Why does Dallas lose at the end?

[Wood]

Year after year the Boys lose games in the final minutes.Why is this?

think about when you played sports. End of games things are tense. Some people or teams just don't handle that stress well. It takes strong leaders to get thru those moments. Obviously Dallas doesn't have those leaders or those leaders are not looked upon yet in that light.

 

[dupree89]

think about when you played sports. End of games things are tense. Some people or teams just don't handle that stress well. It takes strong leaders to get thru those moments. Obviously Dallas doesn't have those leaders or those leaders are not looked upon yet in that light.

Nicely said. But I also dont necessarily think that being calm in pressure situations and functioning at a high level in those spots is something that a player or coach can develop. I think they have it, or they dont.
Just like a dog, if they don't bite as a pup- they probably arent going to ever bite.

 

[kramskoi]

Year after year the Boys lose games in the final minutes.Why is this?

More gut wrenching is the fact that the cowboys are 144-145 since Superbowl 30. How is that even possible? The curse of .500 continues it seems.

 

[Idgit]

A lot of factors go into these last second one point losses, but there is always a coaches decision that can be questioned. You can't help but wonder if Garrett is the problem. I keep hoping for a light bulb to come on for him as far as situational football. I'm still holding out hope that it can happen this season.

Seriously, though, there is a head coaching to decision to be second guessed in every single NFL game that comes down to a final drive. That's because there's always the 'if only they'd called the play *I* expected to work' phenomenon, and there's no way around that.

We had some coaching errors yesterday, but they pale in comparison to the coverage deficiencies that let us give up so many yards and so many points. Even down in those final drives, we had plays like Tony's throwaway and, again, the holding call on a running down that--while they do go in part to the coaches--are mental errors by players, too, that just shouldn't happen.

 

[Pessimist_cowboy]

Year after year the Boys lose games in the final minutes.Why is this?

We don't have a good RB . Remember in 2007 and 2009 when we had barber ? We would close teams out completely . Priority 1 is DL but priority 2 is RB .

 

[kevm3]

Garrett keeps playing to the competition's level and then the game comes down to Romo having to do a miracle drive or the defense having to constantly stop the opposing team, and when you play against teams with highly skilled qbs/ receivers, you WILL end up losing. One of the reasons why we keep saying, "Rob Ryan can't close games" or "Kiffen can't close games" is because Garrett stop playing aggressively if we are up at the end of games. Instead, we will run over and over and constantly 3 and out, giving the opposing offense more and more opportunities to score and take the lead. We are leading detroit by 3. They get the ball, and we FOUR and out them and get the ball back with around 3 minutes to go and we are in our own field goal range. That should be GAME over. Instead we run three predictable plays and the offense 3 and outs and we put the tired defense BACK on the field. When you constantly give opportunties to opposing quarterbacks who have highly skilled receivers and qbs at the end of games, they WILL come back and beat you... the thing is that playing like this will allow Garrett to escape blame because we can say, "Man why can't our defense hold?" We said the same thing about Rob Ryan, but he's not having that problem in NO. When your coach stops playing the game on offense at the end of games, you are letting other QBs get back into the game to win.

 

[Hoofbite]

There was piss poor clock management?

Please explain.

2nd to last possession was just awful and Dallas gave Detroit another possession by not forcing them to use their timeouts.

The team passed on first down and drew a penalty. Following 1st and 2nd down they lost yardage on runs, basically giving up on trying to get the 1st down to seal the game.

On 3rd down instead of running and forcing Detroit to use their 2nd timeout they pass and it's a lousy throw away at that. Not even an attempt at getting yardage. Had Detroit been forced to use a timeout at that point in the game, Detroit doesn't have the timeouts to stop the clock on the possession that Tyron was flagged. They have one and can stop it after a kneel down but that's it. Game is over. No penalty, just 3 kneel downs and the game is over.

The 3rd down call was horrid after back to back runs that lost yardage. If you're going to try for the first down don't call back to back runs when you can't run the ball. They ran the ball which is what you would do to kill the clock. Then for some random reason they gave Detroit a free timeout by calling a pass play.

I have no problem if you decide to try and ice the game but if you do that, you don't do it half-heartedly and run. Maybe once to keep the clock moving but at 2nd and 11, you have to pass if your intent is to get a 1st down. Once you're at 3rd and 12 or whatever it was, you've already committed to killing the clock. The odds of converting a long 3rd down aren't great to begin with and Dallas wasn't really converting 3rd downs at all.

The offensive coaching staff and players did a horrid job on the last two possessions of the game. Not only did they give Detroit a free possession all together by not forcing a timeout on the previous possession, they gave Detroit a world of time to work with.

They had no plan and no idea of what they wanted to do. Somehow, getting a first down on the 2nd to last possession was the goal on the first 1st down, but not on the second 1st down or following 2nd down. Then they went back to trying to get the first down on 3rd and long


Broaddus has an article about it and I'm glad he wrote it. It was painfully obvious how botched the situation was and someone needed to bring it up.

 

[Pessimist_cowboy]

Our OL always seems to get dominated at the end of games . This has been happening since 07

 

[ConstantReboot]

2nd to last possession was just awful and Dallas gave Detroit another possession by not forcing them to use their timeouts.

The team passed on first down and drew a penalty. Following 1st and 2nd down they lost yardage on runs, basically giving up on trying to get the 1st down to seal the game.

On 3rd down instead of running and forcing Detroit to use their 2nd timeout they pass and it's a lousy throw away at that. Not even an attempt at getting yardage. Had Detroit been forced to use a timeout at that point in the game, Detroit doesn't have the timeouts to stop the clock on the possession that Tyron was flagged. They have one and can stop it after a kneel down but that's it. Game is over. No penalty, just 3 kneel downs and the game is over.

The 3rd down call was horrid after back to back runs that lost yardage. If you're going to try for the first down don't call back to back runs when you can't run the ball. They ran the ball which is what you would do to kill the clock. Then for some random reason they gave Detroit a free timeout by calling a pass play.

I have no problem if you decide to try and ice the game but if you do that, you don't do it half-heartedly and run. Maybe once to keep the clock moving but at 2nd and 11, you have to pass if your intent is to get a 1st down. Once you're at 3rd and 12 or whatever it was, you've already committed to killing the clock. The odds of converting a long 3rd down aren't great to begin with and Dallas wasn't really converting 3rd downs at all.

The offensive coaching staff and players did a horrid job on the last two possessions of the game. Not only did they give Detroit a free possession all together by not forcing a timeout on the previous possession, they gave Detroit a world of time to work with.

They had no plan and no idea of what they wanted to do. Somehow, getting a first down on the 2nd to last possession was the goal on the first 1st down, but not on the second 1st down or following 2nd down. Then they went back to trying to get the first down on 3rd and long


Broaddus has an article about it and I'm glad he wrote it. It was painfully obvious how botched the situation was and someone needed to bring it up.

Nice post and I totally agree. As what Parcells once mentioned about Romo is that "he needs to be constantly coached" and that was one situation was when he needed a coach to tell him exactly what to do. The best thing Garrett could have done during that 3rd down was call a time out and talk things over with Romo. That was a crucial situation to just let it play out. As always though, there was no time out called and we messed up on a golden opportunity to seal the game for good.

This situation, and many other instances during crunch time, Garrett is no where to be seen. When a crucial decision is needed to be made he seems to disappear. Is it because of the pressure of making a decision? Of course is. But thats why he gets paid the big bucks and that is something that you can't learn in the Ivy league. Obviously, like many other instances he failed to take charge of the situation and let it play out as usual, which Romo stopped the clock with an incomplete pass. Was that the fault of Romo? Yes it was. But Garrett could have averted it from happening if he had some football smarts in him.

I want a coach that can take control of the situation during crunch time. I remember Jimmy in many of those moments going for it on 4th downs with a play action to Smith and throwing to a wide open Novacek. Those decisions that he made were a masterpiece and it defined the Cowboys of the 90s because of it. Garrett has lacked the fortitude to make such decisions in crunch time. Thus we have a team defined as average and mediocre.

 

[ConstantReboot]

Seriously, though, there is a head coaching to decision to be second guessed in every single NFL game that comes down to a final drive. That's because there's always the 'if only they'd called the play *I* expected to work' phenomenon, and there's no way around that.

We had some coaching errors yesterday, but they pale in comparison to the coverage deficiencies that let us give up so many yards and so many points. Even down in those final drives, we had plays like Tony's throwaway and, again, the holding call on a running down that--while they do go in part to the coaches--are mental errors by players, too, that just shouldn't happen.

Coaching errors may seem small and insignificant. But coaching errors, one after another, can kill a team. Those small, insignificant errors filter to the players in which they think a dropped pass or a false start is tolerated - because coaching errors are insignificant compared to other errors as well.

Jimmy never tolerated mistakes. He made it known that there would be consequences if the same mistakes kept on happening. Some people didn't like it but it gave the team an identity. That is what we've been sorely been missing since Jimmy left. Maybe Dez's temper tantrums can bring some kind of identity back to our team? Who knows.

 

[kevm3]

Nice post and I totally agree. As what Parcells once mentioned about Romo is that "he needs to be constantly coached" and that was one situation was when he needed a coach to tell him exactly what to do. The best thing Garrett could have done during that 3rd down was call a time out and talk things over with Romo. That was a crucial situation to just let it play out. As always though, there was no time out called and we messed up on a golden opportunity to seal the game for good.

This situation, and many other instances during crunch time, Garrett is no where to be seen. When a crucial decision is needed to be made he seems to disappear. Is it because of the pressure of making a decision? Of course is. But thats why he gets paid the big bucks and that is something that you can't learn in the Ivy league. Obviously, like many other instances he failed to take charge of the situation and let it play out as usual, which Romo stopped the clock with an incomplete pass. Was that the fault of Romo? Yes it was. But Garrett could have averted it from happening if he had some football smarts in him.

I want a coach that can take control of the situation during crunch time. I remember Jimmy in many of those moments going for it on 4th downs with a play action to Smith and throwing to a wide open Novacek. Those decisions that he made were a masterpiece and it defined the Cowboys of the 90s because of it. Garrett has lacked the fortitude to make such decisions in crunch time. Thus we have a team defined as average and mediocre.

That's one of the issues of having an HC as inexperienced as Garrett. Garrett was never a Peyton Manning and he never really had any time to demonstrate his coaching genius anywhere. He was fast-tracked into the Cowboys organization and into the OC and eventually HC position. Romo is a qb that can make excellent plays, but the problem here is that we have no coach that can TEACH Romo something and known when to reel him in or when to unleash him. Garrett is still learning the game, so he doesn't have the knowledge and wisdom to be able to impart because he is still learning. A QB like Romo needs a coach that knows how to reel him in.

 

[Zman5]

My post from another thread:

I think this is where JG's inexperience shows up greatly. At the end of close games. He just doesn't know what to do in these crucial situations where a right decision has to be made quickly.

A coach who has been coaching for some time can draw from his previous experiences. He can make the right decisions quickly since he has seen/been in similar situations beforehand.

This is why we keep losing these close games at the end.

 

[CalCBFan]

1. I don't think they respect their opponents. They seem to think that once you get the lead, the game is over.

2. They put more emphasis on physical skills rather than mental skills (remember Caliborne had a 6 on his wonderlich; is it any wonder he doesn't know where he should be on the field?) Remember in "a Football Life" Jimmy Johnson told Belichick "I told my scouts 'Hit me in the head with a hammer if I ever draft another dumb player'" or something to that effect.

3. Too many players on this team don't care about winning. Dez is getting roasted for having a tantrum. Do you think Tom Brady had a similar tantrum at halftime Sunday when Miami was up 17-3, or did he sit and study the game pictures like Romo does when we are in trouble? And why do we have "Victory Mondays"? Shouldn't the expectation be to win? What does it say that you take a day off to celebrate when you win one game, against a poor team. Shouldn't the attitude be "This is the Dallas Cowboys, 5 time world Champions, more P/O appearances that any other team and we expect to win everytime we step on the field?" That's what it used to be.

4. Poor coaching. For several years now, even though during the game, the coach has seen a team march down the field in 20 seconds to score a TD, they just don't seem to realize that the opponent can do it at the end of the game as well as in the middle of the 2nd Q. It was ridiculous for Garrett (or whomever) to think Detroit couldn't go 80 yards in 50 seconds (or whatever it was). Garrett is still trying to duplicate the style of play he saw w/ the triplets. These players are not that talented, and they are not coached to expect anything.

It's becoming a strategy for teams to trail 7-12 points all the way iinto the last few minutes of a game, and then knowing our D or coaches or both is worn out and unable to stop 2 quick scores that will win the game. The Giants have been doing this for several years now. And Jerry should turn off that 500' TV. These players were standing around yesterday like they were watching the game on TV when Stafford did the fake spike and scored the winning TD. Would that have happened to NE in a similar situation???...

 

[diehard2294]

Mentally weak, coaching deficiencies and talent

 

[CowboysFaninHouston]

Year after year the Boys lose games in the final minutes.Why is this?

because they are not prepared. Parcells use to have his team practice specific situations until they got it right. every team practices 2 minute drill, but specific game situations are not practiced with our team. they don't know how to act. they are not in the moment and that starts with the head coach.

I have been an avid garrett fan, but when he started to argue the refs for an interception on a 4th down pass that would have put us in a worse field position than taking the downs...I find that to be idiotic and disconnected from the game.....when he doesn't send a message to his players about not committing penalties, etc...he is an idiot. Peyton manning told Knowson moreno not to score when they had the ball inside the dallas 3. he understood the game moment. we don't have that in our team.

 

[dfense]

Year after year the Boys lose games in the final minutes.Why is this?

Last year the Cowboys had more come from behind victories than last minute losses. So much for that.

 

[Toruk_Makto]

2nd to last possession was just awful and Dallas gave Detroit another possession by not forcing them to use their timeouts.

The team passed on first down and drew a penalty. Following 1st and 2nd down they lost yardage on runs, basically giving up on trying to get the 1st down to seal the game.

On 3rd down instead of running and forcing Detroit to use their 2nd timeout they pass and it's a lousy throw away at that. Not even an attempt at getting yardage. Had Detroit been forced to use a timeout at that point in the game, Detroit doesn't have the timeouts to stop the clock on the possession that Tyron was flagged. They have one and can stop it after a kneel down but that's it. Game is over. No penalty, just 3 kneel downs and the game is over.

The 3rd down call was horrid after back to back runs that lost yardage. If you're going to try for the first down don't call back to back runs when you can't run the ball. They ran the ball which is what you would do to kill the clock. Then for some random reason they gave Detroit a free timeout by calling a pass play.

I have no problem if you decide to try and ice the game but if you do that, you don't do it half-heartedly and run. Maybe once to keep the clock moving but at 2nd and 11, you have to pass if your intent is to get a 1st down. Once you're at 3rd and 12 or whatever it was, you've already committed to killing the clock. The odds of converting a long 3rd down aren't great to begin with and Dallas wasn't really converting 3rd downs at all.

The offensive coaching staff and players did a horrid job on the last two possessions of the game. Not only did they give Detroit a free possession all together by not forcing a timeout on the previous possession, they gave Detroit a world of time to work with.

They had no plan and no idea of what they wanted to do. Somehow, getting a first down on the 2nd to last possession was the goal on the first 1st down, but not on the second 1st down or following 2nd down. Then they went back to trying to get the first down on 3rd and long


Broaddus has an article about it and I'm glad he wrote it. It was painfully obvious how botched the situation was and someone needed to bring it up.

So second to last possession you're mad they are aggressive trying to pick up first downs.

Next possession you're mad they try to pound the clock to kill time.

Sounds like you just don't want to be happy.

 

[IrishAnto]

2nd to last possession was just awful and Dallas gave Detroit another possession by not forcing them to use their timeouts.

The team passed on first down and drew a penalty. Following 1st and 2nd down they lost yardage on runs, basically giving up on trying to get the 1st down to seal the game.

On 3rd down instead of running and forcing Detroit to use their 2nd timeout they pass and it's a lousy throw away at that. Not even an attempt at getting yardage. Had Detroit been forced to use a timeout at that point in the game, Detroit doesn't have the timeouts to stop the clock on the possession that Tyron was flagged. They have one and can stop it after a kneel down but that's it. Game is over. No penalty, just 3 kneel downs and the game is over.

The 3rd down call was horrid after back to back runs that lost yardage. If you're going to try for the first down don't call back to back runs when you can't run the ball. They ran the ball which is what you would do to kill the clock. Then for some random reason they gave Detroit a free timeout by calling a pass play.

I have no problem if you decide to try and ice the game but if you do that, you don't do it half-heartedly and run. Maybe once to keep the clock moving but at 2nd and 11, you have to pass if your intent is to get a 1st down. Once you're at 3rd and 12 or whatever it was, you've already committed to killing the clock. The odds of converting a long 3rd down aren't great to begin with and Dallas wasn't really converting 3rd downs at all.

The offensive coaching staff and players did a horrid job on the last two possessions of the game. Not only did they give Detroit a free possession all together by not forcing a timeout on the previous possession, they gave Detroit a world of time to work with.

They had no plan and no idea of what they wanted to do. Somehow, getting a first down on the 2nd to last possession was the goal on the first 1st down, but not on the second 1st down or following 2nd down. Then they went back to trying to get the first down on 3rd and long


Broaddus has an article about it and I'm glad he wrote it. It was painfully obvious how botched the situation was and someone needed to bring it up.

You are spot on.

It strikes me with Garrett that his biggest problem is indecision.

Instead of picking a strategy to finish out a game (and that will vary from game to game) he tries a little bit of this and a little bit of that which leads to confusion on the field as to exactly what they should be doing.

Confusion then leads to errors which cost us.

 

[Doomsay]

Interesting data point I just heard on the ticket. Since 2011, Dallas is second only to Miami with 10 blown 4th quarter leads (Fins have 11) and is first with blown leads of over 10 pts.

I honestly feel almost better when we are trailing in the 4th Q, even though it shouldn't be logical.

 

[cowboyvic]

Year after year the Boys lose games in the final minutes.Why is this?

Romo and terrible defense.and the freaking refs.