- At some point, Dallas has to get at least somewhat healthy in order to win games. It honestly looked like the Dallas offense was the Dallas practice team offense at times. Felix Jones was more effective than he's been in a long time, but he was limited with a separated shoulder. Romo was playing with a bullet-proof vest (I thought his usual mobility seemed limited). Dez Bryant played with an injured thigh that was clearly not at 100%. Jason Witten was playing with bruised ribs. Laurent Robinson and Kevin Ogletree were the main receivers on the field, and that's not really a good thing. Miles Austin was sorely missed.
- Rob Ryan has his defense playing extremely well. Even with a secondary decimated by injuries, and Jason Hatcher leaving the game early with a strained calf, the defense bent but didn't break, and they came up with huge stops when they needed to.
- Felix Jones seems like he doesn't see the field very well sometimes. As I mentioned above, he had his best game this year, but there were still times (especially early) when it seemed like there were obvious cut-back lanes that he should have hit and could have gained big yards, but he just missed them. I usually feel like he performs best when receiving screens and other passes in the flat where he can turn and get upfield in a hurry, rather than trying to find the seem and get through it.
- Nobody seems to have told Dan Bailey that Cowboy kickers are supposed to be unreliable -- and I'm quite thankful for that. The rookie came up big, going 6 for 6 on field goal attempts, and the 'Boys won the game without scoring a single touchdown.
- Tony Romo is doing some amazing things. He didn't have huge numbers last night, but he led that team in impressive ways. He was dealing with a center who snapped the ball before he was supposed to about 15 times, receivers who didn't seem to know the playbook (and with whom he's only practiced a few times), and a running game that took a while to get going. On top of that, Washington's defensive coordinator, Jim Haslett, was sending all-out blitzes on every play because there was no fear of the young, inexperienced Dallas receivers who were playing. Romo made plays when he shouldn't have, and it looked like he was the only person on the field who had the gumption to go after the win. I'm still not sure how he was successful.
- DeMarcus Ware got hosed toward the end of the game when he was about to go sack Rex Grossman and instead got flat-out tackled by a Redskin blocker. No call. Unbelievable.
- Alan Ball got called for hitting a "defenseless receiver" on a play when Santana Moss caught a first-down reception. Perhaps it's the right call according to the rule, but I think that clearly demonstrates that the rule is absolutely flawed. To be within the rules there, Ball would have had to let Moss land and begin to run upfield before being allowed to tackle him, and there's something fundamentally wrong with a rule that requires you to let the other team gain a few yards before you can do anything about it. Ridiculous (especially since Cowboys receiver Laurent Robinson got "defenselessly" hammered earlier in the game with no flag coming whatsoever).
Now Dallas plays Detroit. The 'Boys are still beat-up physically, they have a short week for prep, and the Lions are very good. It's an awful matchup for Dallas, and I won't be surprised at all if Calvin Johnson scores a few touchdowns on them in a Lions win. That won't devastate the season, though, so don't worry. And, fortunately, the week after that is a bye week when they can hopefully recover physically and start the next stretch with full health.
No comments:
Post a Comment