Thoughts from rewatching the game...

[CowboyWay]

Through the miracle that is tivo, I rewatched the game again tonight. It was disturbing to say the least, however there were a ton of things to build upon going forward.

First and foremost, I know Crayton is a goat, and I place alot of blame on his shoulders, however, after watching the game again, I noticed another goat. A big, big, big goat. One Leonard Davis. His personal foul early in the 4th really cost us big time. We went from having a first down on our 33 yard line to half the distance to the goal and 2nd an 20. Not good.

I can't help but remember a certain contract players signed after the last Giants game. You remember the one. The one that said I will no longer commit stupid penalties because I'm pissed. Leonard Davis renigged on his contract.

Secondly......the posts going around about Romo not being good yesterday. Please, I implore you to go back and rewatch that game and tell me he wasn't good. He was very good. Yes, he could have thrown the ball away when in trouble, but thats part of the deal you get with Romo. You can't have the great fly by the seat of your pants plays, and not take the bad as well. Is it something he needs to work on? Yes, but he is still young. Romo was pretty damn good.

There were obviously some real negatives yesterday.

Jacques Reeves stinks
We found out Crayton will always be a #3. And I'm ok with that.
Penalties up the wazoo. Gotta do something about that
Special teams has been poor all year, yesterday was no exception
RW stinks. I simply won't defend him any longer.

But there were some real positives too.............

We didn't get beat yesterday, we beat ourselves. I know its a cliche, but its true, look at the numbers, and look at the game. We flat outplayed them everywhere but where it counts. The scoreboard.

We have a tremendous qb.

In Barbers first start, he tore it up. 100 yard at halftime. He did not wear down despite what some of you say. Again, I implore you to go back and look at the game and you will see he never wore down.

We have two #1 picks. With Barbers performance, I think we can put to bed the McFadden talk

We are 20 milliion under the cap. This team is VERY close. Jerry knows it. Like he said on the radio last week, he feels alot more comfortable spending big money on Free Agency when he knows he's close. Just like when he did with Deion and Charles Haley. He will shore up the few holes we have. You can bet money on it.

We are only a few players away from being DOMINANT. If you can't see that, I can't help you. Just a few players away.

One last thing before I get off my soapbox.......Things could always be worse. We could have Jason Campbell as our qb.:laugh2:

 

[jesusphreak]

Thanks for the boost. Free agency and the draft sure will be interesting.

I agree with you that we are very close. One or two impact players puts this team over the top I think. Just look at how thoroughly we dominated several games this year, even with the weaknesses.

 

[2much2soon]

I thought the Romo bashing was ridiculous. Too many critical drops of passes he either put on the numbers (Fasano) or were very catchable (Crayton) or guys stopped running on (Crayton). When the o-line broke down Romo didn't even have a chance to make a play to TO that would of won it.

 

[Oh_Canada]

I don't see how Bigg is a goat for making one mistake, which was playing until the whistle. That was NOT a penalty.

Romo on the other hand, is off the hook even though:

-He completely whiffed on a wide open T.O in the first half which might have cost the team four points
-Taking a idiotic sack in the fourth quarter when he should have thrown the ball away
- Threw the ball away when there was no one around him? Costing his team ten yards and a loss of downs.

I don't see the logic.

 

[BALKIS]

Through the miracle that is tivo, I rewatched the game again tonight. It was disturbing to say the least, however there were a ton of things to build upon going forward.

First and foremost, I know Crayton is a goat, and I place alot of blame on his shoulders, however, after watching the game again, I noticed another goat. A big, big, big goat. One Leonard Davis. His personal foul early in the 4th really cost us big time. We went from having a first down on our 33 yard line to half the distance to the goal and 2nd an 20. Not good.

I can't help but remember a certain contract players signed after the last Giants game. You remember the one. The one that said I will no longer commit stupid penalties because I'm pissed. Leonard Davis renigged on his contract.








Secondly......the posts going around about Romo not being good yesterday. Please, I implore you to go back and rewatch that game and tell me he wasn't good. He was very good. Yes, he could have thrown the ball away when in trouble, but thats part of the deal you get with Romo. You can't have the great fly by the seat of your pants plays, and not take the bad as well. Is it something he needs to work on? Yes, but he is still young. Romo was pretty damn good.

There were obviously some real negatives yesterday.

Jacques Reeves stinks
We found out Crayton will always be a #3. And I'm ok with that.
Penalties up the wazoo. Gotta do something about that
Special teams has been poor all year, yesterday was no exception
RW stinks. I simply won't defend him any longer.

But there were some real positives too.............

We didn't get beat yesterday, we beat ourselves. I know its a cliche, but its true, look at the numbers, and look at the game. We flat outplayed them everywhere but where it counts. The scoreboard.

We have a tremendous qb.

In Barbers first start, he tore it up. 100 yard at halftime. He did not wear down despite what some of you say. Again, I implore you to go back and look at the game and you will see he never wore down.

We have two #1 picks. With Barbers performance, I think we can put to bed the McFadden talk

We are 20 milliion under the cap. This team is VERY close. Jerry knows it. Like he said on the radio last week, he feels alot more comfortable spending big money on Free Agency when he knows he's close. Just like when he did with Deion and Charles Haley. He will shore up the few holes we have. You can bet money on it.

We are only a few players away from being DOMINANT. If you can't see that, I can't help you. Just a few players away.

One last thing before I get off my soapbox.......Things could always be worse. We could have Jason Campbell as our qb.:laugh2:

Exactly that's the deal with romo he makes bone-headed plays that cost the team a victory in a play-off game. I'm sick and tired of keep hearing these pple stick up for this guy like it's alright for you're qb to make mistakes like that in a big game like yesterday's. I mean you're telling me it's ok to let him get away with taking sacks for losses and throwing into triple coverage to seal the game for the giants? If that's the case why even show up and play qb in the playoffs. It makes no sense at all.

 

[CowboyWay]

I don't see how Bigg is a goat for making one mistake, which was playing until the whistle. That was NOT a penalty.

Thats up for debate. I can see both arguments really, however, when BIG got up he pointed the finger at him and started jawing at him. If its a "questionable play" either way, you're always going to get the unsportsmanlike for the clear taunting.

Romo on the other hand, is off the hook even though:

-He completely whiffed on a wide open T.O in the first half which might have cost the team four points

Go back and watch it, seriously. Osi or Tuck had his arm on Romo's left shoulder during his release. He was under tremendous pressure on that throw.


-Taking a idiotic sack in the fourth quarter when he should have thrown the ball away
Agree, you have to be smarter than that. He'll learn, he was trying to make a play.

- Threw the ball away when there was no one around him? Costing his team ten yards and a loss of downs.
Theoretically, if your not under pressure or durress (spelling), I find it hard to believe they would call that on him. He could easily explain it by saying a guy ran a wrong route, but I still agree with you, he had room to run to his right, he should have taken off.

I don't see the logic.
You must have very high standards for an undrafted 2nd year QB, who is starting only his 2nd playoff game. Do me a favor, if you have kids, and they miss the game winning shot in soccer, please don't beat them too severely.

 

[theogt]

I couldn't tell if they had his arm. But the way that ball came out it almost had to be affected by something. Romo couldn't throw a ball that poorly if he tried.

 

[Billy Bullocks]

I have to agree about Roy Williams. The guy is invisible, or missing a play far too often these days. It's almost laughable. Early in his career you could didn't notice all the bad because he'd come up with big plays in other areas.

 

[Boysboy]

I have to agree about Roy Williams. The guy is invisible, or missing a play far too often these days. It's almost laughable. Early in his career you could didn't notice all the bad because he'd come up with big plays in other areas.

We were also lucky that the game didn't get out of hand early-in the 1st qtr with the Giants up 7-0, somehow, they were able to get a freagin' 1-1 Plax matchup with ROY, but Eli overshot him, which would have been 6.

With all this talk how "we beat ourselves" in the second half et al, again-we were pretty darn lucky the Gints didn't blow it open early, as they controlled the game in the 1st qtr.

As for any so-called bad officiating...Aikman pointed out how many times the refs missed delay of game penalties on us b/c Gurode snapped the ball at zero seconds.(if anything, all the bad calls both ways became a wash)

Anyhow-no excuse-was very, very, very surprised how POORLY disciplined we were once we grabbed that 14-7 lead. Not only all the penalties, but dropped passes, defenders playing out of position, OL missing blocking assignments, receivers running bad routes, etc.

And we want to blame this on Wade? I'm not so sure-this has been a very, very recurring theme since Parcells came here every post T-Giving, which is making me wonder if we have the RIGHT player personnel here.

 

[sago1]

Actually that has been a recurring theme even before Parcells took over.

 

[trueblue1687]

Nobody hit Romos arm on the throw to TO, he just made a bad throw...you may be thinking of another one that someone (think a DB) hit his elbow and sent the ball high. He just missed TO, but that's no more than spilled milk now anyway.

 

[Maikeru-sama]

Tony Romo was average Sunday.

Now, he made some plays in the 2nd Half, but for the most part he was very average.

I also agree with you about Roy Williams, I thought he struggled a bit in the 1st half.

However, in the 2nd Half, he tightened up, along with the rest of the defense.

 

[Vtwin]

Good post.On Romo I would only add that he gave up on the fourth down play at the end. He threw straight into double coverage when there wasn't a pass rusher within ten yards of him. He might have kept that play alive as long as he could hoping someone could shake free.Overall, I agree that he played a good game inspite of a couple errors. Another year's experience for him and I expect great things next year.

 

[Doomsday101]

Too many penalties, too many critical drops and Giants did a very good job in the second half putting the pressure on Romo. I hate the loss but the team made too many mistakes and the Giants made the most of it. We can play the blame game all day but I saw this as a team loss and everyone shares in it.

 

[Fletch]

Damn nice post CowboyWay!!! I basically reiterated what you said in a new post further down the page.

But with less flare.

 

[Oh_Canada]

Nobody hit Romos arm on the throw to TO, he just made a bad throw...you may be thinking of another one that someone (think a DB) hit his elbow and sent the ball high. He just missed TO, but that's no more than spilled milk now anyway.

Exactly, his arm was NOT hit....maybe he was expecting it to be hit, but it wasn't. You would NEVER see Brady or Manning or even Eli miss that throw....no chance. As far as this being his second year, it's not it's his FIFTH....enough handling with kid gloves, he needs to win a playoff game next year....no excuses.

I just can't see how Bigg is a goat for his borderline penalty and "Los Cabos" gets a free pass.

 

[coogrfan]

I don't see how Bigg is a goat for making one mistake, which was playing until the whistle. That was NOT a penalty.

Romo on the other hand, is off the hook even though:

-He completely whiffed on a wide open T.O in the first half which might have cost the team four points

It seemed to me that the ball just slipped out of his hand. Unfortunate, but it happens.

-Taking a idiotic sack in the fourth quarter when he should have thrown the ball away.

Agreed. He's still young, he'll learn.

- Threw the ball away when there was no one around him? Costing his team ten yards and a loss of downs.

I strongly disagree here, because that's not something that should have drawn a flag in the first place.

http://www.nfl.com/rulebook/intentionalgrounding

1. Intentional grounding will be called when a passer, facing an imminent loss of yardage due to pressure from the defense, throws a forward pass without a realistic chance of completion.

The key here is "facing an imminent loss of yardage". You can't have intentional grounding if there isn't a defender near the qb. Romo wasn't about to be sacked, so it should have been a no-call.

..............................

 

[YosemiteSam]

My issue with Roy Williams is that he has lost his fire. He was never a great cover safety, but now he doesn't have that fire that he used to have when stopping the run. Top that off by the fact that he doesn't seem to take the Horsecollar penalty serious enough because he keeps doing it.

To me it almost appears as though he just doen't work hard to improve his game or work hard to stop doing stupid things like the horsecollar. He gets fat every offseason and doesn't lose the weight until the last minute.

Roy Williams just doesn't appear to have a work ethic.

I think it's time to start looking for his replacement. Be it moving Hamlin to strong safety and moving Watkins back to starting free safety or looking in the draft/FA.

Considering his new deal was a 5 year extension $25.2M with around $11.1 million in guaranteed money, I'm not sure how that works out. I not sure the Cowboys could trade him as I don't know who would take him. (Tony Dungy if he stays with the Colts might)

The guy just isn't getting it done against the pass or the run now.

 

[NoLuv4Jerry]

we are not close...don't be fooled by 13 wins...that is what everyone kept pointing to all year when I kept pointing out the flaws with this team. Once teams figured out that playing a zone against us allows all the bums we have at WR find open spots...they swithched to man...we have one WR that can beat man coverage. And he is getting up their in age. Go look at how we played against our division opponents down the stretch. We lost to philly in Dallas and we only scored 6 points. We lost to Washington and we only scored 6 or 7 points...cannot remember exactly. We lose to the Giants in Dallas and we only scored 17 points. Don't think for a second that those teams have not figured out how to stop us. Until we get either the personell or the stones to get rid of this soft zone we will never get over the hump. Until we play with some intensity when it counts we will never get over the hump. And we have to get speed on offense to allow the Crayton and Wittens of the world to be effective. TO made everyone's life easier. We cannot have a single point of failure at that position agains. Get Chad Johnson or Berrian or somebody..but get some exposion. Also, special teams need to be a priority. It would be nice to not have to drive 90 yards every time to score. Their are plent of holes to fill. Do not be blinded by 13 wins. Because the mistakes we made all year are what beat us.

 

[CowboyWay]

we are not close...don't be fooled by 13 wins....

Yes we are close. We have a great qb, a good RB (and we'll be drafting another), a solid O-line (yes, they can get better), we have a great TE, TO is a freak of nature who can play for 4 more years at a high level. What we need on offense is another very good wideout. Perhaps Roy Williams comes here, or Berrian, or hell even Moss, plus I believe we'll draft one in the first round as well.


Defense.... We have a tremendous core of youth on the D line. We could use another ILB, we need a SS, and a couple of CB's.

If we just address the CB position and nothing else on the D, we will improve by leaps and bounds. How can you not see this?

I'm not being a homer here, I just feel greatness could be just a few steps away. And Jerry knows it.