What made the team get worse in the off season?

[Hoofbite]

Ware and Hatcher.

Romo's back.

While ineffective at stopping the opposition, I feel the defense afforded the offense a number of scoring chances that I don't expect to be there this year.

I think the East itself will be tougher. I never expect much more than 3-3 in any season for divisional games because of the nature of the games.

Throw on a much tougher division in playing the NFCW as opposed to the NFCN

 

[JoeyBoy718]

It all rests on the D-line. The secondary is good enough and can be an average NFL secondary. The LBers are at least an average corps if Lee plays 16 games. It really all rests on the D-line. We need to stay healthy on D-line. If you're playing more than 10-11 linemen in a year, it means you're dealing with a lot of injuries. We need our guys to stay healthy. We can't go dumpster diving mid season again. And we also need some lucky breaks on the D-line. The D-line is really full of a lot of question marks:

1. Will Selvie have another good year or go back to being a dud?
2. What will Crawford finally offer after being Greg Oden since being drafted?
3. Will the rookie Lawrence make an immediate impact?
4. Will Spencer ever play again? and if so, at what level?
5. Will Melton be back to his 2012 form after surgery?
6. Will Okoye live up to some of his pre draft hype?
7. Will the 7th-rounders Bishop and Gardner make the team?

As you see, there's a major question mark for every single one of our D-linemen. No one is a certainty. There's no way we get lucky on everyone. At least some of the answers to the questions above will be a No.

 

[Fredd]

I think if people are going to focus on the 52% number, then let's look at it...it is 52% of a really low number...if they have a better DL (in general), then the Hatcher/Ware "replacements" are easier to find

1) Melton MINIMALLY is a as good at applying pressure as Hatcher and is much younger...from a cost perspective, this is a no brainer for the Cowboys; if Melton is healthy, then this move looks to be a big win for the Cowboys for this year and potentially going forward
2) Love Ware, but some times, you have to cut the chord...from a cost perspective, the cut had to happen...saying that we have to replace his #'s and presence brings me humor...his #'s are not going to be difficult to replace since the numbers were not high...he really was scaring no one and he was often covered by one blocker since he didn't have the ability to get to the passer as well as in the past; again, love the guy, and I wish him the best, but he wasn't doing it in Dallas and he was cost-prohibitive for the team...the last thing on him that makes me chuckle to hear from zoners is that Denver knows how to use him? really? how is that again? by making him a part time rusher? by having other guys that can rush the passer? please.....less time getting beaten up is what will make him more productive in his last few years - Dallas could not afford that
3) replacing the 52%? yikes, instead of worrying about those 17 sacks, how about thinking about getting more than the 32 that they had as a team? the way you do that is by having a rotation that will wear (I was gonna say "ware" there, but I digress...) down the other team...no breaks for the opponent; if they can find a bunch of motor guys in their stable of "maybe's", then the team perhaps has more like 40+ sacks....get melton healthy to apply pressure up the middle, when he sits down for a blow, move Crawford inside (he will be on the outside otherwise); a rotation of mostly "b" players is better than one A player (Hatcher) plus one "used to be" A player (Ware) plus a bunch of D players...I will take 6 or 7 "B" players in a rotation any day of the week, and perhaps our new demarcus will have some say in people forgetting the old one
4) this is now Marinelli's baby; I think we may see a different defense this season, not in scheme, but in fire...bringing in all of the "B" and "C" guys will REPLACE all of the "D" and less guys that we trotted on to the field out of necessity

is the team worse? absolutely not...if the team can stay healthy, they are a playoff team, without question...if they have a rash of injuries again, it seems like they have built up enough depth to sustain the team for a short while....Romo is the question mark for the season, although he seems to be ready to go now

 

[Bungarian]

I consider Melton for Hatch to be even. Losing Ware is a lose if only it made defenses game plan for him. The other lose is Lee. He cannot be counted on to play all year.

On offense they should get better with Martin added and Escobar improving.

 

[starfrombirth]

IMO there are two things that have potentially made this team worse:

1. The Romo back injury/surgery.
2. The release/free agency loss of the team's two best defensive linemen.

The Romo thing concerns me, as I'm sure it concerns most Cowboy fans. If the guy isn't healthy enough to start most of the season, we're looking at a difficult season ahead.

This is what scares me. With the exception of removing bone spurs, you don't actually fix back problems. You only alleviate the symtoms. At least that is my understanding from my specialist. Spinal fusion decreases/stops movement of the damaged area but transfers the increased stress to the discs adjacent to the fused area. Burning the nerve does absolutely nothing to fix the damage. It just makes it so you can't feel it which presents the added risk of not feeling the damage until you can't walk anymore. There is disc replacement but the new disc is held in place with small rods or screw which is ok in normal every day life but not when you're getting tackled in that spot 2 - 3 times a game. This is a serious issue folks. The only QB I can think of who came back from a serious back issue is Joe Montana and even he wasn't the same.

 

[starfrombirth]

Ware and Hatcher.

Romo's back.

While ineffective at stopping the opposition, I feel the defense afforded the offense a number of scoring chances that I don't expect to be there this year.

I think the East itself will be tougher. I never expect much more than 3-3 in any season for divisional games because of the nature of the games.

Throw on a much tougher division in playing the NFCW as opposed to the NFCN

Chicago, Detroit, and Greenbay all beat us. How much worse can it be?

 

[Hoofbite]

Chicago, Detroit, and Greenbay all beat us. How much worse can it be?

Not saying anything about losing to that entire division. Just pointing out that it doesn't give me confidence that the team will find any extra wins when they will be playing better teams.

 

[starfrombirth]

Not saying anything about losing to that entire division. Just pointing out that it doesn't give me confidence that the team will find any extra wins when they will be playing better teams.

Yeah, I get that. I just think / hope that having a real live body at DT1 and RDE will make it a little harder to march right down the field. So many people crack on Romo for throwing the game ending int but how many times did he put as in the lead towards the end of the game only to have the defense let the opposing offense drive right back down the field. .. often easier and faster than earlier in the game. I just believe that have 4 live and fresh bodies will help reduce / eliminate that problem. : pray :

 

[ghst187]

why we're potential headed for a worse season than last:
1) our schedule is brutal
2) our rivals, the iggles and skins probably got better
3) lost Hatcher plus see #2
4) Romo's back….?
5) Most of the units on D are big ?s or have big ?s, our entire secondary esp the S's, the LB corps, and the DL

Our hope though is:
1) Kiffin was demoted, it can't possibly be worse on D
2) Our OL should be outstanding and our running game better
3) Our rookies and second year guys emerge

our hinges:
1) Will Garrett manage games better?
2) Injuries (as for any team but really crushed us last year and I'm talking largely about Demarco Murray, Tony Romo, and Sean Lee, and Melton here)
3) We find quality S play from someone
4) Someone unexpected emerges along the DL
5) Will we stick with the running game? (see #1)

 

[BourbonBalz]

Just being healthy will make us better, assuming we can stay relatively healthy.

 

[Rockport]

That is all speculation. Also, it's not always a given that a rookie is going to suck his first year. RG3 came in his first year and took a crappy Commanders team to the playoffs, same with Dalton, Luck, and others. We have had one playoff win EVER with Romo. One thing is for sure, this team isn't going anywhere with Romo.

Our season hinges more on if our defense can get better and if we can establish the run game and have Romo do a lot less.

My guess is this is gonna be a BAD season.

Troll alert.

 

[MichaelWinicki]

That is all speculation. Also, it's not always a given that a rookie is going to suck his first year. RG3 came in his first year and took a crappy Commanders team to the playoffs, same with Dalton, Luck, and others. We have had one playoff win EVER with Romo. One thing is for sure, this team isn't going anywhere with Romo.

Our season hinges more on if our defense can get better and if we can establish the run game and have Romo do a lot less.

My guess is this is gonna be a BAD season.

Most of the time a rookie QB is going to complete about 55% of his passes and will be lucky if he has more TD's and picks.

The sucky rookie starters FAR OUTNUMBER the RG3/Andew Luck's of the world. I'm not even going to bother researching it because all of us know it's true.

 

[speedkilz88]

This is what scares me. With the exception of removing bone spurs, you don't actually fix back problems. You only alleviate the symtoms. At least that is my understanding from my specialist. Spinal fusion decreases/stops movement of the damaged area but transfers the increased stress to the discs adjacent to the fused area. Burning the nerve does absolutely nothing to fix the damage. It just makes it so you can't feel it which presents the added risk of not feeling the damage until you can't walk anymore. There is disc replacement but the new disc is held in place with small rods or screw which is ok in normal every day life but not when you're getting tackled in that spot 2 - 3 times a game. This is a serious issue folks. The only QB I can think of who came back from a serious back issue is Joe Montana and even he wasn't the same.

From wear and tear

Romo admitted his was not so much a degenerative deal from body part imperfection, as it was the wear and tear from something he feels he might have suffered back in his teens or so. Romo said he has been aware of the condition for a good seven or so years, and that his back first spoke up nearly midway through this past season.

Aikman had the same surgery on the L-5 disk at 26, it bought him several more years and two more Super Bowls.

“Yeah, feeling good, good to go,” Romo said, having caught my attention while in between sets out here in the weight room early Wednesday afternoon. And let that sink in for a moment: The guy who had micro-discectomy surgery to repair a herniated disk at the L-5 level of his back way back on Dec. 27, 2013, was in the weight room lifting weights.


Said he had spoken on the subject of the back surgery with Troy Aikman, who underwent similar surgery at the same spot on June 19, 1993, almost six months after winning his first Super Bowl but seven months prior to winning the second – something to remember. Much of Troy’s problems back then stemmed from his overly tight hamstrings, learning stretching wasn’t just for a bunch of sissies.

http://www.dallascowboys.com/news/a...ck-At-It/05bb313f-8922-4844-af52-57e3dc51aad4

 

[DFWJC]

I like the point made by Fredd above; that the far more important sack number to look at is the 32 made by the team, not the 17 made by two players. Improve on the 32 and the team improved it's sack total, regardless of how they water distributed.

 

[Crown Royal]

Secondary is an underrated answer here. We changed nothing in the secondary and we are banking on Wilcox improving in year two.

For whatever reason, we are affraid to play with any bump with our guys. In the first half of the denver game, they basically trew a bunch of 4-6 yard passes underneath the cushion. Pressure or no, you can't just have a retreating secondary.

 

[sideon]

Nope

No matter how bad we think Ware was, every play Ware was on the field the other team's QB was worried about him. That's gone

Nope, that died 2yrs ago when teams realized they didn't need to double him anymore and their 2nd string linemen were capable of containing him. Go back and look at the 1st Skins game last year, you'll see that the D actually started to get pressure on RG3 when Ware left the game. Hatcher had 1 good year in a 4-3 with a contract on the line, but before that he was a mediocre 3-4 player who contributed nothing to the team... oh and he also faded away during the final stretch of the season.

 

[30yrheel]

The schedule is insane. That's one reason we might have a worse record.

 

[xwalker]

This is what scares me. With the exception of removing bone spurs, you don't actually fix back problems. You only alleviate the symtoms. At least that is my understanding from my specialist. Spinal fusion decreases/stops movement of the damaged area but transfers the increased stress to the discs adjacent to the fused area. Burning the nerve does absolutely nothing to fix the damage. It just makes it so you can't feel it which presents the added risk of not feeling the damage until you can't walk anymore. There is disc replacement but the new disc is held in place with small rods or screw which is ok in normal every day life but not when you're getting tackled in that spot 2 - 3 times a game. This is a serious issue folks. The only QB I can think of who came back from a serious back issue is Joe Montana and even he wasn't the same.

I've known people that had the microdiscectomy procedure that Romo had. The results were incredible. They went from basically unbearable pain to minimal pain immediately. Obviously, they were not Pro Athletes, but their issues were "fixed".

I think Romo's issues can be "fixed" also. The problems is if the repair holds up to the demands of being a Pro Athlete.

 

[speedkilz88]

Seahawks managed without having a Ware or Hatcher caliber player.

 

[casmith07]

Oh, okay. Tell the truth and get your posts deleted. I see you, mods. I see you.