GDT Week 3: (1-1) Cowboys v (0-2) Ravens

[textaz03]

 

[plan9misfit]

Just now, textaz03 said:

 

Gee, if we could only pinpoint the man responsible for putting the team together and establishing the culture and accountability for the organization…..

[resilient part 2]

Serious question.. It's f****** Jerry Jones.The only owner in any major sport that gives interviews after everygame??

Really so freaking annoyed with that..stfu..

 

[Northland]

I read something funny this week.  It's probably old and was being recycled but here goes.  The NFL is thinking about making AT&T Stadium the permanent home for the SuperBowl.  This will ensure that no team will ever have home field advantage.

[The_Slamman]

1 hour ago, NFZz said:

This is absolutely silly. The offense almost got the ball back simply down 3 late in the 4th with the best kicker in the NFL. A majority of the game his O-line was getting him killed. You’re being disingenuous in implying that the offensive output was meaningless. 

Of course it was meaningless… a loss is a loss is a loss.  There’s no moral victory in making a final score look respectable.  The truth is Dak was awful until the Raven took their foot off the gas.  Dak has done this his entire career… so much so that it’s now predictable.  
 

and please, don’t “blame” the OL.  This is the OL Dak wanted when he decided he’d rather have $60m than a good OL.  Dak is supposed to good enough to overcome an inexperienced OL.

[NFZz]

Just now, The_Slamman said:

Of course it was meaningless… a loss is a loss is a loss.  There’s no moral victory in making a final score look respectable.  The truth is Dak was awful until the Raven took their foot off the gas.  Dak has done this his entire career… so much so that it’s now predictable.  
 

and please, don’t “blame” the OL.  This is the OL Dak wanted when he decided he’d rather have $60m than a good OL.  Dak is supposed to good enough to overcome an inexperienced OL.

That isn’t what we were talking about. We weren’t talking about moral victories. You were dismissing the production itself.. despite that production giving them a chance to win. Dak has nothing to do with ineptitude on defense. The fact remains that Dak was very close to getting back on the field to potentially go win the game or have his kicker force OT. In looking at actual individual play it’s silly to be entirely dismissive while disregarding the team as a whole. Calling it bad just because of the final result is not logical. Same applies in regards to looking at his contract in this case. 

It’s also silly to insinuate that the Ravens were off the gas while as a collective fanbase we are bemoaning what the Ravens did on the ground all game long. It’s called ball control offense. 

[The_Slamman]

Dawg, where was Dak when the score was 28-6?  You can give him kudos for not giving up, but the truth is Dak is largely responsible for putting us in a 22 point hole.  Dak time is real.

[DaBoys]

The onside kick led the comeback. Without that game probably ends 28-18. But Dak did play well at the end. His pass to Turpin was beautiful. The defense played well at the end too though. Getting those 3 or 4 stops there at the end kept us in it. Garbage time or not it was nice to see SOME offense. Hopefully that puts us in a rhythm. Dak still owns the NFC east and we have the Giants next. I would start him and Devin Singleterry in your fantasy leagues. I do think Dak and the Cowboys will beat the Giants and without those garbage time stats idk that I would feel that way.

@D82 lets get a new GDT up quick. It’s a Thursday game. 

[Dallas94Ware]

14 hours ago, plan9misfit said:

Gee, if we could only pinpoint the man responsible for putting the team together and establishing the culture and accountability for the organization…..

Will McClay?

I get the hate for Jerry. But there's two other sets of hands in the kitchen playing big parts in the roster construction. Stephen and McClay.

And for every painful loss this roster is handed. You really can't ignore the fact that it is still quite a talented core group. Regardless of what one thinks of Dak and his contract, he is still one of the top passers around. Overrated? Likely, depending on the person talking. Underrated? Perhaps also in the same light of who's doing the talking. I think the truth is more in the middle 

But Dak aside. It's still a damn good roster that for two weeks now has severely under achieved. And maybe this is the coach in me giving too much weight to the importance of a teams coaching but it's my belief that the under achieving, not just these last 2 weeks but these last 2 or 3 years, is closely tied to the coaching.

Why are top tier man cover guys like Diggs being asked to play zone coverage and gap control? Why are linebackers who excel in TE coverage and man assignments over half backs being asked to plug gaps? I get there isn't enough beef or style of players out there to handle those duties so they are asked to do so. But isn't it a coaches job to put their players in the best position to succeed? Zimmer isn't doing that.

And offensively we knew the run game was going to be a problem ... What most did not expect is problematic pass protection making the passing game struggle as well. I figured it would be a problem, as Beebe was never good in protection, and Guyton was such a raw athlete that I kept saying he should not see the field at ANY position for at least a year. And that Martin hasn't been more than an excellent isolation blocker in 2 years now.. but there are so many ways to scheme the plays up to generate production on the ground and help a struggling line. Maybe not to perfection or without hurting something else. But a good coach will scheme these things to assist the problem areas. McCarthy hasn't ...

But regardless, once more, of these short comings and issues. It's still a good roster. I think Parsons is a little over hyped but he's still top notch. Martin is no where near what he was but still one of the best. Lamb is easily the best route runner in the game today and one of the best with the ball in his hands .. I could drag this list out but the post is long enough 

Bring in a better staff instead of these retreads and this is an entirely different discussion today

[Dallas94Ware]

10 hours ago, DaBoys said:

The onside kick led the comeback. Without that game probably ends 28-18. But Dak did play well at the end. His pass to Turpin was beautiful. The defense played well at the end too though. Getting those 3 or 4 stops there at the end kept us in it. Garbage time or not it was nice to see SOME offense. Hopefully that puts us in a rhythm. Dak still owns the NFC east and we have the Giants next. I would start him and Devin Singleterry in your fantasy leagues. I do think Dak and the Cowboys will beat the Giants and without those garbage time stats idk that I would feel that way.

@D82 lets get a new GDT up quick. It’s a Thursday game. 

The offense made a key change that helped them play well at the end. They switched from a read and progression set of route combinations to what has made Andy Reid offenses so deadly for 20+ years - every route except one is designed to lift or disrupt coverage, and the QB puts the ball into an area based on timing, with that timing designed to capitalize on the point where the coverage is at its most vulnerable from the other routes pulling it away. This is how Luepke has that amazing catch and run.

But Baltimore is a hell of a defense and man. They are coached very well. As soon as they realized the switch to the simpler play calls, the defense began running hybrid coverage which is much harder to be pulled out of their zones or have their man assignments interfered with. Hence Turpin one on one down the field. Or the TE having 2 guys on him when they identified everything was shallow and only one man was running an actual route justifiable for the situation. 

Man they are a hell of a unit and that is what it looks like when a unit is coached well and clearly studies very hard. And is led by a smart player on the field communicating what he sees. 

DQ ran a great defense. But our D even at its best under DQ could never make such a quick adjustment on the fly like that 

[TVScout]

As a rookie Guyton is far better at run blocking than pass blocking. They should put a TE next to him and run toss pitch left and even the occasional statue of liberty play. That might have gotten us a TD when it was first and goal at the 9. Instead the ball was turned over.

[Dallas94Ware]

13 hours ago, The_Slamman said:

Of course it was meaningless… a loss is a loss is a loss.  There’s no moral victory in making a final score look respectable.  The truth is Dak was awful until the Raven took their foot off the gas.  Dak has done this his entire career… so much so that it’s now predictable.  
 

and please, don’t “blame” the OL.  This is the OL Dak wanted when he decided he’d rather have $60m than a good OL.  Dak is supposed to good enough to overcome an inexperienced OL.

Just as you don't blame the OL. You can't blame Dak either.

You blame THE TEAM. 

There are roughly 28 to 30 players who either start or play a significant chunk of the snaps every week. And football is the ultimate team sport. If 10 guys do something perfect but 1 screws up, it is usually a dead play. All 11 need to be in tune with each other and execute. 1 failure is often a total failure.

Did Dak miss a couple throws? Yeah, nothing to egregious this week but yeah he missed. No QB completed every pass however. Just as no OL blocks every rush. And no receiver catches every pass. And runner gets through every hole. You can't expect perfection regardless of how much someone gets paid 

But they lost as a team, as TO once said -

And backing that up is the total failure by the defense to guard very simple play designs that they should have seen coming from a mile away. It is no surprise when Lamar runs a read option with a full back to the weak side and an extra tight end on the strong side. It should have been prepared for. Instead, total over pursuit by the ENTIRE defense leads to Lamar free and clear for a score. How did no one stop and read, or play containment?

Lamb...if he doesn't fumble that football this is an entirely different game all the way through. Got to hold the ball better. That was a great RedZone opportunity against one of the cream of the crop teams in the league. Mistakes like that cost you wins against top teams. And it definitely did.

The left side of the OL was stepping all over each other in pass protection. And that includes Tyler Smith, who has the wonderful task of playing between two rookies who have no real experience with the assignments being asked of them. There was one play where Smith handled his guy and tried to turn and get a hand on Beebe's assignment and tried to block TWO guys at once cause Dak was going to get killed. Only for Beebe to open his hips too much and over compensate, tripping Tyler Smith who then folded into Guyton. Down goes Dak.

Parsons never once played a containment assignment. Against the fastest QB in the league with the best running offense in a decade or longer, you'd think the D.C. would put their fastest or most athletic, most versatile defender in contain mode. Nope. Ears pinned back, down after down, and assigned to play aggressive defense. Shooting at the gaps to create pressure. Which just allows Lamar a chance to break the pocket and do what he does best. That's on Zimmer.

Diggs. Lackadaisical and flimsy coverage in the most key play of the game. Sure. A great route from the inside guy made him bite and he knew he was beaten and it was over. So maybe he knew full effort there wouldn't have made a difference. But it might have. The game is on the line. You have to at least try with 100% effort. He didn't.

There's so many plays you can point out. So many areas of deficiency. And some of them have Daks name in them. But many do not. 

It is such a half *** response to just say oh well he makes 60 million and this is what it's like when so much of the cap goes to one guy. But is it, really? Because if you draft well you still get guys to help that player. Mahomes doesn't do it all alone. Rodgers never did. Brady. Peyton. Etc. no matter what percent of the cap went to them - and yes their numbers were lower. But their cap overall was much lower. The percentage of the cap going to them was still similar even if the dollar amount is not.

So you can use it as a half hearted excuse to blame Dak because you don't like that he was signed to such a big payout. But that's just a silly attempt to try and say ah ha. See it's his fault. Just for the sake of blaming one guy.

There were way too many plays in the game that had a huge impact on the eventual outcome. And very few of them included Dak. And some of the guys in those bad plays are some of the more beloved Dallas Cowboys, like Lamb or Parsons. But because Dak is the QB and you don't like him. It becomes his fault. Smh.

As half hearted and attempt to put the blame on him as Diggs attempt on that final throw of the game.

Edited Monday at 03:06 PM by Dallas94Ware

[WizardHawk]

For whatever reason I watched recorded game this morning. Knew they lost and how, but had to see it anyway. My simple takeaway, this team is way softer than Charmin. Especially, from a mental standpoint. Hit them in the mouth and watch them crumble. 

Edited Monday at 05:49 PM by WizardHawk

[resilient part 2]

1 hour ago, WizardHawk said:

For whatever reason I watched recorded game this morning. Knew they lost and how, but had to see it anyway. My simple takeaway, this team is way softer than Charmin. Especially, from a mental standpoint. Hit them in the mouth and watch them crumble. 

So let's say being soft is one hundred percent true.. How do we fix that.. Is that strictly coaching mentality? Is it the type of player we draft or sign? Is it a culture that has been here longer than most players, So it will happen anyhow? Is it caused by Dallas having over exposed " America's team type of atmosphere"??

I really do believe that mentality.As you describe has been here forever and yet it seems to prevail every season..

[HDsportsfan]

10 minutes ago, resilient part 2 said:

So let's say being soft is one hundred percent true.. How do we fix that.. Is that strictly coaching mentality? Is it the type of player we draft or sign? Is it a culture that has been here longer than most players, So it will happen anyhow? Is it caused by Dallas having over exposed " America's team type of atmosphere"??

I really do believe that mentality.As you describe has been here forever and yet it seems to prevail every season..

I think it's all the above. Depending on the player, depends on the percentage assigned to the variables you listed above.

Like Isaid, help iso n the way, Stephen Jones is next man up.