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In some ways this game was similar to Carolina on Sunday, 3 quarters of kind of average play and letting a team hang around too long. The difference was Sunday the defense was great (save one pathetic 17 play 70 yd TD drive) while the offense as off some. Yesterday the offense in the 1st half was great and the defense was sleep walking through most of the first 3 quarters. The similarity though was the 4th quarter, which was total domination in both games. 16-0 v Carolina and then 25-0 v Washington. If we are going to bang on them for 2-3 ho-hum quarters, we do need to give them credit for putting a game away in the 4th in dominating fashion too.
1) Welcome to the NFL Record Book Daron Bland. What a year he is having and what an awesome start to his very brief NFL career. Not only the single season record for pick 6's but now also TIED for the CAREER lead for pick 6's in Dallas franchise history. And the CB's we've had here are some of the best of the best. Mel Renfro. Cornell Green. Everson Walls. Dennis Thurman. Kevin Smith. Prime Time Deion. Terrence Newman etc etc. Bland is doing amazing things. Bland now has 7 picks for the season (11 games) and 12 for his career. Amazingly, he wasn't even a regular on the field until around the 8th game of last season (after Jourdan Lewis went down). He's basically done what he has done in the last 19 games. (He did have his first career pick v Wash in week 4 last yr)
2) This is just a sick team at home right now. They are doing stuff no other teams have ever done at home. All 5 wins this yr by 20+ points at home. 13 straight wins is one of the best streaks we have ever had. They showed the blurb during the game, but amazingly this team hasn't even TRAILED at home any this year, not even for one minute. The last 3 home games this year are Seattle, Philly and then Detroit. All 3 are night games and the fans should blow the roof off that place with noise in these 3 games. Should be electric atmosphere, especially for Philly and Detroit.
3) Prescott probably is playing the best football of his career right now. Since the Niner debacle he now has 18 tds and only 2 picks, plus another 2 tds rushing. 5 of the 6 games his QB rating has been 109 or higher. He's completing over 70% of his passes with an awesome 8.9 yds per attempt (if you exclude Carolina, it's almost 10 yds per attempt). He missed a couple big ones yesterday (Lamb was wide freaking open for what would have been a 62 yard TD, he also overthrew a wide open Ferguson later in the game for what would have been another 20-30 yards) but otherwise he threw the ball damn good. Made numerous "dime" throws. He's definitely put the work in on the "timing" in -cut type throws too. He used to always throw those high or a little behind guys and that would shorten the gains or cause incompletions, but now he's hitting those guys in stride almost every time. I also don't know what's happened to his arm, but he appears to be throwing the ball with far more zip/power than I can ever remember too. But the remainder of this season is where it matters, we need to see THIS Prescott in the next 5 regular season games and playoffs.
4) Nice to see the OL really rounding into form. The run game didn't run up huge total yardage but they averaged 5.6 on 18 carries and had numerous really good runs. The one thing that does concern me is Pollard putting the ball on the ground. Lamb made a sensational play to recover one and refs said he was down by contact on another. He has put the ball on the ground a lot this year. The pass protection was sensational yesterday and they've now gone 3 games without allowing a sack. Washington had 9 sacks Sunday v NYG, they hardly touched Prescott yesterday. Steele gave up one or two pressures that I saw but for the 3rd straight game was better. The Smith & Smith duo in the best in the league on the left side.
5) The defense came up with three key 4th down stops and ended up with 4 sacks and got Bland's pick 6, but for most of the game they struggled. We didn't get that much pressure on the most sacked QB in the league and their receivers were wide open almost every play. Washington ran up nearly 400 yards, ran off 75 plays and had the ball for almost 37 mins. Most weeks that would be losing football. Need to shore some of this up for the stretch run because the offenses we play the next 5 weeks are all eons better than NYG, Carolina and Washington. Jonathan Hankins had two huge sacks and Odiggy also had a pretty active game.
6) Part of the problem with the pass defense is how bad these safeties are in coverage. All three of these guys got paid in the offseason and Hooker/Kearse/Wilson have COMBINED for 6 passes defensed, 2 picks and one forced fumble. Some guy named Geno Stone for Baltimore has 6 picks and 8 passes defensed by HIMSELF. These guys can't cover and they don't make plays on the ball. For the 2nd straight game one of them (it was Juanyeh Thomas last week) had what should have been a pick and botched it (Wilson got his hands on one and somehow deflected it right to the receiver behind him for a big gain). I don't care what the team says publicly, they have to know these guys stink downfield.
7) I hate officials, fuck them all to hell. Lamb got called for an "assumed" hold that Nantz and Romo both trashed out. Then refs completely ignored the obvious PI against Lamb on a downfield throw on our opening possession that would have given us a 1st down well into Washington territory. And while I guess we should give them "credit" for FINALLY calling an OL for holding on a pass play (the hold in Carolina was on a run play) they missed tons of other obvious ones (again)
8) 2nd straight game we had a missed PAT and a bad penalty on special teams. Not sure how concerned they are over the missed PATs, other than those two kicks everything else Aubrey has done has been money, including the 52 FG he crushed after the missed PAT yesterday. He's 22/22 on field goals and has made 5/5 from 50+. While it sucked Sam Williams was again the culprit on the ST penalty, I do give him credit for flying down the field and nearly making that tackle inside the 5. He runs his ass off trying to make plays.
9) Will be interesting to see if Payton Hendershot is activated for next week. McKeon is an absolute zero in the passing game, is barely a decent blocker and yesterday had another stupid penalty that wiped out a 1st down conversion.
10) I would assume if they pursue and sign Darius "Shaq" Leonard that Rashaan Evens is the player who'd be cut to make room for him. I just don't think he has much left and you wonder how'd they use him. We almost never have a formation with three LB's on the field. Damone Clark has had his best two games of the season this week and last week, and Marquese Bell has been pretty good all year and is the team's 2nd leading tackler now. At one time Leonard was arguably the best MLB/ILB in the league and was a huge playmaker (sacks and interceptions) but he has not had a sack since 2020 and only 1 pick in the last two seasons He's also had two spinal surgeries. Still, there are some who cover the team (like Bob Sturm and Broaddus) who think he'd instantly be the team's best LB and a huge upgrade for us. Supposedly multiple teams, including Philly are interested.
11) We only had the ball for 23 minutes and ran only 50 plays, but still totaled 431 yards and had 45 points. 4 different receivers had at least one catch over 30 yards and we AVERAGED 15 yds per reception. That's good stuff.
12) In terms of playoff seeding, it's going to kill us that all 3 of our losses so far are NFC games. I think it's highly doubtful we can win out with the schedule we have left, but to at least win the division they probably have to win all 4 remaining NFC games (Seattle, Philly, Detroit and Wash). They can maybe afford one loss to either Buffalo or Miami and if they did that we'd be 13-4. The issue though is even if Philly were to lose TWO other games they'd still win the division if both of us end up 13-4 because of the conference tie breaker. Their remaining schedule is Buffalo, San Fran, us, at Seattle and then NYG (twice) and the Cardinals). Similarly, we need San Fran to finish with at least one more loss than us to win home field (vs them). Even though Detroit is 8-3, I'm not overly worried about them. I think we'll beat them at home and they will prob lose another game or two along the way. We may be stuck with the 5th seed, even though it's quite possible we could be the best or 2nd best team in the NFC heading into the postseason.
They responded the way they needed to after the disappointing way they lost in Philly, but now time to show what they really are with the real met of our schedule. Winning out seems unlikely but if they went 4-2 or 5-1 we'd have to feel pretty good about our team going into the postseason, as long as all the key guys stay healthy.
1) Welcome to the NFL Record Book Daron Bland. What a year he is having and what an awesome start to his very brief NFL career. Not only the single season record for pick 6's but now also TIED for the CAREER lead for pick 6's in Dallas franchise history. And the CB's we've had here are some of the best of the best. Mel Renfro. Cornell Green. Everson Walls. Dennis Thurman. Kevin Smith. Prime Time Deion. Terrence Newman etc etc. Bland is doing amazing things. Bland now has 7 picks for the season (11 games) and 12 for his career. Amazingly, he wasn't even a regular on the field until around the 8th game of last season (after Jourdan Lewis went down). He's basically done what he has done in the last 19 games. (He did have his first career pick v Wash in week 4 last yr)
2) This is just a sick team at home right now. They are doing stuff no other teams have ever done at home. All 5 wins this yr by 20+ points at home. 13 straight wins is one of the best streaks we have ever had. They showed the blurb during the game, but amazingly this team hasn't even TRAILED at home any this year, not even for one minute. The last 3 home games this year are Seattle, Philly and then Detroit. All 3 are night games and the fans should blow the roof off that place with noise in these 3 games. Should be electric atmosphere, especially for Philly and Detroit.
3) Prescott probably is playing the best football of his career right now. Since the Niner debacle he now has 18 tds and only 2 picks, plus another 2 tds rushing. 5 of the 6 games his QB rating has been 109 or higher. He's completing over 70% of his passes with an awesome 8.9 yds per attempt (if you exclude Carolina, it's almost 10 yds per attempt). He missed a couple big ones yesterday (Lamb was wide freaking open for what would have been a 62 yard TD, he also overthrew a wide open Ferguson later in the game for what would have been another 20-30 yards) but otherwise he threw the ball damn good. Made numerous "dime" throws. He's definitely put the work in on the "timing" in -cut type throws too. He used to always throw those high or a little behind guys and that would shorten the gains or cause incompletions, but now he's hitting those guys in stride almost every time. I also don't know what's happened to his arm, but he appears to be throwing the ball with far more zip/power than I can ever remember too. But the remainder of this season is where it matters, we need to see THIS Prescott in the next 5 regular season games and playoffs.
4) Nice to see the OL really rounding into form. The run game didn't run up huge total yardage but they averaged 5.6 on 18 carries and had numerous really good runs. The one thing that does concern me is Pollard putting the ball on the ground. Lamb made a sensational play to recover one and refs said he was down by contact on another. He has put the ball on the ground a lot this year. The pass protection was sensational yesterday and they've now gone 3 games without allowing a sack. Washington had 9 sacks Sunday v NYG, they hardly touched Prescott yesterday. Steele gave up one or two pressures that I saw but for the 3rd straight game was better. The Smith & Smith duo in the best in the league on the left side.
5) The defense came up with three key 4th down stops and ended up with 4 sacks and got Bland's pick 6, but for most of the game they struggled. We didn't get that much pressure on the most sacked QB in the league and their receivers were wide open almost every play. Washington ran up nearly 400 yards, ran off 75 plays and had the ball for almost 37 mins. Most weeks that would be losing football. Need to shore some of this up for the stretch run because the offenses we play the next 5 weeks are all eons better than NYG, Carolina and Washington. Jonathan Hankins had two huge sacks and Odiggy also had a pretty active game.
6) Part of the problem with the pass defense is how bad these safeties are in coverage. All three of these guys got paid in the offseason and Hooker/Kearse/Wilson have COMBINED for 6 passes defensed, 2 picks and one forced fumble. Some guy named Geno Stone for Baltimore has 6 picks and 8 passes defensed by HIMSELF. These guys can't cover and they don't make plays on the ball. For the 2nd straight game one of them (it was Juanyeh Thomas last week) had what should have been a pick and botched it (Wilson got his hands on one and somehow deflected it right to the receiver behind him for a big gain). I don't care what the team says publicly, they have to know these guys stink downfield.
7) I hate officials, fuck them all to hell. Lamb got called for an "assumed" hold that Nantz and Romo both trashed out. Then refs completely ignored the obvious PI against Lamb on a downfield throw on our opening possession that would have given us a 1st down well into Washington territory. And while I guess we should give them "credit" for FINALLY calling an OL for holding on a pass play (the hold in Carolina was on a run play) they missed tons of other obvious ones (again)
8) 2nd straight game we had a missed PAT and a bad penalty on special teams. Not sure how concerned they are over the missed PATs, other than those two kicks everything else Aubrey has done has been money, including the 52 FG he crushed after the missed PAT yesterday. He's 22/22 on field goals and has made 5/5 from 50+. While it sucked Sam Williams was again the culprit on the ST penalty, I do give him credit for flying down the field and nearly making that tackle inside the 5. He runs his ass off trying to make plays.
9) Will be interesting to see if Payton Hendershot is activated for next week. McKeon is an absolute zero in the passing game, is barely a decent blocker and yesterday had another stupid penalty that wiped out a 1st down conversion.
10) I would assume if they pursue and sign Darius "Shaq" Leonard that Rashaan Evens is the player who'd be cut to make room for him. I just don't think he has much left and you wonder how'd they use him. We almost never have a formation with three LB's on the field. Damone Clark has had his best two games of the season this week and last week, and Marquese Bell has been pretty good all year and is the team's 2nd leading tackler now. At one time Leonard was arguably the best MLB/ILB in the league and was a huge playmaker (sacks and interceptions) but he has not had a sack since 2020 and only 1 pick in the last two seasons He's also had two spinal surgeries. Still, there are some who cover the team (like Bob Sturm and Broaddus) who think he'd instantly be the team's best LB and a huge upgrade for us. Supposedly multiple teams, including Philly are interested.
11) We only had the ball for 23 minutes and ran only 50 plays, but still totaled 431 yards and had 45 points. 4 different receivers had at least one catch over 30 yards and we AVERAGED 15 yds per reception. That's good stuff.
12) In terms of playoff seeding, it's going to kill us that all 3 of our losses so far are NFC games. I think it's highly doubtful we can win out with the schedule we have left, but to at least win the division they probably have to win all 4 remaining NFC games (Seattle, Philly, Detroit and Wash). They can maybe afford one loss to either Buffalo or Miami and if they did that we'd be 13-4. The issue though is even if Philly were to lose TWO other games they'd still win the division if both of us end up 13-4 because of the conference tie breaker. Their remaining schedule is Buffalo, San Fran, us, at Seattle and then NYG (twice) and the Cardinals). Similarly, we need San Fran to finish with at least one more loss than us to win home field (vs them). Even though Detroit is 8-3, I'm not overly worried about them. I think we'll beat them at home and they will prob lose another game or two along the way. We may be stuck with the 5th seed, even though it's quite possible we could be the best or 2nd best team in the NFC heading into the postseason.
They responded the way they needed to after the disappointing way they lost in Philly, but now time to show what they really are with the real met of our schedule. Winning out seems unlikely but if they went 4-2 or 5-1 we'd have to feel pretty good about our team going into the postseason, as long as all the key guys stay healthy.