ccb7038's blog

Even though the Cowboys lost on Thanksgiving to the Saints by 3 they are still tons better than when Wade Phillips was the coach. They showed great resiliency getting down 17-0 then grabbing the lead 27-23 and having the ball with 5 minutes to go and driving.

Roy Williams has to know the basics there, you can’t run down the field with 2 guys chasing you and not secure the ball. Most likely the Cowboys would have scored there and the game would have been too far out of reach for the Saints to overcome.

It is clear to me however, that the team has bought into Jason Garrett’s philosophy and i think with a full off-season under his belt and time to implement his coaching philosophy, the team will only be better next year.

There still do need to be some changes however, as Roy Williams has to go, i don’t care how much he is getting paid from his contract, Dez Bryant is clearer a better and more valuable player. The Cowboys also must find some defensive secondary help as the secondary has been torched this year. Terence Newman is getting old and is not what he used to be and Mike Jenkins just does not have the same step he did last year when he was a Pro Bowler. Sensaubaugh and Ball are not good enough safeties to be starting every game.

A few changes and the team will be right back into contention next year. Hope everyone enjoyed reading my blogs and look for me to continue posting blogs!

What a performance by the Cowboys on Sunday! I have to admit that i thought we would get destroyed and lose by at least 30 but i was wrong.

There were a few things i learned from watching Sunday’s game:
1. The players clearly stopped playing for Wade Phillips. Every game they played this year it looked like they weren’t interested in being there
2. Jason Garrett did what he needed to do. The players needed a coach who could come in and provide some discipline not let them do what they want like Wade did. One way Garrett displayed discipline is when he holds meetings at 8:15 you must be there early because he will close the doors at 8:13 whether you are there or not. He also makes the players wrwear suits on the plane ride to the game that week to make them look and act professional.

I am very anxious to see what the future holds with Garrett as the new head coach but i am not going to crown him as the guy who can get us over the hump yet. It’s still to early to do that, as he has only been the coach for 1 game.

With that being said, he is going about it the right way and i love seeing that. The Cowboys have the talent to when out to get to 9-7 it’s just a matter if they play like it or not or if they want it bad enough.

Time will tell…

The firing of Wade Phillips was much needed for this team. Although i like Wade as a person, i never really thought he was a head coach. Throughout his career he’s never been the guy team’s wanted to hire. Most of the time he would be the fill in interim coach when another got fired like Jason Garrett is for this team. He never did well in the playoffs as a coach (1-5 record in his career in the postseason). More on Phillips coaching career at: http://profilefacts.blogspot.com/2010/11/wade-phillips.html

It was clear to me that he had lost his players and they weren’t playing for him anymore. Anytime you have a coach that lets the players do what they want, you know you aren’t going to succeed. He did not discipline the players which is what they need. He let them walk from drill to drill and sit on water coolers during practice. This is not what an NFL team should be doing during practice.

Jason Garrett is given the opportunity of being the interim coach for the next 8 games and although i do feel he will do a better job of disciplining his players, i don’t think he will have much success. One reason for this is he was the team’s offensive coordinator for the last 3 years and while at times the offense looked good, there were other times that the Cowboys were so predictable on offense because Garrett wasn’t aggressive enough.

I don’t think he will change his playcalling and we will continue to be a mediocre to below average in the NFL until we can get a Superbowl winning or experienced head coach in here like Bill Cowher, Jon Gruden or Mike Holmgren. It is still to be determined what Jerry will do..

After watching last week’s game against the Jaguars, it became clear to me that the team has given up on the season. The effort they displayed was not up to the standing that people expect from a professional football team, especially one with the talent of the Cowboys.

I do not think Jon Kitna had a bad game at all, he did his job. Although, the final stat line does not indicate it(he threw 4 interceptions) the game was not lost because of him. 3 of the 4 interceptions he threw hit his recievers in the hands and then were tipped in the air and caught by a Jaguars defender. Kitna threw for nearly 400 yards in the game in his first start since 2007 so he clearly is not the reason for our recent struggles.

I think the Cowboys should try to salvage what they have left of this season, play with some pride and heart and come back next year ready to fight for that elusive championship this city has been missing for the last 20 years. I do think a change of scenery at the head coach position is needed as i believe Wade Phillips has lost his players even though he won’t admit it.

The Cowboys need a coach who will discipline the players and put players out there that will perform instead of playing the players with the biggest salaries which is what Wade and the entire Cowboys coaching staff has done for the last 3 years. Owner Jerry Jones still has confidence in Wade and i can’t understand why. When asked why he wouldn’t get ride of Wade mid-season he said: “The history of football and in the NFL shows that it rarely can do any good other than a momentary ‘feel good’, Jones said. “The other thing that happens is if you do consider a change and don’t have success, then that ‘feel good’ doesn’t last very long. That’s the reality of it.

Read more of Jones comments at: http://www.sportingnews.com/nfl/feed/2010-10/cowboys-fall-to-14/story/jerry-jones-is-sticking-with-wade-phillips-for-the-season#ixzz14RaqGG1e

Bill Cowher would be the perfect coach for the Cowboys to get however, the chances of that happening are slim to none.

I really hope the Cowboys can pull out a much-needed win at Green Bay this week, only time will tell…

Last week’s game vs. division rival New York Giants wasn’t a fun game to watch. The cowboys jumped out to an early 20-7 lead but everything went downhill from there after Quaterback Tony Romo left the game and did not return with an apparent shoulder injury. The official diagnosis on Romo’s injury is a fractured left clavicle and he will miss 6-8 weeks, probably closer to 6 weeks, making it possible he could return by Christmas. Romo was hit by Giants LB Michael Boley and landed awkardly on his left shoulder. To see the hit visit, http://www.blippitt.com/tony-romo-injury-clavicle-fracture-sidelines-qb-video.

Although the initial diagnosis was 6-8 weeks, Owner Jerry Jones said that Romo could have season-ending shoulder surgery. According to ESPN, Jones will wait to decide if Romo will return this season based on how backup QB Jon Kitna performs in his absence. The Cowboys players have a lot of confidence in Kitna including Tight End Jason Witten who said Kitna can “make all the throws.” Witten audio: http://www.dallascowboys.com/multimedia/multimedia_center.cfm?id=F4927D7B-F111-D673-6B510884B3BEABC1.

Giving Kitna a full week’s practice with the 1st team will help him in the short term especially this week against the NFL’s 31st ranked pass defense that the Jacksonville Jaguars have. It is yet to be determined how he will perform in the long term. This week’s game against the Jaguars of course is a crucial game for the Cowboys and the Players won’t stop fighting until the season is over. Although, their playoff hopes are slim at this time, their still is room to makeup ground because the NFC is close together. No one is running away from everyone else in the pack. The cowboys have been in every game this year and in their 5 losses they have lost every game by 7 points or less, so they aren’t doing all that bad.

I see an inspired effort this week by the Cowboys. I think they will dominate the Jaguars and win by at least 14 points.

The upcoming game between the Cowboys and Vikings is being called by many as the desperation or Panic bowl. Whoever loses the game is all but out of the playoffs and whoever wins, saves their season.

I think the Cowboys are the better team here even though the Vikings thrashed the Boys in last year’s playoffs. The reason i say this is because this year the Cowboys are a passing team and the Vikings have so many injuries in their secondary, they just lost one of their best corners, Cedric Griffin, to a torn acl. The Cowboys should take advantage of this with Austin going deep and Witten catching passes in the middle of the field.

If the Cowboys can generate some turnovers are defense(which they are dead last in the NFL at doing) then they will win the game. In their 1 win this year, they forced 3 turnovers and didn’t turn it over once. In their 3 losses, they did not create a single turnover, that is a recipe for failure every time.

I believe the Boys will “ride the ship” as they call it and win this game otherwise they will be and already are taking a back seat to the Rangers, which never happens. People will begin to look forward to next year’s draft.

I think the Cowboys will make the Vikings beat them through the air and not by Adrian Peterson’s legs. If they put Jenkins on Randy Moss and have a safety cover over the top, they won’t get burned and will be fine. If the Cowboys don’t do this, Moss will do what he has done to the Cowboys throughout his career, torch them.

I see the final score being Cowboys 24-Vikings 21. I think Brett Favre will throw at least 2 interceptions allowing for shorter field for the Cowboys to work with against that aggressive Vikings defense.

This is the biggest game of the year and they need to play like it.

This week’s Cowboys game vs the Tennessee Titans is a must-win home game. You cannot lose a game at home after a bye week to a team you’ve had 2 weeks to prepare for. I don’t think this will happen because the Cowboys have a history of having great games after bye weeks, they are 5-0 in their last 5 games after a bye week with a 37-21 victory last year over the Atlanta Falcons. This week the Cowboys were said to be getting Felix Jones more involved in the offense, which will only make our offense better because of the explosiveness he brings to the offense. You give Dez Bryant an extra week of practice with the offense and he will only get better, with his playmaking ability the offense will be very hard to defend.

I feel very confident in the Cowboys coming out on top this week, i think they will gameplan to stop the Titans Chris Johnson and make Vince Young beat them through the air which is not his game. Stopping Johnson is the key, for people that don’t know he rushed for over 2,000 yards last year which was the 2nd most in NFL history. You shut him down and it makes the Titans and Vince Young more vulnerable to turn the ball over.

The bye week was good for the Boys as they got the chance to get all their players healthy, which hasn’t been the case through the first 3 games. A cowboys win coupled with losses by the Eagles, Giants and Redskins will put them in 1st place in the NFC East. I see the Cowboys winning this game 31-17.

Game time is at 3:15 on sunday on CBS.

What a display the Cowboys put on last week with their 27-13 victory over the Houston Texans! That kind of performance is what the Cowboys are capable of and how they should play each and every week. The defense was dominant in shutting down Houston’s high-powered offense and QB Tony Romo was very efficient managing the game and not turning the ball over. If the boys play like that every week, they can beat any team and the league and they will win the majority of the remaining games they are scheduled to play.
What impressed me most was how ready the team was for the Texans, they gameplanned perfectly and played with the sense of urgency that has been missing from this team in the first 2 games. Romo has to continue doing what he did last week by spreading the ball around and utilizing the weapons he has on offense. It’s a good sign that the Cowboys can win with their number one receiver in Miles Austin only catching 2 balls, it goes to show how much talent is on that team. Offensive Coordinator Jason Garrett finally had balance on offense, the running game took pressure off the pass, causing the Texans defense to be off balanced and not know what was coming, unlike the first 2 weeks when opposing defenses knew a pass was coming. That makes it easier for the defense to defend.
Although the Cowboys did win, there is still room for improvement as there is after every game. They still didn’t run the ball like they are capable of, at times last year the Cowboys run game would average 200+ yards a game, they aren’t close to that this year. Jason Witten needs to be more involved in the offense-one of the best tight ends in football should not be used as a pass blocker more than a pass catcher. Cowboys have to find a way to get the ball in his hands.
Overall, very impressed with last week and hope it continues. No game this week, Cowboys on a bye, i will preview next week’s game vs. the Titans on my next blog entry.

Until then, enjoy this week’s games and look for my entry next week!

First, let me start off with my opinions on last week’s game vs the Chicago Bears. 3 reasons why we lost: 1) Playcalling- Offensive Coordinator Jason Garrett has had the recipe for disaster the first 2 weeks of the season. You can’t throw the ball 100 times in 2 games and be successful in the NFL. He has to give the ball to his 3 good running backs and utilize them in the game to not only shorten the game but to make our offense less predictable so teams won’t know what we are doing and just bring the blitz against us. 2) Wade Phillips has got to do a better job of disclipining his players, there were way too many penalties that cost us chances at long drives because players commit penalties that they know better not to do. That falls back on your head coach not spending enough time in practice to work on it. 3) Throw the ball to Jason Witten down the seam alot more. Throwing the ball to him for 5-6 yard gains is not going to cut it. He is way too good a tight end to not use his talent to beat other teams.
With all this being said, there is no need to panic about the cowboys right now because there are still 14 games to go in the regular season and the playoffs are not decided in september. This team still has the talent to overcome their slow start, question is will they be focused enough to do it, only time will tell that. To put it into perspective, every year the San Diego Chargers get off to slow starts such as 1-3 or 2-4 and they find a way to overcome those obstacles and turn their season around to make the playoffs by winning 9 of 10 games or like last year winning 11 games in a row. There is still plenty of time for cowboys to turn their season around and i believe they will.
This week’s games vs. the Houston Texans is a very key game not only because it is for bragging rights for the state of Texas but also because the Texans are 2-0 and a Cowboys win would boost their confidence by beating a team that will probably make the playoffs for the first time in their history. It will be a good test for the Boys because it will be a hostile, playoff type environment that you can never get enough of in the regular season. The key matchup in this game will be how will the Cowboys stop the high-powered Texans offense with Matt Schaub, Andre Johnson and Arian Foster who combined last week for over 600 yards of total offense by themselves last week. The Cowboys have a pretty good run defense so i think they will be fine stopping the run, but their secondary was a little exposed last week by Jay Cutler so watch for how Terence Newman, Mike Jenkins and company respond this week against one of the best passing offenses in the game.

I think it will be a great game to watch and i predict the final score of the game to be Cowboys 27 and Texans 24 with David Buehler overcoming his early season struggles to win a big game for the Boys. It should be exciting and you don’t want to miss out on this game!

CCB

  I am a huge sports fan and will be writing about one sport and team in particular for this year.  I grew up in the D/FW area and around here there's is one sport that is above all…football.  In Texas, it is a way of life and since i am from Arlington i am a huge fan of the Dallas Cowboys as you can expect.  This year on my blogs i will be writing about everything Dallas Cowboys, i will be previewing the week's upcoming game as well as providing my analysis on the good and bad of last week's game and how the Boys can improve in one area or continue doing what they've been doing which made them so successful.  I will also provide a position by position outlook on each player with any position battles taking place and who i think is the best fit for the team and why.  I am really looking forward to another great year of Dallas Cowboys football and i hope you are too!