Cowboys, I love you. However, they KNOW you’re going to try to run Jones up the middle to “try to establish the run” and play “smashmouth” football. That’s why they STOPPED Jones all day.
Yet, you continued to “try to establish the run” well into the third quarter, when the Raider defense obviously wasn’t letting up, while you let your passing game go to hell, and while you let Oakland build a lead.
Then, when it FINALLY came to the 4th quarter, you decided to start calling passes. Guess what? The passing game works! They knew you would start passing, yet the passing game worked. It just wasn’t enough at that point to win.
And what’s with all the 4-yard passes in the playbook that end up being 6 or 7-yard plays? You have good offensive talent, but probably not good enough to sustain drives that go 80 yards in 7 or 8 first downs with 7 or 8 3rd-down conversions.
Now and then … maybe… you might run a play where you actually convert on 1st or 2nd down. You know … a passing play where the receiver catches the ball 11 yards out! Imagine that! And you might want to run some plays where the intent is to pick up, say, 15 yards, to shorten the dirve a bit. I know… ball control, clock control. Tunaball. blah blah blah. Run for no gain. Rinky dink pass for 3 yards. It’s not working.
How about passing early to try to get a lead on someone and hold onto it instead of trying to play catch-up all the time? How abot trying to get a lead that’s not big enough to overcome in 2 big plays? How about not letting up just because you have a slim lead headed into the 4th Quarter? How about letting your opponents know you’re not afraid to “open it up” early and show some balls in the 1st Quarter?
Hey, look! Oakland keeps scoring on us! We’re losing well into the 3rd Quarter! We haven’t been able to run all day! What should we do? Let’s try to establish the run some more! BLAH! :mad:
Open the offense up a bit. Geeze this is painful to watch!
I can’t believe someone else is thinking exactly the same thing I was just now telling my sister about that game!!
The only thing you forgot to bitch about is how they never tightened their defense until the Raiders were in the red zone. This SO gets on my nerves!!! (And Dallas? Take notes here: the Prevent Defense sucks donkey balls. SWEATY donkey balls.)
But I knew from the moment that I saw the Raiders were 0-3 that we would lose. Any time Dallas has to play a team that’s sucked all year, they play as if it were the Super Bowl and WE play like fourth-stringers in the pre-season. AND the better our season has been, and the worse theirs has been, the worse Dallas will lose.
It never fails. Here’s a hypothetical typical Cowboys game:
COWBOYS: “Oooh look! We’re playing an 0-3 team. We can take the day off and goof around. Should be an easy win.” Result: LOSS.
COWBOYS: “Ooooh look! We have a two-point lead headed into the locker room at the half. In the second half, we should just sit on our huge lead, try to run out the clock, and not take any chances with calling those silly high-risk passing plays. What if we accidentally throw an interception or something or even an incomplete pass that might stop the clock? They’ll NEVER expect us to just call running plays! Even though our running game hasn’t been all that great, I’m sure this strategy will work. Oh… and you defensive guys can just relax now. I mean, c’mon… do we REALLY think they might score three whole points when there’s only 30 minutes left on the game clock? Let them run and throw all over the field. The second half of a game is really just another first half, and we won the first half, right? Great job, guys! This game is in the bag.”
[Opponent scores twice early in the 3rd quarter, taking the lead]
COWBOYS: “Oops! They took the lead. Well, let’s just run run run the ball anyway to control the clock instead of trying to gain momentum with a quick response. That way, when we get the ball at the very last second of the game, we will catch them off guard with a pass and win the game with no time left on the clock for them to re-take the lead.”
1st & 10: Run for 1 yard
2nd & 9: Run for 1 yard
3rd & 8: Pass for 2 yards with a 5 yard run after catch.
4th & 1: Punt
Another thing I hate is when ANYBODY… I don’t care who you are or what team you’re on … says that early-season losses don’t matter.
“We lost, but it’s no big deal because it’s early in the season.”
Last time I checked, early-season losses count just as much toward a playoff berth as late-season losses.
Is it acceptable to go 0-8 the first half of the season as long as you go 8-0 the second half? Either way, you end up 8-8 and probably will end up watching the playoffs from home.
And that strategy is to wait until there’s four minutes left and throw the ball deep every play?
The deadskins should not be talking yet. Let’s see what they do at mile high. I mean, I know this is the first chance at winning season you guys have had in a looooong time, but Superbowl!?
The boys will bounce back, after next week’s biannual trouncing by Philly. (We might be able to play them tough with McNabb’s injury, but I’m not holding my breath.)
-Dan (cowboys fan in Denver)
I knew it! Cowboys fans fuck horses! Call Hal Briston, he’s off the hook.
I have been taking shit for years now from Ravens fans, Eagles fans, Cowboys fans, hell, everybody’s fans except Cardinals fans (both of them) and Lions fans. Before the season started I had resigned myself to a 7-9 to 8-8 just-barely-missing-the-playoffs season, again. For me the justice is finally, after years walking through the shadow of other playoff teams, MY Washington Redskins are back atop the NFC East, arguably the toughest division in the NFL. We are off to a good start, but seriously, have we beat anyone yet who is expected to make the playoffs? I’m riding high on my horse now but check back in a few weeks and see if I haven’t been knocked down a few pegs. Road games at Denver and at Arrowhead will say a lot more than wins against Seattle, Chicago and Dallas. If, however, we are still undefeated after our little roadtrip and a home game against the lowly 49ers, you will never hear the end of it from me.
Well, if a banged up Philly can beat the Chief’s at Arrowhead, then a healthy 'Skins team should do the same right? Right?
And I really don’t think the Cowboys and Seahawks are expected to make the playoffs anymore. I mean, the Redskins beat them.
Realistically, the Denver game is winnable but it will be another close, ugly game. The Chiefs game is going to be tough, we’ll need a little luck there. We should easily beat San Fran, which means that we [del]will lose that one[/del] would be 5-1.
At least you got to watch it. I was stuck with the Vikings getting throttled. Not that I don’t mind a good Vikings throttling, but the game was bor-ing, especially the second half. Let me see my 'boys, even if they are losing.
Tsk, tsk, Dan, as a staunch Dallas Fan, I have to say that I’m ashamed that a fellow fan would stoop to this nickname for a professional football team. Everybody knows that they’re the Washington Foreskins!
