Run/pass split

[ROMOTOOWENS]

He got 100 million for something. I can make excuses , comparisons, throw up stats- basically do whatever I damn well please. This is a messeage board - I said earlier in this thread- to each his own. You have your opinion and I will have mine.

 

[Earl Stevens]

He got 100 million for something. I can make excuses , comparisons, throw up stats- basically do whatever I damn well please. This is a messeage board - I said earlier in this thread- to each his own. You have your opinion and I will have mine.

But this is all Cowboy fans (including me) have been doing for years. At some point we have to start caring more about the results. Those other quarterbacks you mentioned either have multiple playoff wins, an NFC Championship appearance, a SB appearance, or SB wins. All Romo has is stats and excuses. The fact that Matt Ryan made an NFC Championship game last year and was one half from winning the SB or the fact that Flacco won the SB should have been the last straw when it came to defending Romo. Seeing Cutler make the NFC Championship a few years ago was bad enough, but last year was the icing on the cake. Those are all guys we thought/think Romo is better than yet they all have went further in the playoffs than Romo. It's like I said, all we have is stats and excuses for Romo and nothing else. I love Romo. He's a good guy and I've always defended him, but this is a results league. You have to get it done and Romo hasn't gotten it done.

And no, Romo doesn't deserve all the blame but he didn't exactly do enough in big games to warrant all the excuses we made for him. If Romo played lights out in big games and we still lost them, we could legitimately make excuses for him. But often he doesn't play well in big games and really gives us no reason to defend him, yet we all still blindly defended him anyway. No more for me.

 

[Earl Stevens]

And I meant to say "making the SB" not "winning."

 

[Manster7588]

No, you really don't. At what point will you stop making excuses for Romo?

Sorry Earl, I have to disagee here. Team do need to run in the red zone. No they don't need to be a 4yd average team, but they must at least have the ability to run to force the defense to at least be concerned by it. If I'm a DC faceing Dallas I will plan a run defense early and instruct my players to watch fot Dallas to give up the run soon. Then it's all out pass defense after that. Funny part is it doesn't matter if were up 20 we will still forgo the run and pass away.

 

[UK Cowboy]

I don't want to dog pile JG, but the truth is, he has been in over his head from the get go and is far more responsible for the .500 record than Romo. He has a lot of qualities that may make him a great coach one day, he might even get there some day. But to this point, he has been sub par, plain and simple, at least in my far less than expert opinion

 

[jarntt]

He got 100 million for something.

He probably didn't deserve quite $100M. One of the reasons he got that contract was because of the horrible structure of his previous contract. The cap hit we would have taken for letting him walk would have crushed us. Add in the cap hit of a new QB that probably wouldn't be as good as him and he really was our only option. This is why I argue with those that think we have no cap issues. We do and just because we find a way to sign the players we want doesn't mean we don't. It's Math and the cap is the cap. You can't make a reasonable argument that our restructures haven't hurt us. They are the reason we signed MB and Livings instead of better OL.

HOWEVER, Romo was also given the contract because he is a good NFL QB. He was and still is our best option. Arguing that he needs to get better and that he has not played that great so far this year are fair game on a message board, no? When it happens right after signing a contract that ensures we won't be able to sign as many or as high priced of FAs as we could have otherwise, then that will come into the discussion too. I haven't seen anyone in this thread say we would be better without him or that all of our problems are his fault. He needs to get better and quoting his completion % doesn't show the whole picture. You seem unable to grasp or accept that point of view, which is up to you.

He is clearly not the only player who needs to step it up a little and he has not played horribly. Either way, we are 1-1. The sky is not falling and we are in first place in our division. We just aren't good enough to play near perfect games for any stretch of time. It looks like a race to 10 in the NFC East and we have as good of a shot as anyone to get there. I am very excited to see this OL play if Waters is now ready. I think it could change everything for this team as it will hopefully let us start running the ball effectively and take some pressure off of Romo and give him some more time in the pocket when we throw as well.

 

[jarntt]

Sorry Earl, I have to disagee here. Team do need to run in the red zone. No they don't need to be a 4yd average team, but they must at least have the ability to run to force the defense to at least be concerned by it. If I'm a DC faceing Dallas I will plan a run defense early and instruct my players to watch fot Dallas to give up the run soon. Then it's all out pass defense after that. Funny part is it doesn't matter if were up 20 we will still forgo the run and pass away.

Well, then shame on our coaches if that's all other teams need to do. Murray is currently at 3.5 yards per carry, so if we don't need to be at 4...aren't we already where we need to be?

Anyway, IMO, we are running the ball well enough to keep defenses from going to an all out pass defense. The reason we have allowed them to do it over the last couple of years (including this year) is because we just abandon the run. It's more panic by the coaches than execution on that one. We are not running well enough to make teams keep 8 in the box for sure, but hopefully the more we stay dedicated to the run, the more we force them to pay closer attention to it. We are like a pitcher that is going to throw a fastball, the hitter knows he is going to throw a fastball, but our fastball isn't quite good enough to get him out consistently when he knows it's coming and if he would only mix in a change up more often it would make his fastball much more effective. Not sure if that makes any sense...but it was brilliant inside my pea brain head!!!

 

[Manster7588]

Well, then shame on our coaches if that's all other teams need to do. Murray is currently at 3.5 yards per carry, so if we don't need to be at 4...aren't we already where we need to be?

Anyway, IMO, we are running the ball well enough to keep defenses from going to an all out pass defense. The reason we have allowed them to do it over the last couple of years (including this year) is because we just abandon the run. It's more panic by the coaches than execution on that one. We are not running well enough to make teams keep 8 in the box for sure, but hopefully the more we stay dedicated to the run, the more we force them to pay closer attention to it. We are like a pitcher that is going to throw a fastball, the hitter knows he is going to throw a fastball, but our fastball isn't quite good enough to get him out consistently when he knows it's coming and if he would only mix in a change up more often it would make his fastball much more effective. Not sure if that makes any sense...but it was brilliant inside my pea brain head!!!

The fastball analogy makes perfect sense. And the abandoning the run is partly of what I'm getting at. 3.5yrds per carry is not great, but it's enough for the coaches not to give up on it. It seems as though if Murray gets stopped for no gain the thought becomes "Oh Shit, we can't run on this team, we better just throw the ball". Of course with our play calling it's entirely possible we could average 4.5 yards per, and we would still throw the ball at a 40/20 split.

 

[ROMOTOOWENS]

Earl has been dogging Romo since preseason, which is his choice I understand. However, like I said and I think you said- this is a message board and people will have different opinions- so in any other words its fair for me to take up for Romo just like like its fair for people to pile on him. He is the QB. And believe me I watch the games and dont have to see a stat sheet. I know Romo was off in the fourth quarter of the KC game. Some act like he is the only QB to every over throw a wide open WR. It happens. Its like I said earlier in the week, just maybe we got beat by a pretty good footbaLL team.

 

[jarntt]

Actually Earl has been backing Romo non-stop all offseason...

I don't thing anyone has ever said he is the only one to mess up. But we are here to discuss the Cowboys and he is our only QB to play. So, we are going to dicuss him, not others. If Rodgers or Ponder does the same I don't see a reason to bring that to a Dallas Cowboy board.

 

[jarntt]

Its like I said earlier in the week, just maybe we got beat by a pretty good footbaLL team.

that may be the case, but if we aren't going to discuss what we are doing well and what we need to do better, what are we going to talk about? I sure don't want to talk about next years draft...

 

[ROMOTOOWENS]

Well, I always want to discuss the TEAM. Unfortunately to some it all falls back to Romo. As far as Earl goes- he has ripped Romo since game 2 of the preseason. He has stated his reasons why as well. If we are gonna discuss the play of our freshly signed 100 million dollar QB and analyze mistake he has made, then lets discuss our 50 million dollar LB that really has been invisible so far.

 

[ROMOTOOWENS]

Has PDay been banned. ???

 

[ROMOTOOWENS]

I game too talk about anything about this team whether it be our improved pass blocking, our aging TE, our Terrance Newman part 2, our version of McCoy that has fumbling problems, the stellar play of Brandon Carr, the red zone issues........

 

[jarntt]

Well, I always want to discuss the TEAM. Unfortunately to some it all falls back to Romo.

Perhaps that is partially due to the fact that any criticism of Romo is defended by some with more vigor than an insult to their child. As sure as the Sun comes up someone will make an excuse to push the blame onto someone else or justify why he did something or point out another QB that did something similar or just put forth a slew of stats to basically slant or avoid the discussion entirely. I've still never seen some here acknowledge any interception or sack or poor play of any kind as being Romo's fault. I remember a thread where some literally blamed someone else for all 5 of Romo's ints. I remember the talk of him being better than Aikman and Staubach. I remember people saying Aikman and Rodgers and Brady would be no good on this team. That is just lunacy IMO.

And yes, the other side is equally incapable of seeing any of Romo's strengths and attributes blame for all things to him whether he played a role in it or not, but that isn't what I see going on in this thread, so it hasn't been mentioned.

 

[jarntt]

Getting back to the topic...We better run the ball more this week.

This isn't sarcasm. I really want to know if I am the only one that thinks a 1 yard run on first and goal from the 2 is a good thing. When that happens, I want to run it again and to be honest, even if we get stymied on 2nd down for no gain, I would want to run it again on 3rd and 1. It's like the second we don't get positive yards on a run we completely panic and act as if we must throw the ball. So what do you guys think? After a 1 yard run on first and goal from the two are you thinking run again, or we better throw?

 

[ROMOTOOWENS]

That would be good. Im anxious to see Waters more and how much he can help. In the old days 1st and goal inside the 5 was pretty much 3 if not 4 runs were coming. Then the analysts - Madden, Deirdorf, etc started saying 2nd down is a heck of a play action down inside the 5 which it was. Now I believe that down has went to 1st down. With that being said, I dont want any tricks. Just line up and play. 3 runs or Romo take 1 step back and throw it up to Dez. There is no chance of sack or negative play on that 1.

 

[Mrhappi06]

I dont see this team running 3 times straight ever. The Marion B struggles from a few years ago have pretty much cemented that in my opinion.

Im all for running it on first and 2nd though.

Incredulously, I still dont see this team running much more than 20 times Sunday. Especially if the game is tight.

 

[Schmoopy1000]

To Jarntt point. I agree. I don't want us to abandon the run at the 1st sight of it being stopped. Especially in the redzone. Also don't want to see our RB dance around in the back field on short yardage.

Now with all that said. I don't want our runs to be so predictable when we have a lead so we just do 3 & outs. its like we use a playcalling for dummies book. When we have a lead & try to run out the clock (for an entire quarter sometimes) Then I would like to see some passing. Everyone up ready to stop the run..... screw it pass. When they are set up to try & stop Romo & Dez & gang..... screw it run! We should be able to play call way better than we have (the last few years) With the way the defenses around the league think of our offense, it should be easy to set up the defenses. We are so predictable. line up in a predictable way & do something different!

 

[ROMOTOOWENS]

Perhaps that is partially due to the fact that any criticism of Romo is defended by some with more vigor than an insult to their child. As sure as the Sun comes up someone will make an excuse to push the blame onto someone else or justify why he did something or point out another QB that did something similar or just put forth a slew of stats to basically slant or avoid the discussion entirely. I've still never seen some here acknowledge any interception or sack or poor play of any kind as being Romo's fault. I remember a thread where some literally blamed someone else for all 5 of Romo's ints. I remember the talk of him being better than Aikman and Staubach. I remember people saying Aikman and Rodgers and Brady would be no good on this team. That is just lunacy IMO.

And yes, the other side is equally incapable of seeing any of Romo's strengths and attributes blame for all things to him whether he played a role in it or not, but that isn't what I see going on in this thread, so it hasn't been mentioned.

Well technically , the 5 INTS vs the Bears last year were a result of others mistakes and truthfully he really is better than Aikman. Now the Bills game in 2007, 2 of the INTs were on him. IM JUST KIDDING.