How Seaworthy is the Good Ship Parcells?
Posted: September 26, 2006 @ 9:15 am
Football teams are like ships. Think of each unit as a compartment. One hole in a unit can flood it. If you have enough leaky compartments, your ship and your season sink.
Coaches are always trying to patch their team leaks and keep them from becoming terminal. Take the 2003 Cowboys for example. In retrospect, it’s amazing that the team went 10-6, with Ryan Young and Kurt Vollers alternating at RT, Quincy Carter at QB, Troy Hambrick at RB, Willie Blade at DT and Mario Edwards and a very green Terence Newman paired up at the corners. That team effectively disguised its weaknesses until it made the playoffs.
Conversely, the 2005 Cowboys, a more talented team top to bottom, had gaping holes in its hull that never let it take to open water. By week three it was clear that free safety was a liability. Keith Davis blew multiple assignments in the San Diego and San Francisco games and yielded multiple big plays. He played better midseason but his habit for letting receivers get behind him almost sank the team in Carolina. The pass rush, Demarcus Ware aside, was exposed early on. Ware himself could not contain outside runs for much of the season.
On offense, everybody knows the trouble at the tackles. The Cowboys could work around Rob Petitti’s shortcomings, keeping tight ends and backs in to help him. But when Flozell Adams went down, Dallas could not keep opposing rushes from flooding in on Drew Bledsoe. The passing game suffered, the running game suffered and the season ended sooner than everybody had hoped.
How water tight is the 2006 vessel known as the Cowboys? So far, it appears the team has done a commendable job of patching last year’s holes. Pat Watkins has been much steadier than Davis. We’ve got only two games to go on, admittedly, but it speaks well of Watkins that Washington OC Al Saunders said their game plan was to throw deep on Dallas. Santana Moss and Antwaan Randle-El did nothing until garbage time, which says Watkins held his part of the secondary bargain. He may blow some assignments down the road, but so far Dallas has not yielded any deep passes.
Greg Ellis has patched the other gaping defensive hole at LOLB. Scott Fujita (who was stellar against the Falcons last night) was miscast in the 3-4. He lacked top pass rushing skills, bit on nearly every bootleg to his side and, like Ware, had trouble on runs right at him. Ellis has closed down his perimeter and has improved the rush. He still looks shaky in coverage but offers a clear upgrade over his predecessors.
On offense, the line is playing much better. Marc Colombo’s play stands a couple of notches above Petitti’s. Adams looked rusty against Jacksonville but played much better against Washington. If the latter Flozell keeps showing up, the line should improve.
The biggest question mark right now, in my opinion, is the pass rush. It was great against Washington but barely laid a hand on Jacksonville’s Byron Leftwich. If Dallas can consistently pressure opposing QBs, it will go far. If the rush appears one week and disappears the next, the Cowboys could return to the maddening up-and-down play of 2005, where they seemed to play up to the better opponents (Denver, Kansas City and Philadelphia come to mind) and play down to poorer ones (San Franciso and Oakland stand out here.)
Good health and good luck have been on Dallas’ side thus far. Couple that with greater depth across the board and the Cowboys suggest they’ll keep everybody’s hopes afloat through the fall.
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Has there been more penalties and turnovers this year? It feels like through the first two games there have been far too many mental mistakes.
Any updates on TG’s hand?
http://www.cowboysplus.com/topstorync/stories/092606dnspoglennlede.2f0c1d4.html
Any updates on TG’s hand?
http://www.cowboysplus.com/topstorync/stories/092606dnspoglennlede.2f0c1d4.html
so with that being said ..does anyone want to change their predictions for this year i Predict a 10-6 record for our team winning the nfc east…i need to see at least to more games b4 i can make an assestment on our pass rush and o-line because we had good and bad games on both ends ..i thoght we would dominate Jax o-line and not D.C’s but it was opposite
I think Atlanta’s breakdown last night is a really positive turn of events for the Cowboys.
That the Jr Cowboys (new orleans saints) were able to diagnose and deal with the Falcons’ strengths means that the Cowboys should as well.
Carolina, Tampa Bay and Arizona stink on ice.
Indy, Philly, NYG and NO are the teams that will provide the stiffest competition.
If the Cowboys keep penalties and turnovers to a minimum, they could win more than 10 games.
I don’t know that I would rule out Carolina just yet. Atlanta broke down and got exposed but are no pushovers.
The Foreskins and Gnats are on the verge and will get pushed one way or the other soon. The Iggles may be a paper tiger, we will see soon when they play some tougher opponents.
Outside the division I see Seahawks, Indy, Ravens, Jaguars, Bengals as the top tier teams right now.
Just below, or in the I don’t know yet, still have some things to prove would be Cowboys, Steelers, Chargers, Vikings, and Bears.
so nobody wants to predict what our record will be after 2 games??
My ‘homer’ predicition for Dallas dominance (one of the threads from back then, cant remember) from the summer was as follows-
1) Skins lack of depth and reliance on good play from Brunell (old) and Portis (overworked) would eventually cause them to break down.
So Far? ‘Eventually’ has come sooner than I thought.
2) Giants have many good weapons but Strahan/Barber are getting older, Manning’s realtionship with Burress and Shockey could go good or bad, the defense needs Arrington to play like a Pro Bowler, AND Coughlin’s style gets under players skin after a few years and he could lose the team.
So Far? Strahan has done nothing. Barber’s still good. Burress and Shockey are teatering after good starts, and Manning is still choppy although I think he is developing well. Arrington has done nothing special AND there are rumblings that team is turning on Coughlin.
3) Eagles have nothing at WR or running back. They have been losing talent with their offseason approach and haven’t replaced it adequately. Specifically, defense has contributors from its good years but they are older and replacements at many positions are not at the level of previous Eagles teams. McNabb is not a good team leader and could get frustrated when he is asked to ‘do it all.’
So Far? Running game is not good. Defense has weaknesses that have been exploited by lesser teams. McNabb has played well. Bad opposition has masked deficiences in the passing game evident when Giants stepped it up in the second half.
Us? We are 1-1 and have not played a good game on offense yet.
Bledsoe has started slowly, but looked very good against the Skins. All aspects of offense are potentially much better than last year, including two-headed running game. No holes in the line, even with new players in 3 positions and Flozell not back entirely.
Defense had been very sound. On the brink of excellent. We still get pushed around some in the running game. Pass rush is better. Coverage so far seems good.
We have disturbing lack of follow through and intensity, especially when we go up by a couple of scores. A coach once told me that ‘Losers need to learn to be leaders, and leaders learn to be winners.’ I think we are at the second stage with this team. We need to learn to win with the lead, not just play with the lead. Some of this relates to Parcells’ grind it out philosophy, but more of it is lack of execution and mental mistakes when we are up.
We need to go for the jugular more, but also be mentally tough to burn the clock when we are ahead.
relbar-
Jimmy Johnson once said (when accused of running up the score)” Ill stop scoring when the other team gives up.”
Man I wish WE had that attitude now.
Raf,
You make the point about lack of rush in Jags game. I think the flow of that game has something to do with that.
We were up or within a score for most of the game. I dont think we thought Jags passing game would beat us going in, so we didn’t scheme a lot to bring the pass rush. Relied on our front guys to get push and put more guys in coverage.
Then Bledsoe’s turnovers really killed us, mostly because they gave Jags a short field. If you blitz and make a mistake in a short field, the chances of 6 are much higher (again, being within one score and thinking their offense weak, we though we could hold them to FGs.)
MCN,
Jimmy was a wise man. Now he splits time playing ’step and fetch it’ with Bradshaw and forcing beer spills with Burt Reynolds. How the mighty have fallen.
i still hate bradshaw,he hasnt had to much to say about his stealers since they lost 2 straight.terry glenn update,he is practicing with no problems
I dont think you can put Pitt in with the league’s elite teams this year, even not last year until they went on a run late in the year.
As to us, more consistency than last year and health will be the keys. We’ll find out alot in the next two weeks.
THE STEELERS ARE AVERAGE @ BEST…WHO WOULDVE THUNK THE STEELERS WILL BE 1-2 WHILE THE SAINTS ARE 3-0 PARODY IS A BIAOTCH!
Ref,
I am impressed with your ship analogy and knowledge…
As a Navy man, I concur with your description of drwing parallel between the Team and a ship..
The two major threat to a ship is Flooding and Fire…
MUSICCITYNORM:
You said, “Man I wish WE had that attitude now.” We may have that attitude but do we have the players?
I hope so but we have to wait and see.
The Steelers won last year only because they put Palmer out early. They played a godawful game in the SB only to be outdone by Seattle. They are the worst team to ever win a SB. I think their slide began last year and we’re seeing it continue now. Rothlesburger stunk up the SB and he continues to show he was a one year wonder (in the eyes of the press).
Looks like Terry Glenn is expected to play this Sunday, he only cut his thumb. Hopefully this cut thumb doesn’t disturb the flow he’s been on since the preseason.
I was watching NFL Live on ESPN and they aired a clip of Parcells explaining how Glenn injured his thumb. He said Glenn had his hand down in his pants and was trying to cut some tape off when he cut his thumb and that it was fortunate Glenn didn’t cut something else in his pants.
looking at the defense shaping up….i think the skins are horrible as they donot have the defense they had last year. i heard that shockey is talking crap about the coaches decisions. and they got a few players banged up. i think the giants will demise due to the iffy 2ndry and the inconsistency of eli. the eagles are yet to be determined as the only strong opponent they have had so far are the giants who came back on them in the 4th quarter. they didnt show me too much against the niners…they also have a tough schedule their last 9 games. and the boys cant even be sized up yet. i really think if the boys get off to a good roll they could easily win the division by 2 or 3 games
Turbo-
U think he’ll get put on I.R for that or what about P.U.P?
tipp-
see post 4..i totally agree with u ..after what i’ve seen, its hard to tell what direction were going ..hell, could have another up and down season like last year? or we can play every game like the our last.. unfortunately the Titans game wont be a good assesment of our team either.
yeah mike i totally agree. i dont think we will be able to have a good assessment of the cowboys till mid to late october. but if we can go in to philly and establish some dominance and beat them by 10 or more i think all eyes will be on the boys. philly can score on the niners but can they score and produce yards on a dallas defense. i doubt so. and they have no defense. the giants have no secondary. if the boys can get on a little roll like maybe 3 of the next 4 or 4 of the next 4 then i think the boys will take the division. most of the homegames are in the 2nd half of the season which is a big plus for us
We could have an up and down year, we still have some question marks.
Unlike some of those past years however, we have more talent in key positions.
Injuries not withstanding, we are in the top of the middle rung of teams now. We get just a few things shored up (in particular: penalties and consistency on the O-line and pass rush) we could move to the upper rung easily.
well as far as the o-line goes i think they have performed well. hell we went 9-7 last season with horrible o-line play. this year is a serious upgrade and we have not seen any reason to think there is any problem there…..yet.
we do need more pass rush and usually as the season ñrogresses more schemes are usually put in to help that. now the penalties are ceginning to bother me, if i see the same thing the next 2 games then i will call it an official problem.
man these power rankings are going to provide us with some good stuff through the season.
this one,!on SI.com has nothing stupid listed for the boys but right after us it has the saints (3-0). the panthers are down further at 18.
The saints go to carolina this weekend, ranked higher to some, thats probably all the motivation the panthers need to take on sean payton and reggie bush.
we play them both later, let them beat up on each other first.
You should hear the local sports talk here in Nashville. One guy said today the titans had a chance to win this game (Pause) if the cowboys showed up at the wrong staÃ¥ium. Another one says when asked if the cowboys would throw away from Pacman Jones; ” Terrell Owens and Terry Glenn don’t even know who pacman is much less are they scared to throw away from him.”
But here was something said on the radio today that kind of took me by surprise, Fans are calling for Fishers head and they think Caghlins days are numbered and they wont him. Some of the fans here actually wont Caughlin over Fisher.
There are a lot of cowboys fans here too. Lots of them are saying they are going to the game, might be a lot of boys fans at the game.
i really think that this game will show us alot about the Boys…as some of the other posts said..and i agree with…this team needs to show that killer instinct..when they did what they did in preseason..people that know i’m a big fan of ‘em were playin’ both sides of the coin….”man..i heard they tore ‘em up!”..and…”yeah..but it’s only the 49′ers…..or preseason!” i said yeah so?..that’s what i expect them to do…our 1st team against theirs..no game plans..gimmicks..me against you 1 on 1…a titans team in turmoil and decline..youth…etc..or whatever?! we should beat them, and not by 3 ..don’t give me that any given sunday stuff..those games usually have the favored team doing just enough to shoot themselves in the foot..to let the other team slip on even with them..no injuries..no excessive foul ups, we destroy em..if not then i will have to rethink my position on this team this yr……
Norm!!!
There are alot of boy’s fans at all away games.
Even here in the DC area, and let me tell you, it pisses off the skins fans to no end.
mikeridge78:
Accordi~g to dallascowboys.com, Terry Glenn practiced today, so the injury isn’t serious. However, if he had cut something else in his pants like Parcells was hinting at then I don’t know…That was probably Parcells’s funniest moment, he and all the media folks were laughing their asses off. Parcells should have topped it off by saying, “If he had cut something else, then you’d really be able to call him a ’she’.”
As far as the other teams in the division go, any given Sunday…Doesn’t matter how good or how bad a team looks, what matters is how they perform on game day. Based on what I’ve seen so far, it looks like the Eagles will be the main competition for the division. However, as we’ve seen, the Giants can be an explosive offense and the Redskins with Portis look to be a mukh improved team than the one we “stomped” on 2 Sundays ago. I think we should have been able to put that game away long before the 4th quarter. Hopefully the bye week will help us do a better job of eliminating mental mistakes (penalties, dropped passes, kickoff coverage).
Norm,
I’ve heard rumors and talking heads say that Fisher may very well be the next coach of the Cowboys. Timing sure looks right. I’m sure Choke-lin will get some play as well.
As far as ranking the Cowboys and their progress let’s take a few things into account:
1. We’re young…very young.
2. The O-line has played exactly two weeks together (including camp)
3. Bledsoe and Owens have had, what, 3 weeks of practice?
My point is that the Cowboys are making mistakes, mainly penalties and a few blown assignments, that are made by a team trying to “find” themselves.
Yet every training camp question has been answered…OL, FS, BP/Owens, Vandy…
Every indication is that the Offensive line is going to be good…maybe very good. And we’ve got a little depth. Proctor, AJ, and “This” McQuistan nearly won spots.
Vandy can kick. He’s a headcase for sure, but he can kick. Just wish he’d shut his mouth, though it is entertaining.
This just in…Owens & Glenn are good. The balance and threat are going to be awesome if they quit stepping on their tongues or other anatomical appendages.
And JJ/MBIII should never be spoken of singularly. No more debate, ever. Maybe just JB when talking of the next great tandems.
Doesn’t everyone realize we just played two of the top Offensive and Defensive lines? And dominated 6 of the 8 quarters. If not for leading the league in penalty yardage, no one would be talking about this team as anything other than the Super Bowl contender that they are.
Which gets me back to the real point. This team just needs to play together for a while. If we stay healthy, by midseason we’re all going to remember ‘93 all over again.
Fighter,
Wow that’s a hell of a comparison.
We’re really putting a lotáof pressure on this team if we’re comparing them to our 93′ team.
Your right though, Dallas sure has more talent than I can remember.
ESPN just reported that TO has been hospitalized, but didn’t say for what. Anyone heard anything about this?
Something about being taken to ER and having to induce vomiting. Story’ó attributed to KTVT TV in Dallas. Said he was brought in by fire dept response to emergency call. Poisoned? Too many pills? Doesn’t sound good.
http://sports.espn.go.com/nfl/news/story?id=2604395
Here is the link from ESPN not much info here
Fan since 1966:
Jimmy didn’t win em all so he must have coached a let down at some point. I would agree though that under Landry the Cowboys did have quite a few ‘WTF’ losses. Twice to the Cards during an SB year comes to mind.