Week 8 MNF: Washington Redskins (2-5) @ Dallas Cowboys (6-1)

[elgreazy1]

Quote: Originally Posted by fugazi

Welcome back, Cowboys from the past 3-4 years... THREE important 2nd and shorts... 1) 2nd and goal from the 3 or 4...two passes, no runs, FG, tie game. Should Bryant have made the 2nd catch? yes...but why on earth are you passing with your 2nd string QB in that situation anyway. Run. The. Ball. 2) 2nd and short after the downed punt in the 4th...deep in their own half. Murray gets 7-8 on 1st down. Pass on 2nd down, Romo fumble, brings up 3rd and whatever..****n. The. Ball. 3) OT...same thing. Where did this playcalling come from? Seriously...why would anyone make these calls? Even Washington ran inside the 10...with their QB, no less. Murray had over 200 yards from scrimmage...Dallas should have converted EVERY ONE of those 2nd and shorts, period. No excuses. Had they punched it in at the goalline, we're probably not even having this discussion. Even with the obligatory fumbles, Dallas could have won this game...but they lose it on playcalling. The old men panicked and essentially wet themselves. This wasn't about Dez dropping a TD (he couldn't have caught the first one, it was defensed), or about Romo/Weeden Also got into a lot of 3rd and Longs (another staple of the Garrett era), and couldn't solve the blitz...not once.

Good game by the Redskins, they really wanted this one. And damn you Colt McCoy. I was cheering for and against him all at the same time.

Agree on so many points here listed above. It's like the playcalling and decision making reverted to trends from the last couple of seasons. I have no idea why the team would decide to abandon the run with a premier RB + OL and a hurt QB or 2nd-string QB. Washington wasn't slowing the run down, why play into Hasletts' strengths? A huge chunk of this loss is on the coaching staff.

The Cowboys defense was not handling it's business today. There were far too many missed tackles the likes we haven't seen all season. Plays that should have gone negative-to-3 yards broke off for 5-7 yards which really adds up at the end.

Too many turnovers and mental errors as well. This team played more like the Cowboys from previous seasons. Let's hope this trend doesn't make a comeback. At the end of the day, the loss is fine considering no one thought the Cowboys would be 6-2 at this time. I'd much rather Romo get healthy. On a side note, Weeden looked really good. The reps he takes on Wednesdays - when Romo takes a rest day off - has really helped acclimate him with the roster.

Quote: Originally Posted by wwharton

Quote: Originally Posted by elgreazy1 I don't want to be excited for my team because I'm waiting for the other shoe to drop. I scared. With that being said, I will continue with my pregame rituals this year of dressing up my dogs in Cowboys jerseys, putting mini-Cowboy hats on them and making them run around the house in circles. Haven't washed my gameday shirt all season either... is this sustainable? On a side note, my wife (Pats fan) is hating my happiness. That's a logical assumption, but she might just be mad about your gameday shirt (it has been almost 2 months and all)

Shoulda known something was up last night. My pup refused to give me any runs around the house. I realized afterwards she didn't get her bag o' treats along with the other pre-game festivities.

I blew it, fellas. This game's on me.

[N51_rob]

Quote: Originally Posted by coogrfan

Nothing odd about it. The recent history between these teams makes it clear that, for whatever reason, the Garrett/Romo duo simply cannot cope with Haslett's all out blitzes.

Very true, biggest difference this time sadly was the a rookie did a better job on Dez than DeAngelo Hall did last year....


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[coogrfan]

http://cowboysblog.dallasnews.com/20...7-ot-6-2.html/


According to my notes, Haslett blitzed the Cowboys on 21 of 38 pass attempts, and more specifically, he blitzed Romo on 19 of 32 (59%). Given that nobody on the Cowboys schedule had blitzed more than 12 times all season, and that nobody approached 50% all year, and that the Seahawks and Giants both blitzed just 5 times in the previous 2 games against Dallas, it seemed that the NFL had backed off Romo and the idea that the best way to attack a Jason Garrett/Tony Romo defense is to play coverage. That must have pleased Haslett to see that perhaps Dallas was letting its guard down. Especially with the way the Cowboys had punished the Giants every time they dared to try a big blitz (6 or more) with relative ease. Let that be a message to anyone who challenges the Cowboys with pressure! Haslett likely had to hide his smile.


He called for pressure over and over again. Big blitzes? He sent 7 of them. How about bringing pressure on 3rd Down? Well, the Cowboys tried to complete a pass on 3rd or 4th down on 12 occasions last night, and the Redskins chose to blitz those 12 situations 100% of the time. 12 for 12.


And as you can see, based on 5-13 on 3rd and 4th down conversions and just 17 Dallas points, the Cowboys did not pass these tests with flying colors. They struggled through the air all night long and it followed a script that goes back to 2010. Either the Cowboys lose these games and the passing game struggles, or they win these games on some late-game magic tricks (2011 twice, 2013 at Washington) by Romo and the offense after struggling most of the afternoon.


Romo is now 4-4 against Jim Haslett’s defense with a passer rating of 84.8 in those meetings and a very low yards-per-attempt of 6.88. Both of those numbers are severely below his 96.8 ratings and 7.65 YPA against the rest of the league. And versus blitzes? Before last night, Haslett had him at a passer rating of 69.8 and a 6.47 YPA.


Last night, on those 19 occasions where Haslett tried to rattle Romo with pressure, Romo completed 9 of 14 passes for 98 yards – good for a passer rating of, you guessed it, 84.8 and a YPA of 7. But, those numbers are extremely misleading, since that does not account for the 5 sacks which lost 53 yards and more damaging, what quite possibly could be either another back injury or at that very least, a major injury scare. Factor those plays into a QB rating, and you might call it 9-19 for 45 yards which would be a rating of 54 and a YPA of a minuscule 2.26.

[elgreazy1]

The write up pretty much says it all.

I think the OL did a fairly good job picking up the blitz, especially when over-loaded. Romo + the skill positions weren't able to make anything happen, which was a huge letdown. The fact the Cowboys didn't try to run against the loaded looks set up the precedent that they would always go with a pass - thus playing further into Haslett's plan.

As for Dez versus the rookie CB; they should have been more aggressive and kept attacking. I understand Bashaud Breeland was doing a fantastic job, but at some point, you have to let Bryant's athleticism, competitiveness and experience win that matchup because a big play was bound to happen. If you can't trust one of the league's best WRs to beat a mid-round rookie then you've really got some problems.

It was very curious as to why the team didn't use more screens and dump-offs against this type of pressure and again, that is on the coaching staff for not making the proper adjustments.


I'm really surprised there wasn't more talk on here about Romo forcing his way back into a meaningless game, Jerry Jones making his first appearance on the sideline this season (and meddling with Garret), Weeden having a hot hand and being pulled, etc.

[wwharton]

LMAO, I had to!

NSFW

[fugazi]

what a dummy...

i mean, he didn't even complain about Dallas abandoning the run...