**********2018 DALLAS COWBOYS**********

Damn...Ratliff sprained ankle.

What exactly was the strategy on that last drive? And I'm letting that last play slide because I don't think it went according to design because of the pressure, but trading 14 of your 17 seconds for something like 18 yards is something I don't get. They never really gave themselves a shot for the endzone.

dougfloyd wrote:

SatansFuton wrote:

What exactly was the strategy on that last drive? And I'm letting that last play slide because I don't think it went according to design because of the pressure, but trading 14 of your 17 seconds for something like 18 yards is something I don't get. They never really gave themselves a shot for the endzone.

I'm laughing that you think that Garrett has any late game strategies. He's proven over and over that he's a horrible decision maker. Combine that with a team that commits this many penalties and mistakes and you get a very frustrated fan base :evil: They were playing against an undefeated team though so I wasn't expecting them to win, last week was more frustrating to me.

The only bright point I see right now is that looking at their remaining schedule I feel like they should beat all of those teams. Not that I think they will win all of them but it looks a lot easier than the first half of their schedule so hopefully they can get on a roll. They DESPERATELY need DeMarco Murray back, he makes them a different team.

Well I was expecting Dallas to win, otherwise I wouldn't have bet on them. Atlanta aren't that great, at least judging by tonight, did you see how terrible their defense was? It's like they had never had to tackle anybody before. The teams they beat to get to 8-0 don't impress me much, except for Denver, but they beat Denver when they were having problems.

As for Garrett, I know he's not all that competent, but I can't figure out what he thought he was doing.

By the way, kind of off topic, but the Jerry Jones story about how he would have fired himself as GM...

http://www.nfl.com/news/story/0ap1000000090096/article/jerry-jones-i-wouldve-fired-me-as-dallas-cowboys-gm

It's not too late.

lukin2006 wrote:

I think Garrett is over his head as head coach...but on that scoring drive look at how much of a factor Witten is on offence. They got the ball moving against the Giants when Romo started going to Witten more and they scored when they utilized Witten.

This game was lost in the first half...they are forced to settle for 3 points 2 often.

This team is just so frustrating... :evil: :evil: :evil:

I'm watching Dale Hansen's Sports Sunday, and they brought up an interesting stat. Dallas has the 3rd ranked passing offense, but they are 23rd in scoring. I think that about sums it up. Yards don't mean a lot if it doesn't translate into points.

Oh well. I never mind seeing Dallas lose, but I'm out $50. Thanks a lot Cowgirls.

Jerry Jones locked out of Cowboys' locker room

http://www.nfl.com/news/story/0ap100000 ... ocker-room

cowboypjfan wrote:

Just not a fan of Jason Garrett lately. Maybe he should've listened to romo and played more hurry up offense. It's the only time they scored a touchdown! Again, defense looks promising but the offense is struggling. I know everyone likes to blame romo but yesterday he played good and wasn't the reason for the loss.

Big game against the eagles next week to stay out of the cellar!!

Can you really blame Garrett for not listening to his quarterback who leads the NFL in interceptions? If Romo wouldn't have thrown 5 interceptions last week his coach might have more confidence in him. I agree, he's not to blame for the loss. But it's also possible that had Garrett turned Romo loose he could have thrown 5 more interceptions.

As it stands, Garrett's gameplan kept it a game, and they were competitive. Maybe if the defense hadn't let Atlanta eat up 5:04 of the last 5:21 of the game Dallas could have won. Or Romo could have blown it, who knows. Maybe what Garrett did kept the score as close as it did. It's all speculation.

cowboypjfan wrote:

SatansFuton wrote:

As it stands, Garrett's gameplan kept it a game, and they were competitive. Maybe if the defense hadn't let Atlanta eat up 5:04 of the last 5:21 of the game Dallas could have won. Or Romo could have blown it, who knows. Maybe what Garrett did kept the score as close as it did. It's all speculation.

The defense did an excellent job stopping them in the end. Twice. But Orlando Scandrick had to flat out whiff on a tackle and get called for a penalty. Two 3rd downs, two blown chances by one guy. What more could the other ten guys do when you have a mental breakdown by the 4th team corner..

If they get the ball back with a couple minutes, they win the majority of the time since Romo excels in the fourth quarter. Here's an excerpt from an article written in the beginning of the year:

Since 2006 no quarterback -- not Peyton Manning, Tom Brady, Drew Brees or Aaron Rodgers, has a better fourth-quarter passer rating than Romo (100.0). Only Brees (39) and Philip Rivers (39) have more fourth-quarter touchdown passes than Romo's 34. Only Brees (5,905), Manning (4,886) and Rivers (4,751) have more fourth-quarter yards than Romo's 4,712. Romo has thrown 17 fourth-quarter interceptions, which is fewer than Brees (25), Brett Favre (25), Eli Manning (27), Jay Cutler (22) and Ben Roethlisberger (22) among others. Brady has just 11. Peyton Manning has 13.



ESPN poll(from today) for those that think Romo is the problem:

Where are the Cowboys in most need of change?

42%
General manager

34%
Head coach/offensive coordinator

7%
Quarterback

17%
Discipline
(Total votes: 17,592)

The problem is that Romo's numbers are very deceiving. He's great at moving the team around between the 20's, but that's about it. I'm not saying he CAN'T score, but how many of them were when it mattered? He's a stat padder. His win/loss percentage is .588 and a 1-3 playoff record. I know he's just one man on a team, but I'm just using that to point to why his individual stats are not always meaningful.

Just look at the record Witten broke last night. And by the way, congrats to him, and it is a nice achievement. But to me that record is pretty conspicuous when it comes to the Cowboys offense. Yes, Witten now has more receptions than Michael Irvin, but in the same amount of receptions Irvin had almost 3000 more yards and 23 more touchdowns. I don't mean to say that Witten is the problem. And yes he's a TE, so I get that as well. It's like lukin2006 was saying, if their offense translated into actual points it would be one thing, but it doesn't.

By the way, I voted in that poll too. I chose GM as well. Doesn't mean I think Romo isn't a problem though, or that those people don't. I think Romo is a symptom of the Jones problem. Choosing Jerry was kind of a no-brainer. All of the other options fall under the umbrella of Jerry.

For the record, I don't really think Orton is your solution either. I disagree with lukin in that respect. But I don't think Romo is taking you guys to the promised land with his vanity stats. Look at last night. Those 3 un-defended short yardage passes on that last drive, which accomplished nothing, add to his "best 4th quarter QB" legend, as long as all you're looking at is completion percentage and what-not, and especially not looking at the scoreboard. To say he excels in the 4th quarter is a little misleading. Those stats are not weighted to take into account what was going on in the 4th. Were they blowing a team out, were they being blown out, was it a close game and Tony's play actually meant something? Were they playing a team that had already made the playoffs and starting their second string? That's happened before. And one of the things I've always disliked about Romo was that season he broke his collarbone and was out for the season. And then suddenly when Philly came to town with their second string team Tony dressed out and was telling reporters he was ready. Though as badly as he wanted to play he wasn't allowed. It seemed to me Tony just wanted to pad his stats, the Cowboys were already out of the playoffs.

One could argue that Romo's 5 INT last week actually led to them losing 2 games. After something like that it is difficult for a coach to have a lot of confidence.

I'm not going to say bench him. I'll leave that type of discussion to you fans. I only spend so much time talking Cowboys because I live in Dallas, and like it or not they're part of my life. I can't get away from them, and I have a few opinions on them as a football fan in general. If you're happy with Romo, then good for you. He's your QB after all.

cowboypjfan wrote:

SatansFuton wrote:

And one of the things I've always disliked about Romo was that season he broke his collarbone and was out for the season. And then suddenly when Philly came to town with their second string team Tony dressed out and was telling reporters he was ready. Though as badly as he wanted to play he wasn't allowed. It seemed to me Tony just wanted to pad his stats, the Cowboys were already out of the playoffs.

Why so cynical? All the time? About everything? Do you really think Romo wanted to pad stats in that game? C'mon man. That's the biggest piece of shit I've read about Romo in a long time. You know why he wanted to get in that game? Because he's a competitor. I've talked to some of his friends from WI on occasions and the stories they tell about his competitive nature are intense. Not to mention, he's a genuine guy. Not a stat padder..

Jason Garrett needs to let Romo loose and run the no huddle offense earlier in games for this team to make the playoffs. And when D Murray comes back, they will start winning some ball games with a wide open offense since Murray excels as a receiver as well.

Maybe it is overly cynical, but the series of events seemed strange to me. And I was careful about saying "it seemed to me" and not stating it as a fact or something. First of all, and this is also not backed up by any facts, but I specifically remember thinking that after the Giants game where he broke his collarbone, he acted relieved. He seemed happy. Maybe they had him shot up with drugs or something, but I came away feeling like he was happy to be getting off the hook for what was already looking like a lost season. Like I said, maybe he was high on morphine, but that press conference really stuck in my mind. Then, Romo was going to be out for the entire season. Understandable, it was a bad injury. Then Philly has the playoffs locked and say they're putting in a bunch of backups, and suddenly Tony has his jersey on, throwing the ball in warmups, saying he's totally fine. All of those things were what gave me that impression. One could say that a competitor would be thinking about the next season, and making a full recovery and not worried about winning a meaningless game. Just depends on whether or not that person is looking at the big picture or the small one.