Too many soft players

[dboy214]

What exactly is soft? What young players have been impacted by this supposed soft culture? Which players are 'soft' and how?

So far i have 'its obvious.'

soft is not being able to run on short yardage plays. soft is constantly missing tackles on defense. soft is never getting push from your dline. soft is http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8sTnMrWx2Iw and http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2iC0wUt4GLM. soft is your middle linebackers (bradie james) consantly getting completely shutdown by fullbacks when blitzing. soft is terrence newman openly joking with jay glazer about not wanting to tackle brandon jacobs. soft is sensabaugh openly saying he thinks about getting fined while playing. soft is a defense that doesn't intimidate any opponents from coming across the middle. soft is constantly choking away games in the 4th quarter. soft is constantly choking away seasons in December. do you understand what soft is now :?

 

[FuzzyLumpkins]

It was actually an honest question. I did the same thing for Judas. I'm not attempting to bait you.

Compared to watching Witten give up from watching his body language in the second half of the Green Bay game in 2010 compared to how this team dealt with adversity in 2011 i just do not see it as a problem.

James has not been able to run for a long time. Payton exposed him by running backs into his zones 4 years ago. Brooking is now the same thing. Newman used to be able to run with Jackson and the likes of Cruz now he cannot. Cofield wrote the book on clubbing T rex Costa to the turf.

It is what it is.

 

[FuzzyLumpkins]

soft is not being able to run on short yardage plays. soft is constantly missing tackles on defense. soft is never getting push from your dline. soft is http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8sTnMrWx2Iw and http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2iC0wUt4GLM. soft is your middle linebackers (bradie james) consantly getting completely shutdown by fullbacks when blitzing. soft is terrence newman openly joking with jay glazer about not wanting to tackle brandon jacobs. soft is sensabaugh openly saying he thinks about getting fined while playing. soft is a defense that doesn't intimidate any opponents from coming across the middle. soft is constantly choking away games in the 4th quarter. soft is constantly choking away seasons in December. do you understand what soft is now :?

So soft is as i stated a simplification for things that have very specific cause. You're boring me with your inability to keep up with what i am saying.

 

[JonJon]

man i know there are a few on here who are still sane. but i was getting grilled for questioning the physicality of this team from the moment i signed up on this site.

when you have guys like bradie james who only cares about his off the field endorsements and terrence newman who openly jokes about avoiding tackling brandon jacobs...sensabaugh saying he thinks about fines when deciding to hit a qb...jenkins openly avoiding contact...ware constantly pushing qbs down and helping them up...when those are the guys who you call your "leaders, your "core"....there is no way in hell your team will ever become a physical team.

what some fans on this site failed to realize over the last two years is that the core of this team was the issue. not alan ball. not frank walker. not pacman jones. not tank johnson. those are all sidepieces that fans feel comfortable making the scapegoats. it's the damn core of this team that is soft and that permeates throughout the team.

i really believe this is an issue.

when you draft players or bring in free agents, 9 times out of 10, they will look to assimilate into the established culture in order to not step on anybody's toes.

well they are coming into a locker room with no vocal leaders, a locker room full of quitters from 2010, a locker room full of guys who like to help the opponent off the turf and give them love taps every 5 seconds, a locker room with very little accountability to each other, a locker room with players that blatantly avoid contact in games, a locker room where high priced vets are given playing time regardless of the quality of their play, a locker room where nobody ever tries to stir the pot when things are going bad, a locker room full of december chokers, a locker room full of faux leaders, a locker room full of one year wonders with multi year contracts, etc...

this is the culture new players are being infected by and therefore becoming part of the problem as well.

we have to cut it off at its head. destroy the core of this team, it's not working.

Dboy, you are spot on. We have a team full of soft players, and Ware is one of them. He is very talented, he gets after the QB, he is one of the best pass rushers in the history of the NFL. But he comes off soft. He is always helping the other team off the ground and patting them on the back trying to play friendly. It is a problem because I'm sure other players look to him for leadership, and when they see him doing that, then they will do the same. It's just a big love fest whenever the Cowboys play anyone. You can't be friends on the football field. You have to treat it like a battle, like a war. And it all starts at the core. Even if we bring in some players with that mean streak, it will get overshadowed by the Kumbayas on the team if the leaders continue to play nice. Then it's just a matter of time before everybody buys into the softness.

 

[dboy214]

So soft is as i stated a simplification for things that have very specific cause. You're boring me with your inability to keep up with what i am saying.

this guy thinks he's smarter than everybody without saying anything. your constant drivel of nothingness is annoying me now. i'm better off debating a wall.

 

[Idgit]

Generally speaking when people start going towards qualitative generalizations such as 'soft' as an explanation it is a clear sign that they have no clue what they are talking about.

There were plenty of games where the team exhibited mental toughness over and over again.

Newman could not run as fast as he once could. You saw that watching him play Cruz and Jackson. Thats why he played off. Its pretty obvious. When you say that he is 'soft,' I say you are clueless.

Bradie James and Keith Brooking cannot run. You should have been able to see that as teams would run slot receivers, backs and TE across their zones and they could not keep up. Carter was not used to playing run defense in a 3-4 alignment. He chose wrong gaps or would hesitate. Thats not soft. Soft is just a simplification for those that cannot or will not look deeper.

Our center has (hopefully had)short arms. He would lunge to try and make contact and DT would club him to the ground. We saw that over and over again. Before the season ever began we were going with low round draft picks and UDFA. Thats not soft. If anything its rebuilding an oline and overaggression.

A 'killer instinct' is not going to give those guys speed. We need to bring in better talent that can execute the proper techniques at the relative positions.

+1 with everything you say here, Fuzzy.

And I'll also throw some support your way at the notion that if you're not critical of everything on the team, or don't buy into vaguely satisfying generalities about our problems, you're a homer. This team has very specific problems that require very specific solutions. Thankfully. The ability to see or understand what the limitations really are and think critically about solving them while defending areas of the team which aren't actual problems does not belong to everybody. Neither the homers nor the realists have the market cornered on this perception, but having it doesn't make you automatically a homer. And you're certainly not a homer in my book.

Personally, I'd consider being Ignored by the willfully blind a small blessing. It means there's a smaller chance you'll get sucked into weak arguments down the line.

 

[ufcrules1]

this guy thinks he's smarter than everybody without saying anything. your constant drivel of nothingness is annoying me now. i'm better off debating a wall.

Put him on your ignore list and save the wasted time debating with him. Homers gonna homer man.

 

[dboy214]

Dboy, you are spot on. We have a team full of soft players, and Ware is one of them. He is very talented, he gets after the QB, he is one of the best pass rushers in the history of the NFL. But he comes off soft. He is always helping the other team off the ground and patting them on the back trying to play friendly. It is a problem because I'm sure other players look to him for leadership, and when they see him doing that, then they will do the same. It's just a big love fest whenever the Cowboys play anyone. You can't be friends on the football field. You have to treat it like a battle, like a war. And it all starts at the core. Even if we bring in some players with that mean streak, it will get overshadowed by the Kumbayas on the team if the other players that others already look up to. Then it's just a matter of time before everybody buys into the softness.

yessir. look at baltimore. those guys are dawgs not because they are born that way, it's b/c that is the established culture in that locker room. nothing else will be accepted from lewis or reed. you either fall in line or get lost. san fran is starting to establish that too. you didn't see any love tapping from their defense. when they were hitting eli, they were HITTING him not PUSHING him like our guys like to do. i never felt comfortable with ware as the leader of this team b/c i don't believe he feels comfortable in that role. it's not naturally who he is. his talent forced him into that position. don't get me started on bradie james. i know people who do business with him frequently in dallas, he is not as great of a guy as some make him out to be.

 

[ufcrules1]

Dboy, you are spot on. We have a team full of soft players, and Ware is one of them. He is very talented, he gets after the QB, he is one of the best pass rushers in the history of the NFL. But he comes off soft. He is always helping the other team off the ground and patting them on the back trying to play friendly. It is a problem because I'm sure other players look to him for leadership, and when they see him doing that, then they will do the same. It's just a big love fest whenever the Cowboys play anyone. You can't be friends on the football field. You have to treat it like a battle, like a war. And it all starts at the core. Even if we bring in some players with that mean streak, it will get overshadowed by the Kumbayas on the team if the leaders continue to play nice. Then it's just a matter of time before everybody buys into the softness.

You are spot on but prepare to get flamed. Nobody says anything negative about our players without the homers going crazy around here.

 

[NoLuv4Jerry]

soft is not being able to run on short yardage plays. soft is constantly missing tackles on defense. soft is never getting push from your dline. soft is http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8sTnMrWx2Iw and http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2iC0wUt4GLM. soft is your middle linebackers (bradie james) consantly getting completely shutdown by fullbacks when blitzing. soft is terrence newman openly joking with jay glazer about not wanting to tackle brandon jacobs. soft is sensabaugh openly saying he thinks about getting fined while playing. soft is a defense that doesn't intimidate any opponents from coming across the middle. soft is constantly choking away games in the 4th quarter. soft is constantly choking away seasons in December. do you understand what soft is now :?

You might as qwll give up. There is no winning with a lot of these people around here. Actually, all you have to do is point to the scoreboard for the last 15+ years and theres your answer. Jerry has a new generation of sheep gathering at the edge of the cliff...and he will gladly pick up all the loose change that falls from their pockets on there way down the cliff!

 

[ufcrules1]

yessir. look at baltimore. those guys are dawgs not because they are born that way, it's b/c that is the established culture in that locker room. nothing else will be accepted from lewis or reed. you either fall in line or get lost. san fran is starting to establish that too. you didn't see any love tapping from their defense. when they were hitting eli, they were HITTING him not PUSHING him like our guys like to do. i never felt comfortable with ware as the leader of this team b/c i don't believe he feels comfortable in that role. it's not naturally who he is. his talent forced him into that position. don't get me started on bradie james. i know people who do business with him frequently in dallas, he is not as great of a guy as some make him out to be.

The status quo in Baltimore/San Francisco is to play physical, get loud, never give up, etc. and it is contagious in that locker room. Our status quo is to be best buds with the other team, give them a hand getting up, never get loud or psyched up, etc. NY Giants were talking smack all week against our team leading up to the final game and not one of our players said anything back. That would be fine if we went out there and dominated but instead we went out just as quiet as we went in. We have a ton of over the hill/weak minded players and that has got to change. It has to change starting with the coaches, and then with the leaders on the team like Ware, Romo, Miles, Lee, Jenkins, etc.

I mean we have a washed up over the hill by 3 years guy who is in charge of the pregame rallies (Brooking). How the heck is that going to motivate any player on that team? As a player they look at Brooking and think to themselves, how many tackles is this fool going to miss? How many times is he going to get burned during the game? They have little to no respect for the guy anymore. Brooking should have stepped down this year. But no, the Cowboys think he is a starter.

Go look at Ray Lewis... he does his teams pre-game rallies and they know he will back up everything he says and kick their butts if they don't.

 

[dboy214]

You might as qwll give up. There is no winning with a lot of these people around here. Actually, all you have to do is point to the scoreboard for the last 15+ years and theres your answer. Jerry has a new generation of sheep gathering at the edge of the cliff...and he will gladly pick up all the loose change that falls from their pockets on there way down the cliff!

i'm starting to think some of these guys have been watching a different team all season. did we all watch the same niners-giants game yesterday? how can anyone watch that game and not see the difference in physicality btw us and them?

 

[ufcrules1]

i'm starting to think some of these guys have been watching a different team all season. did we all watch the same niners-giants game yesterday? how can anyone watch that game and not see the difference in physicality btw us and them?

lol... for real! I've been saying the same thing.

 

[FuzzyLumpkins]

Jerome Henderson does not dumb things down. he took a question on toughness which is the same vein as this soft and then broke it down into specifics. He said that there were three types of toughness, physical, mental and preparation.

Phyiscal is being able to handle the rigors of the NFL season and go out there and play hurt and still make plays.

Mental is being able to take adversity and still play with technique and execute.

Preparation is being able to grind it out week in and week out. To have the discipline to refine your technique and study properly week in and week out.

Now I can get saying that Newman and Jones are always hurt.

I can get saying that if you run routes across the face of Sensabaugh or Ball that they have issues making the right decisions. Is that coaching, preparation, are they dumb or what? All these generalizations about our 'culture' just make me think people are dumb.

 

[ufcrules1]

There is an old saying that goes like this... "If you find a fool, bump their heads"
Well, as you can plainly see, Jerry has found himself a whole bunch of fools.

 

[dboy214]

The status quo in Baltimore/San Francisco is to play physical, get loud, never give up, etc. and it is contagious in that locker room. Our status quo is to be best buds with the other team, give them a hand getting up, never get loud or psyched up, etc. NY Giants were talking smack all week against our team leading up to the final game and not one of our players said anything back. That would be fine if we went out there and dominated but instead we went out just as quiet as we went in. We have a ton of over the hill/weak minded players and that has got to change. It has to change starting with the coaches, and then with the leaders on the team like Ware, Romo, Miles, Lee, Jenkins, etc.

I mean we have a washed up over the hill by 3 years guy who is in charge of the pregame rallies (Brooking). How the heck is that going to motivate any player on that team? As a player they look at Brooking and think to themselves, how many tackles is this fool going to miss? How many times is he going to get burned during the game? They have little to no respect for the guy anymore. Brooking should have stepped down this year. But no, the Cowboys think he is a starter.

Go look at Ray Lewis... he does his teams pre-game rallies and they know he will back up everything he says and kick their butts if they don't.

oh your wrong there. jenkins said something. he called jacobs a bully. :

as for your point on brooking, you're preaching to the choir man...
http://cowboyszone.com/forums/showthread.php?t=197125

 

[ufcrules1]

oh your wrong there. jenkins said something. he called jacobs a bully. :

as for your point on brooking, you're preaching to the choir man...
http://cowboyszone.com/forums/showthread.php?t=197125

Haha.. yeah, Jacobs is a bully all right. He air humped our star for a long time on national TV and not one of those players had the balls to say squat about it.

I hate to say it.. but I wish we had some of those "bullies" on our team. The Giants abused us in every possible way and now they are in the superbowl laughing at us while Eli gets fits for his 2nd ring.

 

[tupperware]

You are spot on but prepare to get flamed. Nobody says anything negative about our players without the homers going crazy around here.

I think the problem is that there are 4 types of posters here, more or less.

A) Homers. They're unwavering in their praises for the team. The team never does any wrong.
B) Happy Joes. They believe things are going to turn around for the better but they can also see the problems with the team. They would rather have a discussion about our positives and outlook going forward.
C) Trolls. They're just here to rag on the team whenever things are bad. You'll never hear a peep when the team does something positive.
D) Mad Joes. They often focus on what the team is doing wrong. They would rather create threads about and discuss the negatives of the team than the postive, but they can also appreciate when our team does something positive.

I think B gets labeled as A by D and D gets labeled as C by B. The majority of posters I would say fall in to B and D and A and C just give B and D a bad name.

 

[dboy214]

I think the problem is that there are 4 types of posters here, more or less.

A) Homers. They're unwavering in their praises for the team. The team never does any wrong.
B) Happy Joes. They believe things are going to turn around for the better but they can also see the problems with the team. They would rather have a discussion about our positives and outlook going forward.
C) Trolls. They're just here to rag on the team whenever things are bad. You'll never hear a peep when the team does something positive.
D) Mad Joes. They often focus on what the team is doing wrong. They would rather create threads about and discuss the negatives of the team than the postive, but they can also appreciate when our team does something positive.

I think B gets labeled as A by D and D gets labeled as C by B. The majority of posters I would say fall in to B and D and A and C just give B and D a bad name.

yeah i would tend to agree with this assessment. i would also point out the last 17 years has been 80% negative so maybe those 'Mad Joes' are just in line with reality.

 

[Idgit]

Jerome Henderson does not dumb things down. he took a question on toughness which is the same vein as this soft and then broke it down into specifics. He said that there were three types of toughness, physical, mental and preparation.

Phyiscal is being able to handle the rigors of the NFL season and go out there and play hurt and still make plays.

Mental is being able to take adversity and still play with technique and execute.

Preparation is being able to grind it out week in and week out. To have the discipline to refine your technique and study properly week in and week out...

Love this distinction, and I hadn't heard it before. It's an effective way of looking at the problem.

I think the problem is that there are 4 types of posters here, more or less.

A) Homers. They're unwavering in their praises for the team. The team never does any wrong.
B) Happy Joes. They believe things are going to turn around for the better but they can also see the problems with the team. They would rather have a discussion about our positives and outlook going forward.
C) Trolls. They're just here to rag on the team whenever things are bad. You'll never hear a peep when the team does something positive.
D) Mad Joes. They often focus on what the team is doing wrong. They would rather create threads about and discuss the negatives of the team than the postive, but they can also appreciate when our team does something positive.

I think B gets labeled as A by D and D gets labeled as C by B. The majority of posters I would say fall in to B and D and A and C just give B and D a bad name.

I think this is more or less spot-on. Though I don't like being in a 'Happy Joe' group. There are actually very few 'Homers' by your definition here, though there are posters all along the positive spectrum. Trolls are trolls and every site has them and they're occasionally fun. It'd be a better place if the B's and D's of the world could recognize where each other is coming from more readily. I'd maintain that the D group--in a disappointing season, anyway--contains more posters that are critical of the team in areas without regard for whether they're doing something right or wrong. But I imagine in a Superbowl winning year there'd be plenty of posters claiming everything is golden everywhere when it clearly isn't, too. Some of the perspective for the least knowledgable fans is only a function of how the team finishes.