally) of Cory Procter, as well as further reduce the likelihood that Ryan Gibbons is retained on the 53-man roster.
Also re-signed today was LB Tearrius George, a first-year player who spent some time on the Cowboys practice squad last year and who showed flashes at the OLB position last preseason. He essentially replaces LB Justin Rogers, who was waived/injured, and provides some competition for LB Steve Octavien as the primary back-up to DeMarcus Ware. I don’t necessarily feel any better about George getting that spot over Octavien, mind you. But at least they brought in someone who is familiar with the system. Whichever of these guys makes the roster may still have to look over their shoulders after week one, however, when veterans can be signed without their contracts being guaranteed.
For those who believed all of the initial blogs about the injury to Roy Williams, shame on you. For those who didn’t believe it initially but were holding their breath until we heard for certain that it was just a bruise, join the club. I don’t expect Williams to put up the same numbers as last year’s #1 wideout…but he IS the #1 wideout, and we can’t afford to lose him for any length of time.
As for what effect these occurrences will have on the roster, here’s an updated look at mine, taking into account where injuries have popped up, the Tennessee preseason game, and the cuts that have already taken place at the bottom of the roster:
QB: Tony Romo, Jon Kitna, Stephen McGee
RB: Marion Barber, Felix Jones, Tashard Choice
FB: Deon Anderson
WR: Roy Williams, Patrick Crayton, Sam Hurd, Miles Austin, Kevin Ogletree
TE: Jason Witten, Martellus Bennett, John Phillips
OL: Flozell Adams, Marc Colombo, Kyle Kosier, Leonard Davis, Andre Gurode, Pat McQuistan, Montrae Holland, Duke Preston, Doug Free
DL: Marcus Spears, Igor Olshansky, Jay Ratliff, Jason Hatcher, Stephen Bowen, Junior Siavii
LB: DeMarcus Ware, Anthony Spencer, Keith Brooking, Bradie James, Bobby Carpenter, Jason Williams, Victor Butler, Steve Octavien
CB: Terence Newman, Mike Jenkins, Orlando Scandrick, Alan Ball, DeAngelo Smith
S: Ken Hamlin, Gerald Sensabaugh, Pat Watkins, Michael Hamlin
ST: Nick Folk, Mat McBriar, J. P. Ladouceur, David Buehler
Assuming the roster shakes out this way, though, this leaves two spots available. They will go to two of the following: a) Isaiah Stanback as the 6th receiver (if he continues to stay healthy and can show anything as a receiver in the remaining two preseason games); b) Courtney Brown or Mike Mickens (if they can show the Cowboys need to keep a 10th DB); c) Sedrick Hodge or Tearrius George (if they can show the Cowboys need to keep a 9th LB); or d) Marcus Dixon. This will likely come down to who can contribute the most on special teams if they were needed on gameday.
If the Cowboys are feeling at all unsure about OLB, expect George to get a spot, both to provide additional depth and to guard against further injury. For the last spot, I think they’d have to keep either the extra DB or Stanback, whichever they feel they’ll need the depth more. If he can show any production at all at wide receiver, Stanback will get the nod simply because they’ve already invested two years in him, and really want to see if his athletic ability can translate onto the field. If they go that direction, they’ll try to get Mickens, Hodge, and Dixon through waivers and onto the practice squad.
If the roster went this way, I think they’d like to get RB Keon Lattimore, WR Jesse Holley or WR Manuel Johnson, G Ryan Gibbons or G Travis Bright (whom Head Coach Wade Phillips specifically mentioned in one of his press conferences), LB Stephen Hodge, CB Mike Mickens, and FB Julius Crosslin onto the practice squad, with the remaining spots either going to the other WR mentioned, above, or being filled by someone cut from another team as needed to provide depth at a specific position.
There is also a very small possibility that the Cowboys could place QB Stephen McGee on IR with his injured leg, saving an additional roster spot. However, he’s expected to recover around the first game of the season, and cannot practice with the team at all during the season if he is placed on IR. I don’t expect this to happen. But it is an alternative if they find themselves behind the 8-ball at a particular position. And if McGee is not ready to go by the time week 1 rolls around, they could potentially move him to IR then and use the spot for a veteran at another position. Stay tuned.
Wulfman
Comments? Send a private message to Wulfman on this site.
August 28, 2009
I don’t know about the rest of you, but I have enjoyed a camp with less drama. Oh sure, there’s always going to be a little here and there. After all, this is America’s Team. But compared to the last few years, this year has been a picnic. At least up until now.
It seems that everyone was waiting with bated breath for there to be something worthy of a tweet, article, or blog. And whether you agree that the topic was worthy or not, it finally happened last Friday night when back-up Tennessee Titans punter A. J. Trapasso hit the scoreboard hanging over the field at Cowboys Stadium during the Cowboys’ second preseason game—their first at their new home field. Based on the reactions in the media and by fans around the league—not to mention opposing Head Coach Jeff Fisher—you would have thought the thing plummeted to the field and nearly killed everyone.
Can we please get a wake-up call for everyone involved? Whether Fisher, Commissioner Roger Goodell, or anyone in the media likes it or not, the league’s mandate for the height of such things is 85 feet. No matter how long the rule has been in the books, it’s still the rule. After all, you can have a law on the books for hundreds of years, and unless it is removed or updated, it is still in effect. If you have studied law at all, you know that you can be amazed at some of the things that are still there. But until it is updated, the rule is the rule.
And yet, as pedestrian as this story should have been—if it was a storyline at all—it has been so blown out of proportion that even folks like myself have been drawn into the debate, if for no other reason than to refute the importance of it. What’s even worse is that there is a much bigger story to tell, and not all of it is good.
And so, rather than talking anymore about the scoreboard or the “controversy” that has arisen because of it, I will instead look at the good, the bad, and the ugly of this second preseason game, and what we can look ahead to next week.
The Good
The Cowboys offense was rolling. Sure they had another short-lived drive to start the game. But they then proceeded to march the ball down the field on a sustained drive that resulted in a TD. A lot of people have been wondering who was going to “replace” the Cowboys former #1 receiver, and in this game once again the answer seems to be….everyone else. Add to this the fact that the Titans defense is a pretty good one, and that the offense showed the flexibility to not only sustain long drives, but to get the ball down the field quickly with explosive plays (Is Felix Jones electric or what?), and I’d say this offense has the potential to be as good as last year’s.
The defense played rather well, bottling up the run game and applying pressure fairly consistently. Considering that Wade doesn’t like to do much blitzing in the preseason, it was a decent showing. Of course, the defense was helped by an apparent lack of coordination on the part of the Titans’ offense, so we have to allow that at least a part of the defensive success was attributable to a poor offensive showing. Still, I’d rather the defense show up than not—especially if the other team’s offense is struggling.
The Bad
There are a couple of things that seem to come back to bite you every time. One is penalties, another is turnovers, and yet another is losing the field position battle with your special teams. The Cowboys had way too many penalties and too much poor special teams play to feel at all comfortable. And while they didn’t turn the ball over, they certainly seemed to be trying to do so, muffing two punts and being fortunate to fall back on them.
Now sure, some of the penalties were questionable. I’ve long been a proponent of changing the defensive pass interference penalty from being a spot foul to being a 15-yard penalty and automatic first down, as it is in college. And Friday’s game was one more argument that the change should happen. I don’t think it will, mind you. But I believe it should. But not all of the penalties were mistaken calls. Add in that many of them were mental errors, and it’s certainly a cause for concern.
I fully expect the special teams under new coach Joe DeCamillis to be significantly improved from the previous few years. But it’s clearly still a work in progress. The best offense can have drives stall because of penalties, and even the best defenses will give up points if the field position battle or turnovers happen at the wrong time or with any consistency. The Cowboys have two more weeks to get this part of their game corrected, or we could be in for a bumpy ride.
The Ugly
I didn’t mention the second FG miss for kicker Nick Folk in “The Bad” section above, basically because having a kicker who was as good as Folk was last year who has missed his only two attempts of the preseason while still recovering from offseason hip surgery is nothing short of ugly. And let’s be honest, we don’t really want Buehler to have to step up and make FGs on a regular basis. If he was any good at it, he would have been doing it at USC as well as kicking off. But that was not the case. I know Folk was kicking off of the infield dirt against Oakland, and that he hit the upright on a 49-yarder against Tennessee. But in the regular season, they would be misses as surely as if they didn’t have the distance or were wide right. A miss is a miss, and I hope we see Folk get into some kind of rhythm before the season starts.
The other really ugly thing to me was the injury bug. The Cowboys had avoided it for the most part thus far in the preseason, but when it bit, it bit at a position that was already questionable in depth. I know there are some of you who felt comfortable with two 4th round picks as the primary back-ups at OLB. I wasn’t comfortable, and I’m even less so now that Brandon Williams has torn his ACL and is now done for the season. And while I’m not one of those who are suddenly complaining about the fact that Greg Ellis isn’t here anymore, I do have to wonder about the depth at that position even more now that we’ll be depending on someone that likely wouldn’t have made the roster if the team had made their final cuts on Friday before the game.
Closing Thoughts
The Cowboys have made some roster moves since the game against Tennessee, and they were specifically done with depth on the roster in mind. Veteran back-up offensive lineman Duke Preston was signed just a day after he was released by Green Bay, and has starting experience at both center and guard. This could spell the end (finally) of Cory Procter, as well as further reduce the likelihood that Ryan Gibbons is retained on the 53-man roster.
Also re-signed today was LB Tearrius George, a first-year player who spent some time on the Cowboys practice squad last year and who showed flashes at the OLB position last preseason. He essentially replaces LB Justin Rogers, who was waived/injured, and provides some competition for LB Steve Octavien as the primary back-up to DeMarcus Ware. I don’t necessarily feel any better about George getting that spot over Octavien, mind you. But at least they brought in someone who is familiar with the system. Whichever of these guys makes the roster may still have to look over their shoulders after week one, however, when veterans can be signed without their contracts being guaranteed.
For those who believed all of the initial blogs about the injury to Roy Williams, shame on you. For those who didn’t believe it initially but were holding their breath until we heard for certain that it was just a bruise, join the club. I don’t expect Williams to put up the same numbers as last year’s #1 wideout…but he IS the #1 wideout, and we can’t afford to lose him for any length of time.
As for what effect these occurrences will have on the roster, here’s an updated look at mine, taking into account where injuries have popped up, the Tennessee preseason game, and the cuts that have already taken place at the bottom of the roster:
QB: Tony Romo, Jon Kitna, Stephen McGee
RB: Marion Barber, Felix Jones, Tashard Choice
FB: Deon Anderson
WR: Roy Williams, Patrick Crayton, Sam Hurd, Miles Austin, Kevin Ogletree
TE: Jason Witten, Martellus Bennett, John Phillips
OL: Flozell Adams, Marc Colombo, Kyle Kosier, Leonard Davis, Andre Gurode, Pat McQuistan, Montrae Holland, Duke Preston, Doug Free
DL: Marcus Spears, Igor Olshansky, Jay Ratliff, Jason Hatcher, Stephen Bowen, Junior Siavii
LB: DeMarcus Ware, Anthony Spencer, Keith Brooking, Bradie James, Bobby Carpenter, Jason Williams, Victor Butler, Steve Octavien
CB: Terence Newman, Mike Jenkins, Orlando Scandrick, Alan Ball, DeAngelo Smith
S: Ken Hamlin, Gerald Sensabaugh, Pat Watkins, Michael Hamlin
ST: Nick Folk, Mat McBriar, J. P. Ladouceur, David Buehler
Assuming the roster shakes out this way, though, this leaves two spots available. They will go to two of the following: a) Isaiah Stanback as the 6th receiver (if he continues to stay healthy and can show anything as a receiver in the remaining two preseason games); b) Courtney Brown or Mike Mickens (if they can show the Cowboys need to keep a 10th DB); c) Sedrick Hodge or Tearrius George (if they can show the Cowboys need to keep a 9th LB); or d) Marcus Dixon. This will likely come down to who can contribute the most on special teams if they were needed on gameday.
If the Cowboys are feeling at all unsure about OLB, expect George to get a spot, both to provide additional depth and to guard against further injury. For the last spot, I think they’d have to keep either the extra DB or Stanback, whichever they feel they’ll need the depth more. If he can show any production at all at wide receiver, Stanback will get the nod simply because they’ve already invested two years in him, and really want to see if his athletic ability can translate onto the field. If they go that direction, they’ll try to get Mickens, Hodge, and Dixon through waivers and onto the practice squad.
If the roster went this way, I think they’d like to get RB Keon Lattimore, WR Jesse Holley or WR Manuel Johnson, G Ryan Gibbons or G Travis Bright (whom Head Coach Wade Phillips specifically mentioned in one of his press conferences), LB Stephen Hodge, CB Mike Mickens, and FB Julius Crosslin onto the practice squad, with the remaining spots either going to the other WR mentioned, above, or being filled by someone cut from another team as needed to provide depth at a specific position.
There is also a very small possibility that the Cowboys could place QB Stephen McGee on IR with his injured leg, saving an additional roster spot. However, he’s expected to recover around the first game of the season, and cannot practice with the team at all during the season if he is placed on IR. I don’t expect this to happen. But it is an alternative if they find themselves behind the 8-ball at a particular position. And if McGee is not ready to go by the time week 1 rolls around, they could potentially move him to IR then and use the spot for a veteran at another position. Stay tuned.
Wulfman
Comments? Send a private message to Wulfman on this site.
