Mark Posted September 3, 2005 Share Posted September 3, 2005 http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2005/writers/arash_markazi/09/02/hot.read/index.html Read the article and coulbdn't help but wonder - why even bother to play regular season. Just mail them Lombardy and be done with it. The idiot writer already declared Demarcus Ware Rookie of the Year, he sent 9(!?) players to Pro Bowl. And already put down J. Jones for 1700 yard season. Unbeliveable! -------------------------------------------------------------------------- Big expectations in Big D Reloaded Cowboys have the talent to go far Posted: Friday September 2, 2005 11:58AM; Updated: Friday September 2, 2005 6:55PM Bill Parcells' first step in rebuilding the Dallas defense was drafting Troy State's Demarcus Ware with the 11th overall pick. Otto Greule Jr./Getty Images There's something about the Dallas Cowboys that has always intrigued football fans. Whether it's the iconic blue star emblazoned on the side of their metallic silver helmets, or the unfinished looking hole in the roof at Texas Stadium that was apparently put in place so "God could watch his favorite team," or the amazing characters, from Thomas "Hollywood" Henderson to Deion "Prime Time" Sanders, who have always worn the simplistic, yet classy, white and blue jerseys. Or maybe it's their world famous cheerleaders who never seem to get old. Whatever it is, it's hard not to pay attention to "America's Team." In recent years, however, anyone overlooking the Cowboys couldn't be blamed. Dallas has finished with a 5-11 or 6-10 record in five of the past eight seasons and haven't won a playoff game since 1996 when Barry Switzer was roaming the sidelines and "The Triplets" of Troy Aikman, Emmitt Smith and Michael Irvin were scoring touchdowns. How long ago was that? Well, this month Aikman, Smith and Irvin will join the likes of Roger Staubach, Tony Dorsett and Bob Hayes in the Cowboys Ring of Honor. Switzer is still waiting for his invitation. For the first time since the 1990's the current Cowboys roster is beginning to boast players who could one day make the prestigious Ring, or at least the Pro Bowl. If the Cowboys play up to their potential this season, they could not only get their first playoff win since 1996, but their first Super Bowl appearance in a decade. The Cowboys have all the pieces in place for a strong run this season. While no one is touting Drew Bledsoe as the team's savior, he is the best quarterback the Cowboys have had since Aikman retired. Bledsoe showed signs of what he can still do last season with the Bills, passing for nearly 3,000 yards and 20 touchdowns. The one knock against Bledsoe throughout his career is that he's as mobile as Ruben Studdard. Luckily for Bledsoe, the Cowboys have assembled an impressive offensive line that features three Pro Bowl players in Flozell Adams, Larry Allen, free-agent addition Marco Rivera and a couple of up-and-coming players in second-year center Al Johnson and rookie tackle Rob Petitti. What has Dallas and its fans most excited these days, though, is the play of running back Julius Jones and tight end Jason Witten, a pair of youngsters who have quickly become two of the best players at their respective positions. Jones averaged more than 100 yards and nearly a touchdown a game as a rookie last season, prompting him to say that he plans to run for 1,700 yards and 20 touchdowns this year. Witten has already set some lofty standards for himself, catching 87 passes for nearly 1,000 yards and making his first Pro Bowl last season. No matter how effective the offense is, the Cowboys understand that they will only be as good as their defense. In Bill Parcells' first season in Dallas, he led the Cowboys to a 10-6 record and a playoff berth thanks in large part to having the best statistical defense in the league. Last season, that same unit was ranked 16th overall and 21st against the pass. Not surprisingly, the Cowboys fell to 6-10. This year, the Cowboys expect to return to their 2003 form after adding a slew of players via free agency and the draft, as they switch to a 3-4 defense, going away from the 4-3 scheme they have used since Tom Landry was wearing a fedora on the sideline. The player who will benefit most from the scheme change has yet to play in a regular season game, but is the current favorite to win Rookie of the Year honors. Linebacker Demarcus Ware, who was the first of the Cowboys two first-round picks along with defensive end Marcus Spears, is already being compared to Lawrence Taylor by many people, including Parcells, although he was slow to dish out the compliments after Ware forced two fumbles, recovered one, had an interception, a sack and three tackles in the first half of Dallas' Monday Night preseason win over the Seahawks on Aug. 22. "I didn't think he was great," Parcells said after the game. "Don't pencil him in for Canton just yet." Along with Ware and Spears, who recorded a sack and three tackles in his only preseason game last night against the Jaguars, the Cowboys drafted linebacker Kevin Burnett and defensive end Chris Canty. Joining them are free-agent additions such as defensive tackle Jason Ferguson, who joins Pro Bowler La'Roi Glover and Greg Ellis on the defensive line, and cornerbacks Anthony Henry and Aaron Glenn, who join Pro Bowler Roy Williams and Terrance Newman in the secondary. While there are no guarantees in the NFL, when your roster has nine potential Pro Bowlers and your coach is Bill Parcells and you play one of the easiest schedules in the league (strength of schedule is 26th), it's hard to bet against the Cowboys making serious noise in the NFC this season. As much as some people hate hearing it, get used to it, because, as Thin Lizzy used to sing, "The 'Boys are back in town." Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
REDKORN Posted September 3, 2005 Share Posted September 3, 2005 F Big D. Peter King who is a senior writter for SI, hates the Redskins. This is well noted. He is all about Dallas and Jerry Jones. Peter King is a big fat idiot Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TIO Posted September 3, 2005 Share Posted September 3, 2005 Since when did 9 potential probowlers= him saying they will go to the probowl? ANd Julius is the one who put down 1700. He says thats his goal. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
skinsfan12 Posted September 3, 2005 Share Posted September 3, 2005 Whatever it is, it's hard not to pay attention to "America's Team." :toilet: :pooh: :pooh: Plain and simple: I HATE DALLAS... You can quote me on it. . Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Grumpy Vet Posted September 3, 2005 Share Posted September 3, 2005 I love our starting offensive line this year. They have looked good everytime I've seen them. We are going to need them b/c that freak of nature Ware is a pass rushing nightmare. I hope we are able to control him. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Blade Posted September 3, 2005 Share Posted September 3, 2005 If Joe Gibbs created ways to contain Lawrence Taylor, I suspect he will be able to do the same when it comes to Ware. Just a hunch Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FootballGuy2677 Posted September 3, 2005 Share Posted September 3, 2005 We will. cuase are line is really good first of all and all-ready aggresive clinton portis gained 20 pounds so he may block even better.:point2sky but we will still might have a little trouble. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
illone Posted September 3, 2005 Share Posted September 3, 2005 GV, Nice sig:laugh: Nice to see objective reporting from SI. Let's go ahead and add this to the prediction thread. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wskin44 Posted September 3, 2005 Share Posted September 3, 2005 ummm, I don't think we really did contain Taylor. Ware looks like he will be a star for years to come. Can dull-ass put together a top notch defense to go along with an average offense and have a good season? Here's my take: The way I look at it, Dallas was 24th in the NFL last year in defense because they gave up 5.5 yards per play. Ratings based on total yardage are a distortion and are not very predictive of who makes the playoffs. They have added talent to their defense but they have a long way to go to be a top defense and their offense needs a top defense in order to win. Witten and Jones are good and should develop further this year but Bleedsoe is the main addition to the offense. Last year the cowgirls ranked 17th in offense with 5.2 yards per play. I don't see them improving much on O so the defense will have to carry them. If they have a soft schedule then we must too because we play the same teams for the most part. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Blondie Posted September 3, 2005 Share Posted September 3, 2005 Yeah. Yeah. OK. WHATEVER. I think I will send an email to each and every writer as they have to eat their words to find out if they are choking on them. Blondie Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Blade Posted September 3, 2005 Share Posted September 3, 2005 ummm, I don't think we really did contain Taylor. Ware looks like he will be a star for years to come. Can dull-ass put together a top notch defense to go along with an average offense and have a good season? Here's my take:The way I look at it, Dallas was 24th in the NFL last year in defense because they gave up 5.5 yards per play. Ratings based on total yardage are a distortion and are not very predictive of who makes the playoffs. They have added talent to their defense but they have a long way to go to be a top defense and their offense needs a top defense in order to win. Witten and Jones are good and should develop further this year but Bleedsoe is the main addition to the offense. Last year the cowgirls ranked 17th in offense with 5.2 yards per play. I don't see them improving much on O so the defense will have to carry them. If they have a soft schedule then we must too because we play the same teams for the most part. The one-back / two TE offense was designed specifically with LT in mind. LT was a true force, but Gibb's Redskins was one of the few teams of the decade that, overall, didnt allow itself to be dominated by LT despite Parcells having a winning record over Gibbs. To debate this any further would essentially be an exercize in defining how one uses the word 'contain' with respect to the 80s Hogs and LT. WRT the current Parcells team, I would expect the defense to make a significant jump either this year or next considering Parcells familiarity with the 3-4 and the infusion of talent. Its on the offense-side that I am still not sold on the Pokes making a huge improvement yet... i guess i just need to be convinced that Bledsoe and his WRs will be able to beat all the teams stacking the box for JJones. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sknsgirl Posted September 3, 2005 Share Posted September 3, 2005 I'm so sick of SI and Peter King fawning all over the Cowboys. Makes me sick. That first paragraph, complimenting their helmets, their stadium, their players, the rest of their uniforms, and their cheerleaders...very objective. Great reporting. I just hope the Skins beat them this year! Hopefully the players under Gibbs will understand the importance of those games to the rest of us now! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
carter23 Posted September 3, 2005 Share Posted September 3, 2005 i really don't see why everyone is picking dallas to make the playoffs.. i'm really not saying this because i'm a skins fan.. i can see why everyoen loves AZ this year as a sleeper pick, and the panthers.. but i don't understand why everyone is making dallas their 'sexy pick' this season Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
darkhorse472 Posted September 3, 2005 Share Posted September 3, 2005 F Big D. Peter King who is a senior writter for SI, hates the Redskins. This is well noted. He is all about Dallas and Jerry Jones. Peter King is a big fat idiot Peter King didn't write the article. And everyone in the media hates us. Let 'em hate I say. Everyone is underestimating the competitive fire of Joe Gibbs. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
redman Posted September 3, 2005 Share Posted September 3, 2005 At this stage of their careers, there is only one player of note on that offense, Julius Jones (who I think is going to be a stud), and he has yet to fully prove himself. Keyshawn and Glenn would have been a scary tandem 7-8 years ago, but now they're merely passable. Witten is a good TE but you can't build a passing offense around him the way you can with guys like Gonzo or Gates. Bledsoe is an injury prone statue and the o-line has flat out sucked this preseason. On defense, I like their draft but they have a brand new scheme, a hybrid 4-3/3-4, that is primarily going to rely upon rookies to be successful. They'll be improved, but it's going to take time IMHO. What's to love? This is a 7-9 to 9-7 team at best. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ken Posted September 3, 2005 Share Posted September 3, 2005 At this stage of their careers, there is only one player of note on that offense, Julius Jones (who I think is going to be a stud), and he has yet to fully prove himself. Keyshawn and Glenn would have been a scary tandem 7-8 years ago, but now they're merely passable. Witten is a good TE but you can't build a passing offense around him the way you can with guys like Gonzo or Gates. Bledsoe is an injury prone statue and the o-line has flat out sucked this preseason. On defense, I like their draft but they have a brand new scheme, a hybrid 4-3/3-4, that is primarily going to rely upon rookies to be successful. They'll be improved, but it's going to take time IMHO. What's to love? This is a 7-9 to 9-7 team at best. I don't even know if this is worth it, but whatever.... Are you trying to say that the Redskins are better off on offense? Because if Dallas's offense is bad, what does that make Washington's? Our offensive line is going to be fine, i promise you. Rivera is playing now and looked great the other night. He is a hell of a lineman. Our young RT looks like he is going to do a pretty good Jon Jansen rookie year impression. Our wrs are somewhat of a concern, but Witten really does help our passing game. You can poo poo a guy who was in the Pro Bowl and caught 87 passes all you want but that doesn't change the fact that it was one of the best seasons by a TE in the history of the NFL. Oh, and yeah we do have Jones. But we also have Thomas backing him up this year and a couple of talented rookies. Our RB situation is light years better than last year. Bledsoe, injury prone? He's been injured once in his career that I can remember. He is not the most mobile qb either, but most pocket passers aren't mobile anyway. He does have a rocket arm though. That is something that we didn't have last year. Keep living in your fantasy land that we aren't vastly improved. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dirk Diggler Posted September 3, 2005 Share Posted September 3, 2005 Sometimes I wonder if SI runs articles and choses their cover boys for business reasons above all else. Hardly anyone buys their magazine anymore so perhaps they figure that if they run pieces about the most popular team in the NFL with the most fans going from non-competitive to Super Bowl caliber, they'll have subscribers? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dirk Diggler Posted September 3, 2005 Share Posted September 3, 2005 Our young RT looks like he is going to do a pretty good Jon Jansen rookie year impression. Either that's a slight to Jon Jansen or typical Cowboy hubris. Jon Jansen was a fabulous right tackle as a rookie. He solidfied a line that was porous in 1998 allowing (off the top of my head) over 50 sacks. He started from Game 1 on a 1999 team that became 2nd in the NFL on offense. And it's not like they had Colts like talent on that offense either. He started his freshman year at Michigan and only missed 1 snap (in a blowout against NY) until last season when he tore his Achilles. Are you telling me that your 6th round draft pick is going to make that type of impact? :doh: Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
HeHateMe Posted September 3, 2005 Share Posted September 3, 2005 He wont be up to Jansen standards, of course. Jansen was a highly touted 2nd rounder. Pettiti was a disappointing 6th rounder. But he will be a nice surprise at a position that is crying for help. We may have found a nice little late round pick. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dirk Diggler Posted September 3, 2005 Share Posted September 3, 2005 He wont be up to Jansen standards, of course.Jansen was a highly touted 2nd rounder. Pettiti was a disappointing 6th rounder. But he will be a nice surprise at a position that is crying for help. We may have found a nice little late round pick. In typical form, the good Redskin pick is considered "highly touted" and a "no-brainer" while the "disappointing" college player was simply a late round steal by the great mastermind Parcells. Pettiti was no secret at the college level. He was on everyone's all-conference list coming into the 04 season. He fell in the draft because he couldn't control his weight in the offseason and had a bad Senior Bowl. It became obvious that he could only play on the right side - a place he had never played before. Ask Jacob Rogers if that transition is as easy as pie. I don't think there's ever been a highly touted RT in the history of the draft. Jansen went about where he was supposed to - in the early to mid 2nd round. I don't think anyone was counting on him to solidfy the offensive line the way he did. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
HeHateMe Posted September 3, 2005 Share Posted September 3, 2005 He was an All-American if I recall correctly and the best lineman on a very good Michigan team. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dirk Diggler Posted September 3, 2005 Share Posted September 3, 2005 He was an All-American if I recall correctly and the best lineman on a very good Michigan team. Aaron Gibson actually made it over him. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FootballGuy2677 Posted September 3, 2005 Share Posted September 3, 2005 I don't even know if this is worth it, but whatever....Are you trying to say that the Redskins are better off on offense? Because if Dallas's offense is bad, what does that make Washington's? Our offensive line is going to be fine, i promise you. Rivera is playing now and looked great the other night. He is a hell of a lineman. Our young RT looks like he is going to do a pretty good Jon Jansen rookie year impression. Our wrs are somewhat of a concern, but Witten really does help our passing game. You can poo poo a guy who was in the Pro Bowl and caught 87 passes all you want but that doesn't change the fact that it was one of the best seasons by a TE in the history of the NFL. Oh, and yeah we do have Jones. But we also have Thomas backing him up this year and a couple of talented rookies. Our RB situation is light years better than last year. Bledsoe, injury prone? He's been injured once in his career that I can remember. He is not the most mobile qb either, but most pocket passers aren't mobile anyway. He does have a rocket arm though. That is something that we didn't have last year. Keep living in your fantasy land that we aren't vastly improved. Ok i know you cowboy fans like to over exaggerate when u get a little bit of talent but TRUST ME you will NEVER see sombody who impacts a line like jon jansen for a while...His leadership qualities his size and skill can make a line alot better. and no jon jansen will not sign with the cowboys... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
THEHEREAFTER Posted September 3, 2005 Share Posted September 3, 2005 ummm, I don't think we really did contain Taylor. Ware looks like he will be a star for years to come. Can dull-ass put together a top notch defense to go along with an average offense and have a good season? Here's my take: I don't see them improving much on O so the defense will have to carry them. If they have a soft schedule then we must too because we play the same teams for the most part. I disagree given that Dallas played most of the year w/o Terry Glenn and Julius Jones. The turmoil of Antonio Bryant leaving along with Quincy Morgan adjusting to a new system and being injured hurt as well. Dallas featured a plodding Eddie George and Grandfather Vinny for most of last year. I don't think it's a stretch to say that Dallas will play better offense this year. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ken Posted September 3, 2005 Share Posted September 3, 2005 Ok i know you cowboy fans like to over exaggerate when u get a little bit of talent but TRUST ME you will NEVER see sombody who impacts a line like jon jansen for a while...His leadership qualities his size and skill can make a line alot better. and no jon jansen will not sign with the cowboys... Sorry, Didn't realize Jansen was a god on the football field. To me, he is an above average Tackle. But what do I know. Surely we will never have a lineman or three that are better than him. :notworthy Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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