Thoughts after re-watching game

[dmq]

I want to know where Miles went in the second half. How is he not open with all the attention the Giants gave Dez.

 

[Ender]

Dominant is not a word I would use.... Dominant would be if we capatilized on those turnovers like every good team does....

Well i was referring to the the Defense, apologize for not making it clear. I thought the D was dominant in the first half.

 

[Ender]

A lot of good, but I still hated the penalties. Outside of that, we got off to a decent start.

yea, the penalties in those situations need to stop.

 

[HoosierCowboy]

first game, let's remain calm. cowboys were inconsistent but showed some fire. crowd was awesome. Ware's pick was not a gift--he read the screen and got in the passing lane

 

[fanfromvirginia]

How can you say our D played great?? YOu don't give up 450 yards passing and be great.. Eli moved the ball at will in that 2nd half....We played FAR from great on D

I think they did play great in the first half, which was what I was talking about, although that wasn't clear in my post.

They certainly didn't play great in the second half. In my original post I mentioned that we didn't get enough pressure on multiple drives. But, overall, I think their success in the second half was as much a function of Eli being the best 4th quarter QB in the game as anything else. There's only so much you can do when he's managing the clock and pinpointing his passes perfectly.

 

[dallasdave]

Here are some brief thoughts, having just finished re-watching the game on the DVR.

• The Cowboys indeed played well in most facets of the game. It's true that we left a lot of potential points hanging in the first half and we had an opportunity to be up by much more than three going into the locker room. There's no getting around that. But having re-watched it, I came away with an even more positive reaction than immediately after the game. We really dominated that half in a lot of ways. What did us in was a small collection of boneheaded plays. On offense, we had two drives killed by penalties and another promising one wiped out by the interception, which was caused by a dumb rookie mistake. Overall, the defense played great, minus two long pass plays, the second of which was a terribly blown coverage resulting in a TD. We had several very nice plays and generally got a decent pass rush, better than I realized at the time.
• We didn't dominate in the second half but certainly had some great stretches that would have been quite impressive if not for Eli mounting one of his typical comebacks, highlighted by great clock management and several pinpoint passes. On a couple of those drives, our pressure wasn't nearly good enough.
• Murray actually had a pretty damn good game. He ran hard, was very involved, did I good job receiving, finishing runs and of course saved the TD.
• The OL was quite good. Bernadeau was the glaring weak link and even he had his moments.
• The offensive was generally in charge and setting the tone and pace. The passing game was really sharp, especially in the first half, minus that huge miscue.
• The turnovers were just as impressive on second viewing. Yes, the Ware and Carr INTs were gifts but gifts that were gracefully received and utilized, which counts.

On edit: What I noticed about the first half especially was that besides the few boneheaded plays, just about every other play was a positive.

Well said indeed , and a nice breakdown.