Sunday, September 23, 2012

A Concerning Win?

Sounds crazy to say a win could be cause for concern, but this one feels that way.  Sure, the Cowboys found a way to win a very ugly game.  And the defense was dominant.  But the offense has major problems on the offensive line and now Barry Church is out for the season with a torn achilles tendon on the defensive side of the ball. 

On the bright side, the Cowboys are somehow heading into their Monday night game against the Bears with a winning record at 2-1.  And they are tied for first place in the NFC East after the Eagles finally paid the price for playing sloppy football. 

The only player on the team who has put three good performances in a row together seems to be Miles Austin.  He has been solid every week and just keeps making plays.  He made a great catch on a deep ball from Tony Romo this week and was just very good overall going for 5 catches and 107 yards. 

The offensive line nearly got their quarterback killed this week.  Romo was hit hard several times.  But on the biggest hit that seemed at first to be a knockout shot for Romo the officials missed an obvious shot to the head that should have given the Cowboys a first down in the red zone.  The real officials can't get back on the field soon enough.

Romo was good when he had time.  But the early interception was bad even if it came on a great play by Aqib Talib.  The two fumbles just can't happen.  The attempt to shovel the ball forward reminded me of Tony Romo 5 years ago.  I guess he'll just never stop doing things like that.  With a gunslinger like Romo I guess you just have to take the good with the bad and hope the good plays make up for the boneheaded ones.  Fortunately the defense covered up his mistakes today.

Brandon Carr really showed why he was worth so much in free agency this offseason.  Not only did he shut down Vincent Jackson every time he matched up against him but he also filled in at safety and looked pretty good doing it.  The Cowboys are in a world of hurt at safety but luckily they are so strong at cornerback the safeties don't get asked to do much in coverage.

Sean Lee had a nice interception but he missed a few opportunities to make tackles in the back field.  But it is amazing to see how many tackles Sean Lee ends up making in every game.  This wasn't his best game, but he still played pretty well.  There is a reason he is the defensive captain.

The punt team has become a major concern.  They very nearly had a punt blocked for the second week in a row.  It appears that Chris Jones escaped without major injury, but there seems to be a real problem blocking for the punter.  Joe DeCamillis needs to get his special teams units in gear.  Dez Bryant did have a great punt return to help seal the game but kick returns were terrible as usual.  How much longer are we going to have to watch Felix Jones run into the backs of his blockers before someone else gets a shot at kick returns?

Jason Witten still looks like a guy who is missing the edge he usually has.  He did seem to be moving better but he missed what would have been a great catch on a deep ball after juggling the pass and he dropped a tipped pass early in the game.  The thing I am getting tired of seeing are the false starts.  I even know the snap count when Romo calls for the snap.  Jason needs to focus out there.  It is frustrating to watch my favorite player struggle to get back to his Pro Bowl form.

The bottom line is a win is a win.  You have to take them any way you can get them.  At the end of the season no one will care what the score was or how bad the team played.  But there needs to be major improvement along the offensive line if this team is going to ever play good football.  You can try to blame Romo and Murray but it is pretty obvious that the line is doing a terrible job in every way.  Hopefully we'll see improvement as the season goes on because Romo isn't going to last much longer taking hits like he did today.

6 comments:

  1. Not sure Romo can have many more days where he takes a beating like he took today. By the end of the season, he won't have anything left for a playoff run. They've got to give him better protection.

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  2. The ugliest win is always nicer than the prettiest loss, but I see your point. To be honest though, I'd be a lot more concerned if it was the defense that was struggling. We simply have too much offensive firepower to be this bad for long.

    At least this year (So far) we have a defense that can hold the other team down when our offense is failing to put up 28 or more points in a game. No way we win a game like this one the last couple of seasons.

    Church's injury is just awful but it could have been worse (Ware or Lee) and Carr looked good at safety. Maybe it was a good thing we didn't cut Matt Johnson (As some wanted) after all, huh?

    It looks like teams have decided to try to intimidate us physically, and I was very glad to see us give back as good or better than we got.

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  3. It really sucks what happened to Church. I was really excited to see what he could do out there Maybe bring back Pool for the time being?

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  4. Bringing in Pool would be a terrible decision. It was pretty obvious during camp that he can't play the position at this level anymore. Then again, it wouldn't be the first idiotic personnel decision this team has made.

    Jonny

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  5. I totally agree with you. Nobody cares what the score was or how bad the team played, but it is actually very important to know the team's position in new games. This situation may have consequences in the future. Visit us in our web http://www.priceperhead.com/

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  6. I'm glad to see somebody willing to say that this win was as concerning as it was relieving. Romo should sue Doug Free.

    I mean, with Felix Jones, right? Straight into his own guys. What are you doing, man? Isn't there somebody on the team with some modicum of vision? Good god.

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