Plankton
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With the dawning of yet another NFL season, Week One brings a lot of things.
Optimism.
A sense of happiness.
A skip in one’s step.
A longer honey-do list that will get ignored.
Following Week One, there’s one thing that is common amongst fanbases:
Overreaction.
Bill Parcells had a phrase that he commonly used with his teams to temper internal expectations, and to prevent players from getting too full of themselves. He would use props to help get his message across, but the message is pretty clear without the need of visual aids.
Don’t eat the cheese.
This is a message that would serve both the Cowboys and the fanbase pretty well following yesterday’s 35-17 beat down of the New York Giants in seemingly the 38th time that these teams have opened up with the other as the opponent. There were some questions going in about how the offense run by new coordinator Kellen Moore would perform, and some question about how Ezekiel Elliott would be worked back into the game plan after missing all of training camp. Even more so, there were questions about how Dak Prescott would perform entering the final season of his rookie contract, with the potential for a nine digit payday looming.
Consider these questions answered affirmatively for the home team.
However, there is an important factor to consider in this assessment, and rather than quote the sage Parcells, I will paraphrase the philosopher king, Adam “Pacman” Jones:
It’s the Giants, dude.
Make no mistake about it, following a stalled first drive, and facing an early 7-0 deficit, the Cowboy offense took the field, and took over the game with a ruthless assault. Over the next five drives, the Cowboys scored five touchdowns. 43 plays run, 415 yards of total offense, and a runaway of a game. In the Moore choreographed offense, receivers ran into wide open spaces in the Giant defense. Prescott was barely hit or hurried in the game, only taking two quarterback hits while passing, and got more comfortable as the game went on. While he double clutched on the Cowboys first touchdown, a 28 yard wobbler to Blake Jarwin for the tying score, it seemed to be more a product of not having a clean grip on the ball as well as being stunned as to how wide open the tight end was. From that point forward, Prescott was in complete control, and threw the ball as well as he has since his rookie season.
An example of his confidence and strong play was on one of the few plays where he faced pressure in the pocket. On the Cowboys’ third drive, Prescott went back to pass on a second and eight, and had Giant LB Lorenzo Carter in his face. Prescott hung in the pocket, and lofted a deep throw down the left sideline for Michael Gallup. In 2018, a common sight was seeing Gallup running wide open on a deep route, and Prescott overthrowing him. On this instance, Prescott dropped a perfect pass in the bucket, hitting Gallup for 36 yards. You could literally see the connection between the two players grow as the game progressed, with Gallup confidently running skinny post routes, and racking up yards after the catch, and Prescott hitting him in stride time after time. Both players had career games yesterday, with Gallup catching seven passes for 158 yards, and zero missed targets. Prescott was simply brilliant, notching a perfect passer rating in going 25 of 32 for 405 yards and four touchdown passes.
But, as Pacman said, it’s the Giants, dude.
While the pinball-like numbers were great to see yesterday, and the production was a welcome sight, the matchup with the Giants was a fight against an unarmed man. The Giant defense has few playmakers, and also had severe matchup issues with the Cowboy passing game. Antoine Bethea looked all of his 35 years of age. Deandre Baker looked every bit like the rookie that he is, getting torched by Gallup and Amari Cooper, who looked no worse for wear with his foot problems, going off for 106 yards receiving and a touchdown. The Giant pass rush was non-existent, and with the problems on the perimeter, as well as in the trenches, this quickly dissolved into a name your score game. The Cowboys called off the dogs in the fourth quarter, and were able to manage snap counts for players like Elliott, who missed camp, and guys like Zack Martin, who played through persistent back issues.
But, as wonderful as yesterday was on offense, the defense was vanilla and not exactly the shutdown unit that they were hyped up to be. The remade Giant offensive line kept Eli Manning relatively clean, and opened up big creases for Saquon Barkley in the running game. The Cowboy defense allowed 470 yards to a Giant offense running the likes of Bennie Fowler Jr. and Cody Latimer at wide receiver. It was not a championship level effort by any means.
But, just as the optimism needs to be tempered a bit for the offensive production based on the competition, the defensive angst needs to be looked at through a clear lens. The Cowboy defense didn’t play exotically because they didn’t have to. The Giant offense overall didn’t provide much of a threat, so they were able to keep things vanilla, and bend but not break. Despite allowing nearly 500 yards, the Cowboys forced four punts, two turnovers, and stopped the Giants on downs. When they needed to make a play, they did. Was it a great performance? No.
But, they won.
Around the league, every fanbase is overreacting to what they saw. What happens in Week One is no more of an indicator of how the rest of the season will go than what we saw in the preseason. That is, for everyone except the Dolphins, who could threaten joining the Lions and Browns in the 0-16 club – they are that bad.
As a point of reference for overreacting, look back no further than the 1997 season opener for the Cowboys. In that game, the Cowboys went into Pittsburgh with a lot of doubt hanging over them. The Cowboys curb stomped the Steelers in that game, rolling to a 37-7 beatdown, where Troy Aikman threw four touchdown passes, and the Cowboy defense held the Steelers to 174 yards of total offense. Following that game, the Cowboys looked like they were back, and the Steelers looked like the Kordell Stewart experiment was going to be an immediate failure.
Fast forward to the end of the season, and the Cowboys clinched the eighth overall pick in the draft as well as the final demise of the coaching career of Barry Switzer. The Steelers? Made it to the AFC Championship Game.
Don’t make overreact and make too much of Week One.
Don’t eat the cheese.
Other observations from yesterday’s game:
For one half yesterday, the Commanders were in complete control against the Eagles. Once Jonathan Allen left the game, the game seemed to slip away for Washington. Allen suffered a sprained knee, and his status for Sunday’s game is unknown. Fellow DL Caleb Brantley also left the game with a lower leg injury, and the Commanders finished the game with only three healthy defensive linemen. If the Commanders are missing Allen, this will be a significant loss for them and their ability to stop the Cowboy running game.
Optimism.
A sense of happiness.
A skip in one’s step.
A longer honey-do list that will get ignored.
Following Week One, there’s one thing that is common amongst fanbases:
Overreaction.
Bill Parcells had a phrase that he commonly used with his teams to temper internal expectations, and to prevent players from getting too full of themselves. He would use props to help get his message across, but the message is pretty clear without the need of visual aids.
Don’t eat the cheese.
This is a message that would serve both the Cowboys and the fanbase pretty well following yesterday’s 35-17 beat down of the New York Giants in seemingly the 38th time that these teams have opened up with the other as the opponent. There were some questions going in about how the offense run by new coordinator Kellen Moore would perform, and some question about how Ezekiel Elliott would be worked back into the game plan after missing all of training camp. Even more so, there were questions about how Dak Prescott would perform entering the final season of his rookie contract, with the potential for a nine digit payday looming.
Consider these questions answered affirmatively for the home team.
However, there is an important factor to consider in this assessment, and rather than quote the sage Parcells, I will paraphrase the philosopher king, Adam “Pacman” Jones:
It’s the Giants, dude.
Make no mistake about it, following a stalled first drive, and facing an early 7-0 deficit, the Cowboy offense took the field, and took over the game with a ruthless assault. Over the next five drives, the Cowboys scored five touchdowns. 43 plays run, 415 yards of total offense, and a runaway of a game. In the Moore choreographed offense, receivers ran into wide open spaces in the Giant defense. Prescott was barely hit or hurried in the game, only taking two quarterback hits while passing, and got more comfortable as the game went on. While he double clutched on the Cowboys first touchdown, a 28 yard wobbler to Blake Jarwin for the tying score, it seemed to be more a product of not having a clean grip on the ball as well as being stunned as to how wide open the tight end was. From that point forward, Prescott was in complete control, and threw the ball as well as he has since his rookie season.
An example of his confidence and strong play was on one of the few plays where he faced pressure in the pocket. On the Cowboys’ third drive, Prescott went back to pass on a second and eight, and had Giant LB Lorenzo Carter in his face. Prescott hung in the pocket, and lofted a deep throw down the left sideline for Michael Gallup. In 2018, a common sight was seeing Gallup running wide open on a deep route, and Prescott overthrowing him. On this instance, Prescott dropped a perfect pass in the bucket, hitting Gallup for 36 yards. You could literally see the connection between the two players grow as the game progressed, with Gallup confidently running skinny post routes, and racking up yards after the catch, and Prescott hitting him in stride time after time. Both players had career games yesterday, with Gallup catching seven passes for 158 yards, and zero missed targets. Prescott was simply brilliant, notching a perfect passer rating in going 25 of 32 for 405 yards and four touchdown passes.
But, as Pacman said, it’s the Giants, dude.
While the pinball-like numbers were great to see yesterday, and the production was a welcome sight, the matchup with the Giants was a fight against an unarmed man. The Giant defense has few playmakers, and also had severe matchup issues with the Cowboy passing game. Antoine Bethea looked all of his 35 years of age. Deandre Baker looked every bit like the rookie that he is, getting torched by Gallup and Amari Cooper, who looked no worse for wear with his foot problems, going off for 106 yards receiving and a touchdown. The Giant pass rush was non-existent, and with the problems on the perimeter, as well as in the trenches, this quickly dissolved into a name your score game. The Cowboys called off the dogs in the fourth quarter, and were able to manage snap counts for players like Elliott, who missed camp, and guys like Zack Martin, who played through persistent back issues.
But, as wonderful as yesterday was on offense, the defense was vanilla and not exactly the shutdown unit that they were hyped up to be. The remade Giant offensive line kept Eli Manning relatively clean, and opened up big creases for Saquon Barkley in the running game. The Cowboy defense allowed 470 yards to a Giant offense running the likes of Bennie Fowler Jr. and Cody Latimer at wide receiver. It was not a championship level effort by any means.
But, just as the optimism needs to be tempered a bit for the offensive production based on the competition, the defensive angst needs to be looked at through a clear lens. The Cowboy defense didn’t play exotically because they didn’t have to. The Giant offense overall didn’t provide much of a threat, so they were able to keep things vanilla, and bend but not break. Despite allowing nearly 500 yards, the Cowboys forced four punts, two turnovers, and stopped the Giants on downs. When they needed to make a play, they did. Was it a great performance? No.
But, they won.
Around the league, every fanbase is overreacting to what they saw. What happens in Week One is no more of an indicator of how the rest of the season will go than what we saw in the preseason. That is, for everyone except the Dolphins, who could threaten joining the Lions and Browns in the 0-16 club – they are that bad.
As a point of reference for overreacting, look back no further than the 1997 season opener for the Cowboys. In that game, the Cowboys went into Pittsburgh with a lot of doubt hanging over them. The Cowboys curb stomped the Steelers in that game, rolling to a 37-7 beatdown, where Troy Aikman threw four touchdown passes, and the Cowboy defense held the Steelers to 174 yards of total offense. Following that game, the Cowboys looked like they were back, and the Steelers looked like the Kordell Stewart experiment was going to be an immediate failure.
Fast forward to the end of the season, and the Cowboys clinched the eighth overall pick in the draft as well as the final demise of the coaching career of Barry Switzer. The Steelers? Made it to the AFC Championship Game.
Don’t make overreact and make too much of Week One.
Don’t eat the cheese.
Other observations from yesterday’s game:
- Jerry Jones was quoted after the game indicating that Prescott’s contract extension was “imminent”. Here’s hoping that the decision is made without the results of yesterday being prominent. While the Cowboy quarterback is due for a significant raise, and likely will slot in between the contract extensions of 2016 draft alumnae Jared Goff and Carson Wentz, by no means should he be paid near the top of the quarterback food chain. Prescott is a good face for the franchise, and has far exceeded his draft slot, but he still has growth and achievement to garner before he is elevated to that pay range. I’m not expecting my thoughts to be considered in this.
- Kellen Moore had a successful debut as the Cowboy offensive coordinator, and had a nice mix that got all of the Cowboy targets involved. The pace offensively was crisp, and they looked in midseason form. What remains to be seen is how Moore will adapt now that a book on his play calling is beginning to develop. The early returns are promising, but remember the words of Pacman before anointing him.
- The Cowboys managed Elliott’s snaps, and he was able to get some hits in. The good news is that he came out of the game healthy, and was able to protect the ball despite not having any contact while missing camp. As he has in his previous seasons, Elliott did not look sharp, committing a holding penalty on a blitz pickup and dropping a pass from Prescott that would have converted a first down in the red zone. If there’s a reason for concern, it’s that Elliott didn’t look particularly quick on the field. Perhaps it’s a product of not being in football shape, but it bears watching.
- The talk of camp was the play of Tony Pollard. With the lights on, he looked like a rookie, reserve running back. He drew a flag for lowering his head on a run, and played physically, but didn’t do anything to stand out. Make no mistake, he will have a role in this offense, but he is no threat to take touches away from Elliott.
- Last season, Chidobe Awuzie was victimized on a number of occasions with allowing completions despite having tight coverage. Yesterday showed that this phenomena is still present. Awuzie was glued to Latimer on a sideline route, and Eli Manning managed to squeeze a ball in despite the Cowboy corner being all over the route. This has to be frustrating for Awuzie, but if there’s a play that shows that football is a game of inches, this was it.
- For all the talk of Maliek Collins being unblockable during camp, he was largely handled by the Giant interior of Will Hernandez, Jon Halapio and Kevin Zeitler. Collins registered a Blutarski on the stat line, and did not live up to the hype.
- One player upfront who did flash yesterday was Dorance Armstrong. The second year defensive end got pressure off the edge on a number of occasions, and nearly had a sack of Manning, who managed to escape and hit Latimer for 22 yards down the left sideline. Armstrong needs to learn to finish, but he flashed the raw tools that have pushed him ahead of Taco Charlton on the depth chart.
For one half yesterday, the Commanders were in complete control against the Eagles. Once Jonathan Allen left the game, the game seemed to slip away for Washington. Allen suffered a sprained knee, and his status for Sunday’s game is unknown. Fellow DL Caleb Brantley also left the game with a lower leg injury, and the Commanders finished the game with only three healthy defensive linemen. If the Commanders are missing Allen, this will be a significant loss for them and their ability to stop the Cowboy running game.
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