Yeah, yeah, another thread about that lovely game last night. I figured I'd throw my two bits in as well. Oh, and yes, I would have said "throw my 2 cents in", but inflation has pushed that up to two bits (a quarter!)
1) Offense
There were rough spots, but I like the adjustments of going to RPO concepts for Jones...I think it actually settled him down a bit. One of his best games, he actually took command out there, which is nice to see. And yes, he'll probably turn the ball over at times doing the RPO, but at least the offense was moving the ball!
The line actually did much better, even with Gates going down (damn you, WH, if you didn't stink last week, things might have gone differently!). Thomas is a work in progress, but Solder is just a turnstyle. He was awful in SB 52, btw (check out the Pat's last drive), giving him a contract was a massive mistake, since I think he was done then. DG should be fired for that alone.
The WR's were almost decent, still too many drops and they aren't really good at blocking (at this point). We don't have a #1, we have #2's and #3's at best.
Toney should have been out there for a few plays if he suited up. I know what JonC said, but I'll go back to an old unnamed source who talked about the Cowboys back in the day "they would get WR's who were raw, and just have them run down the field to clear the safety's out." You don't need to know routes very well to run a basic flag or post. If Toney couldn't run, then he shouldn't have suited up.
Oh, and that mess after the interception with less than 3 minutes to go. Yeah, I understand trying to burn WFT's TO's, but going tight on the line? That
NEVER works!!! Barkley had zero chance after that. How the hell can you call that when you have a makeshift line that hasn't pushed the WFT defense around all game?
If you're going to run, for heaven's sake SPREAD THE DEFENSE OUT! The only time you should be tight on the line is when you have less than a 1/2 yard to go, and your OLine has had some success moving people. My choices for that situation would have been play action with Barkley on first, then RPO the next two plays.
2) Defense
Yeah. Would have been nice to see some. This picture is from another thread, but it says it all:
No wonder teams are laughing when they see the tape. I couldn't help ROTFL when I saw this picture, too!
Graham is in a bad spot. He has zero pass rush, and the offense (before tonight) wasn't moving the ball. I'm convinced he's determined he cannot depend on his guys to succeed in tight coverage. The problem is, his soft zone is exposed, and teams will take advantage of it every game.
I don't know if there is a solution. Not only are the DB's forced to be in a soft zone, the ends can't contain the run AND the defense was being gashed up the middle by a line that's not considered one of the stronger ones. This is bad, bad, bad. Zak is going to throw a couple of 50 point plus games against that defense. Yeah, we might score 30 plus, but that won't be near enough to stay with Dallas, let alone other teams.
Graham is going to have to manufacture a pass rush somehow. I'm not sure it can be done, but I'll guess he'll go to overload blitzes, safety blitzes, stunts, etc. The problem is I'm not sure any of these players are good at blitzing, and the CB's weren't all that good at press coverage. Hello memories of Johnny Lynn defenses!
Bottom line? The offense will have to find a way to take time off the clock to keep that defense off the field.
3) Summary
The team is still a work in progress. Similar to road construction in Pennsylvania is a work in progress, this will take several more years to fix. It didn't help that we blew our cap load on players who simply aren't that good.
I think this team is about two-three years away from seriously competing for a title IF we get a new GM soon and we start hitting on draft choices. It's pretty well known that the way to win in football is TO GET BETTER PLAYERS THAN THE OTHER TEAMS. Coaching is important, but it only goes so far with limited talent.
This upcoming draft will likely determine the direction of the team for the next five years, since we will have a lot of high round draft choices in what is considered a deep draft. We're at a crossroads, just like the franchise was at the end of 1977 and the "miracle of the meadowlands" fumble. If we get a George Young, we're fine...if not, we'll be the new Cleveland Browns of old.
Hopefully, it comes out this time! - ( New Window )
The back judge has to have that gap covered!
We're going to lose a lot of games. We're going to lose them in different ways. People will argue about how the blame should be apportioned every week. But overall its just not a good team and we'll see a lot of different styles of losses.
In High School, we had rules for that:
1st) The guy in front of you
2nd) The guy to the inside
3rd) The Linebacker
So, elminiate #1 and #3, and the LG should block the nose tackle!
But talent can be developed and team work can overcome deficiencies. Only factors to be hopeful about with this team.