Grading the Cowboys: Why Dallas fans need to R-E-L-A-X

Sportsradio 1310 The Ticket host Bob Sturm grades the Dallas Cowboys in their loss to the New York Giants on Sunday.

OFFENSE

D

For the second consecutive game, the Cowboys certainly lacked any sort of passing game rhythm or confidence to move the ball down the field. A busted coverage gave them their only touchdown, which was on a brilliant first quarter drive where they showed aggression and invention. But, for the final 3 Quarters, they possessed the ball 13 different times and totaled nine first downs and zero points. This, despite having a running game that was pretty effective all night. They finally paid for their third down issues of the last two weeks and turned the ball over three times.

DEFENSE

A-

If the Cowboys defense is going to go on the road against a reasonable offense in a division battle in December and take the ball away three times and sack the Quarterback two times and battle their tails off all night long while allowing only 260 yards and ten points, I am going to give them the highest grade available. I am now sure Sean Lee and his mates could have done more and held the Giants to zero, which is what would have had to happen to get the win. Overall, they fought hard and rallied to the ball and got stops continuously. I have no real issues with the defense.

COACHING

D+

I was disappointed in what appeared to be a departure from the coaches willingness to push the defenses around with aggressive tactics and instead seemed to help diminish their own rookie QB's playbook when he appeared to start shaky again. It is highly possible that they are coincidentally going into a shell with the rookie as the veteran QB stands by, but I would advise them not to run continuously on predictable first downs and end up in disadvantageous down and distances when your receivers are not winning enough versus aggressive defensive backs. This offense was successful because of balance and design. They had limited balance and design here, which made their performance problems worse.

OVERALL

C

There are much bigger problems in the NFL than a 11-1 team dropping a game they could afford to drop in a very difficult situation against a desperate, divisional opponent. If you attach it to the headaches in Minnesota, you can understand that people are stressing because their team has shown some vulnerabilities for the first time this season. But, this is the league they play in, where victories are supposed to be difficult and winning the 1-seed without resistance is not normal. Everyone should consider a deep breath and understand this was a very competitive December battle with two excellent teams that don't care for each other. Relax. In other words, this is the type of game that waits in January, but in Dallas if they finish the job.

The offense and coaching gets a D in a game that could have clinched the division and fans should relax?

Okay.

Well hopefully now the coaches will realize that Dak isn't capable of carrying the team on his arm. I think they were hoping for another 4th quarter of Dak putting it all together after stinking most of the night up.

This is the umpteenth time that Garrett has lost the coaching battle. What makes it particularly special though is that Garrett lost it to a guy who possibly lives in his car and who was using a walkie talkie to communicate.

yeah, we should relax because the Cowboys have NEVER folded in December leading to one and dones in the playoffs because they couldn't get out of their funk.

TheZoneSucks said:

yeah, we should relax because the Cowboys have NEVER folded in December leading to one and dones in the playoffs because they couldn't get out of their funk.

Keep reading...

Does no good getting upset. I've learned that. As long as Garrett is the HC... better expect games like this. I really wish that Jerry would intervene and give Linehan autonomy.

TheZoneSucks said:

yeah, we should relax because the Cowboys have NEVER folded in December leading to one and dones in the playoffs because they couldn't get out of their funk.

Keep reading...

This team could very well go one and done... But there's no reason to predict that at this point. We don't know who we'll be playing. We lost one game. Even if you count the Minny game as the start of the "funk," we still gutted out the win on the road.

Winning games is hard guys. And we probably should have won this game without a few ill-timed penalties and a FG attempt that had another 3 inches on it. This team's not getting outclassed or blown out yet.

Could it happen? Sure. Am I going to lose sleep over it? No... not yet at least.

Exactly, pep.

Only thing that would really concern me would be if some important players got hurt. But they didn't, and we're still extremely healthy.

I demand that you lose sleep over this defeat.

bbgun said:

I would advise them not to run continuously on predictable first downs and end up in disadvantageous down and distances

Keep reading...

Yes, just ONE time I would have liked to see a play-action on 1st and 10, with a quick pass after the fake handoff. Could the genius Cowboys coaching staff NOT see they were vulnerable to that on 1st down? And this isn't a new thing either, the play calling is STALE and we saw it just like this the last few years especially when we had a RB who could scare people.

Do we not scout ourselves? What's the whole purpose of the "quality control" assistant, if not to hip them to this type of stuff. "Hey guys, we ran the ball on every 1st and 10 situation and they were anticipating it. It's way too predictable."

bbgun said:

I demand that you lose sleep over this defeat.

Keep reading...