One of the reasons I had thought about "retiring" for the remainder of the season is there just wasnt much to say anymore. The team is poorly coached and prepared on a weekly basis. The same players constantly make the same mistakes, and there is never a response from our staff in terms of benching or at least reduced playing time. (I guess the one exception would be replacing Dez with Dwayne Harris on punt returns) The only reason personnel changes are ever made is due to injury.
The Browns game in week 10 was just like some of other games this year, games like week 3 vs Tampa or at Carolina for instance. Its SSDD every week with this team. There's been no improvement from week one till now by any area of the team, save maybe for Harris on returns and the continued development at WR by Dez. The OL isnt better, its worse. The pass rush isnt better, its worse. The running game isnt better, its worse. The overall defense isnt any better, its worse. The offense as a whole isnt better, its worse. I guess you could look at special teams as a whole and say its improved from early in the year, but otherwise its been a massive display of poor coaching and underachievement.
Amazingly in spite of this, the team has a chance to win the division because the Giants arnt exactly lighting things up either. In fact if we beat Washington Thursday (which is a toss up IMO) and the Giants lose at home Sunday night vs Green Bay (likely) then we'd be tied for first, and essentially in first place by virtue of a better division record.
1) I know Romo's pass protection has been shaky at best most weeks, and it was pretty bad vs Cleveland the other day. But he is not having a good year. I dont know if he is playing through some undisclosed injury (which wouldnt be a shock considering some of the hits he's taken) but he is not throwing the ball anywhere near as well as past years. He throws more "WTF" balls than I've seen from him since very early in his career, before he was a starter. Alot of floaters or ducks, and he is missing more downfield throws than ever before. His comp% itself looks good, but it doesnt tell the story of how many balls were poorly thrown and still caught, or the fact that our offense seems to be more dink and dunk more now than years past. Barring an unexpected playoff run, I dont think I'd offer Romo a contract extension beyond his current one (which ends after next season). In fact if they flop and miss the playoffs, I'd support them trying to trade Romo in the offseason, where they would almost assuredly find a market for him and get some value in return. We have Kyle Orton under contract for two more years and he can start, and they could draft the long term replacement this year or next year.
2) Doug Free at his best was nowhere near as Roy Williams (SS) at his best, but there are some similarities to how they both just seemingly "lost it" almost over night. Free just cant play, period. He's as bad as it gets at RT now and has regressed as much as any player we've had since RW. Free was good the 2nd half of 2009 at RT and he did have a very good year at LT in 2010. But he was putrid last year and is even worse this year. He's a guy that most staffs would have probably benched weeks ago, but not ours. Mediocrity is ok here.
3) Bernadeau is another guy who just cant play. He's not much of a run blocker and is terrible in pass protection. He should have been replaced at halftime last week (or at least moved back to RG, where he stinks but is considerably better than Dockery, who was awful) with Kowalski, but the staff apparently didnt even consider it. More epic fail by Garrett and co.
4) Amazingly, despite missing a majority of the season now (over 5 1/2 games of the 10 played) DeMarco Murray is STILL the teams leading rusher. How bad is the run game? We're averaging a paltry 83.1 yds per game and only 3.6 yds per rush. We only have 3 runs in 10 games over 20 yds. We rank 29th in the league in yds rushing per game (only 36 yds out of last) and rank last in rushes over 20 yds. We also rank near the bottom in rushing tds. The 1989 Cowboys team was arguably the worst in team history, and even they averaged almost 90 yds per game and 4.0 yds per rush, despite being behind early and often. Paul Palmer was our leading rusher that yr, with just over 400 yds rushing. THIS team runs the ball worse than THAT team did.
5) Assuming RGIII starts both games against us, and that Nick Foles may start the week after Thanksgiving, we will have played a total of 6 games (am counting the other Eagles game too, as Foles played most of it) vs rookie QB's this year. Foles (2), Griffin (2), Wilson and Breedon. Two more will be against 2nd year QB's (Newton and Dalton). Good teams would have eaten this alive, but we lost badly at Seattle, struggled in Philly till late and should have probably lost to an awful Cleveland team Sunday.
6) Its not totally Cowboy related, but Niners OLB Aldon Smith is turning into a real stud as a pass rusher. Last night the Niners had 6 sacks on Jason Campbell, and Smith had 5 1/2 of them by himself. He now has 15 for the season. He has 9 1/2 in the last 3 games. he also forced two fumbles last night. I'm very impressed with this kid.
Most probably dont remember, but Smith was the "sleeper" pick that some of the Cowboy pundits talked about on draft day last year. Most had us taking Tyron Smith or JJ Watt, but several reporters said the Cowboy scouts loved Smith. I'm still glad we drafted Tyron Smith and he was the smart pick, but a Ware/A Smith pairing at OLB would have potentially been devastating for opposing QB's, even with an incompetent lard ass like Ryan running the D.
7) Jason Witten has 1 td this year, and it was from Kyle Orton at the end of the blowout Bears loss. Unbelievable. And why ahsnt the team tried to get rookie James Hanna more involved? His size and speed is unmatched by any of our other TE's and showed in preseason that he can get downfield and be a mismatch for LB's and safeties, yet I bet he's run 4 routes on offense all year. John Phillips is a try hard guy who catches whatever he gets close to, but he has no speed and really isnt much of a blocker. But he gets almost all the snaps as the 2nd TE and Hanna rarely sees the field. For a team that struggles so much to make big plays, here's another area where the coaching staff has failed to utilize whats already on the roster.
8) Its hard to say what this team will do on a week to week basis, but playing poorly has become something of an expectation because they have done it every week since week one at NYG. I wouldnt be surprised if we win the next two games to get to 7-5 (exactly where were were last yr after 12 games) but I do expect them to lose at least the next 3 after that, and likely all 4 remaining games. If we finish 7-9 or worse, I dont see how Jason Garrett and this staff gets another year. In fact the only way I think he is safe is if they make the playoffs.
9) In a long season if disappointment, I do see a number of good young players here. I think Claiborne is gonna be good. Bruce Carter is tremendous and with him and Lee next to each other we should be set for years at ILB with two really high quality guys. I know alot of people piled on Dez, but he is really starting to get it on the field and becoming a matchup that most DB's cant handle one on one. If Murray can ever stay healthy, he's a potential real star. Tyron Smith is gonna be really good. I think Josh Brent has really shown well this year. Dan Bailey is as good a kicker as there is in the NFL. And Dwayne Harris is showing real potential as a PR/3rd/4th WR.
