Win a playoff game or JG is sent packing?

[Idgit]

Wouldn't the OL being unable to "do it" (run block) be something that a good coach would know how to mitigate to a certain extent through playcalling and scheme? I think the Cowboys were ranked #29 in terms of yards per rushing attempt. Something obviously needed to be done to improve that stat. What did Garrett do or try to do? (I'm not being facetious, I honestly don't know)...

We've had trouble in the red zone for years, but the running game problems last season were mostly due to starting our 4th option at center all year. He was a guy we traded a 7th round pick for after Costa, Nagy, and Kowalski all went down.

Ryan Cook did a really good job for us under ridiculous circumstances, and was decent in pass blocking all year long, which is obviously what's most important. But he's built like an OT, and was a massive liability in the running game. Add to it an early season injury at RG (when we were already down our next two interior OLs), and Murray missing 6 games (blame Garrett if you care to for having inadequate RB depth on the roster last year), and the fact that our defense wasn't holding up well enough to have us playing even or with many big leads in the second half of the season, and it's really no wonder why the running game was so bad last season.

What's surprising, honestly, is that after you throw in the minus 13 TO differential (you guys were +17, as you probably know) we still managed somehow to end up 8-8 and playing for the money in week 17.

 

[Califan007]

What's surprising, honestly, is that after you throw in the minus 13 TO differential (you guys were +17, as you probably know) we still managed somehow to end up 8-8 and playing for the money in week 17.

You guys went on a tear over the last 6 games like we did (well, last 7 for us lol). The Giants couldn't take advantage of their division lead when the Cowboys and Skins started winning.

And the Skins had a ton of injuries to battle as well, along with starting two rookie QBs and a rookie RB while missing the two best pass-catchers for half the season and the starting RT for the entire season. And that's just on offense lol. That both teams were playing for the division title in week 17 was pretty damn cool and definitely impressive.

 

[Idgit]

You guys went on a tear over the last 6 games like we did (well, last 7 for us lol). The Giants couldn't take advantage of their division lead when the Cowboys and Skins started winning.

And the Skins had a ton of injuries to battle as well, along with starting two rookie QBs and a rookie RB while missing the two best pass-catchers for half the season and the starting RT for the entire season. And that's just on offense lol. That both teams were playing for the division title in week 17 was pretty damn cool and definitely impressive.

Yeah, I'm not discounting anything at all about your season. I was really impressed by the Sk*ns last year. Only saying that we had multiple sustained injuries at the same positions (C, S, ILB), that had us ending up playing players we'd signed off the streets a week or so after signing them. It's tough to be consistent that way. Even so, if we'd just protected the dang football better, and managed a few takeaways of our own, even with the personnel limitations, we'd have been a much better team.

A lot of our giveaways were simply WRs (primarily Dez early and KO all season) making the wrong adjustments and missing hot reads (that's on our coaches, by the way). Anemic S play and middle coverage limitations when Lee and Carter went out, late injuries to Ware and, I think, just too many substitutions on a complicated defense really cut into our ability to take the ball away.

So it goes. But it's why we switched over to a simpler defense with a history of takeaway success this offseason. Offensively, I think we've ironed out Dez's issues. Hopefully, either the 12 sets or the development of Harris and addition of Terrance Williams help us eliminate at least some of the passing game adjustment problems. It's a lot to go right in one off season, so, we'll see.

 

[Califan007]

So it goes. But it's why we switched over to a simpler defense with a history of takeaway success this offseason. Offensively, I think we've ironed out Dez's issues. Hopefully, either the 12 sets or the development of Harris and addition of Terrance Williams help us eliminate at least some of the passing game adjustment problems. It's a lot to go right in one off season, so, we'll see.

How many new coaches on the defensive side of the ball have the Cowboys brought in? I obviously know about Kiffin...anyone else?

Also, did any of the defensive backups really step up when called upon? Anyone you feel comfortable with if they were called on to start for half the season or more?

 

[Idgit]

How many new coaches on the defensive side of the ball have the Cowboys brought in? I obviously know about Kiffin...anyone else?

Also, did any of the defensive backups really step up when called upon? Anyone you feel comfortable with if they were called on to start for half the season or more?

On defense, it's Kiffin and Rod Marinelli. We also added a new ST coordinator in Rich Bisaccia who had ties to the defensive coaches back in Tampa.

My opinion might not match consensus here, but I thought a lot of our replacement players actually played well when called on last season. The bigger issue was that injuries to the same positions continued to stack up. Our starting S in Sensabaugh did not play nearly as well has he had the season before. Danny McCray was a stand-in at FS that teams were able to take advantage of. Basically, our safety play was really bad.

This season, I think we're deep at CB. We're rolling the dice on essentially 3 unknown quantities at S and a quality career backup there. We've got what I think is a LB corps that's going to be the strength of the defense, and quality starters at DE. Our DT rotation has some quality players in it, but we lack youth and depth. I think we'll add a veteran depth player there at some point before the season.

Overall, I'm not particularly worried about our depth. We have the same problems every team has, but I do think the number of games lost last season was probably anomalous. I worry about our defense's ability to stop the run with this transition. S play is still a huge question mark, and I worry that we didn't do anything to address our limitations on offense at RT.

I also have a healthy respect for the Sk*ns' and the Giants' talent. PHI, I think is a huge question mark, but they could also be really good. I think the NFCE is a compete toss-up, basically.

 

[Wheeltax]

I hope Garrett stays no matter what happens this season (barring the team quitting on him, of course). The team has direction, and I believe a coach needs 5 years at the helm to prove himself one way or the other. You can't keep bringing in new coaches every 2-3 years and hoping for instant success, it's never worked that way.

There has to be some continuity.

 

[Blackspider214]

I say yes. Just getting to the playoffs is not good enough. They have to get there and at least win a game. Heck even a lone playoff win did not give Wade any room for error. He was fired midway through the season the following season after our first playoff win in 15 some odd years.

 

[Eskimo]

I say yes. Just getting to the playoffs is not good enough. They have to get there and at least win a game. Heck even a lone playoff win did not give Wade any room for error. He was fired midway through the season the following season after our first playoff win in 15 some odd years.

Wade was fired because his team full of expensive vets was 1-7 and had just completely given up. They beat 45-7 by the Packers and didn't seem to even care anymore.

Wade didn't fail because he wasn't given enough time. The team was basically getting worse and the record of player development during his four seasons was abysmal. What starters did he develop going back to 2006-9: Miles Austin, Doug Free, Mike Jenkins, Orlando Scandrick, Marty B and Anthony Spencer. Even of those 6 players OScan and MartyB were only part-time players, Jenkins rode the bench here in 2012, Free was demoted, most expect Miles and OScan to be a cap casualties next year and we haven't been able to work out a deal with Spencer. If we look further we let MartyB and Jenkins walk, cut Free's salary and haven't extended Spencer yet. The future outlook for these players really doesn't look good for this franchise. If you wonder why the team had started to tank in 2010 just look at the lack of player development. I recently looked at what has happened since Garrett took over and at 27 key positions which I consider starters and near-starters 18.5 have turned over since Garrett took charge. And those players were not primarily from 2006-9 but mostly players that have been acquired and developed since the 2010 offseason.

So Wade was fired because he was a bad HC who was doing a terrible job of player development. He really didn't like playing young players. Jenkins mostly rode the bench his rookie year, Spencer did for most of his first 2 years in the league, Free did until Colombo got hurt, Miles did until RW11 got hurt. Across the board, vets didn't have to compete for their spots and kids weren't promoted even when they were clearly better players than the vets in front of them on the depth chart.

This is Wade's fourth failure as a HC. Each time he has left the team in worse shape than he received it in. All the good work BP did in player development was washed away by Wade's vet entitlement culture. He has a great mind for defense but he is not a leader of men and that is not a character flaw. He just isn't meant to be a HC. I think this last jaunt with the Cowboys should have removed the HC bug out of his system and I doubt any GM gives him a shot to be a HC again. I'm glad he has found a home in Houston and is doing a good job there because he is a good guy and has good mind for football.

 

[xwalker]

Wouldn't the OL being unable to "do it" (run block) be something that a good coach would know how to mitigate to a certain extent through playcalling and scheme? I think the Cowboys were ranked #29 in terms of yards per rushing attempt. Something obviously needed to be done to improve that stat. What did Garrett do or try to do? (I'm not being facetious, I honestly don't know)

We've had trouble in the red zone for years, but the running game problems last season were mostly due to starting our 4th option at center all year. He was a guy we traded a 7th round pick for after Costa, Nagy, and Kowalski all went down.

Ryan Cook did a really good job for us under ridiculous circumstances, and was decent in pass blocking all year long, which is obviously what's most important. But he's built like an OT, and was a massive liability in the running game. Add to it an early season injury at RG (when we were already down our next two interior OLs), and Murray missing 6 games (blame Garrett if you care to for having inadequate RB depth on the roster last year), and the fact that our defense wasn't holding up well enough to have us playing even or with many big leads in the second half of the season, and it's really no wonder why the running game was so bad last season.

Yes, in the NFL coaching can't make up for a position with a drastic lack of talent.

Ryan Cook just cannot run block. As stated above, he was good in pass protection and he didn't have problems snapping the ball; however, on power running plays he just didn't have the strength to overcome the leverage disadvantage of being 6-6. In the Zone type runs, he was just to slow footed to make the required blocks. If you spend a lot of time watching the coaches film, there are many runs where you can see that it was almost a big gain except that Cook just couldn't get his man blocked.

Cook's physical limitations were exacerbated by the fact that he didn't join the team until a few days before the season started.

Costa looked like an All-Pro compared to Cook in the 1 game plus parts of 2 others that he played.