Mid-week Crumbs
Posted: September 28, 2005 @ 2:39 pm
Pile Drives the Nickel D
Look for more of the revamped nickel scheme the Cowboys ran at the end of the first half Sunday. According to the Dallas Morning News Willie Pile has replaced Keith Davis as a safety in that package. This will allow Davis more time on special teams, where he has helped the coverage units make an impressive and necessary improvement over their shaky play against the Chargers.
The change will also allow Davis more time to concentrate on his coverage duties in the base schemes. Bill Parcells had to send chills through the faithful when he stated that Davis didn’t even realize he made a mistake on Brandon Lloyd’s 89 yard bomb.
Shaky But Healthy
The Cowboys have many problems but so far bad health is not one of them. That could benefit them as the marathon that is the regular season is taking a toll on several preseason favorites. The Patriots lost FS Rodney Harrison and OT Matt Light for the season this past weekend. The Broncos are holding their breath that CB Champ Bailey’s injured hamstring won’t keep him out too long. He’s already playing with a separated shoulder. The Jets are weighing the news that QB Chad Pennington might miss another season. He injured his rotator cuff just one year after having it surgically repaired. The sports surgeon James Andrews says the injury is not career threatening, but Pennington’s frequent injuries have the New York press proclaiming the Jets players in the Matt Leinart sweepstakes.
The injury that could most affect Dallas is the sports hernia afflicting Donovan McNabb. The Eagles doctors say the hernia will require surgery at some point but that McNabb can continue playing with it if he can handle the pain. McNabb returned from a scary leg injury a couple of years ago, so there is no doubting his toughness. But anyone who watched him play against the Raiders knows that the hernia is compromising his game. He’s not the running threat he normally is. The injury also affected McNabb’s accuracy, as he often over or underthrew open receivers. He’s still Donovan McNabb, but he might not be Donovan McNabb.
It’s the Bucs, Stupid
A few weeks ago, I pointed out that the past five seasons have seen an average of four teams league-wide make the jump from 7-9 or worse to the playoffs. My picks in the NFC were the Cowboys, Panthers and Cardinals. The Cowboys and Panthers are still in the running, but the Cards look — again — like a massive flop. The surprise so far has to be Tampa Bay. The Bucs had one of the most rickety looking o-lines in the conference during the preseason, but they’ve been outstanding so far. Tampa has also hit the jackpot in the draft’s first round the last two years. In ‘04 they wanted a receiver. Tampa watched Larry Fitzgerald, Roy Williams, Reggie Williams and Lee Evans fly off the board before it landed LSU’s Michael Clayton with the 14th pick. Clayton has been the best of the bunch so far, showing so much promise that K.C. Joyner already speaks of his Hall of Fame ability.
This year, the Bucs needed a runner. They again had to wait their turn, as Miami took Ronnie Brown and Chicago took Cedric Benson ahead of them. But once again, their guy is the class of the class. Cadillac Williams has three 100 yard games in his three game NFL career and Tampa suddenly has a balanced, explosive and young offense. DC Monte Kiffin has overcome the loss of Warren Sapp and John Lynch. In the watered down NFC, Tampa could have a fast track to the playoffs.
Assistant Excellence
The Dolphins were another team forecast to have a poor offensive line. Many observers felt the Dolphins had the worst unit in the NFL the past couple of years. Now, without major changes, Miami is 2-1 and had a 132 yard performance from Ronnie Brown this past week in its win over Carolina. For all the offseason changes new HC Nick Saban made, his most important acquistion was probably o-line coach Hudson Houck. The former Cowboys’ assistant has become something of a miracle worker lately. He joined Marty Schottenheimer’s Chargers staff after leaving Dallas and turned that talent-poor unit around in short order. Their rapid turnaround was one reason San Diego zoomed to 12-4 last year. Now he’s making magic in Miami. O-line coaches used to work in anonymity. Today, they are considered as important as first round draft picks and get paid like them too. Hudson Houck shows us why.
Sundry Observations
Comments
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Looks like Bill regrets cutting Robinson during training camp now, Our long snapper/linebacker John Condo was cut today.
Derrick,
where did you find that morsel of information?
Chad Johnson doing his best imitation of Michael Flatley was HILARIOUS……..I am sure I speak for all my Irish brethren and we are worried that Chad will soon steal the leading roll in Riverdance and tour the world. Palmer Johson and Marvin Lewis are for real though. I thought last year they would break out, I thought Marvin Lewis was the best coach in DC and Dan Snyder was too stupid to realize it. He should have fired Spurrier half way through and let Marv take over.
Dallas has been fortunate but really injuries are also a part of conditioning and training. Bill Parcells said his team was the best conditioned of any he saw in preseason let’s hope it continues to payoff. Now injuries do happen even to the most conditioned of atheletes but the smart guys not only work out but engage in stretching, yoga, massage, and nutritional eating to heal quickly and maintain flexibility. I wish I had their budget for the body. I like our depth on most postions even with injury except to glaring postions……….S and QB. Vinny our life insurance policy is a Jet again and we would be up the creek without a paddle without Bledsoe. I hope he can play 16 games and playoffs. Actually I hope we have a few blowouts and can get the kids some playing time, we need to evaluate Romo and Henson at some point.
Our secondary needs to play a lot better against the Raiders. This is a dangerous Passing offense and Kerry Jerry Randy and the injured Curry can light up a defense………..just ask Champ Bailey even mile high snow and thin air did not stop their offense and that was before Moss. We need major improvement from our Safeties in this game and from the three corners or we are going to get lit up for 45 points by this offense. If Rattay can scorch us, I don’t want to see what Kerry and Moss can do if those two get on track. This team could easily be 2-1 and they gave Philly all they wanted in PA. I had a better feel for us beating the first three teams then these Raiders. We need to get Julius Jones on track early and often or it could be a long day for our Defense. Luckily the Raiders are one sided team with all the talent on offense. Time for number 21 to get 30 touches and break out for 150 rushing yards three tds and 5 passes for anothre 75 yards. Ok maybe a bit high on the passing yards…….but I would give Julius the ball a lot against the Raiders. Look for Witten to have another good game too, Woodson is playing pretty good this year I figure he will cover Glenn. KJ and Witten should be open some though. I say we can win it by 10 if we keep Moss off the field and run Julius run!
“TheCowboys cut deep-snapper Jon Condo and sign rookie free agent L.P. Ladouceur to replace him”. Comes from the Dallas Morning News website.
L.P. Ladouceur-Signed by New Orleans Saints, 4/28/05…Appeared in 29 games at Cal, primarily as a long and short snap specialist…Key piece to Cal special teams efforts that did not allow a kick to be blocked in 2004&Pac-10 honorable mention All-Academic selection in 2004…Speaks fluent French and English…Full name is Louis-Philippe Ladoucer…born 3/13/81 in Montreal, Canada
The Cowboys signed long snapper L.P ladaceur(sp) from Montreal. Looks like the program that Bill was using that he called “Kicker man” where it stated that Robinson was slightly better than Condo had a flaw in the program, either that or it was designed by the Redskin/Eagle/Giants organizations.Bill, Please check next time for who the developer of a program you are going to use.
derrick, it just didn’t provide for real game pressures
theogt,
yeah, I was only kidding, I just remember when Bill was talking about one day during a press conference, the reporters thought it was pretty funny, they thought Bill was kidding about the program Kicker man. I still think Bill hopes that Condo clears waivers, so they can put him the practice squad.
The next three games are going to be hard. He are going to have to slow the game down with Oak to eat up the clock and keep moss on the sidelines.
Derrick, I agree. I think it was premature to drop him now. OBVIOUSLY he has the skill. The only thing to get him over the jitters is more gametime.
AW,
I agree, the next three games will show alot about what and where this team is heading, Raiders,Eagles and the Giants. I hope we can take two out of three of these games, having two of them at home helps alot. Were gonna have alot of trouble this week against the raiders who are 0-3 and becoming a desperate team for a win, this could be their season, so I’m alittle apprehensive about this game and our inability to stop the long passes, hope we get that fixed this week and would love to take this one and bury the raiders for this year.
I liked Condo’s kick coverage as well but BP sees the guy everyday and knows how close he is to getting over the jitters
Derrick
I don’t know about this game we will have to play better than what we have been playing to win. Moss is the best in the game and we have given up 7 td thru the air in three games. We are on pace to give up more than last year. I think the question will be how many we will give up this week.
I have to say that I don’t feel all that sorry for Philly fans. The only regrets I have about McNabb’s injuries are that it wasn’t the Cowboys that put the hurt on him. With the injuries and other off the field issues that are occurring to the Iggles, the Cowboys might have a pretty good shot at taking this division, but they need to get this defense to stiffen up, a lot.
I remember the last time we let our long snapper go, we regretted it. That’s a position you can’t take for granted and you do what it takes to get it.
Reports say JJ suffered a concussion Sunday in the 1rst quarter but will play this Sunday……
Does anyone remember the Last FRENCH CANADIAN long snapper we had?
Oh boy, we are in trouble now!!!
Can Dale Hellestrae still play?
JJ had a concussion? NO!
Cowboys most valuable network sez ESPN reported it…..
Yup Yahoo reported it too. He had a concussion i believe in the 2nd quarter and played the whole second half with it.
Alantdot,
Who was the last French Canadian long snapper we had?
This place is dead these days.
Collins has had his way with the Boys since his 2nd season in ‘96. Moss didn’t even take that long after the Boys’ brain trust took Ellis instead of him. BP has never been successful the 2nd game of a road trip in which he kept his team out west for the week in between. Win or lose, this game will go a long way in determining just what kind of model the 2005 Cowboys are. BP is worth two wins just standing on the sideline. We’re one QB injury away from losing two games to give it back. Good thing it’s just a game.
okay, since this is random post day, my take on the schedule is that if we can be sitting at 3-2 in 2 weeks we should all be happy. Oakland is scary because of the Moss factor, but the D sucks so it could be a whole lot like last Sunday’s game. 30something to 30something, down to the last minute.
Then the Iggles at home with a hurt McNabb who can’t run isn’t as hopeless as it used to be. So if we can win one of these 2, then at 3-2 in 2 weeks, we might lose to the Gints but still be 5-3 at the bye. I was hoping for 6-2 at the bye, but 5-3 isn’t the end of the world. In theory, by the second half of the season the D should be gelling better.
I think at some point in the near future we’re all going to be wishing we had that Skins game back.
If Julius Jones had a concussion against the 49ers, then he should rest this week, with Anthony Thomas, Marion Barber and Tyson Thompson running through the Raiders.
In the 2nd half the 49ers ran 33 plays for 128 yards-look at the drive charts at nfl.com Once we finally adjusted they couldn’t sustaain a drive-same as Wash. except for their big plays. Now that the coaches have figured out it wasn’t a fluke they finally did something, and our defense should improve. Oakland’s better than those two teams on offense, but relies on the big play, and if we can limit those we should outscore them. Or, maybe Roy will take Moss’ head off …….
If JJ had a concussion, it’s bad news, but at least that would help explain is poor play.
I live in No. Cal. and it’s all 49ers/Raiders on the radio. They’re STILL talking about all of the Cowboy fans at Sunday’s game, and saying it had a real role in the loss. Also, the Raiders NEVER sell out and are always blacked out at home, a real embarrasssment-BUT NOT THIS WEEK! This has been a huge topic with these games back-back. Good Job America’s Team fans!
If Jones did have a concussion, I wonder if Parcells is considering carrying 4 tailbacks this week and deactivate Polite. A-Train is an inside runner but it will be sluggfest trying to block Washington and Sapp. Al Johnson is gonna have his hands full. Gurode might also see more playing time. I’m looking forward to seeing Thompson more since I think they’re gonna be running sweeps to get away from the behemoth DTs. Biggest thing, of course, is to just cut down on mistakes and take full advantage of the Raiders’ impending 12 penalties (my prediction).
JJ with a cuncussion? Never heard about it. Well, if that’s the case, I’d sit him out against the Raiders and see what TT and Barber can do. Do we have a choice? A-Train hasn’t shown BP that he can do it. Youth is served!
As for our long-snapper, gee, don’t we all wish we still had Robinson?
No matter, I think we’ll beat the Raiders this weekend, but it won’t be easy. Not with Moss out there!
I’m surprised that the Cowboys official home site didn’t report on JJ concussion. You would think Mick would report that, strange? Now, the Cowboys better stop sleeping in the backfield or we will lose against the Raiders. We can’t be lucky every week, sooner or later the luck will run out! I think the Cowboys will go to the playoffs and possible SB, if the defense can get their act together! Go Cowboys!!!
I don’t think Julius had a concussion. Maybe he got hit hard and sniffed some smelling salts…….but he ain’t missed a practice this week. A concussion usually rings a guys bell, and they throw up. A severe one leads to unconsciousness or just not knowing who or where or what the hell is going on. I had one myself they are no fun. He might have had a very mild concussion if any, but I doubt it. If it were severe he would have sat out a practice or two.
Matt,
His name was Randy Chevrier and we dropped Dale Hellestrae before the 2001 season. Good Ol’ Chev didn’t make it past game eight I believe. He bounced more balls back to the holder and punter than you would believe.
It is one thing to long snap in practice, quite another thing to do it during a game. That is why they get paid. Execution during the game.
I just saw that the 49ers were looking to trade Jamie Winborn their young and super fast outside LB. He had a good year in 2004. He could be had cheap. What does everyone think about him?
Winborn could be a better fit than Bradie James but I also read that he is injury prone. He has not completed a season healthy since he was drafted in 2001.
Winborn is leaving one team because of the LB rotation - same as he would get here. Would he want that? Do we want an unhappy player?