Day After Thoughts- Nice W at Raiders

dbair1967

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Wasn't without flaws but the outcome was far better than what I honestly expected. I thought if we won it'd be a pretty ugly, close game with a horde of mistakes and errors by both teams. So I am pleasantly surprised.

I don't have any delusions of this being a "playoff team". I think the Panthers and especially Cards losses are just killer. There are quite a few good teams in the NFC and we are behind all of them and then some. We only play two teams ahead of us currently the rest of the year (Philly this week and Detroit the Thursday after Thanksgiving) so it will be hard to make up much ground.

1) Prescott had a skiddishy start but then turned it on and had a pretty awesome night. Would have been his first career 5 TD game had Lamb hauled in the slightly errant throw at the GL. I think Prescott rushed it some but it should have been caught. Overall threw the ball extremely well and helped created a bunch of chunk plays. He's really jelled with Pickens too. Would be curious to know what he and Schottenheimer were jawing back and forth about late in the game, am assuming it had something to do with the play-call communications but it was interesting. I don't recall Garrett or McCarthy ever getting animated with Romo or Prescott.

2) Pickens was spectacular again last night. Great acquisition and I love it even more because dickwad Tomlin and the Stealer FO have egg all over his face about Pickens. Him and CeeDee are nearly an indefensible 1-2 punch. Hopefully we can keep him long term.

3) Getting Pickens alone was a great move, but getting Pickens and Q Williams in the same season was a coup. Awesome debut for Williams who wrecked the Oakland offense most of the night and when he was in there with Clark or Odiggy (or sometimes all 3) he made them better players too. Will be interesting to see where the grades fall, but I think all 3 of them probably had their highest graded game last night. Real tests upcoming but everyone has to be excited about this addition.

4) Solid, not spectacular running game by us but Javonte Williams continues to be another great acquisition. Gets everything out of every carry and rarely gets stopped for negative or zero yards. 2nd game back of having all 5 starting OL together I do think they were vastly improved from the Cards game debacle. Major defensive tests upcoming with Eagles, Chiefs and Lions next 3 weeks. Will be interesting to see how the OL holds up.

5) Caelen Carson played a little v Arizona and I thought he looked decent, he played ALOT last night and looked even better. Couple of passes defensed to go with couple good open field tackles and pretty solid coverage overall. Obviously it was great to see Overshown and Revel out there for the first time, Revel did get busted for one hold but otherwise looked ok I thought. He definitely has the look of a solid NFL CB and appeared to be moving pretty well considering it's been barely a year since his ACL.

6) Ez 41 didnt get any sacks last night but had another really good game and the arrow for him is pointed way up for his career. Had a safety and seemed to get consistent pressure/penetration. He's going to be a really good DE and will only see more good looks with QW now out there with him.

7) Couple bad drops by our WR group last night again, needs to stop. Turpin's drop was a drive killer after we had great field position on our second drive of half, coming off a Raiders long TD drive. CeeDee's drop wasn't as killer as the game was over, but it wiped 7 pts off the board because it should have been a TD (granted again, not a perfect throw by Prescott but should have been a score)

8) After the two bad drives to start game, Cowboys went FG, TD, TD, TD, TD. Really loved the 12 play 80 yd drive in over 7 mins on our opening drive of half, which essentially iced the game. Good stuff overall by the offense.

Nice and badly needed road win, and all the tributes to Marshawn Kneeland were classy (from Raiders side too). The team wanted to win badly for him and it showed, and now they need to channel that sort of emotion and effort for the rest of the year. The Cards game was a complete flop in every way possible and last night was almost a complete 180. Kudos to Schottenheimer for having these guys in the right frame of mind.
 

Scot

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I originally posted this in the game day thread. But this is a better place for it

I love what I saw last night. Pickens is a beast and I would LOVE for us to resign him for next season. However, I just don’t see that happening. This guy has positioned himself for a huge payday and priced himself out of Jerry’s (comfortable amount that he will be willing to pay) for Pickens. So I just don’t see Pickens here next season. He will end up somewhere with a HUGE payday. Good for him, he will have earned it. But bad for us!

As far as the playoffs are concerned, I think it’s already too late for us. We have dug ourselves a hole soooo deep that I just don’t see a way we actually dig ourselves out of it. It is likely that we can only lose 1 more game for the rest of the season for a shot at making the playoffs. And I just don’t see us going 6-1 down the stretch with this upcoming Gauntlet of games against some of the best in the league. We have the toughest strength of schedule for the remainder of the season.

Now granted some of the teams that we will be playing have put up some bad games lately. But I don’t expect that to happen when they play us. Not only that, but our Turkey Day schedule and having 3 games in 11 days (or whatever it is) is going to be a killer on us. That’s “if” we can even keep everyone healthy.

With all that said, I do see huge plus sides to our current roster. I just think it’s a little too late for this season. But I am looking forward to seeing what we can do next year assuming all our major players stay healthy and we can resign Pickens.
 

theoneandonly

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Feel good win last night. Yes all units looked good but it is hard to know how good because that Raider team is just awful. Pickens was great but that Raider secondary tackles like a girls flag football team, I mean that was a shameful performance by them. Cowboys have always been a play from ahead football team, they got up and started rolling. This coming game vs Philly will be the defining game for the Cowboys this season. The Egirls are not the juggernaut they were last year and honestly I could easily see a Cowboy victory.

PS: It is a pleasure to watch high end DT play. This week will be a much bigger test for them. Really looking forward to this game.
 

RogtaDru

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I think if our defensive interior can match their defensive interior for a full 4 quarters then we've got a shot.

That's a tall ask but it's why those Cowboys DT moves were made so let's see what we've got!

Cowboys!!
 
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