Star-Telegram: Some sage advice for the winless Cowboys

[tr1]

Posted Tuesday, Sep. 14, 2010

http://www.star-telegram.com/2010/09/14/2468874/some-sage-advice-for-the-winless.html

By David Thomas

Right about now, the Dallas Cowboys of Arlington have to be looking around their empty bandwagon, wondering where everyone went and, perhaps, even sneaking a sniff of their armpits to see if that's the reason there suddenly is so much elbow room aboard the blue-and-silver bus bound for Super Bowl XLV.

Yeah, the Cowboys pretty much stunk up the place Sunday night in that 13-7 loss to the Washington Redskins.

Local reaction since has been typical for a Cowboys loss: a bunch of Chicken Littles running around proclaiming the retractable roof is falling.

As for me, however, I'm one who tends to view life's retractable roof as being half open rather than half closed.

Granted, the Cowboys did just open the season by losing to a division opponent that finished in the cellar three of the past four seasons.

And they did just lose what looks to be one of their two easiest road games this season, if not the easiest. And they did score only seven points after assuring us that what happened -- or didn't happen -- with the offense in the preseason would stay in the preseason.

And the way they lost has stirred up old questions about how the Cowboys organization is structured, particularly when it comes to the owner/general manager and the head coach.

But other than those minor points:doh:, it was only the first game of 16.

Not that I'm one of those thinking the season needs saving at this point, but I do have five little tweaks to drop into the Valley Ranch suggestion box:

1. Find a way to get the ball more into the hands of Felix Jones, Miles Austin, Dez Bryant, Jason Witten and Marion Barber.

I don't think there are enough footballs on the field to do that, but have you noticed that whenever coaches are asked about a particularly good offensive player, they always say they need to find a way to get the ball into his hands more?

So I'm suggesting that to start with.

2. Move Alex Barron to the defensive line.

Granted, the Cowboys didn't allow the Redskins' offense to score a touchdown, so that side of the ball isn't a problem. But seeing how good Barron was in his Cowboys debut at getting his hands on opponents, I think he has potential as a tackler.

3. On the situational plays section of Jason Garrett's play sheet, go underneath the part that reads "1st-and-20, inside own 40, 4 seconds left in half" and scratch out "Hail Mary" and replace it with "Load Left.":ols:

Just in case Wade Phillips can't get to Garrett in time to say "Take a knee!" there needs to be a play that, although it has its own troubled history, we at least know doesn't give the other team points.

4. Read the readers' comments on www.star-telegram.com.

There is no shortage of opinions there, that's for sure. I don't think Cowboys officials would agree with -- and especially appreciate -- everything you all have to say, but they could take a peek.

5. Hire Nolan Ryan to run the team.

Take a look at what's happening down Randol Mill Road with the Rangers and it's obvious the Cowboys could use more from the Rangers than just their parking lots.

[tr1]

It definitely is a lot quieter than had we lost.

As predicted, we're only seeing a fraction of visitors from pukeville after that dreadful game they played Sunday night.

Fair-weather fans...that's puke fans.

I wonder how their collective second-favorite teams did last weekend...:rotflmao:

[Tweedr01]

I do have to say this, I think we are getting more 'decen't puke fans now. Most of the ones that have been called out in previous years obviously disappeared, but I was surprised at just how many came back to eat their crow. Although some of them did it half-hearted and with backhanded compliments, cough, Ken, cough,

[Mr. Jones]

That game drove me crazy. I'm so tired of seeing the Cowboys lose games through stupidity. To me there's no shame in losing to someone more talented, but the stupid mistake after stupid mistake just makes me angry. At least during the Jimmy Johnson era the on field stupidity was mostly confined to Leon Lett, but now it is pretty much team wide from the OC on down.

[DButz65]

That game drove me crazy. I'm so tired of seeing the Cowboys lose games through stupidity. To me there's no shame in losing to someone more talented, but the stupid mistake after stupid mistake just makes me angry..

Welcome to the Redskins script over the past 10 years buddy

[dockeryfan]

That game drove me crazy. I'm so tired of seeing the Cowboys lose games through stupidity.

Welcome to the Redskins script over the past 10 years buddy

*Remembers Norv Turner years and shakes head*

[Tweedr01]

Welcome to the Redskins script over the past 10 years buddy

Has it only been 10 years? It feels so much longer than that...

[VA Cowboy fan]

Its just one game.......16 teams lost last weekend......16 more will lose this weekend......when it gets to about week 10 then you can start talking about win/loss records

[Tweedr01]

Its just one game.......16 teams lost last weekend......16 more will lose this weekend......when it gets to about week 10 then you can start talking about win/loss records

Uh, it's not just one game, it's one game you lost to the most hated rival inside of your own division. That means you are 0-1 in division play out of a possible 6 total games. Week 10 is your marking point that you created, good for you, but you only have 5 more games in your division which are the big games.

[MrSilverMaC]

Granted, the Cowboys did just open the season by losing to a division opponent that finished in the cellar three of the past four seasons.

And they did just lose what looks to be one of their two easiest road games this season, if not the easiest.

Perhaps while the dallas fans are counting the "stupid" things that caused their team to lose on Sunday they should throw this example of wisdom by the author in the mix as well. You are a pompous lot. There are some very good dallas fans but the number is so exceedingly low relative to other fan bases.

You lost a game on Sunday to an NFL team you played in their house, but to read about the game you would almost begin to believe you had somehow lost to a sub par high school varsity team. Your coach was busy laughing about the Skins accepting a penalty (one of 12 throughout the game) while your offense was busy giving up a touchdown. Your team managed to rack up the 5th most yards in the NFL this last Sunday while only managing to convert 5 of 12 3rd downs. Dallas has the 5th most offensive yards in the NFL right now, but only managed to score once and that only came on a botched punt. All this mention of stupid mistakes by dallas but no mention of the Redskins defense that caused them. To hear a dallas fan tell it, all the holding penalties were mistakes because they are sloppy, not because they were being beat by a defense that was better than their offense.

Choice didn't just drop the ball, he was stripped of it. It was a forced turnover by Washington's defense. People get tackled all the time at the end of the half without giving the ball up like that. The smart thing is to take a knee, but teams take shots all the time despite that. It was a capitalization of the situation by the Skins defense. But I have yet to see any supporter of dallas give the Washington defense credit for that.

Offensive linemen don't get called for holding just because they like to. Offensive linemen hold because they are being beat by the guy they are supposed to be blocking. I think I may have read one dallas fan acknowledge that Orakpo owned barron on the last play, but I haven't seen any of them acknowledge that the Washington defense had been causing dallas issues all night. How badly do you have to get beat that the only way you can hold a guy is to try to wrap your arm around his neck? But barron did it at least twice to Orakpo and gurrode's hold on McIntosh was the same thing except Rocky actually got the sack despite the penalty. Dallas was penalized 12 times, and 1/3 of those were holds but no dallas fan is going to tell you that the Washington defense had anything to do with those.

Dallas had 10 drives with 8 of them ending in a defensive stop. Of the other two 1 was a missed field goal, and one was a touchdown.

If you were to replace the name dallas with the name oakland, dallas fans would say that the team that beat oakland was simply better and defensively shut them down.

If you replace the name dallas with Indianapolis, dallas fans would say the team that beat Indy by stopping them 8 out of 10 times and only allowing one touchdown put a clamp on the high powered Indy offense.

But leave the same names: Washington/dallas.

And all of a sudden dallas has just given the game away to perhaps their weakest opponent this year. No mention of the defense that stopped them. I don't suppose dallas fans realize Washington has had a defense ranked in the top 10 almost every year for the last 10 or 11 years.

Maybe, just maybe dallas supporters should try a little humility and actually give credit where it is due. Maybe the dallas players should try a little humility and instead of giving lame rehearsed speeches before the game and celebrating every 2 yard catch and 1 yard run like they are the most incredible being on earth they just shut up, play the game, and show some respect instead of acting like they've just won it all every time the whistle blows.

Just a suggestion from a Skins fan.

[Conn]

^^^Uhhh, you've been on here since '04 and have over 1,600 posts, and you don't know that tr1 is a Skin's fan? He's the biggest Cowboys hater on ES...

[MrSilverMaC]

...

.......

It was a response to the article he posted and dallas fans in general not Tr1 himself. When you use the quote feature it lists the name of person you are quoting. But thanks for the heads up....

[Kindred]

Its just one game.......16 teams lost last weekend......16 more will lose this weekend......when it gets to about week 10 then you can start talking about win/loss records

Do you suppose we could start talking about win/loss records if the Skins win the next couple games and Cow****es lose the next couple games? I suspect so

[terrifNick21]

^^^Uhhh, you've been on here since '04 and have over 1,600 posts, and you don't know that tr1 is a Skin's fan? He's one of the biggest Cowboys hater on ES...

Fixed it.

Its just one game.......16 teams lost last weekend......16 more will lose this weekend......when it gets to about week 10 then you can start talking about win/loss records

I guarantee you had Dallas lucked up and won, you wouldn't be saying that.

[Forehead]

Man, have you guys noticed that there are no Cowboys flags flying from windows...no jerseys...no decals...no nothing. That's why I dislike Cowboy fans in this area, they've got no fortitude when things go wrong. I finally saw a guy in a Romo sits to pee jersey yesterday...went up to him and said "Tough loss." He just smiled and acknowledged me.

Of course, I followed it up with "Not for me though, I root for the right team." He just laughed, but I gave him credit, he's the only guy I've seen so far this week wearing his stuff.