Inside Cole Beasely

Dallas Cowboys.com interview with cole beasely, he's funny.  I'm so glad we kept him.  It reminds of how Wes Welker started with the Dolphins, but they were too stupid to see what they had, so he went to the divions rivals, Patriots, and shredded the dolphins twice a year.  I could see something like that happening previously before Garrett started, but he seems to like football guys like Beasely who came from a football coaching family.  So we kept him and now it's really paying off.  Personally, I think you're going to start seeing more and more of him in a slot receiver position just like Welker.  Three of Beasely's four catches Sunday came on 3rd and long and ended up as first downs.  QBs like Romo don't forget about stuff like that.  Now instead of just looking for Witten for those solid 1st downs, you've got Beasely and of course Terrance Williams, that's making it pretty hard for the defense to commit on any one person.  Then you pop a long one to Dez...... this year might get interesting.

http://www.dallascowboys.com/news/article-1/STAR-Beasley-Has-Had-To-Work-Twice-As-Hard-To-Get-Noticed/2c24e346-17f6-4b26-adc3-faa695b7a43d

Taking the Romo out of Romo

After the loss to Kansas City I said that something looked "off" about the Cowboys offense and Tony Romo in particular.  But coming off the previous week where Romo had another bout of bruised ribs and being early in the season, I thought, "we'll just see how things go".

Then the Cowboys beat the Rams easily and scored 30 some odd points.  But then last week the Cowboys lost to the Chargers and once again looked off on offense, scoring 0 points in the 2nd half.

Now readers will immediately say, it's not the offense's fault or Tony Romo's fault they lost to San Diego, because the Cowboys defense totally sucked.  I agree completely.  I'm not going to talk about this one particular loss, but I am focusing on how Tony Romo looks, or more specifically how he looks different.

After the Chargers loss, my wife and I were discussing the Cowboys and their plethora of problems on both offense and defense, when we began to discuss how Romo and the Offense looks different.  That led us to discuss how what really looks different is how Romo plays much more conservatively compared to previous gunslinger years.  He collapses before even being sacked, let alone scrambling.  He throws balls away instead of trying to squeeze one in a tight spot.  In fact Romo's QB rating, percentage completions, TD/INT ratio is in the top 3 or 4 in every category as compared to all the other Quarterbacks in the league.  In fact one could say he looks as consistent as Alex Smith.

But there in lies the problem.  Do you want Tony Romo and all of his skills to play like Alex Smith?  Again, I'm not blaming Romo.  If you were Romo, wouldn't you do the same?  He gets criticized for throwing to many interceptions, all losses in the last 6 years have squarely been put on his shoulders.  He's had a broken collar bone, he's had broken ribs, he's had a punctured lung.  All of this and he gets blamed for the losses, but never really gets any of the praise for the wins.  Those of us who have watched the Cowboys consistently and don't listen to the "experts" on ESPN know that the only reason the Cowboys have been 8-8 the past few season is because for every game Romo loses, he also wins twice that many because the rest of the Cowboys defense, special teams, offensive line, etc. have all sucked ever since he became the starting QB.

But what's obvious now is that Romo has said "eff" it.  I'm not doing it any more.  I'm not going to take a beating to my body, I'm not going to throw the costly interception trying to make something happen late in the game, I'm not going to take all of the media and fan bashing that the loss is on my shoulders for nothing.  "Eff" it.  I'm going to go out there, put up a QB rating of well over 100, have a completion percentage rate among the highest in the league, I'm not going to throw any INTs (unless a stupid wide receiver runs the wrong route), I'm not going to get pounded and break more bones.  I'm not going to play like Romo.  And you can't blame him.  After the Chargers game he was able to say (without saying it verbally), loss wasn't my fault.  I didn't throw any INTs, I didn't try to squeeze one in and get picked off on the last drive to lose the game, I didn't get knocked out of the game with broken ribs.  Nope, the loss was the defenses fault, the loss was the Wide Receiver's fault for fumbling the ball, the loss was the play calling by the coaches.  It wasn't on Romo, the loss was on the rest of the team.  Of course he went to the podium and said all the politically correct things and didn't blame anyone.  But the one thing he didn't have to say, was answer to questions about his play.  Because his play wasn't questioned.  His stats were great.  At the post game press conference, the play calling was questioned, the running game was questioned, the defense was questioned, the decision to kick the 56 yard field goal was questioned, but Romo's play was not questioned.  So who can blame him for becoming Alex Smith, it's a much easier road to travel both mentally and physically.

Also, I think Jason Garret has preached to Romo to be more conservative.  All of this together, Romo is not Romo any longer.  And again who can blame him.
However, as always this poor excuse for a team needs the real "Romo" in order to win.  We have too many years of mismanagement by the GM, Jerruh Jones, to win with Romo being a bus driver.

Oddly enough, after my wife and I had this discussion, I found two articles basically demonstrating the same thing.  One is from Dallascowboys.com the other from my favorite blog by Bob Sturm.  Click on the links below to read their analysis which includes hard data to back up my hypothesis about Romo.

Bob Sturm decoding-callahan-week-4-san-diego.html

Dallascowboys.com Running-the-Numbers-Romo-Isnt-Throwing-Enough-Interceptions

Doug Free #1?

In a follow up to the previous post, click HERE to read some of the details of Doug Free's rise to #1 in grades of Offensive Tackles from the first 3 weeks of the regular season.  Unbelievable.

Cowboy Player Grades Through Week 3

John Machota at Dallas Morning News did a nice summary from Pro Football Focus which grades all NFL players... click HERE for Machota's article.

Here's the notable highlights from Cowboys Players doing well so far through Week 3.
I think Doug Free listed as the number one right tackle in the entire league is probably the most notable and unexpected.  Nice to see Barry Church getting good grades after his battle with the achilles injury last year.  Looks like he has come back strong.

OFFENSE
– Of DeMarco Murray’s 175 rushing yards on Sunday, 148 of them came on runs to the left of center Travis Frederick.
– Murray is ranked the No. 2 running back in the league through three games. However, there’s a considerable gap between his 5.7 grade and Eagles running back LeSean McCoy’s 11.1 total. New Orleans’ Darren Sproles is third at 5.2.
– Murray’s grade in just the running game is 23rd best in the NFL, but his blocking grade and passing game grade are both among the league leaders.
– Murray is third in the league in yards after contact at 167, trailing only Minnesota’s Adrian Peterson (213) and Tampa Bay’s Doug Martin (170).
– Doug Free was the top-ranked offensive tackle for Week 3 and is the No. 1 tackle in the league through three weeks. PFF has Free graded as the No.1 run-blocking tackle in the NFL.
– Tony Romo had the highest QB rating for Week 3 at 137.2. He has the fifth-highest rating on the season at 103.9.
– Dez Bryant is ranked 18th among all receivers.
– Frederick had the second-highest grade of any center in Week 3.
– Against the Rams, Mackenzy Bernadeau graded out 13th among all guards, the highest of any Cowboy.
DEFENSE
– DeMarcus Ware is the third-highest graded defensive end. St. Louis’ Robert Quinn and Cincinnati’s Michael Johnson are the only two ahead of Ware.
– George Selvie is tied for fourth in the NFL with 11 QB hurries. Ware has 10.
– Sean Lee ranks 19th among middle linebackers and Bruce Carter is 21st among outside backers.
– Detroit’s Ndamukong Suh and Tennessee’s Jurrell Casey are the only defensive tackles with higher grades than Jason Hatcher.
– Barry Church is the highest graded safety in the league. His pass-coverage grade is the highest among NFL safeties. Church’s run-coverage grade is second only to Pittsburgh’s Troy Polamalu.
– Brandon Carr is the sixth-highest rated cornerback and Orlando Scandrick is seventh. Morris Claiborne is 88th.
– The longest pass play allowed into Scandrick’s coverage is 11 yards in 184 snaps, third-lowest in the league for a player taking at least 25 percent of his team’s snaps. There have been eight receptions made in Scandrick’s coverage area.
– J.J. Wilcox had the seventh-highest grade among safeties in Week 3, the rookie’s first game as a starter.

Team Chemistry

Funny how the "experts" always talk about great team chemistry when a team is doing really well and winning, then casually forget about such labels when things go awry.  

Case in point, I remember many times how the media talked about what great Chemistry the NY Giants had and how Tom Coughlin was tough, but the players respected him.  Over the last two years, they couldn't stop talking about how great the team chemistry was on the SF 49ers.  

The way to tell if a team REALLY has good chemistry and support the Head Coach is to see how they act during diversity.

Check out the links regarding lack of team chemistry on the current Giants and 49ers.....

frustrated-49ers-running-back-frank-gore-has-choice-words-for-coach-jim-harbaugh 

hakeem-nicks-i-cant-throw-it-to-myself 

tom_coughlin_to_speak_with_hakeem_nicks_about_post-game_comment.html

Same Ole Same Ole for Cowboys

The Cowboys come off a big win in an opening season game against the division rival NY Giants.  The next week they play on the road against a team with a new QB in a known hostile stadium environment.  Then on this road game in Week 2 the Cowboys lose.  The offense sputters and the defense fails to stop the ground game of the opposition. And so begins the 50:50 season with 1 win and 1 loss.  What could've been the first Cowboys 2-0 start to a season in 15 years, ends up in the mediocrity of 1-1.  

Is the description above from the 2012 season or the 2013?  If you answered "C" "both", you would be correct.  It's like "Groundhog Day" here in the Cowboys fandom.  Last year 2012, the Cowboys beat the Giants opening week only to lose to Seattle on the road the following week.
This year 2013, the Cowboys beat the Giants opening week only to go on the road in Kansas City and lose to the Chiefs.

There will be finger pointing at the coaches, play calling, lack of running game, Romo's mistakes, Wide Receiver mistakes/drops, running back fumbles, inability of defense to stop the offense when it mattered, lack of turnovers by the offense, etc, etc, etc.  Does this sound familiar?

That of course is a rhetorical question, of course it sounds familiar.  It is the same set of problems we, the fans, have heard every year for what seems like an eternity.  If you go to Dallas Morning News, Fort-Worth Star Telegram, ESPNdallas.com or any other Cowboys based blog or sporting news site you will hear many opinions and ideas on the problems and what to do to fix them.  

• You will read about the lack of defensive line depth which made the defense look tired in the 4th quarter when they needed to stop the Chief's time eating running attack.  That would be correct.
• You will undoubtedly read about Dez Bryants dropped pass in the 2nd half which would've been a big gainer, and maybe even a TD.  That would be correct.
• You will read about the Cowboys inability to run the ball.  That would be correct.
  
• You will read about how the coaches and offensive play calling abandoned the run in the 2nd half and went to the pass too often.  That would be correct.
• You will read how the Cowboys lost the turn over battle -2, by the offense not protecting the ball (2 fumbles) and the defense not creating any turnovers.  That would be correct.
• You will read how the Cowboys were ineffective in the red zone.  That would be correct.

 All of these items are correct, but they are not the real issue. 

Lack of dept at defensive line - Every team in the parity led NFL has some areas where they are a little thin.

Dez's dropped pass - As frustrating as it can be for a person to have only one job in life, and that one job is to catch footballs, to then watch this person drop a ball placed perfectly in his hands.  This happens every week on every team.  Wide Receivers drop balls (ask Tom Brady).  One dropped ball by Dez is not what lost the game.

Cowboys inability to run the ball and abandoning the run play calling - frustrating, but can be overcome with a good passing game in today's NFL.  (once again ask Tom Brady).

Losing the turnover battle - this will happen in the NFL, some weeks you will win the turnover differential, some weeks you won't.  But when you lose the turn over battle and are only 4 points behind in the 4th quarter, this no longer becomes the reason why you lost.

This brings us to the last point, inability to score Touchdowns, particularly when the Cowboys are in the Red Zone.  After watching the game, this particular point and the disjointed appearance of the Cowboys offense is what stands out.  In today's NFL, you have to score points and lots of them to win.  And when your defense holds the opposing team to less than 20 points, you have to win the game.  With Dez Bryant, Miles Austin, Jason Witten, Terrance Williams, DeMarco Murray and Tony Romo you should score more than 16 points against any defense in the NFL.  This premise however is based on the assumption that each of these players are as good as they are paid accordingly.  I'm afraid after watching this game and the other 64 games in the previous 4 years, there is a flaw in one of these basic assumptions.

The flawed assumption is that of Tony Romo.  I know when everyone reads this line, the Romo lovers and maybe even Romo haters will say, yeah, Romo is part of the problem but he's not all of the problem.  And this argument would be correct.  As with all teams in this age of parity, everyone has multiple problems.  But let me ask one simple question.......

If the Cowboys would've had Peyton Manning, Eli Manning, Aaron Rodgers, Drew Brees, Tom Brady, even the great Joe Flacco at the helm as QB, would the Cowboys have overcome the 2 turnover differential and the 1 point deficit and won the game? 

My answer is Yes.  

Of course the argument would be, well yeah of course you could win the game with future Hall of Famers Peyton Manning and Tom Brady.  And that's my point exactly.  Everyone wants to believe that Romo is somehow one of these elite Quarterbacks and the only reason he hasn't won was because of the coaches, the play calling, the offensive line, etc. etc. etc.  But the simple and obvious fact is that he is just not that great.  Is he a good quarterback?  Sure.  Compared to Quincy Carter he looks like the 2nd coming of Roger Staubach.  But he's just not great, and not even that good.  He's mediocre to good.  Which sometimes is OK.  There have been teams like the Baltimore Ravens led by Trent Dilfer and Tampa Bay Buccaneers led by Brad Johnson who have won Superbowls, but they won them with mediocre QBs accompanied by great defenses and great running games.  But the assumption based theory that the Cowboys organization is working off of, and thereby putting the salary cap money into, is that they have a Great/Elite Quarterback in Tony Romo, and thereby by can skimp on things like Offensive and Defensive line.  Yes, Green Bay with Aaron Rodgers and Patriots with Tom Brady can do that.  But the Cowboys can not because they are working on a faulty assumption that Romo is that type of elite QB, and unfortunately he's not.  He's is more like his pedigree suggests, a free agent from Northeastern Illinois University.

So I'm not blaming everything on Romo.  I blame the faulty assumption that he is great/elite by the Cowboys front office.  A lot of teams would love to have Romo, and he would probably do well with a lot of those teams because without a great Quarterback they have out of necessity built strengths in other parts of their team.  Romo could move into another team with better parts and look really good, because he would be more of a compliment to the system rather than being the focal point of the entire team and expected to lead every victory.

Now on top of this faulty assumption by the Cowboys organization, they have doubled down by giving Romo a $100 Million Dollar contract, included him in the game planning as well as increasing his play calling responsibility at the line of scrimmage.  So how has that worked out so far?  About as good as you would expect a free agent from Northeaster Illinois to perform.  Not well enough to carry the team.  I don't want to sound like a defeatist, but with the money invested in Romo which destroys salary cap space and the continued faulty assumption by the Cowboys front office, the incredible "Groundhog Day" like re-runs will continue.  The Cowboys will end up around 8-8, 9-7 if they are lucky or 7-9 if they are unlucky.  It's not Romo's fault that he's not great, but it's the organizations fault in treating him like he is great.  So for now it will continue to be the same ole Cowboys.

NFL Refs Cheat for the NY Giants

Everyone wonders why the Cowboys have so much "talent" yet are always around 8-8.  Well look no further than the Cowboy hating NFL referees.  As demonstrated in many posts here, there's lots of data to show how the northeast media hates the Cowboys as well as the NY based NFL offices, but this bias continues onto the field with the referees.  Look at my previous blog posts detailing the penalties against the Cowboys and "no call" penalties against the Cowboy opponents.

http://kandkops.blogspot.com/2012/12/stop-bias-of-nfl-officiating-crews.html 

http://kandkops.blogspot.com/2012/12/nfl-officiating-bias.html 



But it's a new season, and every year we Cowboy fans think.... they can't continue to cheat like this.  So we go into each new season with new hope that games will be called fairly and unbiased.  Well if the first game is any indication of the remaining 2013 season, then our hopes have been destroyed once again.  

In the first game of the year at AT&T stadium against the NY Giants.  The Giants improbably came back against a 17 point lead late in the game.  However, as detailed by other people (people who are less Cowboys biased as me) demonstrate that at least two of the Giants' TDs should not have been TDs.  As usual, it's as much about the "no calls" against the Cowboys opponents as it is the calls against the Cowboys.  With the help of the referees, the Giants got a little 14 point boost.  Take a look at the analysis from two different people on two different plays below which details how the referees tried to help the Giants.

1.  Bob Sturm did a break down with pics from the play where NY giants had a big 70 yard TD where they got up to the line quickly before our defense was ready.  So as he explains, part of the problem was that our defense was not set and bit confused, but he also showed in the pics, that we were bringing a corner blitz (in this case Orlando Scandrick was blitzing ELI).  In the pics he shows that the Left Tackle was "MAJOR HOLDING" against the blitzing CB, Scandrick.  
Click http://sturminator.blogspot.com/ to read Sturm's blog.... 
BTW Bob Sturms Blog is excellent and provides incredible weekly analysis.

2.  And the second little help to the Giants provided by the Refs ...... This tweet provided by Mike Pereira, former VP of NFL officiating and posted as a story by Dallas Morning News........ Click Here   mike-pereira-former-vp-of-nfl-officiating-tweets-that-giants-wr-victor-cruz-s-second-td-should-not-have-been
The Victor Cruz should not have even been a catch, let alone a TD.  Incredible!

14 extra points the NFL refs gave to the Giants.  And we wonder why the Giants had won 4 in a row previously and made this one close even though it shouldn't have.  
The answer of course is because the Cowboys hating bias flows all the way down to the field in the form of NFL referees, who each week do everything they can to help the Cowboys opponents.  It's time for the most popular NFL franchise's owner, Jerry Jones, to step in and do something to try and stop this fraud.