Second Units Rise to Meet the Starters in 23-13 Broncos Loss
Posted: August 17, 2008 @ 2:46 am
So, which scenario grabs your attention more — an opening game in which the starters look great in limited play and the second and third teamers look weak, or the second game, where the starters look ragged but the understudies show tremendous improvement?
That was the performance Dallas served up in a 23-13 loss to Denver Saturday night. The Cowboys starters, so effective against San Diego, lost their edge; they could stay with the Broncos but could not make the deciding plays. The defense allowed two long scoring drives because it could not stop a sharp Jay Cutler from converting on third down. And on the series where they defenders came through, Bradie James handed Denver a “continue your drive free” card by commiting a personal foul after Denver conceded, calling a draw on third and long.
The offense made some plays, with Tony Romo and Terrell Owens connecting for the first time this campaign, but could not string together the good plays and could not overcome 20 yards of penalties on the opening drive.
On the other hand, this was a strong night for new Cowboys. Let’s run down the list of draftees, trade pickup and young players on the edge:
1. Felix Jones — continued to show dazzling open field skills. He took a short opening toss from Brad Johnson, made two Broncos miss, and turned a likely seven or eight yard gain into a 28 yarder.
2. Mike Jenkins — was beaten on a stop and go by Eddie Royal on Denver’s second drive, and by an option route in the end zone by Brandon Marshall. The rookie was solid, however and made some big stops as a gunner on special teams.
3. Martellus Bennett — made the most of his limited opportunities, showing tackle breaking ability on Dallas’ initial 3rd quarter drive. He also made a stop on a kickoff return at Denver’s 26.
4. Tashard Choice — blocked a punt in the third quarter and showed toughness as a runner and receiver.
5. Orlando Scandrick — Had a 32 yard kickoff return and almost blocked the Broncos’ half-ending field goal attempt and forced it wide. Scandrick later put a wicked hit on a Denver receiver inside the Dallas ten, keeping the Broncos out of the end zone.
6. Adam Jones — was much, much better tonight than against San Diego. He was much more in tune with the game’s pace. He gave up a handful of catches but tackled his man for minimal gains of two to three yard. His tackling was much better this week. He just missed an interception for a score and got the Cowboys’ collective pulse racing with a brilliant 24 yard punt return.
7. Miles Austin — had another strong game, making two impressive catches on Dallas’ lone TD drive, the first a 38 yarder down the right sideline that beat tight Dominique Foxworth coverage and the second a fade over Foxworth for the score.
Austin is also the biggest question mark. He tackled Broncos returner Andre Hall on the play immediately after his score and took Hall’s shoulder pad directly on his right knee. The initial diagnosis was a “sprain” and Austin will be re-evaluated today. Hope the scans don’t find serious damage, because he’s making a serious push for more playing time.
8. Isaiah Stanback — Had a winding 32 yard kickoff return and caught a tough Johnson skipper just off the turf. He appears to be making slow, steady progress.
9. Bobby Carpenter — made a lot of tackles behind the second line, which played much better as a unit this week.
10. Keon Lattimore — made some big runs in the 4th quarter playing with the third teamers. He’s earner a more serious look the last two weeks.
11. Bruce Read — you notice all the big special teams plays today? His units were vastly improved from last week, showing strong play across the board. Dallas got big kickoff and punt returns, blocked a punt, forced a bad field goal and had strong punt coverage.
If Read’s guys can bottle this week’s performance, they’ll be in great shape going forward.
It was a fuzzy game for the starters but the backups gave the coaches plenty to study this week.
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Speaking of games….
NFL Films has finally found a way to release whole games - could never understand why they haven’t done this before. They have been releasing them via its “greatest games” series - and the Cowboys are finally being released. The 5 Super Bowls plus 5 other whole games. Pretty good value for $37.
Its in pre-release now on Amazon, due out 28 Oct, see link below….
http://www.amazon.com/NFL-Dallas-Cowboys-Greatests-Games/dp/B001D7T45G/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=dvd&qid=1218959290&sr=1-1
The Miles Austin injury is a real bummer, he really looked to be getting the swing of things. He was good last week and the two plays he made against the Broncos were great. That TD catch was spectacular. Before the game I wrote that if Miles could use his speed to get deep and his size in one on one match ups to contribute one or two big plays a game it would help the offense enormously, well what he did tonight was exactly what I was saying; 1 catch went for 37 yards and the other was a TD, that’s two big plays right there. I hope the injury doesn’t set him back to much.
Yeah, Luke. I was thinking about what you said when watching Austin. A couple of big catches a game this year like he had last night would be a big plus for us. Another promising young guy in pre-season gets hurt though. Cross our fingers.
I sure hope we are getting these stupid penalties out of the way now
I am also hoping the starters were just getting this game out of the way before they could go home, I know it is probably not time to start worrying yet but it would be nice to win a game or at least look like we deserved to win! At least special teams looked better.
What a shame it will be if Miles is hurt bad, he is looking pretty good.
They are saying Miles Austin has a sprained MCL. It’s going to keep him from practicing/getting in sync with Romo for a while Im assuming so It’s going to be a set back. He was making progress too. Dissapointing…
I would add Rodney Hannah to the list of eleven.
I don’t think the dallas D was really very into it at the first of the game. It just looked like their intesity wasn’t there.
I also wanna say.. Jay Cutler looked pretty good as well. He looked like a totally different qb then last year.
boysfan:
the Cowboys radio network said they all start as a sprain until the MRI is done. They said that Miles pulled his chin stap off hard like he was mad/upset.
AF:
Culter throws a good ball, he has a very motion. With Marshall, Stokely and now Royal he has some good tarkets as well. But, lets be honest the Cowboys D could have made a pop warner QB look like a world beater.
I followed the Dallas Morning New blog the latter part of the week and each day they wrote how Culter ripped the Cowboys apart and how Romo looked rusty and all of the carried over to the game.
Last year when the teams played in Dallas the Denver players, coaching staff and media were all up in arms saying that Dallas game planned them. I guess there were a few e-mails sent the BS’s way saying that this must first year as a DC because you are suppose to play base. For those of you who were able to watch the game did Dallas play bae with little to no blitzing? Here in the Seattle market I watched the Seahawk game and they blited several times with the 1st team D.
I have to bring this up. Does anyone here agree? I still think that Wade Phillips (the players coach) is too soft. The players like him, he’s hard not to like. What suffers is discipline. It shows in penalties and playing mistakes. It doesn’t matter how talented your team is if your team makes as many penalties and player mistakes. You will still lose, like we did in the playoff Giants game. How about the the military guys on this blog? What do you think? I ask you for obvious reasons. The same problems are continuing from last year. Am I wrong? I remember the team had some problems with penalties when Parcells was here too. May be it’s not Phillips. What do all of you think?
Wait a minute Sirius… so your talking about how the Dallas D could have made a popwarner QB look awesome but you haven’t seen the game?
…… ok
Looks like we got gamed. Or did we just give it away with those inexusible 15 yard penalties? Man that was brutal. Wish I could watch it recorded. At least we had some good rookie play.
I don’t really know what to say about the penalties. Last night it was different type of penalties then the previous. I personally thought the Bradie James penalty was garbage, he was already commited to it and was damn near off of his feet when the guy was on the ground.
The O jump was kind of stupid by Gurorode because stood up and pointed.
Pacman spiking the ball… not real serious. He’ll get a talking too. It was his first punt return in a while and he got excited.
Penalties were bad but these weren’t nearly as bad as last week when you look at them.. IMO
damn…I was seriously considering picking up Austin on my fantasy team. He”d be on my bench but might have panned out or contributed eventually. Maybe he still will.
Where’s Tex? Brian Stewart’s defense gave around 240 yards in the first half.
Good to see Adam Jones make some plays and get excited. I am not too worried about these last two lame showings. Raf is right - in the first game the first unit played played great, in the second game the back-ups played well. They’ll get it all together in time for a good season. Just a bit bummed about Austin…
I usually don’t comment on the refs but last night’s game call was over the top. The Colombo penalty came on a quick out. He ran to the edge to block for T.O. and hit a guy just as the whistle was blowing and was flagged for fifteen.
On Bradie James hit he was in the air when Hall was tackled and could not pull up. Again, another hit just as the whistle was blowing.
The Ware interefence call was silly. Cutler was being pressured and the pass was ten yards over and beyond Ware’s man. They bumped into each other. It could have been illegal contact, but no way it was interference.
Ed Hockuli’s crew was going through their pre-season ups and downs too. They were WAAAAAAAAY too quick with whistles.
Torchin,
I don’t agree that Wade is too soft. Based on what? He was 13-3 last year when the press was screaming “camp cupcake.”
His dad ran camp cupcake every year. He always said, “Houston is not on our schedule” when questioned. Were those ’70s Oilers soft?
Was last year’s Cowboys team soft?
It’s mid-August, mister. How many serious injuries has this team suffered? How many have other teams already racked up?
yes there were some bs calls by refs. i hope it’s what moose said that it was too hard for players to focus and get up for game knowing they were going home next day. i hope.
good points raf - i was feeling agreeable to torchin about wade’s “i’m your buddy” coaching style…and i even commented about it last night during the first half…but i guess what it comes down is can you motivate your team to give you 100%….they certainly did seem to give him that last year as you said…so i will reserve my judgments for later in the season….
after re-watching last night’s game…all i can say is -
pac-man - wow - that dude had two plays in a row where he almost picked it…i think they need to coach him less and let him do “his thing” a little more…he has a way of naturally getting to where the ball is - u can’t teach that
felix - double wow (he wowed me last week as well)
stanback - getting excited about this kid just like last year
thomas - looks very very good - his intensity reminds me of the way
dat nguyen - the way he flies to the ball…albeit a little longer in the tooth
austin - he has looked reeally good…if he can get healed up he’ll get in there and contribute
brad johnson showed that he’s still got what it takes (when playing behind first teamers) to get us down the field if it absolutely comes down to it (knock on wood that it won’t come to that)- (note to brad - just dump 5 yard passes to f. jonez all night long and he’ll make you look like a genius…that dude is amazing with a little open space)
there was a trend at the beginning of last season, which was very interesting considering all the chattering about camp cupcake that was going on.
dallas was knocking alot of the other team’s players out of games.
hmmmm.
just ask zach thomas.
Rafael, I don’t think the equation is “Wade is soft, therefore the Cowboys play soft.” The equation is, “Wade is soft, so the Cowboys play without discipline.” I don’t think we’re going to get pushed around, but I DO fear that we’ll be riddled with penalties that kill drives (O) and extend drives (D), and then we’ll look and turn and point at the refs. I fear that we’ll lose the hidden yardage game. I fear that we’ll tackle sloppy. All of those were evident in our loss to the Giants, and all of those were evident last night. That’s how teams that are the “better team” (in Wade’s lingo after we outgained the Giants by 100+ yards in the playoffs) actually lose.
Wade’s style was a useful corrective to the excessively stern parenting of Parcells. But I think most NFL teams need *some* emotional leadership that’s stern, even if that doesn’t come from the head coach. (I’d argue that it comes in Indy from the QB, for example). Our coaches and stars are likeable, and the guy who is most wired to throw motivational tantrums (Owens) has such a “bad teammate” history that he has to be careful with outburts lest he be seen in again in that light.
The typical pessimistic media narrative about the Cowboys is “Owens, Pac Man, Tank, and ‘Romo the Party Boy’” will turn on each other in trouble and underachieve. Hard Knocks has made it clear to me that we have a bunch of likeable guys and knowledgeable coaches who love football and like each other.
The more realistic pessimistic narrative, is: “The Cowboys have no coaches or players who will angrily call each other out.”
Do we have someone who’s going to come into the locker room and turn it blue after a performance like last night, the way Michael Jordan would’ve done? Do we have people who realize that the reasons we lost to the Giants weren’t just about the play of Ayodele, Reeves, and JJones, and therefore can’t be solved by upgrading those positions?
We have spectacular talent. But if we’re overpenalized, lose in kick coverage, and miss tackles, we’ll eventually lose in the playoffs, even it’s not the first game. These are the least glamorous parts of football. But if we do them as poorly as we did at the end of last year–and the signs are discouraging–we’re looking at a disappointing season.
On the game-Next will tell, right? The 3rd game is supposed to be the one you aim for, the starters will play a whole half, I hope, and we’ll see how they do.
If they look flat/bad next week, worry more.
On Wade-it’s not the coach that makes a team soft, it’s the players.
Lawrence Taylor wouldn’t have been soft if he had WPhillips as a coach.
I do agree, and we’ve been through this before, that we ARE a kind of “soft” team. Both mentally and physically we miss a guy, particularly on defense, who brings that attitude.
It used to be RoyW, of course, but he hasn’t hit anyone in 2 years.
Ware is a good example, he’s got all the skill and talent, but he doesn’t really have that Charles Haley, I’m not just going to sack you, I’m going to crush you kind of attitude.
He’s a real nice guy.
This is a subjective discussion that people can disagree on, but it does play into the end-of-year and playoff problems, if only as one factor of many.
And………., we’re back to the “Leadership” debate.
There will never be agreement on this one, but I agree with Tim to an extent:
“The more realistic pessimistic narrative, is: “The Cowboys have no coaches or players who will angrily call each other out.”
Go ahead everyone, have at it
And I think everyone has to put the game into perspective as far as we “being gamed”.
Dallas was running a very vanilla offense and defense. Even Wade said that he thought they were running too vanilla of a defense. I wonder if he toned it down because of the crying that Denver was doing last year.
Lets put it this way guys, some of the better defenses in the NFL have looked “bad” in the preseason. Pittsburg gave up 14 in the first half with their first team defense and so did Green Bay… both to not great offenses.
Remember two years ago when Dallas’s Defense looked unstoppable in the preseason only to get torn apart multiple times in the regular season?
apparently they were “angrily calling each other out” last night and ellis pulled them over and calmed them down.
seemed to work.
this is a team of veterans, they cant be treated like raw rookies.
nor can they be expected to go 110% in a pre-season game that means nothing, even if the fans want to watch them dominate.
the veteran’s job at this point is to stay healthy so they CAN go 110% in the regular season.
“lack of leadership” is a piss poor excuse for losing a game. most NFL veterans would probably agree.
“The more realistic pessimistic narrative, is: “The Cowboys have no coaches or players who will angrily call each other out.”
BWAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!
Seriously, that’s comedy gold.
The Cowboys have lots of high octane coaches on this staff. Reggie Herring, Hudson Houck, Dave Campo and the Garrett brothers are taskmasters. Or did these guys and Ray Sherman all become stupid all of a sudden?
The difference is that they don’t show people up in front of cameras.
Ah, why is it that so many people think it’s not leadership if it doesn’t sound like Knute Rockne, and isn’t delivered with a swelling Hollywood score in front of lots of cameras?
So if your boss has issues with you or any of your colleagues and chooses to handle things in his office behind closed doors, he’s a lousy leader? And would be a much better one if he humiliated you in front of everybody?
(cont.) Look, I saw Wade Phillips get really hot in front of the press exactly one time in Oxnard. That was when a writer made a highly presumptuous, judgemental — and wrong, IMO — assessment of a player and asked Wade to second it.
The man is very protective of his team, which is one reason why they love him. He will never hang a guy out to dry. He proved that in Buffalo, where he refused to fire Bruce DeHaven after the Music City Miracle and greased the skids for his own demise a year later as a result.
To me, that’s the sign of a healthy, loyal, sane person. But that’s just me.
Maybe he refused to fire dehaven b/c he watched dehaven call his ST unit over before they kicked off in that game.
he told his unit that the titan’s only chance was to run a trick play so simply STAY IN YOUR LANES and make the tackle, and you’re home free.
exactly one minute later, every player on the unit went out and did exactly the opposite of what his coach had just told him to do.
how do you fire a coach for that? or, why?
ill tell you why. to placate rabid fans who are angry that their team lost.
I supervised people for many years. I see nothing wrong in Wade’s approach.
I was passed over for a promotion once and asked why. My boss told me that I wasn’t ‘passionate’ enough about the job. The guy they selected was later demoted for verbal abuses and threats against the public and employees. He was, however, passionate.
We have a very good coach here, and time will tell if he’s actually great. Nit-piking him over style is unnecessary.
Some of the most passionate and dedicated leaders I’ve seen almost never raise their voices.
most guys I’ve seen who make a habit out of being “yellers” are trying to compensate for some other shortfall.
I have a lot to say about last nights game, but I’ll get to it later.
in regards to this conversation, I will say that no one approach works. It all depends on the individuals on the team. You do have to wonder why our veterans are making foolish mental errors. It may mean that assuming big boys can be trusted to know right from wrong isn’t going to work with these guys. Rather than try to act like task masters, I would hope the coaches would impliment a focus on basics and mental acuity each week, maintaining their style of treating these guys like men, but still working on their weaknesses.
Rafael, let me slightly refine my argument and add a disclaimer before I do: I generally despise the “locker room character” theory of sports success. I think it’s vastly overblown by the media and even moreso by the ex-jocks among them. I also respect your opinion on the team as much as I respect any layperson’s. So I’m open to persuasion on all of the following points, but here are my concerns.
1) Is it your argument that football teams don’t need a Michael Jordan (I know, difft. sport) or Jimmy Johnson like “asshole factor” somewhere? Or is it your argument that this kind of stuff is going on behind closed doors?
2) If it is going on off camera, is it enough if it’s done by just a position coach or two? Or would that kind of fire need to come from a coordinator or a team star?
3) Wade frequently seems publicly Pollyannish to me, and part of me likes that. He doesn’t buy the media narrative, and he doesn’t do things to make himself look good to the scribes at the expense of the team. Do you believe the “the better team won…we were 13-3″ stuff is different than what he says privately? Do you think he’s fully attuned to the team’s weaknesses privately?
4) Do you agree with me that poor kick coverage, sloppy tackling, and penalties were most of the reason we lost to the Giants? Do you share my concern that those problems are still present?
5) If so, do you believe that part of the failure to excel in the “non glamorous” stuff listed above is team culture/coaching?
Btw…I agree, jarhead, that the leaders are not necessarily yellers and yellers are frequently poor leaders. Case in point: I don’t think Tom Landry was a yeller. But he had a way of making players fear his quiet wrath. Is the fear of wrath (even quiet) wrath something that has to exist on a great football team? I dunno….
1. There is a lot of correcting going on on the field and behind closed doors.
2. fire comes from within. It can’t be instilled by external factors.
3. I don’t think Wade cares what the press thinks.
4. what a patronizing question. I’m not that concerned because the team worked really hard on these things, especially special teams.
5. ?
Raf-
thanks, and i like your new post as well. None of my questions are “questions disguised as comments.” I’m legitimately unsure on this stuff.
3) I get it that Wade doesn’t care what the media thinks, and good for him. So his “13-3…better team” stuff is just a media stiff arm that he himself doesn’t buy? I hope so…
4) wasn’t a rhetorical question, and I’m not patronizing you or anyone else (see my lavish praise of your commentary at the beginning of my post).
Tim,
Sorry for coming off snappish. I don’t know you and certainly don’t mean for anything to be taken personally. I’m just wary of questions that try to frame possible answers. I probably over reacted to yours.
AF:
No I was not able to watch the game but I did listen to it. When I hear Culter is back ..”no pressure” “has all the time in the world” and so on… 12-12 against air is one thing, but against another teams number one D? Either Culter was perfect or the Dallas D was bad.