Finding a way

[cmd34]

….to lose.

There are so many ways to lose in the NFL, things that can’t be controlled; ball bounces funny, ref missed a call, critical injury, player misses an assignment, etc. The one thing that you should be able to control is coaching. Coaches are allowed mistakes too but in the NFL, coaches that cost you multiple games don’t get to stay coaches.

Garrett is finding new ways to lose games for the Dallas Cowboys. There are various opinions on whether his game management, or lack thereof, cost us games vs. Detroit and New England last year. There is little doubt that he mishandled the Arizona game. Yesterday, he got us again. There was a 4th and short situation that called for a field goal. The offense stayed on the field in an attempt to draw the defense off-sides for an easy first down. Problem is, Romo gets to the line of scrimmage with 4 maybe 3 seconds on the play clock. No team is jumping off sides in that situation. Instead, we take a 5 yard penalty and have to punt the ball. Now, even if you’re in the camp of blaming Romo for constantly letting the play clock run down to zero, you would have to admit this happens WAY TOO OFTEN. So even if Romo is doing this on his own, Garrett has had more than enough time to address and correct it.

The field goal at the end of the game was more of Garrett’s inability to manage a NFL game. Bailey is accurate but he does not have the strongest leg. He was missing field goals from distance before the game and during halftime. We had plenty of time to run one more play to try to get closer. Even if Romo does a quick snap QB sneak to get a few more yards and get to the middle of the field. Something, anything? Instead, we casually walk around and let the clock tick down, setting up the long field goal attempt.

In a game where we the O Line finally plays well, Felix Jones has his best game in years, where we dominate the time of possession, and we even recover an onside kick, we find a way to lose. This game saw Baltomore's best corner go down early, Ngata leave with an injury, and Ray Lewis couldn’t finish the game, and we still can’t pull out a victory. Penalties killed so many potential touchdown drives. Illegal shifts on consecutive drives. Some fans want to blame it on “dumb players” but again, whose responsibility is it to correct these issues? It’s the Head Coach and he’s not doing his job. This team is 3 and 7 in the last 10 games. He is not motivating these players, he is not correcting coachable mistakes, he is not learning from his own mistakes.

Some notes from the game….

• Baltimore fans were actually cool. Not a single incident and I can’t remember the last time I could say that about a college or NFL game.

• There are some rough neighborhoods near the stadium. A few wrong turns and we may never hear from you again.

• If you know me, you will know that I’m hooked on Black women. I have been since I was 16. Hooters in Baltimore is like a dream come true for me.

• Amazing seats. 12th row, around the 35 yard line, behind the Cowboys bench. Very nice stadium to watch games. Feels more like a college game. Stadium gets loud.

• GloryDays not only didn’t show up but he ignored my tweets. Flake.

• No Jerry Jones on the field before the game, just Stephen. I was hoping that was a positive sign but someone told me he was on the sideline (in a suit and ballcap) at the end of the game. I saw who he was talking about but couldn’t tell if it was Jerry or not.

• Why was Marcus Spears inactive? Hurt? Or just a scratch? If not hurt, are they saying Spears is less effective than Tyrone Crawford?

• New special teamer Eric Frampton is feisty. He was trying to mix it up with Ravens players every chance he got.

• I have attended 3 Dallas Cowboy games and they are 0-3. I suck.

 

[Theebs]

glad to hear you had a good time at the hooters in baltimora with its plethora of black women.

at least something good came out of yesterday.

Broaddus breakdown of the final play was that they went for it all with the slant to dez and that if williams doesnt tackle him there he runs untouched to the 10 and we kick the fg and get the hell out of there....

instead he got tackled and no one knew what to do....

The game film is not available till wednesday, I cant wait to see it on the all 22.

 

[cmd34]

Something else..I do not know what the hell this staff sees in Alex Albright and Danny McCray. They are awful. Albright tries hard? Give him a job in the merchandise warehouse. He doesn't do anything. McCray couldn't cover Sheik. His and Sensabaugh's ball awareness skills are atrocious but at least Sensabaugh's flashes a nice play every 6 1/2 games.

 

[superpunk]

McCray trying to tackle Flacco was pathetic.

 

[Midswat]

I like how there's always a new stat about Cowboys were (ridiculously high number)-0 when (random thing happens). Now they're (ridiculously high number)-1, almost every time Garrett's Cowboys lose a game.

 

[Theebs]

here is that all 22 from nbc....

if dez breaks that tackle we win the game. Amazing what a thin line there is.

but hey they made a great effort to get back to the line and run another one, so good effort.

[video=youtube;KZbEINpbOag]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KZbEINpbOag[/video]

 

[superpunk]

Noone on offense is moving with any sort of urgency.

It makes me think we never had ANY intention of running another play there. Garrett was terrified of making a mistake.

 

[cmd34]

Noone on offense is moving with any sort of urgency.

It makes me think we never had ANY intention of running another play there. Garrett was terrified of making a mistake.

Agreed.

Otherwise, you would think the playcall in the huddle would have been hustle back to the line after the play. No way Ogletree and Austin simultaneously brainfart there.

 

[Theebs]

Noone on offense is moving with any sort of urgency.

It makes me think we never had ANY intention of running another play there. Garrett was terrified of making a mistake.

broaddus thought maybe they put all there eggs in the basket of dez breaking the tackle.

but god, if he did break that tackle he is going to be hard to tackle in the open field, there might never have been a field goal attempt

 

[UVAwahoos]

A Grantland excerpt on it:

Thank You for Not Coaching

Jason Garrett did it again! During last year's loss to the Cardinals, Garrett bungled his timeout usage on the final drive of the game before icing his own kicker, Dan Bailey. Most memories of the botched coaching job seem to revolve around the self-icing, but as I noted in my column on the fiasco last year, icing the kicker has no real impact, anyway. The far bigger mistake Garrett made was not using his timeout to run another offensive play and create an easier kick for Bailey, who missed what would have been a game-winning 49-yard field goal at the end of regulation.

Now, 10 months later, Garrett has made the same mistake. After the Cowboys miraculously recovered an expected on-side kick and advanced the ball to the Baltimore 34-yard line through a pass interference penalty, they were in a stunningly advantageous position. With 26 seconds left, one timeout, and a two-point deficit, the Cowboys had the ability to throw the ball short to the sidelines or deep to the middle of the field to try to create an easier kick for Bailey. A 51-yard field goal under normal conditions isn't a very friendly option; kickers only convert from 51 about 54 percent of the time. Even picking up as few as eight yards would be enough to improve Bailey's chances to about 72-73 percent. While the Cowboys might have risked a turnover by trying to advance the ball, it would have dramatically improved their chances of winning the game.

Instead, the Cowboys went into their 25-second offense, sponsored by every sports-talk radio station in the Dallas area. They threw underneath to Dez Bryant for one yard, who didn't get out of bounds … and let the clock run. They could have called a timeout at 20 seconds and, on second down, tried to get one more pass to the sidelines to make Bailey's kick easier. Alternatively, they could have spiked the ball and had 12-13 seconds on the clock with the timeout in hand, enabling them to run a play over the middle before using their timeout and kicking on fourth down. Both of those options are clearly preferable to running down the clock and kicking from 50 with six seconds left, but that is exactly what the Cowboys did.

Garrett also preceded that late-game fiasco with a new contender for one of the league's worst challenges this season, when in the first quarter he challenged that a Felix Jones run, which was ruled out on the 1-foot line, was actually a touchdown.

Even if you're 99.9 percent sure that the play is going to be reviewed and come back as a touchdown, this is a really bad usage of a challenge in the first quarter. Even if you're right, you've still cost yourself one of your two challenges, limited your ability to guess in a key moment on your second challenge (out of fear that you won't have a third later in the game), and barely improved your status in the process. Given first-and-goal from the 1-foot line, teams are going to score a touchdown close to 80 percent of the time. Brian Burke's win probability calculator estimates that the Cowboys had a 60 percent chance of winning with the ball on the 1-yard line without challenging; with a successful challenge, a touchdown, and an average kickoff,1 the Cowboys' chances of winning improved all the way to … 62 percent. It's giving away a potentially enormous asset for virtually no gain.

 

[Midswat]

Garrett also preceded that late-game fiasco with a new contender for one of the league's worst challenges this season, when in the first quarter he challenged that a Felix Jones run, which was ruled out on the 1-foot line, was actually a touchdown.

Even if you're 99.9 percent sure that the play is going to be reviewed and come back as a touchdown, this is a really bad usage of a challenge in the first quarter. Even if you're right, you've still cost yourself one of your two challenges, limited your ability to guess in a key moment on your second challenge (out of fear that you won't have a third later in the game), and barely improved your status in the process. Given first-and-goal from the 1-foot line, teams are going to score a touchdown close to 80 percent of the time. Brian Burke's win probability calculator estimates that the Cowboys had a 60 percent chance of winning with the ball on the 1-yard line without challenging; with a successful challenge, a touchdown, and an average kickoff,1 the Cowboys' chances of winning improved all the way to … 62 percent. It's giving away a potentially enormous asset for virtually no gain.

Disagree.

Especially at a hostile stadium, against a beefy front like Baltimore.

And especially with our penchant for pre-snap penalties.

Could you imagine we not challenge that, then Doug Free derpyderps a false start. We don't get a TD and have to settle for 6?

Mind you, how easily we ran the ball on them, odds are we wouldve gotten it in even from the 5 or 6... but still. When you know you got it in and the refs called it wrong, challenge.

 

[superpunk]

Yeah there are a hundred things you could criticize Garrett for - challenging a 100% clear bad call is not one of them.

 

[bbgun]

Yep. There are a lot of things to hammer Garrett for, but not the challenge. If you can get the sure 6 via a challenge, do it. You can't take anything for granted from this offense.

 

[Bob Sacamano]

Penalties killed so many potential touchdown drives. Illegal shifts on consecutive drives. Some fans want to blame it on “dumb players” but again, whose responsibility is it to correct these issues? It’s the Head Coach and he’s not doing his job. This team is 3 and 7 in the last 10 games. He is not motivating these players, he is not correcting coachable mistakes, he is not learning from his own mistakes.

Even the ultimate taskmaster Bill Parcells couldn't get a group of Cowboy players to stop being dumb. There just seems to be an innate ability of the Cowboys to collect a bunch of dumb players, no matter who the coach is, and no matter what approach he takes to assembling a roster ie RKG etc.

I think it starts from the top. There is simply no accountability served in this franchise and it's been like that for the last 7 coaching regimes.

 

[superpunk]

At this point it does seem to start at the top. It doesn't seem to matter one bit who the coach is.

In addition, I think refs call the game different for us than anyone else.

We've played Seattle and Baltimore, the two most heavily penalized teams in the league, and gotten called for more or as many penalties than them. That seems to be a consistent trend. I don't know why. They are human, and subconsciously I think many of them have an anti-Dallas bias.

tin foil hat

 

[Bob Sacamano]

cmd, remember you saying something about Pete Carroll sucking in Seattle?

 

[superpunk]

Fairly certain you're on cmd's dick for every opinion he's ever had bob.

idk why but it doesn't seem healthy.

 

[bbgun]

At this point it does seem to start at the top. It doesn't seem to matter one bit who the coach is.

In addition, I think refs call the game different for us than anyone else.

We've played Seattle and Baltimore, the two most heavily penalized teams in the league, and gotten called for more or as many penalties than them. That seems to be a consistent trend. I don't know why. They are human, and subconsciously I think many of them have an anti-Dallas bias.

tin foil hat

In the spirit of election season ..

"I'm Dbair, and I approve this message."

 

[superpunk]

in the spirit of go fuck yourself, go fuck yourself

tbh the replacement refs were less guilty of it

 

[cmd34]

cmd, remember you saying something about Pete Carroll sucking in Seattle?

I do, kind of. I said some of his personnel choices and coaching hiring/firings have been baffling. The fact that he has guys playing hard for him doesn't surprise me though. He changed the whole culture at SC and brought the program back to prominence. Some would say with questionable methods. He has thrown some money at some quarterbacks that was alarming. He's picked some guys a lot higher than projections.

Guys like playing for Pete. Most assistant coaches love working for Pete. He's definitely got a plan and he's being allowed to implement it. He is more of a "trust" guy. He trusts the players to make plays, he trusts the player to be accountable. In contrast, Garrett talks about these things but does almost nothing to back up the stuff he says.