America's Team: A Dallas Cowboys Dynasty (Madden 16)

[SuperSeahawks]

America's Team: A Dallas Cowboys Dynasty

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January 15^th, 2016 will go down as a turning point in the NFL, more specificially the Dallas Cowboys. Jerry Jones sold the Cowboys to not-for-profit mogul, Swag Daddy for a record amount of $5.5 billion. Swag was quoted as saying: “This was the biggest move that I've ever made buying a major sports franchise for $1.5 billion more than fair value. I felt for the millions of Cowboys fans who have not seen the team win a Super Bowl since Super Bowl XXX in 1995. Jones had done some great things, but I'm going to take it a step further. I want this team to be more than entertaining, but to be winners as well. We all know that everyone loves a winner.”


Swag Daddy has his work cut out for him as the fans have high expectations and delusions of grandeur year in and year out. The pros for this team are that the Cowboys have the best offensive line in the league and are set at every position except right tackle for the next 5 years. Also, the Cowboys have a major playmaker in Dez Bryant who is a top 5 receiver in the NFL. There are some cons though as Tony Romo is 35 and injury prone. Jason Witten will be retiring soon and the defense has a lot of spots that need to be filled by better players, especially in the secondary. Jason Garrett was retained, but will be evaluated at the end of the year.

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How did the 1^st season turn out for Swag and the Cowboys? Answer is, more of the same. The team started off 0-3 after some questionable, but neccesary personnel changes. Defensive players Jeremy Mincey, Greg Hardy, and Sean Lee were all traded away for 3^rd round picks (how Mincey is worth a 3^rd, I do not know). The team rebounded as they beat the Saints and Patriots by a score of 27-24. Two more wins followed as the Cowboys offense lit up the Giants and Seahawks by scoring over 40 points in victory.

Despite the winning streak, the team was plagued by injury. The offensive line was hit hard as Tyron Smith, Travis Frederick, and Zack Martin were lost for some period of time to injury. Dez Bryant and Tony Romo would be lost for several games as well and their absence was evident as we lost 4 of our next 5 games to fall behind in the NFC East race. Defensive end Randy Gregory was lost for the rest of the season with a knee injury, but the offense stars came back and proved their worth by leading us to close road wins over the Packers and Bills plus a meaningless home win over the Redskins on the last week of the season.

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A strong finish could not vault us into the playoffs as we finished 2^nd in the NFC East at 8-8 to the Philadelphia Eagles who finished 9-7, a team we lost to twice. Tony Romo played well in a shortened season throwing for 2,372 yards plus 21 TD's. The backup Kellen Moore added 2,000 yards and 14 TD's. Chris Johnson and Darren McFadden combined for over 1,000 yards on the ground and secondary options Terrence Williams and Cole Beasley caught over 80 passes each plus 1,000 yards receiving. Dez Bryant caught 48 passes for 720 yards and 7 TD's in an injury riddled season. The much maligned Cowboys defense had some bright spots in Rolando McClain who led the team in tackles (142) and interceptions (2, yes only 2) while DeMarcus Lawrence had 11.5 sacks for the season. Aaron Rodgers won MVP and the Seattle Seahawks won all three games on the road plus a high scoring 49-34 win over the Pittsburgh Steelers to capture their 2^nd Super Bowl championship in 3 years.

The Seahawks have proven with 3 straight trips to the Super Bowl that they are far from medicore, but the Cowboys have been medicore for 20 years and it's time for a change. Jason Garrett was shown the door and Swag Daddy signed Chuck Pagano to a 3 year deal to get the Cowboys back into the championship race. “Chuck is a winner, and we were lucky to bring him in as he is a guy that players want to play for. Chuck and I have a shared vision for the Cowboys; offensively we want explosive playmakers on the outside, but the ability to grind out wins in the 4^th quarter. On defense, we want speed throughout the team and will be playing a lot of 8 man boxes who can force turnovers and rush the passer.”

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The 1^st step has been made to get turn the Cowboys into a dynasty once again, but a lot of questions will need to be answered. I'll see you next time for the off-season consisting of re-signings, free agency, and the draft!

[SuperSeahawks]

The off-season: the first step to building a dynasty

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“The off-season has arrived, it's time to build a champion.” Swag was quoted in the off-season press conference. Swag Daddy announced the 6 year, $84 million extension for Dez Bryant. “Dez is a cornerstone to the offense and can be a team leader.” The Cowboys also signed MLB Rolando McClain and backup LG Ronald Leary; the rest of the eligible players were not re-signed and let to sign elsewhere in free agency. After cutting high-priced players such as CB Brandon Carr, the Cowboys somehow had $53.1 million to spend (and that's not counting the $13.6 million cap penalty). We had a couple of spots to fill; running back, full back, right tackle, defensive tackle, outside linebacker, and the secondary could use a face lift.

We got aggressive on the first day of free agency by going after and signing linebackers Zach Brown, Malcolm Smith, Zaviar Gooden, and Emmanuel Lamur. We also signed Robert Griffin III, the former Baylor product, to backup Tony Romo. “We signed all these linebackers to get more speed in the front seven to hopefully stymie big plays from the opposing offense.” Three veterans were added after day 2 in HB C.J. Spiller, CB Antonio Cromartie, and LE Red Bryant. The last day of free agency was the biggest day of all and would re-shape potentially how we attacked scouting and the draft. We had made significant offers to a bunch of players, but we were ultimately rejected by SS George Iloka, WR Percy Harvin, TE Antonio Gates, and CB Sean Smith. “We were really pissed to have missed out on Sean Smith; his size and ability to press was something we as an organization coveted.” There was a silver lining though, the Cowboys were able to sign defensive tackles Nick Fairley and Jaye Howard. “These guys will give us the up the gut pressure that we wanted. Fairley has the ability to both rush the passer and play the run. Jaye Howard isn't the strongest guy out there, but he has a quick first step and a surprisingly great ability to shed blocks.”

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As the draft was inching closer, the organization grew concerned about the health and viability of starting QB Tony Romo. “We had some sleepless nights knowing that Romo was brittle like fine china and we had no future behind him. We strongly considered trading up to get the top QB in the draft, Gianni Reed. Reed has a good arm and decent mobility, but ultimately was not someone that we felt that we could build a franchise around.” Gianni Reed would end up going number 3 overall to the Texans, and the Cowboys made a trade with Cincinnati to move back into the 2^nd round, but moved up once more to take HB Jeffrey Gordon. “Jeffrey is a good athlete for his size (6'0” 223 lbs) he has good agility and is pretty strong between the tackles. He'll be able to break a lot of tackles either by running through a defender or juking them out of their shoes.”

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Our second round choice was MLB Denard Austin; he's a great tackler and a pretty smart player for his age. “Denard was a guy we coveted going way back to early in the draft process, even with all of the free agent defenders we signed at his position. We talked it over and decided to move him to strong safety; he's athletic enough to play the pass and will give us extra support in stopping the run. We'll be playing a lot of 8 men in the box with him on the field.” Those trades that we made earlier in the season plus during the draft resulted in us having 4 3^rd rounders at our disposal. Our first choice was WR Ben Blake; Blake has sub 4.4 speed at 6'4” so we expected him to be a deep threat like Randy Moss. Next was CB Denard Parker; Parker is pretty good in coverage and is a hometown product from Texas who will compete for the slot CB spot with Byron Jones.

Our next two selections were RT Tavon Beatty to complete our offensive line and RB Gilbert Jackson who is even bigger and stronger than Gordon. We picked up some gems in the later rounds; WR Rafael Dixon was the fastest player in the draft and turned out to be a steal with his ability to get open, catch the football, and seperate from defenders. In the 5^th we took DT Artis Bass who will yet another pass rusher to an already loaded defensive line. Finally in the 6^th round we took former Crimson Tide OLB, Leveon Cook. Cook has good size (6'2” 252 lbs), can rush the passer and drop back into zone coverage; he's definitely an interesting prospect who could be a dominant player at the LOLB position.

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We signed some backups going into pre-season and let the players fight it out. At the end of the day, we cut our 3^rd round draft pick WR Ben Blake in favor of Rafael Dixon, because of Dixon's speed and elusiveness. Blake disappointed in pre-season and will now to make use of his liberal arts degree. We had some rookie starters in HB Jeffrey Gordon, RT Tavon Beatty, OLB Leveon Cook, and SS Denard Austin. Cowboys nation should be excited for this team that we are putting out on the field. There are some long-term questions with the looming retirement of Tony Romo and Jason Witten, plus some questionable play in the secondary. Overall though, it should be a good year as I expect us to make it back to the playoffs and the journey starts as we host the division rival New York Giants. I'll see you next time for that game!

[SuperSeahawks]

Cowboys dominate the Giants on Opening Day 28-12

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The season started with your Dallas Cowboys hosting the division rival New York Giants. We got the football first and we had a nice drive as Romo was a perfect 4 for 4, but our running game stalled and we had to punt. Luckily, we got the ball back and Romo drove us down the field this time and he found Jason Witten for a 16 yard TD to give us a 7-0 after 1 quarter. The defense was solid as a couple of well-timed blitzes and some good pressure by the newly minted front four added up to a total of 5 sacks. For some reason, the Giants new coach Tomas Single ran a lot of read option with Eli Manning; this would turn out to be a mistake as Eli was knocked out twice in the game. The Giants did score 3 points thanks to Odell Beckham. An INT from Romo gave the Giants great field position and were able to move it down to the red zone.

However, the defense stiffened and locked down the Giants offense despite the loss of Zach Brown who dislocated his ankle which placed him on the sidelines for 7 weeks. The Giants had to kick another field goal and the Cowboy offense executed the two minute drill to perfection. Romo and the passing game led the way and he eventually found Dez Bryant for a 2 yard TD to make it 14-6 at the half. We stopped the Giants early in the 2^nd half and continued to move the football down the field despite the absence of a running game. Both rookies Jeffrey Gordon and Gilbert Jackson totaled only 50 yards on the ground. This didn't stop Tony Romo who had the hot hand and found Dez Bryant who was matched up on a linebacker for another TD to expand the lead to 21-6.

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New York was forced to kick another field goal instead of a TD to keep it close, but Romo threw his 4^th TD when he found Rafael Dixon on a post route for a 62 yard TD. Eli and the Giants didn't give up, but they only muster up 1 more field goal plus a pick by SS Brandon Browner to ice the game 28-12 for the opening day win. This was a nice win over a division rival thanks to the passing game led by Tony Romo plus strong redzone defense. The Cowboy defense was all over the place and was solid throughout. The offense was a bit unbalanced as we couldn't move the football on the ground which was surprising with our offensive line; we'll need to run blocking to improve going forward.

Next week we host the 0-1 Eagles on Monday Night Football. A Cowboys win could give us a 2 game lead over the division right off the bat. We'll see how it plays out, we'll see you next time for that game. Also, as for the structure of this dynasty I'll be playing 8 games and simulating 8 games using Jarodd's Green Sliders.

[SuperSeahawks]

Cowboys squeak by both Pennsylvania teams improving record to 4-0

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The Cowboys hosted the Eagles on Sunday Night Football and was seeking to attain an early divisional lead. Dallas got the football first and Romo played just as well as the previous week, leading the Cowboys to a TD when he found C.J. Spiller on the first drive. Undaunted, the Eagles struck back when Ryan Matthews hit the open hole and sprinted 51 yards for the tying TD. The Cowboys continued to play well on offense and thanks to a slant pattern to Dez Bryant, the Cowboys scored again when Gilbert Jackson found the endzone from 4 yards out to take the lead. Both defenses started to figure the opposing offenses as two field goals a piece made the score 20-13.

We had a hard time getting our running game going, but we finally got Jeffrey Gordon revved up was able to hit multiple big gains to help balance out the offense. However, it was still the Tony Romo show as he found Spiller for another TD. The Eagles drove down the field as AJ McCarron found Jordan Matthews for a 60 yard gain. However, the defense held the Eagles out of the endzone which led to a field goal to make it 30-16.

With time running out, the Eagles offense kicked it into another gear, attacking the Cowboys defense through the air and on the ground as they would go over 200 yards running and passing. McCarron found Nelson Agholor and Ruben Randle for TD's. However, the play of the game was made by rookie WR Rafael Dixon who took a jet sweep, using his elusiveness to evade traffic for a 75 yard TD. The Eagles had the chance to tie the game, but Byron Jones sealed the game with an intercepton late so the game ended with the Cowboys winning 37-30.

Next up was a Monday Night Football at Pittsburgh as we were hosted by the 2-0 Steelers. The momentum that we built for the running game against the Eagles fizzled out as we failed to convert a 4^th and inches in Steelers territory early and gave them the ability to take the lead early. Big Ben took advantage of that we he found Markeus Wheaton on a corner route to give Pittsburgh a quick 7-0 lead. The lead would not last long as Romo rebounded for an abdominal injury to hit C.J. Spiller and Jason Witten for TD's to spark a 14-6 lead at the half.

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The game would grow tighter as the Steelers drove down the field easily through the air as we could not cover Antonio Brown and Martavis Bryant consistently leading to a Le'veon Bell TD. The Cowboys responded quickly as the offense moved into the redzone with a swiftness, ending with a Gilbert Jackson TD. The Steelers drew closer with a field goal to make it 21-20 after 3 quarters, but pulled ahead when Bell scored again to make it 26-21 when the Steelers failed to convert the 2 point conversion. The Cowboys had to score to win the game and Romo was money finding Dez Bryant and Rafael Dixon (who stepped up in the place of injured Terrence Williams) to get into the Steelers redzone.

We drove closer to the endzone, but couldn't quite score and had 4^th and goal on the 2 yard line. We utilized the no huddle from the shotgun and audibled to a pistol running play with Jeffrey Gordon to score and take the lead 29-26. The Steelers had the chance to tie the game with a field goal, but rookie SS Denard Austin knocked out Heath Miller, forcing a fumble which was recovered by backup Brandon Browner to ice the Cowboys thrilling 29-26 win in Pittsburgh.

We also moved to 4-0 thanks to 5 Johnny Mazniel interceptions in the 42-21 home win. The Cowboys are one of five undefeated teams (Patriots, Bengals, Seahawks, and Chargers) and we'll go to Lambeau Field to meet the Green Bay Packers, we'll see you next time for that game!