Blogging The Boys

13 right?

14th

KD mentioned it in his recap.

need to go heavy on defense

either a top DE or OLB to start.

add CB

As bad as this sounds.......

I want a 2007 Giants type defense. Heavy on the front seven, if we get a good corner, all good. If we just get a serviceable one, thats all good too. I want like a huge NT or DE and OLB to play acan ross from Ware.

that sounds good to me.

We need a nasty streak. Hate em and all, but the Giants play rough. Wish we did.

Speaking of Pass Rush.......

that Canty sack torqued me tonight. No one else gave a half-blind guy a chance. He gets good with the Cowboys and then signs elsewhere(and of all teams). Eh, I get that its business.

They pretty much need...

At least one of every defensive position. And I’m not just talking about stars. You don’t hear of anyone on the DL besides Ratliff, Spencer will need to be replaced and Ware given help, Brooking and maybe James will be gone, TNew and Ball are also probably gone along with Elam. And I don’t know what the hell the front office saw in Sensi to give him an extension. And we haven’t even gotten to the OL! So many damn holes to fill…

Not so fast on Spencer,

The more I see of Spencer, the more I think he is an above average run stopper. Forget where he was drafted, we need much more help than replacing Spencer. I’d take 3 CBs – seriously. Jenkins is the only corner worth keeping and he’s as fragile as glass. Give me a CB at 14, and one via FA, a decent DT, a safety in mid to late rounds, an ILB early to mid rounds, and a center. Whoever was in favor of the 2 Cincinnati DBs a couple years ago should have no voice in who we pick up for the secondary.

Silverblue - January 2, 2012 reply

The system has a lot to do with it.

Players out of position and not knowing what they are supposed to do. I say Rob gets a full year to work with the players and teach the proper techniques. A new system is hard enough to learn, but not having the OTA’s and offseason workout programs doesn’t help.

RR's defense is a joke. Constant movement. Jumping around.

They confuse themselves. They put themselves out of position. The 3-4 doesn’t work in Dallas. It never has. It never will. Look this is the 3rd 3-4 dc Dallas has had. It just doesn’t work. Dallas needs to return the 4-3 and simplify things. It’s easier to draft for..

football mensa - January 2, 2012 reply

Still say it's the personnel.

Guess we’ll have to wait and see. As far as 3-4 defense not working….See Baltimore Ravens, Pittsburgh Steelers, Houston Texans, & San Francisco 49ers. Four of the top defenses in the league and they all run the 3-4. Need the men to do it. Period.

Oh I agree that Spencer is the least of their problems...

I just think some team will overpay for him. Look what Reeves, Canty, and Burnett got in free agency.

OLB are fine

need DB and ILB

RangerMad - January 1, 2012 via Android app reply

You Do Watch the Games Right?

The pass rush is nearly non-existent most of the time.

DB first this time.

The coverage is even worse than the pass rush.

Pass Rush....

will improve any secondary. Forced throws are easily picked throws. Then again….

Jace M - January 2, 2012 reply

And vice versa.

Despite the atrocious 2010 secondary performance they passed on retooling the CB position last year, opting to draft O-Line instead, a move I firmly supported and had been calling for for years, but now it’s definitely time to make CB upgrade the priority.

They tried to get Nmamdi

I think they knew the situation with Newman, but decided to roll the dice since they had to pay him so much anyway.

Silverblue - January 2, 2012 reply

Newman is done and...

…and you really need at least three decent corners in this league now. Scandrick barely qualifies, but even counting him you’d need to add another starting quality player.

Nope...

Spencer probably gets overpaid by another team, Butler probably not good enough to start, no backups. To me, EVERY defensive position has a hoe to fill.

Hole, haha.

We have the worst GM in football

Scandrick giving up huge plays to Victor Cruz? Re-signed this season!
Sensabaugh blowing the 1st touchdown? Re-signed this season!
Jay Ratliff? Signed through his age-37 season, guaranteed through his age-35 season, and averages $10 million each of his final 4 years.

ratliff is another Newman contract

The round peg doesn't fit into the square hole? Let's try to round peg!

keep saying it but,,,,

Ratliff has to be moved to DE and get one of those monsters in the draft to play NT. I watched him tonight alot and he got eaten up by their center for the most part

why wouldn't he get eaten upeven more against OTs

who are bigger, stronger, and better athletes than OCs…?

Understand the differences between NT and DE

NT is a ZERO technique player who’s responsibility is to protect against the run in both A gaps (both gaps on either side of the C) and to bull rush the pocket straight on. Of course, this is a crude explanation but for the most part, this is 80-90% of the expectation.

A 3-4 DE is a FIVE technique player who’s reponsibility varies. For the most part, they are responsible for the C gap (both sides of the OT) for both the run and pass. However, the caviot for most DEs is that there’s an OLB outside of them (playing stand-up at a position wider than the NINE technique). The OLB may be rushing the passer or drop into coverage; DEs only drop into coverage on zone blitz schemes.

The reason why most, including me, think Ratliff would perform better as a DE is because although OTs tend to be taller and have longer arms (interior O lineman), they’re usually also slower and not as strong. OGs and C are lighter, quicker, more nimble and have shorter arms (thereby making them stronger) and are better equipped to handle finesse NTs.

Ratliff is most certainly a finesse NT with speed. He’s really a bigger OLB and would be like another Ware against DEs. In fact, he’s the pass rush opposite Ware (on the left side) that the Cowboys need….

Tyrone Jenkins - January 1, 2012 reply

He was being doubled and sometimes tripled all night. It wasn’t just Baas doing a number on him. They were using the guards to help out.

Cruz has done that to everyone this year

Scandrick is a good 3rd corner. IDK if he was worth the. contract but, considering they have to replace T-old itd be hard to get 2 starting CBs

yehti - January 1, 2012 via mobile reply

Jenkins and Scandrick stay

Oldman is gone

what about

our recent big player signings like Free and Austin? They were like ghosts today

cmttx - January 1, 2012 reply

Really disappointed in Austin dropping those 2 passes...

Robinson has been the offensive MVP after Romo with his TD production. I fear another team will overpay for his services.

not to mention the daily damage Jerry does

by questioning his coaches, coddling players, creating a dysfunctional organization, and on and on and on….

Wasn't Sensi only signed for one year

out of desperation?

they gave 43 an extention in the middle of the season didnt they?

DavidLaFleur - January 1, 2012 reply

crap

I think longer...

I didn’t see him on ESPNDallas.com 2012 free agent list. What a colossal mistake.

I can understand the Scandrick resigning...

And I hope he improves in the offseason. We’ve seen flashes from him like Jenkins. But didn’t Sensi two years in a row test the market only to find no one was offering him a long term contract? I can’t understand Garrett/Stephen signed off on it. I can imagine Jerry just doing this on the fly.

To me Sensi is a useful guy if you have strong players surrounding him. I could be wrong but Dallas must have been near the bottom in secondary INT/passes broken up. Elam and Sensi did not seem to make much of a difference.

AMEN!!!!

This has been Jones way his entire career, over pay one hit wonders and keep talent around too long. See Brookings!

byopp - January 2, 2012 reply

Dalklas has pick 14

Eagles are 15

I just want to personally thank Anthony Spencer for his performance tonight

I loved the play where you had Eli by his legs and let him chuck it down field to Cruz
your performance means you are gone, best of luck in your ventures else where

another official Cowboys bust, Anthony Spencer

Remember when he had a free unblocked shot at Eli

And was running in such molasses Eli had time to get to his drop spot, survey the field, eat a sandwich, and then hit his receiver for a 1st down.

LOL YUP

then his offsides too

he is gone, thank god he sucked tonight, it means he is gone

It was almost like he wanted to seal the deal with his performance tonight...

and I couldnt be happier

I am so happy he played that way tonight
6 sacks, yeah he is awesome

I wouldn't be surprised if

Spencer comes back…I don’t expect that he’ll garner too great of interest on the open market and would be better served staying where he is.

It doesn’t negate the fact that the Boys’ still need to look OLB in the draft – just probably not 1st round. I know a lot of people are clamoring for a CB (and that is a need) but safety is a bigger need. I used to play S and there were SEVERAL and I do mean SEVERAL instances where plays could have been made but the safeties were no where to be found.

In the case of Cruz’s long pass caught over Scandrick, Sensy had inside responsibility and Cruz caught the ball inside of Scandrick. Later on that drive, a pass was caught behind Scandrick of which he as furious – I’m assuming it was because the safeties were supposed to fill in behind.

Anyone who get’s a chance, count the # of passes that were caught in behind the CB or LB but in front of the safeties. On most if not all of these cases, the safety is at fault.

I agree with you...

I thought Sensi was average but just a stopgap til we found something better. I didn’t like the extension.

Elam, however, surprised me. I was looking forward to not only his production but leadership since he knew Ryans D. You basically never noticed him, which is good for a CB, not so much for a safety. I can’t remember any INTs by these guys.

but the thing is, is it really necessary to resign him?

Kinda like Marcus Spears. We got him back for a reasonable contract but we had young talent (Lissemore) who stepped up and could’ve saved us the money

Crazy thing is...

I bet he gets paid fairly handsomely by another team.

I'm sure you're right

and I say let them pay.

Good Riddance!

amen chia, i say leave newman and spencerin NY lol

IRONRAVEN - January 1, 2012 reply

I would

I am serious
they were awful, I would have benched Newman in the first quarter, dead serious

Letting that #15 WR catch the ball when Eli was flushed out of the pocket...

I thought to myself, damn, this guy may not be good enough to be our nickel CB. Then Ball came in…

But who would replace him?

All that we have is Ball, Is he better then T???

tattooed cowboy - January 2, 2012 reply

Wonder why Walker was inactive..

Hard to believe he’s worse than Ball.

Spencer and Boobie Carpenter cage match

actually between those two it would be a pillow fight

BrooklynPhenix Rising - January 2, 2012 reply

spencer also had a forced fumble. stop hating

DavidLaFleur - January 1, 2012 reply

Its a flash in the pan...

That are so far few and in between…. like the old saying a broke clock is right twice a day… Spencer is good for 2 out of every 24 plays.

Coming out of College he as an ideal pass rusher for the OLB position in the 3-4… but I’m sorry he hasn’t lived up to that hype.

Just hasn't lived up to being a 1st round pick.

Janoris Jenkins?

BrickTop - January 1, 2012 via mobile reply

he's great it's a shame he's a thug

and i no other corner worths the 14 pick, claibornes will be gone by top 5, kirkpatrick is not that good, neither dennard

If agreed that CB is most needed postion

Trade down for Kirk or up for Claiborne.

Aaron.50cal - January 1, 2012 reply

Time to say goodbye to

Elam
Newman
James
Brooking
Ball
Maybe Costa as well

With #13 pick in draft Cowboys select Janoris Jenkins?

florida dodger - January 1, 2012 reply

no, he has character issues

Terry glad to see you bro,,,

8-8 and right where I said right?..lol….

all kidding aside this team needs alot of work and given the cap problems Im not sure we will be much better next year. We may need a couple of years worth of good draft picks and clearing out some dead weight before we are legit contenders,

Defense, especially the seconday is awful

Romo can only carry this team so far…he needs a decent OL and defense…he has neither

Terry, you would have been proud of me...

Was defending Romo to my mother in law who thinks he is unmotivated and unfocused. My wife had to calm me down in my drunken stupor before I texted anything I might have regretted!

your mother in law obviously has no clue

Romo and Lee are the only players who show up each week, it’s the remaining team that plays unmotivated and unfocused.

definately Costa

Costa reminds me of Rob Pettiti

start as a rookie, cut in camp the next year. Looked worse as the season progressed

he was solid for us last season

I don’t want to cut him outright just because he can be a decent backup at least and his contract is cheap

no he was not

He gave up 2 sacks in 1.5 games in 2010. He has never been good.

I know they extended Sensi...

But I would like to see him go. I also wonder how much tread Kosier has on him. You figure Smith and Free will switch places. I bet Koslowski has a real shot in replacing Costa. Hopefully Holland comes back healthy and motivated next year, and Nagy and Arkin can step it up. They probably still draft at least one OL I bet. Not sure what free agent market looks like for OL.

David DeCastro - Dominant Guard should be available at 14

He would solidify the line instantly.

I'd take him in a heartbeat

+1

id rather get a stud D player but if hes best by a good margin then cool.

yehti - January 1, 2012 via mobile reply

amen on this ^

But we need D help and more D help.

CDMac24 - January 2, 2012 via iPhone app reply

our OL needs help too

I wanna trade back

the guard depth is there for several rounds

I think we have the worst secondary in the league

They were awful as well as the OL

secondary needs big time work, they suck

Not if Costa is still the center

Kowalski

yehti - January 1, 2012 via mobile reply

no pass rush didn't help them

and vice versa

That whole defense is utter crap.

Dilfer said it best when he asked how talented are the Cowboys really? I guess the hardcore fans know this team has plenty of holes to fill.

Just heard him on the radio, and he was spot on. He owned that he overrated the

Cowboys because he focused too much on the good they do have and not on the holes. He likes Romo, Murray, the WRs, Lee, etc. But he, like a whole lot of other people, let that blind him to the problems.

It's nice to see someone in the mainstream recognize this

before they’ve always blamed Romo

No, they really haven't.

Dilfer has always been fair when it comes to Romo and the Cowboys, as have most other analysts. We might not like what they have to say a lot of the time, but 8-8 and ending your season 1-4 when you controlled your own destiny means you need to hear some tough assessments.

I think analysts that don't really pay much attention to the ins and outs of the team...

Ike the guy on post game sports center last night interviewing Dilfer who still wanted to lay some blame on Romo, have underrated Romo’s value to the team (Dilfer said exactly this).

This morning I’ve noticed the national guys are starting to question how much “talent” this team really has. Jerry also getting heat. Good. December swoons under Parcells, Wade, and Garrett. What’s the one constant?

They all have an A and an E in their name?

David DeCastro - Top Guard to come out of college in years

Will be there at 14.

Defense is the bigger problem

get the guard later or FA

a lot of good guards in this year's draft

we can take one later in the draft

Draft pool looks weak at OLB

And outside of Claiborne, it doesn’t look like there’s a CB worth a top 15 pick. DeCastro?

SportsDrunk - January 1, 2012 via iPhone app reply

yeah, agree

i would love defense but right now i can’t think of anyone worth the pick. DeCastro makes too much sense

who should be available around 14 in CB DE?

yehti - January 1, 2012 via mobile reply

Jenkins. North Alabama.

DCyanks21 - January 1, 2012 reply

Still Kirkpatrick Dennard Jenkins

Cowboys have a ton of options which is good

also they could trade up

David DeCastro

You have to consider him if he is there…

I don't know now...

the thought of Scandrick at left corner scares me…

the boys

have so many holes that it is inconceivable that they would waste a 2nd to trade up

a hay - January 1, 2012 reply

Given how often they've been missing on their picks lately....

….about half the draft last year, I have no problem with them spending some of those picks to trade up for a needed elite player instead.

not me, we're picking high in the draft and it's the perfect chance to reload/rebuild

They picked even higher last year.

And blew around half the picks.

The Cowboys should get a nice choice of three or four good guys at 14

Forget the knee-jerk reaction – CB, CB, CB…

You take the best player available at 14…..second round you can target positional needs….

BPA at 14 sounds fine with me

but is it 13 or 14?

14

Honey Badger or Claiborne from LSU

Arthur Harris - January 1, 2012 reply

Mathieu is a sophomore, not eligible for draft

KD Drummond - January 1, 2012 reply

Claiborne is looking like a top 5 pick

Deion (Sanders) is happy...

He won’t have to wear Romo’s jersey… (Not that he ever thought he was going to lose that bet.)

That was on the condition that the Cowboys make to the NFC championship game

yup...

Hey all huge disappointment.

Can’t find anyone wanting to show up in a big game. No focus and drive as a whole. One person blaming it on Romo and I’m going to be putting them on blast.

DCyanks21 - January 1, 2012 reply

I was already having to do that in the last thread, lol

I swear some people don’t even watch the games.

me gusta - January 1, 2012 via mobile reply

Free agency

Are we still in cap hell or can we at least get a couple of good veterans on defense

Cap hell?

DCyanks21 - January 1, 2012 reply

If by "good" veterans you mean Scandrick and Sensabaugh...

yes…

We're okay with the cap

There’s a rule we can carry over 2011 salary cap room to 2012, we had about $15 million in extra salary cap this year.

yeah but I think we had 20 mi in dead money going into 2012

we can work around it

restructure some contracts and cut some other players

There is a big talent drop off from the best corner to the second best

Morris claiborne will probably be a top 5 pick then dre Kirkpatrick is next. If the boys pick a cb with their first round pick it’ll be dre Kirkpatrick or probably janoris Jenkins

bitterlyhonest - January 1, 2012 reply

I'd like OL first

CB second and a FA DL stud

hbdc - January 1, 2012 via mobile reply

we need someone nasty on dl like a richard seymour-type

wtshaolin - January 1, 2012 via mobile reply

Romo played his tail off

proud of him tonight

102 qb rating....him and Lee are the only guys who show up every week

Romo, Ware, and Lee every single week

on a consistent level, yes

Hatcher actually had a good game

great season for him

one of a few who exceeded expectations

Laurent Robinson too

Ware too.

You gotta give him help. He was injured a lot this year and he still gets 19 sacks.

playing with a half numb body

and still outproduces double the total of spencers production

He's gotta work on his offsides penalties though.

Had quite a few of them this year.

Definitely.

I think he was pressing because he knew he didn’t have much help, though. That doesn’t excuse it or make it better, but maybe if other players contributed more pressure, Ware wouldn’t feel like if he doesn’t get the immediate sack then no one will stop the other team.

Romo turned Laurent Robinson into a stud!

Romo is the least of the team’s worries…

I wonder how McGee only got 5 yds from Robinson

McGee sucks

3 years of wasted development. Things like that are why Dallas sucks.

He needs to get cut

Jerry won't do it...

Unless his contract is up. Ugh the guy even lost his starting job as a senior right? That’s Jerry for ya.

yeah its like why wait for the ish to hit the fan before you clean up

why not move the fan from the toilet and unclog that trick before it happens?

hanging on to brad johnson, playing romo behind a terrible o-line, giving barber like 350 carries a season because no one is behind him, hoping choice, bennett, tree, and mcgee “click”, relying on Ware and Ratliff to carry the load for the entire defense.

Along the same lines as Barber...

Also trying to make Felix the lead horse before Murray came on when he has durability issues and split the carries in college.

Not wasted develpment

The team has to give guys like this a genuine shot, but three years is enough. If he is not ready now, he’s not going to be.

watch him throw 10 passes

and you realize that one year was too much

and ware

big time agree

just not enough help upfront. both lines need help

yehti - January 1, 2012 via mobile reply

It's neat Romo is on the shelf

You know what he’s brought to the Cowboys in terms of winning? Nothing.

Can we now focus on building a team? Perhaps fawning over the franchise QB is not a priority at the moment?

Exactly...

He did almost nothing in the first three series.
He threw an INT when the game could still have been won. Bad decision on his part.
But look his QB rating was 102… Ain’t that SUPER…

He's an amazing QB

but a football franchise involves more than QB. it’s time to do everything correctly and finally provide him and his coaches with players to compete.

We will have to agree to disagree...

He has great stats… He doesn’t win many important games.

who defines important?

this is why the guy doesnt get the credit he deserves. People like you.

Was the 49ers game not important? Can we just lose all the games except our division games… would it make you happy if he only won the ever elusive “big” games, but lost all the “small” ones? Give me a f#&%-ing break.

mahuebel - January 2, 2012 reply

+1

Picture where we would be without him.

We could be the one’s stuck with a Rex Grossman.

We'd probably miss the playoffs without Romo...

oh wait a minute….

We'd probably be picking in the top 3.

That's absolutely ridiculous.

I love Romo, but we improved last year without him.

I’m not remotely suggesting that this is a better team without him, but if he doesn’t deserve blame when they lose, he likewise doesn’t deserve all the credit when they win. At worst, they are 6-10 without him, and likely still 8-8. You don’t have to go back far to see how they would do without him, and it’s not nearly as bad as many would have you believe.

those picking in the top 3

won’t be stuck with a Rex Grossman for long. I’d rather start the culture shift now with an Andrew Luck(or RGIII), than continue this hopeless journey we’re on now. This mix(Romo included) has not worked, and in my opinion, never will. If you believe, like I do, that Romo will never take us to the Superbowl, would you prefer to stand pat for another 3-4 years, or make the move to go in another direction? I’ve seen enough evidence(8-8 in a pathetic NFC East just the latest), to want the later.

The defense was completely to blame for 4, probably 5 of the 8 losses.

That’s the evidence you should be looking at. Getting to the SB is not the result of just one guy (QB), especially on this team.

We need to correct our weaknesses, and Romo is far from a priority. We have about 7 glaring weak spots on this team and several more that should be corrected. OL, 2nd TE, DE, 2 ILBs, OLB, 2 CBs, 1 or 2 S’s. That is 2 drafts worth.

It is the wrong mindset to say Romo will never take us to a SB, because QB is not our problem and the QB does not take a team to the SB by himself anyway.

Romo is good enough if we get the players we need on the rest of the team.

Baked Potato Soup - January 3, 2012 reply

I count one: the first Giants game.

Maybe 2, adding the second Giants game. Of course, the offense didn’t show up for part 2 either, so I don’t think that’s completely on the D. What are the other games where you think that they are completely to blame?

The Pats and Cards.

I know you are going to disagree and say the D held them to 20 and 19 points but my point is that all the D had to do was make ONE STOP when it mattered at the end and we win those games regardless of the total score.

fs65 - January 4, 2012 reply

In the grand scheme of the season, not really.

I don’t think a Week 2 game is all that important at this point, when you go 1-4 and get swept by two division rivals. I’m not saying that this is all Romo’s fault or anything like that, but there’s a reason that people say stuff like that. The Cowboys are, I believe, 0-7 on SNF and have lost the last 3 or 4 when Aikman called the game. We haven’t done so hot in the past few years on Monday night, either. Aikman typically calls the marquis Sunday day matchups. The Sunday and Monday night games are highlight games each week. Lately, the team has been coming up short in those games, and Romo is the most visible and important player on the team. Many times when people say Romo, they actually mean the Cowboys as a team.

Romo had his hands full with trying to avoid rush all night long. The O Line was sieve tonight. It was terrible from beginning to end. I enjoyed watching Romo escape and complete to Dez down field, too bad he had crossed the LOS.

Between Eli and Romo...

Who has the better OL, running game, and defense? The answer is Eli, all three. Hell, even the Giants fullback got in on the fun. As much as I love Romo though, I do now consider Eli elite and Romo just a notch below.

Romo has beaten Eli in every statistical category and like you said he got more help

Romo’s done more with less, how do you rank him lower then?

Incorrect. Eli has more yards (a great 4933) and a higher per throw average (a great 8.4).

And higher 4th quarter rating this year.

NFL record 4th quarter TD throws in a season.

Romo doesn't play defense or block for himself

QBs can’t win games…teams win and lose games and Romo is playing with a very flawed group

Get a clue LDV

folkmademelovetheboys - January 2, 2012 reply

Romo

is good at pading stats

When a big game is on the line, he plays small

Season on the line, 1 crucial interception, 1 fumble to end it

a hay - January 1, 2012 reply

having to run for your life 382827 times and being sacked more than 3 times tend to lead to such mental lapses

Eli was scrambling all night with pressure

but he made the plays despite his O-lines break-downs. He deftly slides out of it, and makes good things happen…in the clutch. No more excuses for Romo, he needs to overcome obstacles and WIN IN DECEMBER/JANUARY. What will the excuses be next year when Jerry addresses the O-line and Secondary? Always another scapegoat for our “leader”. It’s beginning to feel like Groundhog Day around here every January.

that INT wasn't crucial, get a clue, Giants didn't score off of it

You can't minimize that INT though c'mon...

There was still a chance down 10 with a few minutes left.

I might be wrong about that particular scenario but...

You can’t say an INT was ok because the team didn’t score. Defense is out on the field again, cuts your possessions, etc.

The punt fumble that Ball did not recover was more important.

And Sensi’s non-fumble recovery was important too.

Romo did the same thing he did

when he was blown out by the Eagles.

Apparently, the Giants studied those tapes. Too bad, we don’t have coaches that know how to make adjustments.

+1

Another solid game. Yet he’ll take the fall on BSPN.

Lord Humungus - January 1, 2012 reply

He takes

It from the fans too. Look at the comments.

BrickTop - January 1, 2012 via mobile reply

+1

I wouldn't call some of these idiots fans.

what?

You derive the narrative. Did Romo lose two of the first four games? Yes. Did Romo play like an MVP in the remaining games? Yes.
ESPN isn’t in the business of making you feel good about the Cowboys because you’re a Cowboys fan. If you think that’s the case… well, I erased what I thought of that.

yep high qb rating does not mean sh*t if you cant ever win an inportant game

Ok how about you get out there and try to make something happen with the pathetic line we have. We are lucky to have such a talented enough QB who is able to extend plays the way he does.

it's a team sport

Funny all the Romo haters here just loved him in 07

when we went 13-3. Or even 09 when we were 11-5. This season was his best ever statistically, and they want his head. Give the guy a break, he’s one of the best of all time, but needs more talent around him. He can’t do it all himself. If you don’t like him, maybe you should go jump on the Drew Brees bandwagon.

I don't understand.

Are you trying to say that Drew Brees is not a great quarterback? If someone likes Brees, they can’t like Romo?

I’m a Romo fan, but he is not one of the best of all time at this point.

His numbers say otherwise

So do Matt Schaub's

And Daunte Culpepper’s. And Chad Pennington’s. And Matt Ryan’s. And Jeff Garcia’s. Oh look, there’s Roethlisberger whom you’re always saying is overrated; he’s the 11th best QB of all time based on his numbers.

Of course everybody loved the 07 Romo.

Nobody had yet seen all the subsequent choking and mediocrity yet. Many have their eyes open now. Time has a way of showing the truth.

You are obviously one of the Romo haters.

He has played great this year. It is a team game and if he had some help, things would have been different. Apparently you didn’t get to see the games this year or you would realize that. There were only 3 QB’s this year ranked higher than him….Rogers, Brees, & Brady. That’s some pretty good company. If you don’t like our QB then I guess all I can say is…find another team to root for.

Are you the arbiter of who gets to be a Cowboys fan?

Will you be tracking the posts of those that deride the line, secondary, pass rush, etc., and telling those people that if they don’t like those units, they should find another team to root for? It’s a team game, correct?

There were only 13 teams with a better defense than the Cowboys this year, if we are going by ranking, and yet here we are with many people saying how terrible the defense is.

Every unit on this team needs to be considered for improvement when we don’t make the playoffs, whether with the same players or with new ones, and that includes the QB position.

That makes perfect sense of why we are not in the playoffs, since only 12 teams make the playoffs and we have the 14th defense.

There were only 13 teams with a better defense than the Cowboys this year, if we are going by ranking, and yet here we are with many people saying how terrible the defense is.

Romo is good enough if we get a defense that can rank inside the playoff 12.

Baked Potato Soup - January 3, 2012 reply

7 of the teams in front of us didn't make the playoffs.

6 that were behind us did. The real problem for this team was not the defense. It was that with all of our offensive talent, we continually failed to score points.

The old "find another team to root for" line. Weak and tired, like your arguments.

You are obviously one of the Cowboy haters, because you continue to accept this franchise remaining mediocre, and support the leader of this once feared and respected ship headed to NFL irrelevance. You, sir, are not a real fan. I hope Romo gets traded somewhere so YOU CAN FIND ANOTHER TEAM TO ROOT FOR.

Sounds like someone needs a hug.

I have been a Cowboys fan since 1970 and will always support them win or lose. I support the owners, gm’s, coaches, and players. If you think that is wrong, then that’s your problem. GO COWBOYS!

Mikellie - January 3, 2012 reply

Oh yeah, How'd the Terps do this year?

Big win over Towson huh?

Mikellie - January 3, 2012 reply

Is it me

Or did the middle of the O-line play much better when Kowalski came in for Kosier?

no expert or anything, but i think you're right

i was so glad to see kowalski in there, then realized that he /wasn’t/ in there for costa. glad to see him logging some time, though. he seems like a gamer.

kosier has been the glue of the OL and was playing hurt all season. i don’t want to hate on him, but i have to think he’s getting near the end…

It's great news

The Cowboys needed to lose this game. They need to shake off A TON of peripheral players, and choosing sooner in the draft will help them.

house cleaning

this was a rebuilding year

But we need to knock this draft out of the park. No more Bruce Carters and David Arkins.

if those two pan out, I cant question drafting guys like that if they pan out

They won't

We heard all the same stuff about Jason Williams and Brandon Williams.

The actions speak louder than the words. The fact that they re-signed Montre Holland, David Dockery, and Kevin Kowalski at guard to keep Arkin on the inactive list speaks very loudly.

The fact that Brooking, James, and even a safeties in Barry Church and Danny McCray all got time at ILB and Rob Ryan didn’t hardly ever let Bruce Carter on the field speaks very loudly.

The actions are loud.

Carter isn't the same as those guys man

its not even close to how different they are
one was a dumb player from a D2 school, Carter was a big time prospect from a big time school and is smart

Brandon Williams was an OLB, isn’t the same

The speed linebacker with a year-long knee injury?

You don’t think maybe there’s a chance he just can’t compete physically at the NFL level?

there is a chance even healthy picks don't compete at an NFL level

I am not worried about Carter at all

I'm extremely worried

This guy wasn’t on anyone’s 2nd round board. His big skill was he was fast and he had a blown ACL that kept him out of football for a year.

really?

This guy wasn’t on anyone’s 2nd round board.

How would you know?

I am Ironman!!! - January 2, 2012 reply

I emailed him my board and I didn't have Carter on it. Neither did any of my friends :)

carter got some snaps today when we went to a 43 look

didn’t look half bad

how much time is he going to get?

no offseason, no training camp, injured
he wasn’t going to see much playing time

He's a bust

Sorry man, when you’re rolling out Keith Brooking and UDFA safeties to play ILB, that means you have no confidence in Bruce Carter.

how can a player be a bust after one season

was Lee a bust in 2010 ?

Sorry, when was Bruce Carter intercepting Peyton Manning?

Sean Lee was extremely good his rookie year

In his defense, no one picked off a Peyton Manning pass this season.

So HAH!

jakezze01 - January 3, 2012 reply

hahaha baaaaaaaaa hahahaha he;s a bust? haaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa

I'll mark this down to give you an "I told you so" this time next year

Just like I did with Phil Costa when I said he was going to be bad this training camp.

You can't call Bruce Carter a bust after one season

If he is a bust, then Peyton Manning is a bust as well.

The coaches let Peyton Manning on the field

No one can claim bust yet.

See if he has an impact next year

Cruz

was 0-0-0-0

last year

Now he is the best receiver in the NL East

a hay - January 1, 2012 reply

I know

And he had a horrible first season.

You have to realize that the rookies had very little offseason due to the lockout. in fact, the draft took place during the lockout, and while there were players that got to play, sometimes it is better to sit and learn the game as a backup than it is to be thrown into the fire. Besides, the guys needed to learn the defensive schemes, and the vets had the hand up on the rookies.

The Cowboys played undrafted safeties at inside linebacker

rather than even let Bruce Carter take snaps. Dude, undrafted safeties!

I hate to tell you Santa Claus isn’t real here, but not every player that has a bad 1st season is Peyton Manning. Most players that are so bad they can’t get on the field their 1st season are just bad!

Have you not seen the things Carter has done with the limited time he has been given. Primarily on STs. He has had a pretty good showing when he is given the chance. Yes he is fast, but he is also a sure tackler. In college he very rarely blew a tackle. He has tremendous talent. Now if next year he starts and does nothing, then he can be labled a bust, but for now we all have to have some patience with BC.

What if next year he doesn't even start??

He couldn’t start this year why would we automatically think he’ll start next year?? They’re just as likely to start Barry Church at ILB. That’s the point. These aren’t the Wade Phillips days where young, talented players sat behind grizzled vets because nobody ever lost their jobs. Carter’s getting that limited playing time for a reason. It’s not just cuz RR likes to see him sit on the bench

First off Carter came in with an injury an no time to learn the system until he was healed. Once the season started and he finally became available he was so far behind everyone else. So if you don’t know the system, you don’t start.. Get it. I’m surprised you don’t know that. Plus lots of top notch defensive players get their start in the NFL on the Special Teams. He is an excellent tackler who will only get better. His only weakness that I ever saw was his coverage skills, but he has all the tools to learn that.

Surprised that I don't get what??

That Barry Church knew the system better as an undrafted FA rookie safety out of Toledo at a different position than our 2nd round draft pick out of a major college program who’s played the position for years and yet still couldn’t get on the field?? What is there that I’m not getting??

I wish people would think before they type

Obviously Rob Ryan knew how to get the best out of this defense

That should continue:

...out of this defense

And preview their posts.

+1

Cmon man,you're better than that...

You may end up being right, but he’s coming off ACL injury. Let’s give this guy a full offseason before we declare him a bust and dump him.

+1

And Sean Lee?

it looked like Carter got some time in the second half.

if he pans out thatd be huge. no more Brady or Brooking. Arkin im hopeful for

yehti - January 1, 2012 via mobile reply

do not hold your breath

name the last Cowboys home run draft. ???

Carter adnd Arkins......

Everyone knew Carter was drafted more for the future than this year, and Arkins was gonna need time to develop before he would be ready, here is to hoping that they are ready to contribute next year or else I would agree to your comment!

Sometimes it seems we draft too many projects and not enough players.

You keep drafting for future years then you'll end up being bad in the present. Especially with high picks

That falls on coaching.

Most great coaches are great teachers.

You should expect players drafted in the 1st two rounds

to contribute immediately. With the turnover teams have these days, coupled with injuries, you just can’t afford to use a high draft pick on someone who might contribute years later

no it won't

You're right terry

winning the super bowl this year with a team that couldn’t even finish above .500 proves that they are excellent and also proves they do not need to build for more easy successes in the future.

this team was sooo average coming into the year

the only thing that gave us a shot was the emergence of Murray and Robinson. It had 8-8 and 9-7 all over it. People just needed to take the blinders off.

Without the impact by Murray and Robinson

This team would not have even sniffed 8-8 this year.
Do the math.
If we put Ogletree in for Robinson and Choice for Murray, this team might—might have made it back to another 6-8 season.Next year, people are already saying we will get better, as if, there is no other alternative. Well,we could also be worse, much worse.

Count me in. I had blinders on for Murray and Robinson.

David DeCastro - 6'05" / 310 lbs Stanford G

David DeCastro Scouting Report
By Charlie Campbell

Strengths:
Elite run blocker
Powerful drive blocker
Great at pulling
Hits blocks on second level of defense
Mobile and athletic
Intelligent
Great technique with hand placement
Textbook knee bend
Rock-solid pass protector
Proven leader; passion for the game
Winner at collegiate level
Durable, experienced 3-year starter

HELL YEAH

DeCastro is the leader in the clubhouse for 14

If I was Jason Garrett….

Tyron Smith and David DeCastro to build around….fourth and one wouldn’t be an issue….

Put them both on the left side too.

Is it weird that makes me salivate?

Rebuilding?

If DeCastro is the best player available at 14, then we need to draft him, we have too many holes to fill. and with the salary cap situation we are in, I think it may take another year after that

DeCastro DeCastro DeCastro DeCastro!!!!!

salas88 - January 1, 2012 via mobile reply

I think this is the way to go

course I don’t know draft but the more you guys talk about the options the more I like Tyron and DeCastro on the left side and see what we can do with FA and 2-7 rounds on D

CDMac24 - January 2, 2012 via iPhone app reply

No weaknesses?

Woo hoo, let's talk draft!

Because that’s all we modern day Cowboys’ fans ever have to do in January!

Ouch!

Too true, my man. Too true…

if DeCastro isnt available I'd rather trade down

SportsDrunk - January 1, 2012 via iPhone app reply

The Chargers may take him...

He’s a great fit for San Diego….

anyone got a complete draft order for me?

Thanks

SportsDrunk - January 1, 2012 via iPhone app reply

mocking the draft has the top 20 in the front page

Drafttek .com

Home page here

ODS here

It is not updated yet, but should be within a day or two

I am Ironman!!! - January 2, 2012 reply

Is there a site

That grades each player in the NFL and gives them projections as to what “they” feel the player could do? I’m interested in a player like a Bill Nagy, who played some, then was injured. The Drafttek board is based off of projections, just wondering if the same exists for current players.

Nickthegrip - January 2, 2012 reply

Pro Football Focus grades each player.

ESPN has scouts’ grades and opinions on every player also, but that’s done each offseason, so that won’t be for a few more months.

PFF grades Nagy as one of the worst players on the team that got playing time. Costa has a lower overall grade, but just barely, and played far more. Their stats are cumulative, so Nagy was much worse on a per play or per game basis. I think only Dockery, McGee, and Choice were worse. Fiammetta also grades out just as poorly in their system, but I’m not sure if that’s because the way they grade fullbacks or if it’s accurate.

nobody is gonna trade up for 14th pick

not happening, not with this class

you never know

all it takes is one coach to fall in love with 1 player

BPA that isn't a WR, QB, TE, or RB...

Most likely going to be defensive side. Hasn’t Jerry drafted a boatload of defensive players high?

Trading down

I agree trading down might not be such a bad idea, we could use an extra pick or two to fill some holes. Wouldn’t be surprised to maybe see some players traded as well

Seriously, we should make a human sacrifice of Terrance Newman!

It might appease the secondary gods and give us non horrible defense…

that being said, alot of us on this site were thinking about 8-8 at the beginning of the season, maybe 10 because of an easier schedule. We are still building, we just need to accept that, and allow the media to actually use that term when referring to Dallas, because man the hype kills us sometimes.

Agreed

I was thinking 8-8 too, but maybe better with a softer schedule, next year will be tough, we could actually be a better team and have a worst record

pay brent grimes
1st round, best DL or OL available
2nd round DB
3-7 BPA

fund it

Zak - January 1, 2012 reply

Yeah, I'm thinking Grimes is a big target as well

Sign Grimes, draft an interior linemen and an OLB. All of a sudden things look a little better.

Plus secondary...

Grimes is a CB.....

Whoops

Too early for draft talk for me!

i wanted to go after grimes this past year. goldson, too. dammit

wtshaolin - January 1, 2012 via mobile reply

I wanted Gholson(sp) myself but what did I know?? Jerry obviously knows something about Sensebaugh's greatness

I know I’ll get flamed for this but I want to go after Courtland Finnegan this year. I don’t see him commanding a monster deal and his physical play would fit RR’s scheme. No more 10 yard cushions on 3rd and short and we’ll actually see WR’s get jammed at the LOS scrimmage instead of Olayed to the endzone

I can't stand Finnegan

But I think that he would be a monster under Ryan.

Me too. I didn't like TO but I knew he'd be successful for a couple of years

I think Finnegan could be good and he’s not over the hill just yet either

we need some crazy guys

there is not enough fire on this team. Finnegan was ready to box Dre Johnson because Dre was mad Finn was locking him up. we need some of that passion and grit

so tired of 30 yard cushions on 3rd and decimeters

finnegan is a punk

his game doesn’t back up his talk, he’s like deangelo hall to me

Andre also caught 9 passes and a TD that game

I wouldn’t call that “locking him up”

But...

sometimes you need a head case on your team. He gets into the minds of the receivers and takes them off their game, plus he’s a shutdown corner. I not a huge fan of him either but I would take him in a nanosecond.

mtibus - January 2, 2012 reply

i wanted Weddle but i know nothing

yeah glad we didnt pay for his league-leading 7 picks or basically half of Dallas team total for picks

Coaches...

I’d like for us to get Sparano as O-line coach again and perhaps replace Joe D with the Bears special teams coach.

and and OC

Please draft a QB. Romo couldn’t get it done with 13 pro bowlers a couple of years ago. He will never take this team ANYWHERE.

top 5 in almost every statistical category

played hard behind a makeshift line and probably the best opposing d-line in the league. only threw one bonehead pick that any qb can throw at any given time.

Zak - January 1, 2012 reply

If youre going to waste your time commenting

dont waste ours by pointing to romo as this teams weakness. point to ANY of the plethora of other problems, but not Tony. DBs, OL, passion? anything else…

thesharpestnick - January 1, 2012 reply

Yeah. Because we expect Romo to lead this team to the PLAYOFFS when he couldnt do it with 13 pro bowlers a couple of years ago. Dont be naive. We need a QB.

ugh

yehti - January 1, 2012 via mobile reply

13-3

When we had 13 pro bowlers…and a division championship. and the playoffs. and he lost to the eventual super bowl champions…

thesharpestnick - January 1, 2012 reply

Brandon is right

We need a QB, but not Robert Griffin III. He is a pick that could be made by Jerry Jones just to shake up things. I am thinking we draft a QB to be Tony’s backup.

We definitely should be drafting a QB.

Even though we are stuck with Romo and his lack of winning in big situations, fact is he is an aging QB in a young man’s league. Time to look to the future, find a nugget in the draft and make the QB spot a competition.

wouldnt mind seeing em go after Flynn from packers 6 td and 441 passing yards both pack records... young too

Some other team will snatch him up to compete for a starting job.

why would he come here?

he’s gonna wanna go somewhere where he has a chance to be a starter

Anything can happen in Jerryworld.

Hadn't thought about Flynn.

I like it. Romo is not untouchable, we need competition at ALL positions. And besides, if Romo beats him out, we need a competent back-up, and Flynn showed that he is at least that…in record fashion.

I disagree big time.

We should be drafting guys that could be eventual starters. Drafting guys to be backups is how we got McGee.

Sing it sister!!! That's Jerry Draft 101 for you. Spend draft picks on backups and complementary players. They don't demand big contracts when you resign them

QB is such a prime position though...

I wonder if it wouldn’t be beneficial to take a flyer each year in the lower rounds on 1 QB like GB did years ago and ended up trading them. Problem is Dallas has too many holes to fill.

I disagree

I think each year we need to taking a lineman not a QB. Between the O and D line you have almost a third of your starting positions. We should be taking a lineman in the first 3 rounds and one late round every year.

We don’t have the luxury to start grooming Romo’s replacement. He has a several good years left and a good back up can be found every year.

staubachfan - January 2, 2012 reply

I know, that's why I said Dallas has too many holes to fill in the end...

But you make it sound so easy getting a backup. Do you feel comfortable with McGee? I sure as hell don’t.

No I don't think McGee is a quality backup or the eventual starter. But he would do in a pinch

I hope we can find a better number 2 veteran QB in the off season. I’m not sure who will come available but I would bet someone will.

staubachfan - January 3, 2012 reply

Overrated roster

They draft that way due to thinking they already have the best players and all we need is back up players, so I totally agree, we need guys who can play, even if it means trading away some picks to move up

Funny in Jerrys interview last night...

That he stated he thought this team could not only get into the playoffs but make a run at the Super Bowl. Your General Manager ladies and gentlemen!

What do you want him to say?

“Oh, this team will never get to the playoffs or make a run at the Super Bowl. We suck.”

That about covers it

How about telling the truth?

“We are rebuilding and have 2 new coaches. Give me (as GM) one more draft and off season and let’s see what we can do next year.”

It doesn’t have to be all or nothing! SB this year (what he said) or never (what you said).

no they need a guy like the people under me are saying

like a Hassleback who is not a stud by much measures but if given a chance to prove himself should seize the moment

Since when is the probowl anything more than a popularity contest?

That is no measuring stick. You are showing your ignorance

A "couple" years ago, Romo was on the bench with a broken collar bone.

Can you even name which season you are talking about (which we know) or are you just spouting ignorance? And yeah, the probowl doesn’t mean jack.

fs65 - January 1, 2012 reply

Who would you get at the 13th or 14th pick?

Last year, it was Christian Ponder. The Vikings may take RGIII this year.

do everything to move up and get RGIII

more QB talent last year

it’s looking like there’s only 2 QBs worth taking in the first this year

Youre a moron

Just leave already man. Seriously

BrickTop - January 1, 2012 via mobile reply

We have MUCH BIGGER problems than QB

+20,51,56

Dude can you please drop the 13 pro bowlers hard on...

…most of those “pro bowlers” never returned to the pro bowl and were way overrated that season.

You might also remember that same Giants team beat a pretty good 18-0 team in the Super Bowl that year.

gee-roj - January 1, 2012 via mobile reply

Packers have a crap load of pro bowlers this year

and they won’t make it to the Super Bowl either. So I guess that makes it Aaron Rogers fault?

Romo also scored more points on that defense than Tom Brady and his 18-0 squad did

we were 2 Patrick Crayton drops from winning that game

Spencer BUST

Not sure if he's a bust

but he is average at best.

he's a bust

people need to wake up
we traded BACK into the first round for him, dude is a big time bust

i never saw him as a 3-4 OLB

seemed like a decent 4-3 end to me

thats what he is

saw the same thing

never understood how a guy who played so stiff

made that amazing kick block this year.

Bust for a first rounder...

Wonder if Felix would qualify too…

Perhaps

But he is better than Victor Butler at maintaining contain while rushing. I’m all for replace Spencer, but with who? The team doesn’t have depth at the position as it is.

Which is why I wanted to see an OLB taken first last year

Although, I do love me some T. Smith. Did you see how he handled Paul et al when they came from the right side.

Free and T Smith

Hopefully the braintrust that runs this team sees what we see and makes the switch with them, I like Free but his footwork this year was terrible, he looked like he was stuck in wet cement when he stopped his feet

What happened with Free from last year to this year?

Maybe teams just got tape of him. It can’t be just because he got paid can’t it?

Six foot Five - Three Ten!!!!

He looks like he wants to bury that USC kid

DeCastro is a beast!

mean streak? i want a Columbo attitude!

yehti - January 1, 2012 via mobile reply

That size is about average. Nothing special.

Looks like he can add 15 pounds and still be good.

Cowboys Dominance - January 1, 2012 reply

Love how he is chipping one guy but still looking for another in that pic.

fs65 - January 1, 2012 reply

Love it

But I don’t think he’ll be around for the Boys when they pick

can we get 2 of them?

That would make my sticker peck out!

CDMac24 - January 2, 2012 via iPhone app reply

Newman, Ball, Brooking and James.

You’re done. You’ve been important. And you’re done.
Not ready for this yet.
Too hard. Too early.

A lot of good. Mixed with some easy bad, And the Giants showed it.
Need to be better.
Nite all. It has been a good year. Welcome to 2012. \
Fear the Star.

bloodyhanded - January 1, 2012 reply

I would add our safeties too...

Wonder why Walker didn’t get to replace Ball.

I think they need to get some corners before they go o line and the pick isn't high enough to get decastro

bitterlyhonest - January 1, 2012 reply

Fourteen is high enough for a guard

Trust me…he’ll be there.

even if so, is our O-line as bad as our secondary

it very well may depend on who we can target in free agency

i would like to adress defense as well

but decastro is the better option, if janoris weren’t a thug i would ask for him, stephon gilmore in the second would be nice, if he declares

OL is the least of our worries

Anyone see the DL and CB play…geez. Jerry is not taking a guard at 14

I'm thinking there's something to this whole notion of building an offense that can score 30-35+ points a game...

See Patriots, Green Bay.
We’re an o-line away from having an offense like them, imo. Maybe a stud signal caller….but I will be patient with Garrett. He has shown prowess in the past. But any OC is going to need a decent line

One win since November.

No more Cowboys football until late August/early September. Le sigh.

I mentioned this earlier, but you have to feel bad for Dan Bailey – his one miss tonight cost him the rookie kicker percentage record, giving it instead to Alex Henery of the Eagles.

Here’s hoping for a productive (and fast-moving) off-season. Love this team, now as always. Can’t wait for 2012. Go Cowboys.

KeyOfZ - January 1, 2012 via mobile reply

Bailey

He may get a challenge from Forbath(sp) next year.

did anyone notice how terrible he kicked away from Dallas and particularly on grass?

i know OK State has some nice turf but he missed a bunch of kicks on grass

he only missed 5 kicks all year

i don’t think we gotta worry about his accuracy

he also ended up having three different holders

McBriar(he gets injured), Romo, and then whoever the back up punter is.

offensively i think maybe a G if Arkin Nagy or Kowalski dont pan out.

if they can retool this defense next year will be better. 3rd place schedule again will help out as well. gotta find a way to beat Philly and NY tho.

yehti - January 1, 2012 via mobile reply

Kowalski looks decent to me

for a first year OFA

agreed

yehti - January 1, 2012 via mobile reply

I'd give him a chance to start at one of the OG positions next year. But that's assuming we either draft or sign a good starter for the other position.

if he doesn't start keep him for development

he looks like he has the right attitude

He likes to hit people on every play. I like that

exactly, Dallas misses that Columbo mean streak. someone who hits people just because

yehti - January 2, 2012 via mobile reply

Agree

I would keep Kowalski over Costa, and hope that Arkin and or Nagy develop and use this offseason to get better

So definitely a G, then.

if we get lucky

he might even pan out at C

Does anybody know what happened to Newman on the play he tried to tackle Nicks?

I heard he pulled his vag.

G_SWAG - January 1, 2012 via mobile reply

LOL

dislocated purse

Zak - January 1, 2012 reply

LOL

yehti - January 1, 2012 via mobile reply

Pull? I thought it was a tear...

I knew it smelled like fish

Laughing at Newman's expense

is cheering me up…

he sucks so bad it was funny watching him quit

Close

He hit his head on the turf whiffing on the tackle.

yup, same pulled vag he's had for the past two and a half seasons....

roflmao

SportsDrunk - January 1, 2012 via iPhone app reply

Funny

I told my wife the same thing, and she just looked at me and said “what did you just say!”

What about Dre Kirkpatrick

At 14?

BrickTop - January 1, 2012 via mobile reply

I'd love it

Bermystar - January 1, 2012 reply

I bet my life Cowboys wont make the playoffs next year with Romo at QB.

bet

can I choose action or method of death?

whatever you want

deal

you have to run backwards through a cornfield and die of bleeding out from the behind

fine by me

Cowboys wont do sh*t again next year with Romo.

Eagles and Giants are 100x better.

Careful Brandon, don't stray too far outside of the groupthink here.

Criticizing the QB position is not tolerated here, you must become a delusional excuse maker, or they have no use for you.

Didn't the Giants get swept by theRedskins?

will you leave?

yehti - January 1, 2012 via mobile reply

Why is his bitching any less valid than all of ours?

he has every right to his opinion

what i said might have been rude so my apologies.

yehti - January 2, 2012 via mobile reply

Because Romo had little to do with being down 21-0...

If you want to talk about the 2nd half INT, fumble, weak attempt at a QB sneak, fine. But his comment doesn’t bring anything to the discussion. And I’m pissed!

He was not partly responsible for the 0 part?

are you 12?

Fine, but Romo gets to do the honors if you lose.

me gusta - January 1, 2012 via mobile reply

Hmmm....

Are you related to someone from Montecito?

hahahaha a Tex reference

yehti - January 1, 2012 via mobile reply

Whoa, Old School!

go somewhere else troll

So we got the 14th pick eh

i am begging to the football gods we pick a pass rusher, please

I really want decastro.

But at the same time, our secondary is just SO bad. I have no idea which one I would improve first. Ugh, BPA time.

me gusta - January 1, 2012 via mobile reply

Whatever the Cowboys are far from awful. Some bad luck. Bad defense.

Add a few secondary pieces, retool the O line and we’re a playoff team.

Call me an idiot if you’d like but thats really what I think. Also Please stop blaming Romo he had a fantastic season. I can blame him for the DET loss and NYJ loss but dont forget the defense could have stopped DET and that blocked punt for a TD in NY

DonMoosavi - January 1, 2012 reply

+a billion gajillion trillion

yehti - January 1, 2012 via mobile reply

Romo

31 TD’s
10 INT’s

100 Passer rating….

In my book that’s better than “Sucks”

Is he in the playoffs?

Do you love the QB or do you love the team?

The team.

Which is why you keep a quarterback of that caliber and upgrade the team around him(specifically the defense and maybe OL). DUH!!!

heh?

who is getting rid of Romo?
My point is why brag and pump up Romo when the Cowboys as a franchise SUCKS?

Got ya.

My mistake.

because he's the reason we're even semi competitive

Without him, we’re no better than the Colts

defense is the reason we're not in the playoffs

Romo’s the reason we even had a shot to get there

Plus the makeshift Oline...

14 pts against that secondary is pathetic.

I thought you've said over and over that QB's don't win games...teams do.

Hypocrite much?

it's a bit of a cliche to say that there is little difference between a 10-6 team and a 6-10 one

but it can be true… a couple more pieces and we look alot better

+1

No team is perfect at every position

but with this many holes (O line, LB, CB, S) and the serious lack of talent at these positions, I can’t agree with you.

+infinity

me gusta - January 1, 2012 via mobile reply

Plus...

They don’t win the SF, both Wash games, and maybe the Miami game without him. Although that Thanksgiving game wasnt one of his finer statistical moments.

Which division do we play next year?

hbdc - January 1, 2012 via mobile reply

Afc north/NFC south

SuperBowl2012 - January 1, 2012 reply

It's the 3rd place schedule again next year.

BIG 12 South

wait.

DRAFT ORDER AS OF TODAY

1. Indianapolis Colts, 2-14
2. St. Louis Rams, 2-14
3. Minnesota Vikings, 3-13
4. Cleveland Browns, 4-12
5. Tampa Bay Buccaneers, 4-12
6. Washington Redskins, 5-11
7. Jacksonville Jaguars, 5-11
8. Carolina Panthers, 6-10
9. Miami Dolphins, 6-10
10. Buffalo Bills, 6-10

11. Seattle Seahawks, 7-9*
12. Kansas City Chiefs, 7-9*
13. Arizona Cardinals, 8-8
14. Dallas Cowboys, 8-8
15. Philadelphia Eagles, 8-8
16. New York Jets, 8-8
17. Cincinnati Bengals (from Oakland Raiders, 8-8)
18. San Diego Chargers, 8-8
19. Chicago Bears, 8-8
20. Tennessee Titans, 9-7

And YES – The San Diego Chargers would trade up to 14 to grab DeCastro if Dallas wanted to trade down – which I do not recommend.

trading down is stupid

take studs, not jags

I agree Chia

Just letting people know the Chargers will be trying to trade up for DeCastro and I do not see anyone taking him before Dallas is on the clock.

which stud

I only see DeCastro. For all i hear about Kirkpatrick he sounds like a stiff.

SportsDrunk - January 1, 2012 via iPhone app reply

whats wrong with DeCastro

watch out for Ingram too

agree kirkpatrick will suck on NFL

TRADING DOWN IS SMART

if the deal is worthwhile. And, I might just take that trade down.

Here’s why: if the Chargers trade up, I’d require their 18th pick AND their 2nd round pick (which should be 4 picks later than the Boys).

Is there anyone who’s so great at 14 that won’t be available at 18 that the Boys just HAVE to have? If DeCastro is picked, Cordy Glenn or Osemele will be avail later and they’re just as good.

It's only smart or dumb depending on the deal.

If we get the deal that you suggest, I love it.

Yup

I don’t really think there’ll be much of a drop off between 14 and 18. You should still be able to get a good player while grabbing an extra pick

MayurP - January 2, 2012 reply

I have to agree totally. We have soooo many holes to fill we could use as many picks as possible

Dynamicduo - January 2, 2012 via mobile reply

+1

I’m in favor of a trade down too given the depth of the guard class

did the cardinals have a worse divisional record than us?

because they beat us…

see I thought we pick higher, I thought we have 13th pick

precisely my point :)

I think we pick 13 guys

see below

KD Drummond - January 1, 2012 reply

Why is AZ ahead of us? They beat us.

fiverings37 - January 1, 2012 reply

its based on a SOS i think

MayurP - January 2, 2012 reply

who takes RGIII?

RangerMad - January 1, 2012 via Android app reply

Browns

SportsDrunk - January 1, 2012 via iPhone app reply

Why would the browns when the just drafted colt McCoy?

Dynamicduo - January 2, 2012 via mobile reply

He seems a little shaky...

But first year under a new system, and he’s got no weapons.

ha ha. Becase they just drafted Colt McCoy.

McCoy sucks

You sound like GM Jerry. Don’t overrate no fools.

SportsDrunk - January 2, 2012 reply

gotta be browns or skins

The skins have a shot at Blackmon.

Motherf^&! Motherf^&! Motherf^&! Motherf^&!

Ooops. Shouldn't have used the @.

Whatever, still expresses my anger.

F the Draft.

It’s losers talk when teams are in the playoffs.

OUR team isn't in the playoffs...

again :(

We need to fix the defense first

CB – please

I can’t watch another year of the 3 clowns back there

Would the Eagles give us A Samuel?

never

dear god....

And his millions and his lack of tackling in a nanosecond

If you think Newman can’t tackle…you might as well give Samuel number 41 and trot him out there…you won’t know the difference.

who cares about how well he tackles. hes the eagles best db and hes way better than any of ours

DavidLaFleur - January 2, 2012 reply

Nmandi is their best CB

give us?

They’d probably pay us to take him. With him and the rest of our secondary we could almost field a geriatric baseball team.

CDMac24 - January 2, 2012 via iPhone app reply

they're probably gonna cut him, we don't need to ask for their permission

I've got to disagree, finally.

After watching what’s happening in the NFL, I think that with our QB, WRs, TEs, and RBs, we could be as good as anyone if our line were better.

I used to think it was best to improve the D, but I think those days are gone.

Draft Schmaft

Don’t you guys get it? Jerry Jones is always the factor. As long as that dipshit runs the show we will never do well.

Elwood62 - January 1, 2012 reply

Yeah - DeMarco Murray was a terriblre third rounder

That Jones screwed that one!

It was a great pick

but has Jerry, on the whole, been successful w/ his drafts?

YES

Murray, Ware, Witten, Lee, Newman, Ty Smith, just to name a few… (Newman used to be good). That may not be as many as some other franchises over the same period of time, but the Boys are not ABSENT of talent.

Also, signing undrafted rookie free agents is part of the draft – Romo, Austin, Phillips, etc.

Phillips was drafted.

be happy they dont have the Bears draft classes

yehti - January 2, 2012 via mobile reply

Jason has some good pull on draft picks now

i mean do u know how badly it killed jerry to draft an O-linemen in the first round

I think I’d rather have Vince Young than Romo. It’s getting bad. 7 years of NOTHING.

What has Young brought all these years?

seriously?

How many years did Dan Marino take home the Lombardi?

CDMac24 - January 2, 2012 via iPhone app reply

lol

did you see VY play this year?

packimop - January 2, 2012 reply

seriously dude, all your posts are trolling

at least troll better

Woah, Vince Young? that's just crazy talk

Even I am not ready to jump off that bridge.

You are a f@$#&ing moron. Plain and simple.

And know absolutely NOTHING about playing QB. Congrats on being the newest troll name I add to my “ignore list”

wow...

That is a shocking line of thought…hate to be mean, but that is just stupid…

biggdavo - January 2, 2012 via iPhone app reply

What's next?

I’m sure the talk of who needs to go will continue for days.
Bottom line, after seven years, I think the 3-4 needs to go. It never seems to work out for us.
I propose going back to the 4-3 (can we get Mike Zimmer back? He never had a BAD defense).
It would look like:
DE – Ware, Ratliff, Coleman
DT – Spears, Brent, Lissemore
MLB – Lee, James
OLB – Carter, Butler
OLB – FA/ Draft
Secondary – ANYONE who can run, catch, tackle and RECOVER A FREAKING FUMBLE!

mik888 - January 1, 2012 reply

yea the 3-4 seems to be a bust for sure.

In a 4-3

Ratliff would be the 3 tech DT (not a DE). Same thing for Coleman.

If the Boys go back to a 4-3, that’d be more justification to re-sign Spencer and put him at DE.

wow picking this high is kinda exciting

It was last year too...

if we make a habit of it, we will be the new Detroit…

Now look at Detroit

And they had some big busts too….

well if you want to suck for 10 years...

a hay - January 2, 2012 reply

Only if we draft a WR 3 years in a row.

FOURTEEN

Ahead of the EAGLES!!!!

Ha ha

only time we beat them this year!!! :-)

Looking forward to your scouting reports

Nord15 - January 1, 2012 reply

honestly

we will have a real good picture soon of who is gonna declare

Barkley hurt

He would have been off the board before 14.

chia

When do you normally get a solid feel for who the Cowboys are targeting and how the board will fall before the actual draft? This will be my first draft with you guys so just want to know how solid things look when. Also, do you favor kiper or mayock? I like mayock better myself but who do you think is more accurate?

CDMac24 - January 2, 2012 via iPhone app reply

Mayock by miles

if you check the archives, the writers did an analysis on whose mock drafts are the most accurate

I'm starting to watch NFLN during draft...

So sick of Berman’s 30+ year schtick and Gruden’s inability to criticize anyone. Give me Dilfer and I’m good.

I agree, this was a good scenario

We knew this year was going to be a rebuilding year. We got to enjoy a good competitive season and still get great draft picks.

The biggest problem with this season is that we knew we had needs at ILB and G last season but as we move into next season our 2010 draft picks (Carter and Arkin) don’t look like solutions.

I said 9-7 season

so I wasn’t expecting deep playoff run, next year I expect to do something if we draft well and actually sign free agents

really, cuz it feels a bit less exciting than picking 9th last year...

could just be me though. A divisional loss to the Giants on a national stage could be clouding my judgement just a little bit

last year I knew who we were taking

look into your crystal ball chia who do u see

idk yet

could be DeCastro or a CB, but if a pass rusher rises up the board like an Ingram, that could happen

I'd be excited with any three of those.

Our defense definitely needs serious help but our inside line needs help too. Romo had to rush his decision 90% of the time all yr long

Dynamicduo - January 2, 2012 via mobile reply

Actually...

It is pretty effing depressing to be talking about the draft the same night the regular season ended.

this

I look forward to further rebuilding under Jason Garrett.

I think last offseason he did as much as the shortened offseason and salary cap limitations allowed him to do. Dumping the underperforming and overpaid Williams, Davis, Gurode, Colombo and Barber was a good start.

In this offseason I look forward to the departures of Newman, James, Brooking, Spencer, and Bennett. Elam and Ball may also not be invited back. Spears, Coleman and Kosier appear to all have contracts that can easily be shredded if need be.

I look forward to this team getting smarter. I think Garrett holds intelligence in higher esteem than the GM and scouts and perhaps the last few Coaches before him too. This is a dumb team. Parcells called them dumb. Wade had to simplify his schemes for them (schemes that worked great before Dallas’ players and are working great again without Dallas’ players). And now we hear that Dallas’ players, in week 17 of the season, were saying Ryan’s D is too confusing for them. They’re dumb. Some of the worst dummies on D will thankfully grace Cowboys field no more (Newman, James) and the O’s biggest dolt will also be gone (Bennett). Physical skills are obviously a priority in the NFL but physical skills without the right mental skills (intellectual and attitude) often go completely wasted.

There’s a lot of work to do with this team but I believe we are finally going about things the right way. Make no mistake though, this team is not a few players away from contention. We need to acquire good players on Defense at DL, OLB, S, CB (practically every unit) and on Offense at C, G, TE#2. That’s a lot of work and it won’t happen in one year.

dumb coaching to go with dumb players

lots of game management failures, poor strategy, and preparation gaps

Every week I see players in position to make plays...

and almost every week I see the players screw it up. This current game is a great example, many opportunities and almost all of them missed by poor execution. The coaches aren’t perfect but the players are the problem.

Word

+1

I approve of most of JG's house cleaning moves

but if we had Gurode we would have made the playofss. Costa made a lot of mistakes that Gurode never would have.

Keith Moon - January 1, 2012 reply

You must be unfamiliar with Gurode's career :)

he was an adventure snapping in the shotgun...

but he never would have gotten pushed back the way costa does on a regular basis. i don’t understand all the intricacies of the center position, and maybe kowalski isn’t as good at making the line calls or something, but he looked better to my ‘lay’ eye than costa.

how many more

Years before we have to find that #1 TE? That’s going to be a priority in 2-3 I would think. I love me some 82 but that position is changing and jwitt isn’t a spring chick.

CDMac24 - January 2, 2012 via iPhone app reply

Witten is still a very solid player but you're right all guys lose a step as they age.

The good news is with our WR group Witten no longer needs to be a 90+ 1000+ TE anymore. That’ll take some pressure of as he gets older. His contract keeps him here for at least another 3 years. Hopefully we’ve developed a young guy or 2 in that time for the #2 spot.

Right now, Witten is still there for Romo

he’s his blankie and I doubt that’s going to change.

probably true, but robinson makes a pretty good security blanket as well.

We pick 14th because...

I believe that draft tiebreakers have nothing to do with head-to-head matchups

it’s all strength of schedule

KD Drummond - January 1, 2012 reply

Exactly

Strength of schedule.

thats a BS rule, it should be head to head regardless

fiverings37 - January 1, 2012 reply

its too complicated. The draft is league-wide

so there aren’t many head-to head contests to go on…

Woohoo, next year will be another

rebuilding year we can add to the pile. Year 16 of a 20 year rebuilding plan. Jerry Jones has told me we are getting ever closer to our goal…of being the laughing stock of the league. It’s going to be us or the Tebow led Broncos.

Hopefully we can get rid of this riff-raff on D...

Newman and Spencer should be at the top of the list. We are the only team in our division without a consistant pass rush tandem. NY has Tuck, JPP asd Osi. Washington has Orakpo and Kerrigan. Philly has Babin and Cole. I hope we can find someone who can come in and give us instant production…

dcsince77 - January 1, 2012 reply

So what do y'all think?

Colts take luck and Vikings get RG3? Or does he fall to the Redskins, because I do NOT want that.

me gusta - January 1, 2012 via mobile reply

How about we move up and draft RGIII? Sounds good to me

Can he play CB? If he can, take him.

rec'd

That will take

Our entire draft this year and next years first.

Depends if they are happy with Ponder

I thought Ponder showed some flashes but he's also hurt a lot

They need a LT real bad

Vikings don't want RG3

They already have both Christian Ponder and Joe Webb. I can see Washington or Seattle picking him though? Maybe he falls to either Arizona or Philadelphia.

I bet Snyder is salivating over RGIII.

So, what do we pick first? CB, OLB, DE, O line?

time will tell

gotta see who declares, who rises, who falls
combine is going to be huge for a lot of prospects this year

I gotta admit, if DeCastro is there, we might have to take him of BPA

Has Barkley said what he'll do? I want him to declare and push more players down.

he is goin back to USC

Thanks.

back to USC

Too bad.

There are a few extremely talented Juniors out there that might declare.

Hopefully, everyone will realize that this is not a one year rebuilding project.

This team BADLY needs two more pass rushers: one opposite Ware from the outside, and another from the interior. There are some good OLB pass rushers that may be available at 14, but there are more needs.

It seems reasonable to assume that Newman, Walker (who was inactive tonight), and Ball will be elsewhere next year. Scandrick is not as good as Jenkins, which is an indictment on Scandrick, depite a good season by Jenkins.

That means Dallas needs two to three new cornerbacks that can make plays and prevent big plays. The Cowboys may get lucky, if a CB like Jonathan Banks slips into the top half of the second round, but that still leaves two corner spots available and a defensive end.

There is no way that this team can spend the 14th pick on a guard or a center. It cannot even spend the 14th pick on a defensive end (nor would it), since the 14th selection needs to be a play maker as either a cornerback or an outside linebacker.

Now before anyone goes and spends fictitious money in free agency, please note that the Cowboys (thanks to some very poor cap management yet again by Jerry Jones the GM) have about $25 million in dead money next year. This team needs to rebuild through the draft.

It will be at least a three year process. Please be patient. More to come…

ScarletO - January 1, 2012 reply

honestly

problem is we need guards too, another ILB to replace Brooking and James, we need at least 2 cornerbacks and we need a pass rusher and a DE

if we can do something in free agency, this is doable

Again, $25 million in dead money.

Carter and Arkin need a full offseason to develop and be further evaluated. But I am not even talking about depth. There is no position that has any depth on this team.

There are about 12 solid players on this team. There is a chasm of talent from the 12th player to the 13th player. From the top 22 players to the 23rd or 24th player is an abyss.

This team needs to rebuild around those top 12 guys and hope that they are not too old to become the base of the team. This team needs to rebuild through the draft because of the poor salary cap management executed by the GM (yet again). This will either be the next Dave Campo regime, or the next coming of Jimmy Johnson: mostly because of the decisions of the GM.

The Cowboys are experiencing the post-Wade hangover, where the team neither acquired elite, young, talent, nor did the team develop the talent it acquired.

ScarletO - January 1, 2012 reply

I think we can manipulate the cap to sign some FAs

maybe only 1 big name one and a bunch of small contracts to fill out the roster

The Cowboys are going to be like 15-20 million under the cap.

Pass Rush has to be top priority

If all teams have to do is double (triple, hold) Ware to prevent a pass rush without a major blitz then this defense won’t be decent with a Revis clone at both corners.

On Offense I think we need one guard and some position changes. Kosier and Holland are fine back-ups, but neither can hold up an entire season. Both Kowalski and Nagy looked good and will be fine with some conditioning.

It's at least a 2-year project. No way this team seriously competes next year.

Yep.

We can improve next year but serious contention is at least another year away.

I could see us competing next year if we get some talent on both lines. I am so tired of seeing Romo have to run around and twist and turn to try to give his guys the needed time to get open.

Saying "if we get some talent on both lines" is easy...

actually getting that talent is proving very, very difficult.

Don’t we know it.

They are probably 4-5 pieces away from being genuinely good (notice I didn't say great)

OG, CB, FS, OLB, ILB

Kowalkski can be good if he gets the exp. But a good solid player opposite Smith could shore up the line… A good Guard would go a long way. And Defensively, yeah we need alot.

3 years process yes, but by that time will romo, ware,witten and austin be productive? or will we need to be replacing them too? Thats what I'm worried about

Witten looks a little slower

but started his career very young, and has avoided serious injury.

Austin will always have a pulled hammy and fight the football with his hands.

Ware is still very good, but I think past his very best football.

So Ware is past his Prime? I’d say 19.5 sacks is a huge way to go. That makes him better past his prime that most other LBs in their prime… I’d still go with him, but he needs some solid help along the line.

I think his peak was two years ago

so past his peak, but still in the prime of his career. The back half of the prime.

Well, if his back half is as productive as his first half, he will still be one of the best in the game. I can see him remaining a force for another 4 years, maybe a little bit slowing down in another 2, but who knows. If he stays physical and healthy.

nope. That's the problem

Jones wasted the brilliant 2003 and 2005 drafts by making bad personnel decisions, especially in 2004, ’06 and ’09.

exactly by the time the other 45 guys are ready to go

the guys they are building around will be analyzing on NFL Network full-time

exactly what I fear as well.

I guess that’s the challenge in this league and why it’s so difficult to stay on top. The constant battle to acquire unproven talent and have it fit into your existing team.

CDMac24 - January 2, 2012 via iPhone app reply

exactly what I have been saying all year, S.O.

8-8 is pretty good for the first year of a three-year rebuild…

Welcome to the Cowboys, DeCastro

As a fan, I’d like to thank you for their continued run to the SB.

We can get Carl Nicks or Grubbs in FA

we don’t need to waste the 14th overall pick on a guard.

We need a corner bad.

thats the problem

You're looking at it wrong

Excellence at any position improves all positions.
Having an All Pro at Center or Guard means the Cowboys will run the ball more, keeping their defense off the field. More red zone TDs as well.
It is equivalent to having a shut down CB.

lol no its not

a guard doesn’t help the secondary at all

I don't understand

The game isn’t to support the secondary, it’s to win.

If you can run the ball enough and control the game enough to win.. who cares about the secondary’s statistics?

because you cant WIN with a secondary we have

To put a very fine point on it

if the Cowboys scored 6 points more per game, they’d have won the NFC East a month ago.

and if they didnt let up 30 plus in these games............

Pick what you want

You say CB, or DE, or OLB rusher. Which is it? I say it’s stud at Center and a journeyman at Guard and stand pat with the awful defense, and the Cowboys stroll into the playoffs.

I agree.

+1

They only allowed 30+ 4 times.

And that includes the Detroit game where the offense scored 14 for the other team. We lost all 4 of those games. They also held the other team to 20 or less 9 times, and we lost 3 of those. We won 2 more of them by a combined 3 points. That tells me that we are just not scoring enough, because not only can’t we win shootouts, we struggle to win when we hold the other team to low scores too.

The offense failed to score at least 21 points 6 times this year. That’s not really what I call a high powered offense. The Saints, Patriots, and Packers were held below 21 points only 5 times combined this year. They went 1-4 in those games, with the Patriots beating the Cowboys. That tells me that if you score a lot, you probably win.

+1

This is Exactly how the Eagles retooled

They wanted to beat people by outscoring them. Just like the Pats.

The offense should rightfully take equal share of the blame. To many times have this offense stalled out. Too many times have I put blinders on and blamed it on the rebuilding process. “X,Y,and Z” play failed because they were trying to develop this scheme…or develop these players…or practice this plays….

We have an OC that’s been here for 5 years developing his players and implementing his plays. Maybe it’s him. Maybe it’s the talent level.Maybe we aren’t moving forward with the offense at all. Maybe it was a combination of luck and a weak schedule that is masking the fact that this entire offense needs to be blown up, not just the line.

I think it worked for the Eagles.

If Vick hadn’t been so fragile, they would have won the division. Their defense was awful, but their biggest problem was Vick being inconsistent and DeSean Jackson not wanting to play. Once they got those 2 things in order, they started kicking people’s butts.

The Packers and Patriots say otherwise

And I really don’t think our offense is that far off. The difference to me is Oline

we also can't win with tie interior OL we have...

Sorry a guard is not anywhere near as important CB

furthermore, you can’t find an elite CB in FA. You can find an elite guard in FA.

that is true

I do like Grimes out of Atlanta

he is not elite

Janoris Jenkins is elite

haven't started draft prep, I don't know

I just know I’ve watched Grimes and I like him

I just can't imagine we'll draft guys with character concerns

its failed year after year for us. Even Dez looks questionable.

Who's the elite corner at 14?

SportsDrunk - January 1, 2012 via iPhone app reply

Jenkins or Kirkpatrick will be there or will be within striking distance where we can make

a reasonable trade offer

krikpatrick is a stiff

SportsDrunk - January 1, 2012 via iPhone app reply

My question is...

does having a very good CB even matter that much when we have zero pass rush?

If the QB has all day the CB will still get beat. I think a very good pass rusher, either OLB or Dline, would do more good for this D than a CB.

That's the question we faced when we drafted Newman

It was Newman or Suggs. Improve the coverage giving the pass rush more time to get to the QB or improve the pass rush so the CB’s didn’t have to cover for as long. That was the big question. We went Newman and our pressure still sucked. I think I’m going to go pass rush now. We give the WR’s less time to get open and the QB less time to make an accurate throw and read the field we’ll be better off IMO

+ a bazillion

Pats won SBs

with JAGs in the secondary but great pressure

as did the Giants and the Steelers

and the Bucs and the Ravens and the Packers who just happened to have the best ball-hawking secondary

the only team that didnt have much of an elite pass-rushing group were the Saints because they piled up points and forced teams to play catch-up and had some great ball-hawkers who tricked QB’s into throwing dumb throws. also it doesnt help half their d-line was poppin diuretics like skittles

you're forgetting Colts.

THey had a dismal defense that showed up in the playoffs, wait we did have Sanders back in the day though…

Saints D was very fast...

especially on that turf.

Well...

Harrison and shutdown CB (can’t remember name, left for big money) played in Pats secondary. That whole defense was good.

they won one prior to Samuel

Otis Smith was a starter

but they had milloy and ty law

plus the front 7 back then: Mcginnest, vrabel, bruschi, wilfork, seymour, phifer.

they didnt need a dominant secondary. remember how troy brown used to be the nickel and dime corner?

That's it, Ty Law!

Thanks

Yeah.

I think in today’s NFL, with all the rules that favour the WR’s and the passing game, the best way to disrupt a passing game is with pressure on the Qb.

I Agree and there should be a OLB BPA over a cb at the 14.

I don’t get everyone’s end actuation with Jenkins. Yeah he’s good so was pacman jones and look at his career. Jenkins is garbage who will make some money and be out of the league

Dynamicduo - January 2, 2012 via mobile reply

Infatuation**

Dynamicduo - January 2, 2012 via mobile reply

Yep.

I just went and did some reading on Jenkins and I don’t see why we’d want this guy at all. A 5’10" 180 pound CB who has a history of getting arrested for drugs and fighting. It was bad enough that he was dumped from his own team! Not the sort of guy you should watse the 14th overall pick in the draft on.

+1

+1

Cowboys Dominance - January 1, 2012 reply

I think it depends

on how elite the guard is.

DeCastro is supposed to be as elite as they come. A game changer on the O-line

yes, but...

If they can improve over the current player more at guard than they can at CB, then its a good pick.

Given the current starters, that is a likely outcome. First round corner not likely to be better than Jenkins, certainly, and maybe not much better than Scandrick. DeCastro likely to be much better than Nagy, et al.

Cowboys Dominance - January 1, 2012 reply

Exactly

Good point. There is room for MAJOR improvement in the interior of our o-line.

+1 billion

SportsDrunk - January 2, 2012 via iPhone app reply

whoa now

While I agree we need to consider guard, this is a 3 cb league – you need 3 good ones. We clearly don’t have that.

Newman may’ve just had his worst game as a pro. I think at this point he is barely starter material. I have a feeling his decline will be rapid, given his track history before starting football – those legs are going to give out, and sooner rather than later.

Jenkins is by far our best cb. But he was hurt constantly. The guy may’ve been near 100% in 3 or 4 games this year. With the aggressive way he defends the ball in the air, hes probably going to get hurt in the future.

Scandrick is decent, but nothing special – he has the same problem newman has of not looking back for the ball, and Eli Manning has made a habit of picking on our cbs who don’t do that, even if our coverage is good. When Newman is gone I imagine Scandrick will suddenly become to cb that qbs pick on.

Asssuming no FA ads, drafting a cb turns our cb core from

Jenkins
Newman
Scandrick
Ball

to

Jenkins
#1
Newman/Scandrick

I think thats a major improvement. If that #1 pick ends up being a legit #1 cb, then we get far more out of that pick then we do at guard.

Man I hope we fire Ryan and go to a 4-3

Letting go Mike Zimmer was one of the dumbest things Jerry has done.

You gotta give a guy a chance

and whole lot better players

He has been a DC in this league for a long time

and he has had one mediocre defense after another.

And he didn't have much talent with any of the teams

And Wade did in Houston?

Good coaches coach players up.

And he got fired from Dallas

with the same players RR is dealing with.

they just gave Wade an entire draft of talent

Yesss, Yesss, Yesss

Fire Ryan. Fire him. Fire him.

We don’t have the luxury of waiting 5 years for him to get all his players in place and install his defense.
Not the right personnel.It’s player execution, not the Coaching.blah…blah…blah…

NO More excuses.
You can either have a good offense or a good defense, you can’t have both in Dallas.

A lot of teams in the playoffs have have overcome having a weak defense or a weak offense. We need to decide which kind of team we are going to be. Obviously the Eagles decided to emulate the Patriots and the Eagles killed us with a good offense and managed to run us over with a bad defense.

If we had a mediocre defense this season, this could have been an entirely different season. And this falls squarely on Ryan.

The D was at least mediocre.

They allowed 30+ only 4 times and 20 or less 9 times. That’s not that bad.

The offense allowed 14 in one of the 30+ games, and scored a combined 21 in 2 of the others.

I will give you that. Offense stunk it up as much as the D

“Cowboys are 12-9 under Garrett. They’ve blown a 4th quarter lead in 8 of 9 losses, losing by more than 4 only once”

“We should start calling them the "allas Cowboys" because the D has disappeared.”-damn wish I had come up with this line

very deceiving stat

we’ve also won 4 games this year + around 5 games last year where we were losing in the fourth

In reality, this team under Garrett is playing close games week in + week out, and you just can’t have a good record under those circumstances

While I love Garrett and Romo...

I’m a little concerned about why we only score 14 last night, teens against Pats (one of NFLs worst defenses), 13 against Arizona. I realize the OL sucks, but we have other weapons that should allow for better output. Steelers won a SB with a terrible OL that everyone thought would get Ben killed during the season, and that team was a predominantly passing team (SB win against Cards).

Offense let us down early in the year + Defense late

Turnovers on offense let the Jets + Lions back in games they shouldn’t have been in, and the defense the last 4 division games was terrible.

I would make a comment about how we at least contained the Eagles and GIants in round 2, but every time those teams needed to score, they did.

One full offseason to fully evaluate Robs defense...

Notice Jerry doesn’t like things that won him SBs: controlling coach with authority, game manager instead of OC/DC, 4-3 defense.

One note - Alan Ball

How many YEARS has he been a special teamer in the NFL…and tonight he just learned that going out of bounds and being the first to touch a punt (a beauty by the way) was an automatic touchback if downed inside the five?

I hope that is my last memory of him…complete idiot.

he is outta here

boy he sucks too
Ball Newman Brooking James Spencer PEAAAAAAAAAAAAAACE

it's good that Ball is out of here

looks like we made the right call on that lack of talent before it bit us in the ass. Wait a minute…

at least they didnt extend him in season like they did with Sensabaugh

I think my heartburn just went up a notch

My favorite AB memory was when he got punched in the face

me gusta - January 1, 2012 via mobile reply

hw about falling on a ball, that could have been a huge turning point.

yehti - January 2, 2012 via mobile reply

It was raining, the ball was wet on plastic grass and he was running full speed before diving for the ball.

So I’ll give him a pass. I really wish he would have held onto it though. Sensi’s too.

To be fair

I don’t think he realized that he went out of bounds. He does have to go. Both the Eagles and the Giants (who know the Cowboys best) beat Dallas by picking on Ball, Newman and Kosier and Free; Jerry Jones would be wise to note that.

To me it doesn't seem that Dallas does the same thing...

Pick on the other teams weakness.

What are the realistic chances of getting Mario Williams in free agency?

I know that Houston could franchise him, but maybe they will decide they don’t want to pay that much.

me gusta - January 1, 2012 via mobile reply

i dont see that happening

Jerry can give them 2 first rounders and he is ours.

Nah, JJ only does that for WR's.

flash in the pan WR's too

not Fitzgeralds or Randy Moss’. No Joey Galloway and Roy Williams, the epitome of mediocre talent

none.. he doesnt like the 3-4 why houston will lose him this next year

IRONRAVEN - January 1, 2012 reply

actually

From what I read, It is not that he doesn’t like the 3-4, more that He prefers the 4-3…

(reading into this , if given equal money he will go tho a 4-3 team, but He could possibly be money whipped into signing with a 3-4 team)

I am Ironman!!! - January 2, 2012 reply

this sucks

Loving a team that is decent enough to compete for the division is worse than loving a truly crappy team. At least last year, I was numb by the halfway point… this season = torture.

oneinsider - January 2, 2012 via mobile reply

Me 2. Last year didn't matter

The writing was on the wall. This year was about the same, but I got glimpses of what this team could be and that was exciting,especially when the offense showed up with the addition of Murray and Robinson to the cast of regulars.

Now, the party is over. Probably will go through another season of not watching the playoffs and avoiding the Super Bowl.

less than zero.

DAVID DECASTRO - SUMMARY

DeCastro is a smart, technically sound guard who has been an integral part of Stanford’s dominant power rushing attack for three years. While not overly impressive physically, DeCastro beats his opponents consistently by being fundamentally sound, consistent with effort, and taking advantage of his natural flexibility to gain leverage advantages. He is a master at pulling and trapping, and opens holes in the running game with a seek-and-destroy attitude. One of the top guards I have watched on tape, DeCastro is worthy of top-15 consideration in the 2012 draft.

man I am soooooooo happy Spencer is gonna be gone!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! wooooooo hoooooooooo you scrub

What if they tag him with "Transitional"

don't be too quick-who's gonna replace him?

Butler? It’s the same situation we were in with Spears. A 3-4 is predicatd on the OLB’s and they aren’t easy to come by.

I was about the only guy against the switch to a 3-4 from Day One with Parcells. Glad to see more here are signing on. Hopefully JJ Logs In tonight too.

I dont give a flying hot crap who replaces him he sucks

see you are scared of going out and replacing him

dont settle, the cowboys settle too often because they are scared
grow a set Cowboys
go out and you can get more than 6 sacks 30 offsides and 40 missed tackles

It was the ofsides that really pissed me off.

Is he trying to be like his man Ware?
Did he suddenly develop quick-twitch muscles?
And twice, not once!

yup, dude sucks

Then you are

not thinking straight. if you get someone worse than Spencer what have you solved?

omg honestly I dont even know how many times I forgot Spears is on this team

seriously the way this team was constructed has been such a huge flop

Carl Shelton (GloryDayz88) - January 1, 2012 reply

I dont care what happens. I dont ever want to see Terence Newman

In a Cowboys uniform again.

amen

no more spencer either

wow you are crazy pumped for no more spencer haha

yes

the dude sucks
look how he played in the biggest game of the season
he gave us nothing

Cowboys sign Spencer to 5 year 30 million deal

Chia’s head explodes

if it was a year, I would somewhat understand it

but if its longer than a year, I will explode

lol

Chia I agree with you on Spencer

This bum was a first tound pick and what has he done? Not even a double digit sack season.. I hope we can get a guy in here that can give us instant results. Like Woodley or Aldon Smith or Von Miller or Brooks Reed or Ryan Kerrigan etc…..

dcsince77 - January 1, 2012 reply

dude is hot garbage

He DID have a forced fumble tonight

of which Sensi should’ve dove on and instead tried to pick it up and run while in traffic.

I'm no big fan of the talent on D, everyone knows that but if they keep Ryan around at DC there's no hope.

Seriously, this is like when Gailey was head coach. Why even bother?
He’s a one-trick pony who doesn’t even have a trick. All offseason I was told about how this D was going to terrorize QB’s with his “complicated blitzing schemes.” What a crock.

Someone tell me, what team in the NFL has QB’s who can cover one-on-one down after down after down? His ‘scheme’ consists of putting everyone up on the line, having them jump around, and leaving the secondary on an island! It’s ridiculous. That doesn’t work in today’s NFL. Any good QB (It can work against young/bad ones or teams that are just bad) will tear it up.

This guy has not shown ONE ADJUSTMENT all year to his personnell or to what other teams are doing.
It is very very scary that the 2 teams that made him look the worst were our division rivals. When you build a team you have to look at your own division and se how to compete. Manning and Vick will kil this guy’s D year after year if he is still here.

He would need Revis on one side and a young Deion on the other to with Troy Palomeau at safety to rin his D. Good luck.

Giants dumbed down their

complicated scheme in the Jets win. And it looks like that was an adjustment that carried them through when they played us. The Giants was supposed to be a D that we could run and pass against with ease. What the hell happened.
So, if the Giants are able to make an adjustment so late in the season, why the hell can’t Ryan?

What worries me...

Is that it took Garrett a whole half to adjust to the Giants pass rush when he knew this game would be the first time in a long time that all Gmen pass rushers were healthy. Look at Gmen play calls: all quick passes to neutralize the pass rush and slow to react secondary and linebackers.

It's worse---it took him 15 1/2 games!

What a concept! Short, quick routes instead of always running long ones so that either

your QB gets killed
or
the WR’s can’t get open cause the other team just puts safeties over the top.

Realist Larry - January 2, 2012 reply

I mentioned how we didn't seem to have any hot routes and very few quick slants in our repertoire

Eli’s been beating us with quick slants and 3 step drops for years and that’s with the best pass rusher in the league on the team. Why can’t we copy that approach when needed??

DAVID DECASTRO - RUN BLOCKING

DeCastro’s main area of excellence is run blocking. He easily walls off defenders in the run game, and never seems to get beat at the point of attack. He uses quick feet to pull and is as good at locating defenders at the second level as I’ve seen. DeCastro may not be a dominant drive blocker (which may come with some added bulk) but he keeps his legs churning with good effort and has the ability to move defenders off the ball. He plays RG at Stanford mainly because of the power rushing attack they use, which has him pulling on seemingly every run play. DeCastro can easily transition to LG in the NFL.

Remember in the preseason when we (and others) were discussing Ware and Spencer

As potentially the most dominant pass rushing duo in the league?

How LOLtastic.

KeyOfZ - January 1, 2012 via mobile reply

I bought into dallas and their BS they feed us

I am not believing anything coming out of Valley Ranch anymore fool me once shame on me fool me twice shame on you

Yet you believe in Bruce Carter?

Why?

No one outside of Valley Ranch thinks that’s a good 2nd round pick.

who's that?

Mike Mayock loved it

didn't he preface that comment with "If healthy..."

and Bruce Carter has been out for an entire year with an ACL injury, the worst injury in football?

no that would be multiple tears, like Petersons

people come back from ACL’s, its when you tear multiple ones its serious

Ray Diddinger - HOF writer

LOVES the Carter pick IF he is 100 percent.

He’s a first round talent…and many outside Valley Ranch echo that sentiment.

why do you think he droped to the 2nd

this was a redshirt year

I believe things I see with my own eyes

Carter has speed, and was a first round prospect before that injury
you can hate and call that kid a bust, but they said the same thing about Lee, were you one of them? be honest

Carter HAD speed

So did Felix before he took all those injuries

Risk pick

But the jury is still out…Carter needs another season.

Carter has speed

he has shown it when he has been in
I dont know, go back and watch the tape

Dude, I'm really worried about him

hope you’re right I really do.

But when you have Rob Ryan who gets EVERYONE involved and even he doesn’t want to put Bruce Carter on the field? That raises the biggest red flag possible for me.

The only thing worse than seeing someone struggle on the field

Is when you don’t see them on the field.

its understandable but I didnt expect anything but ST duty in a shortened offseason like this years

Ain't that the truth.

go back and watch the tape?

what?

go back and watch the games

when Carter was in, he blitzed and looked good against Seattle
on ST’s he was flying around out there

loved that block punt in the philly game

dude has blazing speed

yeah he was slow on that play, lol

I get it dude

you’re a fan. You like Carter.
He played less than 10% of the snaps that Keith F*&^*ing Brooking played. He had a full season. come on man.

Carter had a full season?

I bet you were one of the Lee sucks people right?

how that turn out?

Carter was on PUP for half the season

and no training camp

ding ding

and he couldn't work with the trainers during the lock out

No fair, you used logic!!

what is this logic you speak of?

9 games

4 tackles

You guys are totally right.
You guys are also the people who are convinced Lee is the best LB in football and Romo needs to be in the Pro Bowl and the Cowboys should be in the playoffs.

Homers

dont get mad sourpuss

?

mad?

I’m happy for the higher draft selection

Can’t really be called Homers when we are blatant Cowboys fans…..

Has anyone ever accused you of being an idiot?

what is your

reasoning behind why Carter didn’t start 1 game this season?

Carter is one of the sacred cows around here. Didn't you know that???

Hahaha

Carter must have photos on half of BTB

More people protect this guy that’s never done anything and wasn’t on anyone’s 2nd round draft board than they protect Romo or Ware.

hahaha

It's a little bit of the numbers effect I think.

The guy produced great numbers in his workouts so the blog hype on his potential in through the roof. But just running fast etc does not a great footballer make.

Exactly. Otherwise Jason Williams would be in the Pro Bowl instead of washing cars or whatever he's doing

Didn't say a word about that.

It was intended for your wide swath about an entire group of folks on this board. Lee, best LB in the league? Romo in the probowl? Cowboys in the playoffs? You just got pissy because some folks disagreed with you. So what? I guarantee you that there will be folks that agree with some of those points and disagree on others and vice versa. Talk to me about Carter next year and see what happens. I for one don’t know which way it will go with him. He does have potential though or at least seems to.

I don't think our argument is that he doesn't have potential

Most 2nd rounders have potential to be a starter. Or at least you hope they do. It’s that Jerry took an injured player, who wasn’t going to contribute this year for the most part, over guys who could have come right in and STARTED for us day one. Guys like Wisniewski. Imagine if we would have never had to see Costa play a snap for us. How good would that have been??

Steve Octavian had potential

Jason Williams had potential

What do they have in common with Bruce Carter? They never saw the field.

At least not for us

Meanwhile, Erik Walden starts for the Packers and has a SB ring. How’s that for irony??

He's a ROOKIE coming off an injury with NO offseason conditioning and the ability to rehab with our training staff.

Need I add that we have a brand new defensive coordinator and first year head coach?
Give the dude a real offseason and then get back to me.
Besides, how the hell do you figure we can get rid of him when brooking, james, and spencer all have to go? And how are you not bringing up their names? What the hell did they do? By the way, they all STARTED

Exactly.

Marty Bennett was a second round pick with a ton of physical potential that we were going to coach up and he’d be great!!

Yeah, because NO ONE had ever been smart enough to run out a two TE offense before

We were going to show everyone!!

I think the 2 TE offense is a fine idea.

I just think M. Bennett was a very poor choice to run it. NE’s making the 2 TE offense look great right now.

Dead on Luke

If Jimmy Graham was our 2nd TE no one would say anything about a 2TE offense

It's not that I care about the two TE offense

If you’ve got the players for it fine. It’s the idea that you reach for a JAG just because of some workout numbers because you HAVE to implement it. Like moving Dexter Coakley and Dat Nguyen to ILB in a 3-4 because you HAVE to move to a 3-4. I think drafting that way is what sets a team back and the Fasano and Bennett picks prove that IMO

The problem is WHEN he was picked. You want the tam spending 2nd-rounders on injured projects?

Take a shot later but it’s a big risk with a guy like that, plus a 2nd rounder and you KNOW he won’t contribute his first year.
4th round and later look for an injured guy (Hatcher, right?). Not 2nd

if the value is good

The Center Wiz was just sitting there waiting for us to pick him...

we were rebuilding our Oline, seemed like the smart and safe pick to me. Carter may turn out but Wiz already has.

Amen!!!

That's what's been killing me this whole season

and I wasn’t the only one sold on Wisnewski on BTB last year, lots of us were.

No one was talking about Bruce Carter.

Yeah, it's not like it was just me trumpeting this amazing player that only I knew about

MANY of us were. He was a lot of fans pet cat. I was enamored of the idea that we had drafted his uncle and traded him for the Moose. Thought it was sweet that we’d draft the nephew and he’d go on and start for us for the next 10 years. Instead we drafted Fasono. Excuse me. I mean Carter

Excuse me I mean Octavian

Excuse me I mean Robert Brewster
Excuse me I mean DeAngelo Smith
Excuse me I mean Brandon Williams
Excuse me I mean Roy Williams
Excuse me I mean Bruce Carter

sorry, sometimes I get confused - this record plays over and over again

Dude he's a rookie

He’s looked good in the limited bursts that he’s had and he was responsible for the only points against Philly the second time. He’ll be fine. Give him a full offseason and he’ll be just fine.

Omar Little - January 2, 2012 reply

I think the point is...

how much ink the homers are giving a non performer in a disappointing season.
The kid doesn’t start. He’s behind Keith Brooking, who I labeled 4 years ago – look it up in these logs – as the worst player in football, but yet cannot push Brooking off the field.
I hope he becomes a great ILB. Today… This season… When it matters… he is not a starter. And that’s ok. But just don’t make it what it’s not.

and someone like Omar told me the exact same things about all the players I listed above

I heard that DeAngelo Smith was going to be a great ball-hawking free safety in the 2010 training camp.
I heard that Steve Octavian was going to be a pro-bowl ILB when he got over his injury
I heard that Robert Brewster was our future at right tackle

Come on man, open your eyes. Guys that don’t play aren’t playing for a reason.

There's always that fan, and I'm not calling out Omar, who's just been beaten down by Jerry's bad draft moves that they want to believe in something. Anything

Surely these guys who draft for a living must know more than what we clueless fans know who just sit behind a computer in our grandma’s basement and flame these PROFESSIONAL who, did I say who do this for a living?? There must be something good about guys we’ve never heard of for the Cowboys to waste high draft picks on them, right??

And when they turn out to be really bad picks after all they turn on the fans who told them so in the beginning instead because, well, there’s another draft coming up and they need to believe that their team knows what it’s doing, don’t they??

+1

Or he may not be fine...

The point is let’s wait.

Let's see, Von Miller: rookie. Aldon Smith: rookie. Ryan Kerrigan: rookie. Brooks Reed: rookie.

What was your point about having to wait for our rookie LB to develop again?

Oh, and none of these rookies got an off season either so stop making excuses for Carter.

Yep, this isn't a 20/20 hindsight call.

A few of us called it for what it was at the time: An injured project LB over a Pro ready Center.

i was begging for Wiz with you.

it didnt happen, so now i root for Carter to enter beast mode in 2012

yehti - January 2, 2012 via mobile reply

Not to mention

he was changing positions.

jevans1729 - January 2, 2012 reply

Actually, you have that backwards.

If you get fooled twice it is your fault, so shame on you (making it “me” in the saying).

They Fooled me 15 times by my count

ding dong the witch is dead the wicked witch ding dong the evil Spencer is gonnnnnnne

DAVID DECASTRO - DURABILITY

Production/Experience

2011: Has played and started in all 12 games
2010: Played and started in all 13 games
2009: Played and started in all 13 games

That’s 38 games – 38 starts in three years….get familiar with this guy.

wont see it....

1-3 picks will all be defense…..

IRONRAVEN - January 1, 2012 reply

I saw the whole thing in a bar in Vegas, at least this beats last season.

I am searching the Internet as we speak for a picture of when alan ball was punched in the face tonight

It will make me feel better

me gusta - January 1, 2012 via mobile reply

hahaha I could use that picture too

Gusta if you find said picture

It must be posted immediately.

KeyOfZ - January 1, 2012 via mobile reply

Was it Rex Ryan

On Jay Ratliff

Actually looked upset at the end of the game…pain and frustration showed on his face.

Good for him…he’s a PRO!

Love that guy…

I love Ratliff too

He was yelling at guys and punching lockers last season when the rest of the team was quitting.

He has a ton of heart.

+1

you could tell he was playing through a lot of pain tonight too with his rib injury

Next Year

I think we all need to calm down a little bit. Yes, the loss was tough but not totally unexpected. To say the coaches need to be fired is wrong. Although I am a 1st time poster, I have been following this team since ‘68. We will have a decent draft choice this year and will improve our team. Without the OTA’s and mini-camps, we were behind the eightball from the beginning. JG and RR were dealt a losing hand. Even if we made the playoffs, realistically, how far do you think we would have gone? Let us just hope the people we need are available when our choices come up.I think our coaches know exactly what is needed. Consider this our rookie season re. JG and RR, we will be better. We have two new guards that will help, a new linebacker, I think we will have a switch at tackle. Give them a chance.
Thanks for listening.

DarthGrumpa - January 1, 2012 reply

Welcome to the blog

And thanks for some refreshing positivity amongst a sea of despair.

KeyOfZ - January 1, 2012 via mobile reply

yeppers

livemontana - January 2, 2012 reply

Welcome to the blog mate.

Nice first post.

Newbie Rec!

Welcome to the blog.

Everyone seems pretty calm to me.

I really haven’t seen many people calling for heads, especially not Garrett’s. I’m super eager to see these guards that you’re referring to, though. Who are they?

So overhaul everything sans 9, 82, 81, 88, 19, 94, 50, 90?

21 is staying

dude is our best cover corner

21 and 77 can stay

I was a big Jenkins hater last season

But the guy showed a lot of skill and heart this season. I don’t know that he’s a #1 corner in this league, but I do know he did his job this season.

I knew he couldn’t be as bad as last year, good to see him bounce back.

he may not be a #1 but he is close

he is tough showed heart this year and cleaned up his coverage
he is lockdown when on

he could use a nice month off after the beating he took this year

29?

KB_24 - January 2, 2012 reply

If used - Cowboys would be in the playoffs tonight.

so true

amen

What? The jockstrap?

oh i was gonna say something about that

like half the team doesnt have the tools necessary to wear those jocks

They really missed him the last few games

Without the OTA’s and mini-camps, we were behind the eightball from the beginning.

The 49ers had a whole new coaching staff and they did fine without offseason program

They also had a competent defense

And a much better OL

look at the high-round pick they have amassed there.

Alex Smith with protection can succeed, and may be the equal of Tony Romo without protection.

In a lousy division with a weak schedule

Stop with the 49ers nonsense…

The Eagles stacked their chips and fell flat on their face…

There’s always a few surprise teams and a few dissappointing teams….even with off-seasons…

they also spent half the decade with high picks

willis, aldon, bowman, half their o-line, goldson, crabtree, vernon, etc didnt just fall into their lap. it took a lot of losing to get those guys

the 9ers have building thru draft much better than we have

wtshaolin - January 2, 2012 via mobile reply

agree

I want a moratorium on the no offseason, no minicamps, etc. talk. It wasn’t just the Cowboys who didn’t have these things. 31 other teams didn’t have them either. Besides, wasn’t their an outcry for why the media wasn’t giving Tony and the guys props for conducting their own offseason stuff.?

CDMac24 - January 2, 2012 via iPhone app reply

I don't get what you are trying to say.

NO team had OTA’s or mini-camps, so how were we the only one’s behind the eight ball?

Every team had rookies who were able to play, several had new coaches and outstanding rookies. It is not like we were the only team with new coaches, rookies and no off season.

He has great stats… He doesn’t win many important games. -LDVFootball

The team doesn’t win many important games.

In (nearly) every loss attributed to romo – the defense collapsed completely with the game on the line. Every god damn time. This really irks me, with the exception of the jets game – the defense has had its shot at holding the lead for us each and every time. In the arizona game, romo + the offense drove down and were in position to win it, then the defense collapses in O/T. In the giants game, the offense puts us in prime…PRIME position to win and the defense comes up short not once but TWO TIMES – and on top of that WE STILL were in position to force O/T and possibly take the game. In the patriots game, we had the lead with little time remaining – the defense that had actually looked decent against brady all day collapsed and had a stroke. Even in the lions game the defense was still in position to win the game for us and came up empty. In fact the only two losses in which we had no chance of winning were the eagles catastrophes.

To lay the blame solely on the shoulders of one man is idiotic to say the least. Romo is the best thing to happen to this franchise in a very long time.

Nick Castillo - January 1, 2012 reply

For all the sh*t he gets, really wish Romo would get a Karmic turn of success.

i couldn't agree more

Kevin

beerman2619 - January 1, 2012 reply

god you have no idea how badly I want him to win a super bowl

me too! Biggest reason? So EVERYONE has to eat crow.

amen to this^

I have wondered out loud this year what it was that Tony did to upset the football gods. Snakebitten for sure.

CDMac24 - January 2, 2012 via iPhone app reply

If terrance Newman and Alan Ball are on this roster next season

I’m done pulling for this team. And for the Clowns that want Romo gone know nothing about football.

beerman2619 - January 1, 2012 reply

I'll drink to that

I drink to nearly everything

but after the past 2 months, i’d be happy to say goodbye to Newman. And for those who blame Romo for anything beyond the first 4 games… they’re just fixated on something and don’t understand the game.

i was thinking the exact same thing!

yup, same here

MayurP - January 2, 2012 reply

According to Archer, Romo took a pain killing shot before the game. I don't see

how he could even grip the ball. Bizarre.

The Talking Clowns

on NBC said he did not take a shot, although he did think about it

Frammis - January 1, 2012 reply

well the talking clowns, the Cowboys, said he didnt take one

dont believe anything Dallas says about injuries anymore, they lie

http://www.dallascowboys.com/news/news.cfm?id=9D150C7A-D6B8-0833-D24C2B25F1F42E04

The Cowboys denied it? Romo confirmed he took a shot.

When your hand looks like a grapefruit

and is numb’r than a junkhead on a binge – you got me.

Nick Castillo - January 1, 2012 reply

I just don't get the Romo hate

Yes he has blown games since he has been here. So has Brady, Brees and every qb in the league. Problem in Dallas right now is the secondary. Also the defensive line problems there. Special teams was a huge problem also this season. Thought Bailey was a plus but Mcbriar didn’t punt as well with injuries. I can’t remember many if any punt returns or kickoff returns. Having Murray get hurt was a huge problem and Fia missing games. But Tony Romo was not the problem this season and really hasn’t been since he has been here in Dallas. But of course some fans and the media put everything on him it just amazes me.

beerman2619 - January 1, 2012 reply

All he needs is to win one and everything is absolved. IE: Brett Favre.

not at all like Brett

While I agree with your sentiment and hope that Tony can win the big one to help quiet his critics, it’s entirely different with #4. He won one early in his career so a lot of his mistakes, bad decisions, bad play were overlooked or explained away with the tough as nails gunslinger monicker. Tony has not won one yet so genus building negative reputation equity with his critics. Had Tony won the Super Bowl already, then his story would be oh so Favresque.

CDMac24 - January 2, 2012 via iPhone app reply

What?

If you took that as romo hate, I think you misunderstood me. I think it took some balls of steel to go out there and play the way he did with a hand like that.

Nick Castillo - January 1, 2012 reply

I think he replied to you because he is agreeing with you.

How did he even play well??...

I don’t get that.

And how crappy is our luck? I don’t know if Garrett was going to pull the guys in Philly, but the 1 series the Jets were still in the game, Romo gets hurt. Thats incredibly unfortunate.

Romo didn’t play poorly, but I do think if he was 100% we would’ve scored more. He seemed hesitant early.

we have warriors on this team 94, 82, 9, 88, 21, 90 to name a few

just gotta get rid of the fat, 41, 93, 51,

house cleaning

there better be some rude awakenings this offseason

I'm not sure there are any "warriors" on this club

As Norm Hitzges said on the post-game show, the leaders on this team are all “nice guys.”

They need a couple of James Harrisons on this team…

rabblerousr - January 2, 2012 reply

Yeeeeeeeeeeeeeeesssssssss, please!

Can we please get someone on this defense that’s mean, dirty, nasty, angry, vicious, insane?! I mean truly, literally full of hate. Mad at the world. Someone actually crazy. Have we had that since Charles Haley?

I'll just add one thing to this...

Mad and Smart. Guys like Haley and Irvin weren’t just angry and passionate, they were smart players too!

Being angry and stupid won’t really help us.

agreed

I’m thinking of guys that lead and inspire even through the insanity. Haley, Ray Lewis, Harrison, Bryan Cox (remember him?!)

What would James Harrison do with Alan Ball, Gerald Sensabaugh, and Terrence Newman?

Can you put Terrence Newman in a time machine?

Can you make Alan Ball or Gerland Sensabaugh good?

Why would I want a head case who spent part of this season out, first, because

he was so dumb he broke his own face, and then, second, because he was on suspension because he’s too stupid to alter his thug style of play? That’s not a warrior or a leader.

i would go crazy if someone laid someone out trying to stand up the team

and call out goodell for the subsequent BS suspension he hands out.

Is it too hard to imagine Ware posing for Esquire with two H & K .44’s?

i can't stand the guy, but we could use a brian dawkins-type leader on the D

wtshaolin - January 2, 2012 via mobile reply

idk how he was throwing the ball

With his will and testicular fortitude.

Pretty much, because Brad Sham said that he was in a lot of pain.

http://www.google.com/products/catalog?q=cowboys+tissues&um=1&ie=UTF-8&tbm=shop&cid=14958801113163117406&sa=X&ei=7z8BT-WKAsb20gGcvaiABQ&ved=0CD0Q8wIwAw

DonMoosavi - January 1, 2012 reply

I AM GOING TO GET THAT FOR SPENCERS BIRTHDAY!!!!!!!!!

I am really going to buy that and send that to Spencer

wherever he is, Chicago, Miami, I am sending that to him

You really

need to calm down about Spencer. This loss was on the secondary.

you need to wake up

Spencer sucks, the non existent pass rush effects the secondary

Spencer .......

…Does not suck as much as Doug Free does!!!!!

example, since we are using logic

Spencer has Eli by the legs, instead of sacking him he plays footsy and Eli completes a bomb to Cruz
huge play changed the outcome of the game

Really?

Scandrick was right there and didn’t knock down the pass. Pass rush and coverage work together.

Scandrick was right there Cruz made a better play.

yehti - January 2, 2012 via mobile reply

It was actually the safety's responsibility

Scandrick is in man coverage but should have inside help from the S. The pass was thrown and caugh INside of Scandrick – the real culprit is Sensi!!!!!

Hell it was all their faults!

I pray to god Robinson is resigned

he is going to be a hot commodity but the good thing is there are a bunch of free agent WR’s

Keep the core!!!

best WR core in football

Well, they’re right up there.

Even though they couldn't find a way to get open today...

…. ugh

The scheme is good, the QB is great, there's a TE threat

and who gives a F about the WRs? Really? Laurent Robinson, a FA 3rd WR? WTF? I mean W T F?

I'll take NO and GB over theirs, but...

that is a good three-deep group…

rabblerousr - January 2, 2012 reply

I want to believe this

but I really wonder at this point.

if miles can stay healthy and stop "losing it in the lights"

and Dez bury his head in the route-running portion of the playbook

That's a few big IFs unfortunately

as much as it pains me to say it

I agree

Why can’t we have any consistency at that position? This is a ridiculously talented group, yet the only one Romo trusts (and rightfully so imo) Is Laurent Robinson. Miles’ 2009 season appears to be the abberation – the guy’s hands are simply not that great. Dez needs to put it together, and I’m not sure he will. If only we could combine Miles’ route running + Dez’ hands lol

Yeah, I want him back.

Jerry likes Oglesuck though. He can't resign Robinson cuz it'll be admitting he was wrong about Oglesuck

Gawd, I hope you're wrong.

Plus he probably admitted about Beuhler.

There's no way we would be 8-8

this season with Ogtree coming off the bench for Austin.Just no freaking way.

We need more speed in the recieving corps. That’s my only complaint. But I’m with everybody else, keep Dez,Miles,and Robinson.Add 2 speedy receivers and we might be able to match up next season with the Eagles and the Giants.

Ogletree I believe is a free agent...

He needs to be let go.

Raymond Radaway

.Remember this name ……….Will be coming back strong .

Tron to left side next year, discuss

I pray to god he doesn’t pull a Free.

Exactly.

no discussion needed, it needs to be done

Tron was fantastic this year. He looked bored at RT in tonight’s game.

No brainer

starmesh23 - January 1, 2012 reply

The radio guys were pretty much taking it as a given in the post-game show.

And where will all the cap room come

from to pay for all these draft picks and signings. We have to purge the defense and get rid of Ware, plus Dez. There is no value, otherwise, on this team. And these are the stars that will attract offers.If you want a radical shift next year, you start by unloading DEZ and WARE.

2011 cap room transfers to 2012

Cowboys were about $15 million under the cap this year. And that’s before cutting guys like Newman or restructuring contracts.

Cap won’t be much of an issue.

Yeah, I assume Newman and his $10,000,000 a year are gone.

I think that saves about $6 mill under the cap just by cutting him. Add that to the approximately $18 mill we already have under next season's cap and we'll be good

I hope so. I thought early on they were saying that 2012 would be another

lean year under the salary cap. That may have been before they cut a couple of guys and restructured a couple of contracts, though.

The Cowboys will have enough room to make all the moves they need to make

Good. They need to make a whole lot of moves.

Not saying they can sign every big name free agent out there

But they’ll have the room to do the kinds of things an NFL team needs to do in an off season

Gotcha. I am curious to know what will be there in free agency.

I've got a lot of players in mind

But I’m sure that a lot of other teams are going to want them too. The whole problem will be if Jerry truly thinks we just need to let Jason have one more year with these guys and that’ll be good enough. If he’s not convinced that we need to major restructuring, especially on this D, then we’re doomed

Garrett got the leash ready on the war room.

The one thing the guys on the Lunch Break complain about with Garrett is that he's indecisive.

I hope that doesn’t hurt him when planning on the bloodletting. It’s needed immediately.

The one thing I do like about Garrett is that he's ruthless

He cut as many guys in July/August as Wade did in 3 seasons.

+1000

yeah I think plenty of heads will be rolling when cut time comes. Garrett hasn’t shown a hesitation to drop the hammer so far. I hope he goes wild this offseason.

Garrett's blood was boiling last night in the first half.

I think he was compiling his list of cuts on the spot.

TheCowboyFan - January 2, 2012 reply

I think so he looked pissed.

I thought the same thing

He looked as mad as I’ve ever seen him. They showed one look at his face and I swear even though his lips weren’t moving it looked like he was about to scream “This is fu**ing ridiculous!!” I hope he cuts Jerry first

I think the D will be cleaned out (within reason). James, Brooking,

T-New will be gone. The radio guys think Kosier is gone and a couple of new guys will be added to the O line.

A center? Please?

Costa was horrible this week and last week.

and every week

I blame him for Tony's injuries. I know it's not just him but

I think his miscues and general suckitude forces Tony to have too large of a percentage of his attention focused on not letting Costa get him killed. You can’t play football when you don’t trust your O-line and Tony shouldn’t trust most of them

It is him, he was supposed to come off of his block and get Kiwanuka

He didn’t and Romo got his hand hurt.

Yup.

I must be wrong then. I thought Kosier signed a 3 year deal. Must not be guaranteed I guess.

Dunno, but Coach A said he thought Kosier may not be

back. He may not be thinking about contracts, though.

Kosier has a 3 year deal for $6 million

but virtually nothing guaranteed

If he dressed up as the mascot,

does that count against the cap?

LOL

Kosier will probaby stay

But just as a game day back-up for the internal O-line positions.

That's what I was seeing.

If you guys are right, I hope they spend it wisely.

I think we should draft CB's in 1st and 2nd round...

We could get Kirkpatrick at #`13 or #14

And then maybe even Jenkins in the 2nd round. If not, then next best corner in 2nd.

3ed round: Best Pass Rusher or DT and move 90 to LE.

4th Rd. RB Oregon (Thomas?)

5th RD: Pass Rusher

6t RD Interior O-Line

7?

Then Pass Rusher

tucsonbandit - January 1, 2012 reply

I doubt Kirkpatrick lasts that long... and Jenkins is a pot head

Jerry doesn’t do drug problems. Jenkins will drop to the third or fourth round, just watch. Happens every year. The draft boards put some talented knuckle head in the first round. Then the background checks insue and he starts to drop like a rock. Remember, he was arguably the best player on the florida defense, and got kick off the team, after being given a second chance, smells like Pacman

Anyone know what divisions we play against next year??

hbdc - January 1, 2012 via mobile reply

NFC South AFC North

Steelers and Ravens huh.

Saints and Falcons too

We can shoot with them bullet by bullet.

Saints might win the superbowl this year my friend

I think it’s between them and the Packers

Rooting for SF.

no they cant get a 6th ring

Trueblue122 - January 2, 2012 reply

+1

+2

Yep. Already sucks the Steelers have 6...

Thanks Jerry

Basically anyone but GB and the Giants.

What? Oh hell no!

SF is my 2nd non-division hatred. Don’t you remember the ’80’s and ’90’s?

Gonna have to go with Atlanta by least hated default (not counting the AFC).

root for the Falcons

only team left I wouldn’t mind winning it all

3 playoff teams in that AFC north oh boy

Well....

Good nite all. Happy New Year!

'Night. Happy New Year to you as well.

Wonder if Norv gets the boot on Monday

Trueblue122 - January 2, 2012 reply

don't feel like doing anything.........

I’ve stared at a blank wall for the past hour now

pinoyintegrity - January 2, 2012 reply

Newman or Costa?

fcuk it, I can't think about the Cowboys right now.

pinoyintegrity - January 2, 2012 reply

Is that a steel neck?

who cares. it's all about the ( . Y . )

pinoyintegrity - January 2, 2012 reply

son of a

her name is Salma Hayec :) what a beauty

salas88 - January 2, 2012 via mobile reply

One day in the future

I will again root for a team who plays smart, opportunistic football. They will know the importance and know how to fall on a fumble. They will tackle and be willing to hit the opposing player with the ball. They will know the rules on punt returns (as in if I go out of bounds I can’t touch the ball first). They will know on 3rd and short its very possible the opposing quarterback may intentionally use a hard count to get them to jump offsides. The coaches, no matter how bold, will take points when momentum is at their back. They will also run a real play on 4th and short rather than letting their QB with the injured hand try to do it. They may even throw the ball up long to their receivers like all the other teams seem to do with great regularity and success. Our corners on those similar plays will actually watch the ball and actually try to catch it or knock it down. Its out there, sometime in the future. In the meantime, with the 14th pick in the 2012 NFL Draft, the Dallas Cowboys select …….

oddsbettor - January 2, 2012 reply

Dallas trades up to 4th overall to take Blackmon

naaah haha

Trueblue122 - January 2, 2012 reply

Just gave Jerry an idea.

Roy Williams is a free agent........

Just gave him another one……

The TarHeels' coach?

that would complete our set

I know

Jerruh would still try and send Chicago this time a first round pick and give Roy a new 5yr contract, saying we need this guy!!!

You're not holding your breath are you?

Not. Any. Time. Soon.

also in that day in the future our drafts will take players that actually played that position in college (I guess we did a little better this year) and are not coming off major injuries. One more thing the 53 players on the team will be flexible and will be able to play when called upon.

oddsbettor - January 2, 2012 reply

Martellus Bennett already talking about wanting to "test the market"

Because he “feels he can start in this league”.

I know there are those who defend him and his blocking abilities… but good freakin’ riddance. WKG all the way.

KeyOfZ - January 2, 2012 via mobile reply

Phillips!!!

seriously? what a clown.

yehti - January 2, 2012 via mobile reply

you know you like to see guys you tried to homegrown have promising careers if they leave

but real talk if Bennett or Spencer were about to walk in front of a wet spot and tear their knees apart and thus ruin their chances at a decent contract I wouldnt even say nothing. I’d prolly throw the “Caution wet floor” in the trash

both of these guys have such terrible attitudes and completely unacceptable approaches to the game for “professionals”

I wouldn't mind bringing him back

But it would be for “best blocking TE in the league” money and not “heir-apparent to Jason Witten” money.

What is our cap situation? changes are a comin'

This really, in the long run, can be a good loss. This team is not playoff caliber, I think all of us deep down knew this. If we had won the NFC East then Jerry could have gotten crazy and extended more bad players. Now the evaluation process begins and we can get rid of the bad players.

Needs:
2 guards, possibley a center.
switch tackle positions
Defensive ends, OLB – Need an impact starter here
Back up MLB
Starting impact safety, two corners

C is a bigger need than Guard but the talent in the draft is better for the guard position

we need to stop deluding ourselves

The defense is a shut-down corner and another pass-rusher light. The only player to consistently get pressure on the QB was Ware and that’s not good enough. It makes a weak secondary look all the weaker. The Cowboys must pick up an all-pro corner and a player who can get 10 sacks. And they have to hope that Bruce Carter can be next year’s Sean Lee. And a real cover safety wouldn’t hurt either.

Otherwise, Romo will have to score 30 points a game for the team to win 9 games next year.

jdg4660 - January 2, 2012 reply

What we need in 2012

I’m so fed up with all of the stupid fans who continue to bring up Romo as this teams’ problem. Anyone with a basic knowledge of football who has actually watched the games this year, and not just the highlights on BSPN, can clearly see that Romo is the least of this team’s problems. If we want to have any chance of success next year, we MUST draft a starting CB and a starting interior O-lineman. Once we have starters at these positions, we can focus on the D-line and an outside linebacker to complement Ware. Until we can reduce the number of big pass plays through better coverage and more QB pressure, our defense will continue to be exposed. If we can’t protect the quarterback, get a ONE YARD PUSH when it counts or run the ball inside the 7 yard line this offense will continue to be limited. I’m depressed about this year like everyone else but the Romo haters should open their eyes to the big picture.

BobcatMike - January 2, 2012 reply

1 Center

2 Guards
1 starting ILB
1 nickle ILB
1 corner
1 safety
1 OLB
1 DE
1 WR (Laurent Robinson is a free agent)

So only 10 players.

you forgot

punter
free safety (Elam is a FA; and he also isn’t very good)

Oh come on.. It's not that bad.

1 Center – AGREED, neither Costa nor Kowalski appear to be the long term answer
2 Guards – PARTIALLY AGREE, Kosier is washed up, but we should give Nagy another year before we give up on him
1 Starting/Nick ILB – What about Sean Lee and Bruce Carter? I don’t see this as a huge area of need
1 Corner – AGREED, Newman will be cut
1 Safety – AGREED (free agency?)
1 OLB – AGREED
1 DE – Move Ratliff to DE and draft a 320 lb’er in the 3rd of 4th round
1 WR – Resign Laurent Robinson and we’re good to go

BobcatMike - January 2, 2012 reply

Only problmes

Ratliff won’t (move) to DE. He’s already stated that he wants to continue to play NT. Perhaps JG can “convince” him too…

ILB is NOT a need until we can determine Carter’s abilities. He was drafted last year to play there, I find it difficult to need to draft that position once again (that would be 3 consecutive years of drafting an ILB).

Who’s available at FS in free agency? Laron Landry maybe? Markelle Martin is a better option IMO.

Kosier will play next year but there is still a need for 2 OGs (one a higher draft pick who might be able to start immediately) and another to backup both and work their way into the starting lineup.

It's not that bad?

You moved your NT to DE, so all you did there was just open up a hole at NT.
You re-signed Laurent Robinson. That’s not exactly a done deal my friend.
and you say we can find 1 guy on our roster to play guard, okay I’ll give you that one.
Dude, Sean Lee and Bruce Carter are the only 2 ILBs on signed to this team in 2012. Seriously, they’re the only 2 ILBs on this entire team signed through 2012.

That means we have 8-9 holes man! 8-9 holes!

every team has holes and they will never be filled 100%

kimda agree on C, hoping for Kowalski. deff need a backup ILB, starting S, starting CB, 4th CB, DE, MLB, possibly a G.

so basically 6-8 spots need filled a good draft couple of FA and there you go

yehti - January 2, 2012 via mobile reply

Yeah, it's an important offseason

We’re looking at nearly half an NFL team we need to fix.

Punter

I thought except for that last one, that kid did a good job last night

Who is doing that?

This is one of those weird things on this board where one obvious idiot makes anti-Romo comments, and it’s made out like half the world is calling for his head.

Romo sounded like he wanted to cry in his presser.

i wouldnt have blamed em at all........

I wish someone would say something like Oakland's HC did.

What did he say?

http://www.latimes.com/sports/la-sp-farmer-nfl-20120102,0,4241234.column

Said they needed an attitude adjustment

“This team needs an attitude adjustment,” Raiders Coach Hue Jackson said. "What I mean by that is the killer instinct has got to exist here.

“This feeling that I’ve had has been here all year. You try to change it, change it, change it. You do a lot of different things, and I haven’t been able to get it changed.”

wow, that's an indictment

You have to be careful though...

You risk losing the entire team when calling them out like that.

Said he was pissed at his players.

Said you can talk about the coaches but once the players are on the field, they need to perform. Said he was going to be hard on all 3 units and guaranteed he was not going to feel this way same time next year.

JG also said something in coach speak

He was asked if the Giants did anything special with their scheme and he said no, they did exactly what they thought it was and they just had match up problems. Pretty much acknowledging we need a talent upgrade

Yes

We need the same thing. Loved what he said, also the way he said it

Busted his a55 all season for naught. And sacrificed his body to do it.

Actually, his O-line sacrificed his body to do it

Romo has done everything he can to win a championship

This team lets him down

This

Coaching changes?

If the Chargers fire Norv Turner, I’d love to see him back in Dallas as the OC. I wouldn’t mind seeing Sparano back here to replace Houck as the O-Line coach. Should Campo get the boot as well?

BobcatMike - January 2, 2012 reply

The great Jerruh has already stated he doesn't want a "walk around" coach...

Maybe he changes his mind.

its okay everyone. Cowboys have a bright future ahead with Murray and company...

LETS ALL HOPE THE BENGALS SHOCK EVERYONE AND WIN THEIR FIRST SUPER BOWL.

http://espn.go.com/blog/dallas/cowboys/post//id/4689162/cowboys-2012-schedule-set?utmsource=twitterfeed&utm_medium=twitter

Cold comfort, but the Cowboys get the third place schedule next year:

I posted our schedule in a fanshot.

nice, the saints and steelers next season at home. that should be interesting

lets hope the bengals win their first super bowl this season.

Bears and Panthers

Are we excited about getting them next season?

The Cowboys just lost painfully. I'm not excited about anything.

Well if Jay Cutler is back...

and Cam Newton improves in the offseason, two likely events, then no I’m not looking forward to this D facing them at all!!

Yep, that 3rd place schedule isn't something to get too excited about I think

And we play Seattle in Seattle. Have we ever won there??

aww crap!

maybe if Matt Forte is on the Dallas side

We play the NFC South + AFC North next year

so our extra games are the Bears + Seahawks. In comparison, the Giants have the Packers + 49ers and Eagles have Lions + Cardinals. I feel like the Cards are more dangerous than Seattle, but thats their current roster – if they lose a guy like Campbell, whose destroyed us in the last two games, I don’t know if I’ll feel the same way

I think Philly + our schedules are equivalent, Giants looks tougher.

On the other hand, its a tough schedule altogether. In this modern day NFL where so many teams are around 500, there doesn’t appear to be a single easy win on that schedule outside of the Browns.

This team is going to need to improve greatly to make the playoffs next year

maybe 10-6 next year

15-1 next year.

c'MON! 16-0!

Since you're in fantasy land, why not 17-0!

folkmademelovetheboys - January 2, 2012 reply

15-4

8-8.

Believe it or not it’s an improvement on 6-10.

according to this pattern we'll go 10-6 next year and then it's PLAYOFFS!!!!!!

would like to see ......

cincy/ ravens and falcons/ detroit championship games.

i think thats a pretty tough schedue next year

even the crappy teams like cinic seattle and carolina are teams on the rise

hey fans of the cowboys relax... we already have 5 trophies. cant wait for next season!

yea...but...

when is the sixth gonna come? Maybe I am greedy but we haven’t done sh** for about 15 years now its disturbing

im content. cause the vikings have never won a super bowl!

who gives a f***

bout the vikings….im depressed…i need more beer tonight sucked

you must not be from Dallas then, fella. its all good cause the cowboys still have 5 trophies.

and you probably did not witness any of them. LOL

Eagles.

that always makes me feel good.

Wayward Irish - January 2, 2012 reply

Should have been 6 Trophys

… Jackie Smith …dropped game winning touchdown pass in the end zone , against the steelers

I haven't witnessed one. So I'm not satisfied.

i will throw up a little if the pats make it to the SB

their defense is pathetic but there is no clear cut favorite in the AFC…i think nFC wins it this year with the saints or packers

NUHuskyCowboyMinutemanCeltic - January 2, 2012 reply

GO RAVENS !!!

Joe Flacco will be the second coming of Trent Dilfer

wow already jumping a wagon on a cowboys blog?

I'm on the Falcons wagon.

We all should be.

hahaha!

I’ll give you credit, even on a terrible day like this you get a laugh out of me with the “secnod coming of trent dilfer” line!

more like Bengals vs Lions in the super bowl.

I will take Flacco over McGee

Draft talk time!

Mac_Eleven - January 2, 2012 reply

Jerrry Jones has trashed this team's legacy imo

It’s been something like a 15 year walk through the desert. I’m not sure an entire first round of draft picks could fix what’s wrong with this team or help to dissipate the ominous cloud of pressure that presides over this entire organization.

Something way beyond X’s ad O’s is wrong here and I think it originates up top and infiltrates everything else. I’m simply out of faith that this organization can do ANYTHING to get beyond slightly above average while JJ is at the controls. I honestly feel bad for coaches and players who come to play for the Dallas Cowboys while this man insists on having such a pervasive influence on everything.

pjohn56 - January 2, 2012 reply

Rec.

The guys with the funny little black hats

have found their way out of the desert faster than this franchise.

the good ol' days.

i miss yeah Jimmy.

Free Agents of interest, that means no old declining players (not including our own)

G Carl Nicks 27, Ben Grubbs 28
CB Cortland Finnegan 28, Brandon Carr 26, Lardarius Webb 26, Tracy Porter 26
S LaRon Landry 27, Michael Griffin 27
OLB/DE Mario Williams ( that would be pretty sweet) 27
DE Cliff Avril 26, Jason Jones 26

Raf over at Cowboys Nation had a great one

Calais Campbell

He’s a 3-4 DE on the Arizona Cardinals who have nothing at OLB to help in the pass rush.

Despite this his sack totals for the past 3 season are 7, 6, and 8.

Wouldn’t that be exciting to put between Ware and Ratliff at left defensive end?

Yeah, forgot about him, I'm sure there are others too, but they need to be young.

How bout a pass rush with D. Ware on one side and Mario Williams on the other?

Campbell would be an amazing pickup.

Can’t think of anyone better for this team. But he’s 25 and the Cardinal’s seem pretty intent on keeping him.

Hope that guy is a closet Cowboys fan

imo he would instantly upgrade this D, our Dline would look pretty solid with Campbell, Ratliff, Hatcher, Lissemore + Spears. It would allow us to focus on the secondary and lb (if spencer doesn’t come back) in the draft.

OCC has been pushing for him and Grimes for some time now

I really want Campbell, I wanted Cullen Jenkins pretty bad last year but this is a better version of that.

Grimes is good but 29, How good will he be at 33 at the end of his contract.

I didn't know he was that old

Looks like 1st round pick needs to be a CB.

I don't think that's the only option

Finnegan, Carr, and Porter are all young enough. We don’t necessarily have to have the best corner in the world. A pretty good corner would do, I would rather spend big to get someone to rush the passer, like Mario Williams. Houston has not resigned him and he is coming off a Knee injury, in a season in which their defense played pretty well with out him. Maybe they don’t want to break the bank on this guy.
As for the I’m leaning toward taking DeCastro in the first round, he’s a certifiable blue chip star at guard. Don’t think the top two corners will be their at 14. Just home we take the best player. Shouldn’t be to hard sense we need everything on defense

I want Finnegan

He’s not perfect but he’s a physical, press corner who’ll fit RR’s scheme. And I don’t think he’ll get Terrance Newman money. LOL

Yeah, it looks like a good year for FA corners, I think we need at least two

the last thing I want to see is Jerry to go and sign a bunch of 30 yos

and 29 is a little to close. Look at Newman, and how fast he went down hill. Esp. for corners, you need young guys. I can see an older safety, but not corner. You need speed and quickness and that starts to go at 30.

agreed

That’s why I want us to sign campbell (if he gets away from the cards) and draft a CB in the draft. There was a post on here showing how high the hit rate was for CBs in the draft

please please please

+1, +1, +1. That guy destroyed our O line. Not that that necessarily makes him

great, but I was impressed anyway.

I'd really like to see Cortland Finnegan on this team

He’s kind of a dirty player, but this defense needs a few dirty players

Cowboys need to upgrade on a cornerback for next season.

like i said before:

Its been a good half of a season, the other half has been very heartbreaking, but 8-8 is an improvement over last year, it means we are moving up.
We had some players that came out of nowhere and stepped up (Robinson, Murray)
The good players we have still played at a good level (Romo, Witten Ware)
Some played better than last year (Jenkins)
Some played bad (Ball, TNew, Brooking) but hey, we already knew that since pre-season
This team hit bottom last year, and since then there has been an improvement, theres a process to winning, doesnt happen over-night, not even the SB 90s teams where over-night, I am going to be patient on our coaching staff and owner.
The next draft and FA will be key for our D, the front-7 is the place to improve ASAP, then Secondary. And if our D improves, our team improves!
All Hail the Star

Ed-G - January 2, 2012 reply

over

now that the season is over i can take stock of these dallas cowboys. i’m optimistic. we improved from last year and isn’t that what you want? we all knew the defense sucked. it did last year too. no surprise. i think we were all surprised at how quickly newman’s play deteriorated. i thought he had one more full year in him. that gamble lost big time. give the defense about 4 or 5 new faces and i think we will see improvement. the current guys are just too dense i guess. that’s the only reason i can think of why they are still making the same mistakes at the end of the year. draft stephen gilmore in rd 1 and get a good olb in rd 2 or vice versa. then get a few more players for the d. i’m looking forward to next year.

maxdout - January 2, 2012 reply

Now we know why he plays 20 yds of his man

And apparently so do the Giants and the Eagles.

First full season here it was awesome thanks guys it was alot of fun!!

KB_24 - January 2, 2012 reply

REX SAYS

“lets go get a god damn snack”

old man strahan - January 2, 2012 reply

lawls

A lot of hole's in this defense...but here is my "solution".

With the 14th pick in the draft, we may be able to land ourselves Kuechley, the STUD ILB from Boston College. What this pick may be able to do for us is the key. We move Bruce Carter to Spencers OLB position. This would make our linebacking core, Ware-Kuechley-Lee-Carter. IMO it looks from the eye test that Bruce Carter has the body and the athleticism like a Clay Matthews to play OLB, and if i remember correctly, I “believe” he played a lot of OLB in college.
CB and safety HAVE to be adressed with picks 2-7 and ESPECIALLY through free agency. This is absolutley the year we need to make a splash.

descherle - January 2, 2012 reply

Give up Dez and Ware 4 Andrew Luck

troll alert

Do Not Feed

doug free...........

..Put the blame where you may , But NO one says anything about just How sorry and nonathletic flatfooted uncoordinated a guard this man is , He should Definitely, be 2nd string . The eagles abused him , The cardinals abused him ,and the giants reiterated the fact the he is just not good enough to be a true started in this league at that position

get some new coaching blood on the offensive side of the ball wouldn't hurt for garrett to get

a different perspective. and i think it might be time for campo to move to the front office, how many times did the secondary look confused before the snap.

juniorb - January 2, 2012 reply

I say we bring back Norv or Sparano.

JG isn’t going to bring someone he doesn’t trusts here.

While I would agree with a norv and or sparano hire

The offensive coaching is not the problem. The interior Oline, and the defensive personnel are the problems. Much much bigger problems