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.

Galloway on the Dez No Speak List

My favorite Cowboy player, Dez Bryant, and favorite Sports Writer, Randy Galloway apparently don't speak to each other.  The No Speak List is Bryant's desire NOT to speak to Galloway due to some of the criticism spoken and written by Galloway in the past.  Which is fair, I would probably do the same.  Nonetheless, Galloway wrote a good article today about the new Dez and how great he is doing both on and off the field.  Article also touches on the Johnny Manziel/Dez Bryant/NCAA hypocrisy issue which continues to be a big story with the investigation into Johnny Football's signing escapades.  Click here to read another great story from Randy Galloway and Fort Worth Star Telegram:  http://www.star-telegram.com/2013/08/14/5081368/this-dez-bryant-has-left-troubled.html

Getting a Little Chippy

It appears 3 weeks of training camp with guys banging against each other twice a day is beginning to wear thin.  Cowboys Training Camp got a little chippy Tuesday between the offense and defense with a lot of pushing and shoving after the plays and one big dust up between rookie WR Terrance Williams and LB Sean Lee.  See link to Forth Worth Star Telegram Blog for a summary of all of the action.

sean-lee-yells-at-rookie-receiver-demarco-murray-baits-jason-hatcher-allen-floors-witten-all-this-an.html 

Jason Hatcher Will Do Well in the 4-3

Well, much to the chagrin of the media "experts" it appears Jason Hatcher will have no problem switching to the 4-3 defense.  See this article from Fort Worth Star-Telegram's, Carlos Mendez, the defensive staff is excited about Hatcher's prospects this year.

jason-hatcher-showing-cowboys.html

Randy Galloway Retiring from Broadcasting

For those of you not from the Dallas/Fortworth Area, this will be of no interest.  But for those sports fans who live in DFW or have ever lived in DFW, hands down, Randy Galloway is the best sports broadcaster and best sports writer in the state of TX.  Galloway announced he is retiring from his ESPN 103.3 DFW Sports Broadcast gig, "Galloway and Company" the end of this year.  He doesn't mention his writing gig at Fort Worth Star-Telegram where he writes sports opinion columns (all of which are always extremely insightful, but in true Galloway fashion, always very entertaining).

I no longer live in Dallas, but routinely listen to Galloway and Company on 103.3 via internet streaming.  I will definitely miss his entertaining and insightful slant on all things sports.
Here's a couple of links to Dallas Morning News and Forth Worth Star Telegram reporting the news.
As mentioned in the DMN article, ESPN 103.3 announced yesterday that they had been bought out by Cumulus, who coincidentally owns/operates 1310AM The Ticket.  The number one sports station in DFW.  This probably had a little to do with Galloway's announcement.

DMN Galloway Retiring

Star Telegram Galloway Retiring 

The Protege Becomes the Teacher

So it's only been one offseason of OTAs and two weeks of training camp and a veteran offensive lineman (Bernadeau) is asking for tips from a rookie center (Travis Frederic).  How good is Frederic going to be after a couple of years?!  See excerpt from "Cowboys Corner" from Star-Telegram below.

Right guard Mackenzy Bernadeau said he can be ready to play against Oakland with just two days of practice, and he wants to play because he wants to get to know center Travis Frederick on the field.
“Just being around Doug Free for a while, we kind of understand one another a little bit more,” Bernadeau said. “We’ll say, ‘Hey, heads up, look at this,’ and I’ll know what he’s thinking. You know where he’s going to be, and you have trust. You build trust in the guys around you. So that’s always good. Just being able to come back and play with Frederick, Free next to me, play with everybody and get the trust factor involved and the continuity is huge.”
Bernadeau, who returned to practice last week after a hamstring injury kept him from practicing the first two weeks of training camp, said he can tell from sitting next to Frederick in the film room that he is a smart player.
“I pick his brain a little bit, ask him what he’s thinking when he comes back to the sideline,” Bernadeau said. “He’s a smart player. Real smart player. He’s a strong guy. He’s stout. It’s going to be fun just playing next to him.”
Bernadeau evaluated Frederick’s play at guard and said he is good enough to play either guard spot.
“He’s got a little bit of technique stuff. That comes with just playing different positions, especially coming into the league and learning a different technique,” Bernadeau said. “But he’s stout. He’s stout in his stance. He’s stout with his punches. He’s a real strong guy, has good hands, and is a real smart guy. I feel like he can learn all three interior positions and play at a decent level.”

Read more here: http://sportsblogs.star-telegram.com/cowboys/#storylink=cpy

A Few Good Men

You have to like the attitude and comments from Travis Frederick, the Cowboys first round draft pick Offensive Lineman who will most likely play Center but also played Guard Sunday Night in the Hall of Fame Game.  Here's a quote from Frederick from the Star-Telegram:

Travis Frederick liked his first NFL action at center.
“I thought that went pretty well,” he said.
His time at guard? Not as well. The Cowboys’ rookie first-round pick said he wasn’t as clean at right guard, where he played in the second half of Sunday night’s game against Miami.
“The mistake at guard was I overstepped on a shade technique in pass protection,” he said. “That was on me. It caused a pressure, not a sack. But a pressure is still not what we are looking for. I need to be solid.”
Frederick has been working at center the majority of the time in training camp, but the Cowboys are still looking at him at guard, potentially to play him at right guard and use veteran Phil Costa at center.

That's the kind of football players that are needed.  When asked about his performance, he talked about one technique misstep which created a QB "pressure", not a sack.  This attention to detail and desire to be perfect on every down is what has been missing for such a long time with the Cowboys.  There's a reason that only ~ 7 players are left on this team since Jason Garrett took over.  They didn't want to use the word re-building since Romo and Witten were in their prime.  But that's exactly what has been taking place.  And now we can only hope that the youth and "Garrett" kind of football guys can play at a level to help propel Romo, Witten, Ware deep into the playoffs before they are too old.  It may already be too late, but we'll see if the two timelines can overlap for a year or two before the "old" guys' physical ability begin to deteriorate to a fault.

Another point I want to make, is the drafting of Travis Frederick.  I get so tired of the "experts" in print, tv and radio, talking about how the Cowboys drafted Frederick too early.  If he ends up being a 10 - 12 year starter at center, gives continuity to the line, directs the line play calling, prevents pressure up the middle and clears holes for the RBs, then isn't that worth a first round draft pick?   My point is, you don't know how a good a draft is until at least 3 years later.  And amazingly, the "experts" love to talk about how poorly a team did with the draft, but they never come back and discuss their mistakes three years later.  I remember many experts saying that the Cowboys should've drafted Shawn Merriman instead of DeMarcus Ware.  So how did that work out??

I like the kind of people the Cowboys are drafting these days, and hopefully it will pay off in the next 2 -3 years before the "older" guys begin to fade.

Read more here: http://sportsblogs.star-telegram.com/cowboys/2013/08/tr.html#storylink=cpy

Witten...Man or Machine?

Great article by Charean Williams of Fort Worth Star-Telegram about Jason Witten.  Incredible athlete and teammate.  The fact that he set the NFL Record for receptions by a Tight End in the same year that he started the season with a lacerated spleen..... Unbelievable.

Jason Witten FWST Article