Game day

[jarntt]

I actually liked some of the screens. I thought Austin was close to popping his. Zeke was barely tripped up on another flat pass. I know Dak missed some throws but one big one we actually got a defensive penalty on it. Gallauo was running wide open. If he catches that he had all kinds of room. It wasn’t a terrible pass but it could have been better. I just think we clean it up some.

When you call a screen pass on 3rd and long over and over your chances of succeeding are almost none. Will it work sometimes? Of course, but it's just a horrible call. The whole idea of getting 11 yards on a screen is expecting to catch the defense off guard. When you run it over and over you can't. At least if they throw a slant or those 6 yard routes to Beasley there is a chance to break it for more.

There are always bad throws. The only one that really stuck out to me was the miss to Jarwin. Easy throw, big gain, wide open, miss.

 

[ROMOTOOWENS]

When you call a screen pass on 3rd and long over and over your chances of succeeding are almost none. Will it work sometimes? Of course, but it's just a horrible call. The whole idea of getting 11 yards on a screen is expecting to catch the defense off guard. When you run it over and over you can't. At least if they throw a slant or those 6 yard routes to Beasley there is a chance to break it for more.

There are always bad throws. The only one that really stuck out to me was the miss to Jarwin. Easy throw, big gain, wide open, miss.

Yep that was a bad throw. He never looked comfortable yesterday.

 

[jarntt]

I also thought Dak did a poor job of getting rid of the ball a few times. And if you are going to roll, then roll. You have to make a decision. Either throw the ball away or move. You can't stand there. The Car DL looked faster than I expected in pursuit, but it's the NFL

 

[UK Cowboy]

I'm not sure that not throwing the ball in those situations is a bad thing. My theory is always live to see another down. Where it seems we are lacking is the "throw the ball before the guy makes his break" type of play. Seldom do we see the Aikman to Novacek type pass where the QB and WR seem to be on the same page and the ball is thrown before the break.

We need to find that page...to me, it looks like (just one game, I know) Carolina, who was banged up in the secondary, just said we are gonna lock down Zeke and make Dak beat us throwing. That will be the same gameplan for the next 15 teams we face, so theh Cowboys had better make some adjustments, quick. You would think that going into his third year, they would be ahead of the curve on this. One way or another, they had better figure it out fast or they are going to have a huge decision after the season. They are all in on Dak, but if he doesn't prove able to throw guys open against man coverage, can you really bump his salary up bu $20 million a year? Can you let go of Tank Lawrence to pay Dak?

 

[es4m11]

I also thought Dak did a poor job of getting rid of the ball a few times. And if you are going to roll, then roll. You have to make a decision. Either throw the ball away or move. You can't stand there. The Car DL looked faster than I expected in pursuit, but it's the NFL

I have not watched the game yet - I will today. Just going by what you're saying here, I have to wonder how big of an impact a lack of any meaningful preseason snaps has had? Maybe...probably it's just a slow start, and Dak has yet to develop the timing. Prescott played all of two or three drives in preseason and has not saw game action in 3 weeks before yesterday - which IMO is a mistake for a young QB.

 

[jarntt]

I have not watched the game yet - I will today. Just going by what you're saying here, I have to wonder how big of an impact a lack of any meaningful preseason snaps has had? Maybe...probably it's just a slow start, and Dak has yet to develop the timing. Prescott played all of two or three drives in preseason and has not saw game action in 3 weeks before yesterday - which IMO is a mistake for a young QB.

There is no way to no for sure, but IMO that was a big part of it. Once we opened it up and spread them out in the 4th Qtr we moved the ball much better. We seemed to be in more of a rhythm. It was more pitch and catch to the open guy. We also started getting the OL out in front of Zeke and ran the ball better. Early in the game we tried to just overpower them and it was clear there were no holes and no deep throws to attempt to keep the DBs honest and from supporting the run as well as they did.

 

[jarntt]

We need to find that page...to me, it looks like (just one game, I know) Carolina, who was banged up in the secondary, just said we are gonna lock down Zeke and make Dak beat us throwing. That will be the same gameplan for the next 15 teams we face, so theh Cowboys had better make some adjustments, quick. You would think that going into his third year, they would be ahead of the curve on this. One way or another, they had better figure it out fast or they are going to have a huge decision after the season. They are all in on Dak, but if he doesn't prove able to throw guys open against man coverage, can you really bump his salary up bu $20 million a year? Can you let go of Tank Lawrence to pay Dak?

Dak wasn't great, but here's where I can't criticize him too much. First half we were 0-5 on 3rd down. It was 3rd and 26, 12, 10, 11 and 7. That's not going to lend itself to a high conversion rate and then on top of that we hardly tried to convert them. Dak needs to be better, but the team needs to put our Offense in a better position to succeed as well. Penalties, OL play, coaching all need to step up

 

[UK Cowboy]

I have not watched the game yet - I will today. Just going by what you're saying here, I have to wonder how big of an impact a lack of any meaningful preseason snaps has had? Maybe...probably it's just a slow start, and Dak has yet to develop the timing. Prescott played all of two or three drives in preseason and has not saw game action in 3 weeks before yesterday - which IMO is a mistake for a young QB.

In other words...the coaches didn't have their guys prepared to play...which is why Jerry stormed out of the building. If the Cowboys lose to the GMen with a similar offensive performance, I wouldn't be surprised to see JG take over play calling. If the Cowboys fail to make the playoffs, I would bet the house Kris Richard is the new HC next year..a move I would be totally down with

 

[UK Cowboy]

Dak wasn't great, but here's where I can't criticize him too much. First half we were 0-5 on 3rd down. It was 3rd and 26, 12, 10, 11 and 7. That's not going to lend itself to a high conversion rate and then on top of that we hardly tried to convert them. Dak needs to be better, but the team needs to put our Offense in a better position to succeed as well. Penalties, OL play, coaching all need to step up

We were behind the sticks for sure, but Carolina had a beat up OL, their star TE went out early, and they were still able to put up two TD's and a FG. All I'm saying about Dak, is that if he wants to make $20M/per, he's gonna have to step it up, valid excuses or not

 

[jarntt]

Another note. Has anyone seen Sean Lee ever play so poorly as he did in the first half? The whole preseason was about bringing him along slowly to keep him healthy. Maybe he just didn't play/practice/tackle enough. On the plus side Jones and Awuzie continue to play very well.

 

[DT LUNA]

Pass or run, can't have one without the other. Some how we have to stretch the field and screen after screen won't do it. The run game will make adjustments and Dak will show an improvement too.

 

[jarntt]

 

[jarntt]

 

[ROMOTOOWENS]

Wow. That’s pretty telling. They were daring us to throw. The middle of the field looks wide open.

 

[ROMOTOOWENS]

Honestly the whole damn field looks open

 

[jarntt]

Wow. That’s pretty telling. They were daring us to throw. The middle of the field looks wide open.

I'm sure there was a safety at the sticks, but at least TRY

 

[tomodach10]

I also thought Dak did a poor job of getting rid of the ball a few times. And if you are going to roll, then roll. You have to make a decision. Either throw the ball away or move. You can't stand there. The Car DL looked faster than I expected in pursuit, but it's the NFL

That is the problem with Dak. He is too indecisive. He was not like that before. He holds the ball too long at times. Some saks were on him. He needs to be make quicker decisions.

 

[ArlingtonCowboys100]

Well Thompson and twill..made no plays. They need to try different receivers!!! Zeke needs more touches. Coaching staff on offense clueless. I though this team could win 10 to 11 games,but not after yeaterday.

 

[Eiknarflin]

I was traveling yesterday, so I didn't get to watch the game, but I was able to hear the first half on the radio. What follows is my take from listening to radio announcers who were local guys for Carolina...

1) I can't tell you how many times they said something to the effect of, "It's almost like he knew exactly where that play was heading." That made me think that our play calling was, once again, so predictable that the defense can beat us to the spot.

2) It sounded as though there was poor effort on many plays on both sides of the ball. On one sack of Prescott the announcers said that Zeke gave half an effort to block the defender, who ended up running right through him and got Prescott. On the defensive side, several times it sounded like our guys were more about trying to give a hit rather than wrap a guy up and bring him down. On a few of the runs by Newton, it sounded as though there was zero containment, which means a lack of discipline.

3) A few different times the announcers said that our db's had a chance to make a play on the ball but were off balance or turned around. That happens, to some extent, all the time, but the frequency of it made sounded as though our guys just weren't playing with any kind of confidence or rhythm.

All in all, to me it sounded like some of the preseason games I did get to see, and every one of them frustrated me because it seems like our guys just are not well coached.

As I said, this was my take from listening to unapologetically biased broadcasters, but as I tried to visualize the game in my mind, what I saw was pathetic.

 

[jarntt]

That is the problem with Dak. He is too indecisive. He was not like that before. He holds the ball too long at times. Some saks were on him. He needs to be make quicker decisions.

Cam was in the shot gun most of the game. Dak was in the shot gun most of year one. Year one he was great. Then we try to make him play under center more and he struggles with his drop depth and doesn't look as comfortable. Just let him do his thing. He was fantastic for most of the 4th when we spread everything out and kept him in the shot gun. the whole offense moved better and was in sync