Cornering my concerns for the Cowboy’s Final 53

First, my final 53 based off of my observations thus far.

OFFENSE

QB – Tony Romo, Jon Kitna, Stephen McGee (though, it would be nice if we could tuck McGee away on the practice squad, to save room for additional personnel on defense)

HB – Marion Barber, Felix Jones, Tashard Choice

WR – Roy Williams, Patrick Crayton, Miles Austin, Sam Hurd, Kevin Ogletree (I’d prefer Ogletree or Austin handle Kick Returns over Felix Jones)

TE – Jason Witten, Martellus Bennett, John Phillips

FB – Deon Anderson

LT – Flozell Adams, Doug Free

LG – Kyle Kosier, Montrae Holland

C – Andre Gurode, Duke Preston (finally someone who can replace Proctor’s ability to be interchangeable at guard and center; Duke Preston was a starter at both position’s for Buffalo last season, and actually did very well, despite their pedestrian finish)

RG – Leonard Davis, Duke Preston

RT – Marc Columbo, Pat McQuistan

I feel pretty comfortable with the above offense. I’d say the offensive line could afford injuries at the center and guard position, but we our an injured OT away from our offensive line being a turnstile. Outside of that, we have decent depth. Considering that since Stephen McGee’s debut against the Raiders, we haven’t seen much of him, I would not be suprised if the Cowboy’s organization isn’t trying to make the league forget about him, so they can sneak him past waivers, but we will know more if that’s their strategy this coming Friday night against the Vikings. If we see more of Jon Kitna and Rudy Carpenter, that’s exactly what the Cowboy’s are trying to do.

DEFENSE

RE – Igor Olshansky, Stephen Bowen (if we could get McGee to accept a practice squad spot, I might consider keeping Marcus Dixon here)

DT – Jay Ratliff, Junior Siavii

LE – Marcus Spears, Jason Hatcher

ROLB – Demarcus Ware, Steve Octavien, Victor Butler

MLB – Bradie James, Keith Brooking, Bobby Carpenter, Stephen Hodge

LOLB – Anthony Spencer, Jason Williams (I actually had hoped Jason William’s would be converted to this position from the beginning; with the season-ending injury to Brandon William’s, he may be the most ideal replacement)

CB – Terence Newman, Orlando Scandrick, Mike Jenkins, Alan Ball, Mike Mickens (we will be watching the waiver wire very closely for this position; Mike Mickens is another who could use some time on the practice squad)

FS - Ken Hamlin, DeAngelo Smith (again, we will be watching the waiver wire for both Safety positions, as DeAngelo Smith and Michael Hamlin are not ready for pro football and could use some time on the practice squad)

SS – Gerald Sensabaugh, Pat Wakins, Michael Hamlin

I am more concerned about our defense, than our offense, particularly in the Seconary. First and foremost, corner is my most significant concern. Terence Newman has been an injury waiting to happen the last few seasons, and behind Scandrick and Jenkins, the options are dismal. Next on my list of concerns is Safety. Ken Hamlin has been solid, but behind him is a whole lot of inexperience. Sensabaugh, has been solid in coverage, but not as good as advertised against the run, taking poor angles and not wrapping up on potential tackles (not to mention the two major penalties levied against him in the last two games). Behind him, once again, the options are pretty weak. Linebacker is actually the least of my concerns. Bobbie Carpenter has done quite a bit to regain some of my confidence thus far. Granted, when he is headlining the second and third string defense his production is pretty weak, but I think if he is surrounded by good players, he in turn will play well, as would be the case should an injury demand he step up.

SPECIAL TEAMS

K – Nick Folk, David Buehler

P – Matt McBriar

LS – L.P. Ladouceur

I would have liked to have seen Buehler have more opportunities to kick field goals. I love the clutch performances Nick Folk has given us, but if David can be solid in this area, it would be nice to have an extra position to offer a corner, safety, linebacker, or even receiver if we would like to see a little more of Isaiah Stanback. The same goes for L.P. Ladouceur: Once again, he has been solid, but if Matt Stewart can perform the position, the additional linebacker/special teams contributor would be nice. On the other hand, unless the coaching staff is absolutely certain in regards to Buehler and Stewart taking over for Folk and Ladouceur, it certainly is not worth a gamble.

Robert Brewster – Torn pectorial muscle

Brandon Williams – Torn ACL

LEFTOVERS

Matt Stewart, Marcus Dixon, Jonas Seawright, Derreck Robinson, Keon Lattimore, Julius Crosslin, Asaph Schwapp, Rudy Carpenter, Manuel Johnson, Isaiah Stanback, Jesse Holley, Travis Bright, Ryan Gibbons, Cory Proctor, Greg Isdaner, Andre Douglas, Mike Jefferson, and Julian Hawkins.

The bolded players represent guys I would like to see make the practice squad. I would have bolded Stanback, but I don’t think he is eligible.

CONCERNS

For all the emphasis placed on playing perfect, you would think we would see improvement in the penalty area. 3 preseason games down and the Cowboys are the most penalized team in the NFL. But it’s not just the penalties that are bothering me, as much as, when they are happening. On the offense, their favorite time to a draw a penalty is to negate a 1st down or a score. The defense loves to commit penalties when the opposing offenses will have to punt or go for it on fourth down without the penalty that otherwise offers them a 1st down on a silver platter. The Cowboy’s organization has also been telling us that they have focused on creating more turnover’s via the secondary and thus far the Cowboy’s only have 1. In defense of the defense, the Titan’s and 49ers utilize ball control offenses, running the ball, working the flats and zone is predominantly how they move the ball limiting the number of opportunities to create turnovers via interception.

Positions of interest on the waiver wire in order of need.

Corner – Newman has been an injury waiting to happen the last two seasons. Behind Scandrick and Jenkins (and Jenkins is still not what I consider solid) the pickings are slim. Alan Ball, Courtney Brown and Mike Mickens are on the bubble, and were not for the lack of option’s, Ball would likely be the only one considered worthy of a roster spot.

Safety – I know many think linebacker should be 1st and foremost if not, at least, second. But as I said above, I am much more comfortable with our second stringers at linebacker than I am at Safety.

Offensive Tackle – The position of this concern is debatable. OT could even be considered a chief concern. But for all the penalties and mistakes, the QB’s have actually had a pretty clean pocket throughout the first 3 games; though, they haven’t exactly played defensive powerhouses either. We will know more about this offensive line once the regular season begins, playing our first two games against the Bucs and the Giants.

Linebacker – This probably wouldn’t make my list, though, I know Wade will be keeping his eye’s pealed for linebackers, because they are so crucial to the success of a 3-4. But ultimately, I’ve been moderately happy with the play from our 1st stringers down to our rookies.

ANALYSIS

Being the preseason, it’s difficult to really gauge how much my confidence has changed prior to the season beginning. I knew the offense would be a match-up nightmare and could be much more balanced than they have been since Jason Garrett took over. I even said this team was built to dink and dunk; but I would have liked to see Romo take some more chances down field (minus that duck he threw intended forOgletree), to open the intermediate game up more, as the 49ers did have a tendency to sit on routes expecting the short game. I don’t think using the go route to back a defense up, show’s too much of your offenses hand.

On defense, the Cowboy’s can be dominating. But I’ve noticed, the face of their intensity changes once a defender commits a series continuing penalty. It is as if they really want these younger players to feel the sting of their mistakes, by pretty much allowing the opposing offense to do what ever it want’s from that point forward. I really don’t believe that’s the strategy; I’m just saying, that is what it seems like.

All in all, I feel pretty confident this team is capable of having a 10 and 6 win/loss ratio by season end. But the bigger question is if that’s going to be enough in a very tough NFCE.

Cowboys Vs. 49ers – My Crystal Ball

In week 1, my crystal ball told me to expect an ugly showing against the Raiders and for the most part that assessment was fairly accurate. Transversely, in week 2, my crystal ball told me to look for marked improvement among the ranks; once again, my crystal ball was spot on. So here we are at week 3 and quite possibly the most important game of the preseason, being the dress rehearsal where the starters will likely play 3 quarters. What does the crystal ball say?

The big story line out of the 49ers camp is Michael Crabtree, who from the look of things will sit out the 2009 season and reenter the draft to be up for grabs and likely will not see the 1st round again, dependent on the talent pool at WR. In short, he feels he should have been drafted above Darrius Heywar-Bey, and therefore, should be paid more. The 49ers obviously disagree. As far as I’m concerned: Kudos to both sides of this argument for sticking to their guns.

But even if Michael Crabtree was a part of this team, I’d still have a hard time being concerned about them. They have good players, but it has been a long time since they have had all the right pieces at the same time. Like the Titans, they will test our run defense. But also like the Titans, they don’t have much of a passing attack to scare the Cowboys into backing off their otherwise vaunted rush defense, which should likely end quite a few 49er offensive drives with 3 and outs.

Defensively, the 49ers lack identity and cohesion, Patrick Willis being a lone bright spot and Manny Lawson being a guy with all the physical tools and the mental capacity of a small rock. Nevertheless, if the lights do ever come on for Manny, he could be a very dangerous linebacker. Outside of those two, the 49ers have a blend of has-beens such as Dre Bly and Takeo Spikes, never-have-beens, Walt Harris, Allen Rossum, Mark Roman and could-be’s such as Ricky Jean-Francois, Scott McKillop and Curtis Taylor.

Once again, the Cowboy’s should be dominant. But there is one caveat to that. How do the 49ers treat the Cowboy’s with out #1 WR Roy Williams, who was injured at practice last night (bad Scandrick, bad)? Personally, I don’t think Roy Williams is as crucial to the offense as he has been made out to be. There is still quite a bit of talent to distribute the ball to, and our best receivers, even with Roy Williams on the field, are still in my mind our two top TE’s Jason Witten and Martellus Bennett. And then, of course, there is the RB core, which should still be able to keep the 49ers defense honest. The Cowboys win 31 to the 49ers 6.

Cowboys Running Game in a Cover Two State of Mind

cover-2-defense

In the first two games of the pre season the Dallas Cowboys offense has encountered what I believe will be the standard defense for teams to run until the Boys prove they can consistently beat it.

The Oakland Raiders and the Tennessee Titans stayed true to the “Cover Two” strategy through the entirety of both games. Obviously the Raiders had more success with it than the Titans.

The general premise of the “Cover Two” is to simply force the offense to settle for short passing gains, thus putting an enormous amount of pressure on so teams running attack. If the offensive team is unable to rush the ball effectively, the defense has control of the game, simply because they can force the offense to have to try to connect on longer pass plays, and the numbers are way more in favor of this defense when that happens.

While yes it is “just pre season” Jason Garrett and the Cowboys offense should be a little concerned with what they have seen from the running game thus far.

Through the first two pre season games the Cowboys offensive starters are averaging 3.3 yards per carry. This will not get it done against the “Cover Two” in the regular season!

The Cowboys offensive line and running backs have got to step up the pace come game one in Tampa Bay.

Jason Garrett probably has a number in mind that he needs this offense to be at as far as YPC is concerned for this offense to work, and I will promise you that number is not 3.3! I would guess that the number in question is probably in the 4 to 4.5 YPC range.

While I will agree that the starters have played less than three quarters of football so far this pre season that is no excuse for disregarding the necessity of needing this group to step up.

I have heard a lot of the Cowboy fandom saying things like “we cannot get the ball down field” and “why are we not taking shots deep” there is a very basic answer to these questions, they are taking what the defense is giving them. Tony Romo should be applauded for the things we are seeing from him so far.

I can only remember one time so far that Romo has tried to do more than he should and it was almost intercepted! The rest of the time he has been extremely diligent in just sticking to the plan and taking what is there.

This offense will only be able to take shots down field if the running game can produce enough to force the defense to change its strategy, which would force them to no longer drop their Linebackers into zone coverage, but rather keep them near the line to help out with run defense.

The Cowboy offense has not accomplished this feat yet, notice I said yet! This team is a work in process, and so far each week they have grown stronger.

The success of this offense now rest in the hands of six people. Andre Gerard, Kyle Kosier, Leonard Davis, Marion Barber, Felix Jones, and Tashard Choice. The damage they do in between the tackles could vault this team to greatness or send it spiraling out of control.

Dallas Opens Cowboys Stadium Against Titans

082209-dc-boys-33 DVR saved my butt this week since I had to work and missed the live game, but checking it out last night was certainly worth staying up late.

The first team offense looked good. I was surprised at how good they looked actually, but before I get into that, I just have one thing to say – “False start, everyone but the center.” That was freaking hilarious!

Speaking of false starts and penalties in general, in the first half the Special Teams unit took the cake. First of all, wiping out that 78 yard kickoff return from Austin because of a penalty was just retarded; it’s the kind of mistakes we have got to cut down on. We finished the game with 11 penalties for 107 yards, but the first half, when the starters were playing, special teams had three for 35 yards, the defense had two for 20 yards, and the offense had two for 15 yards.

But it was nice to see our starters come out on offense and literally dominate the Titans defense, that is of course after they got the three and out over with to start the game.

They came back and orchestrated a 16 play drive that spanned 90 yards and netted the first touchdown of the game. The whole time I’m watching I’m thinking about what has changed since last year. It’s not just about the players either; even Jason Garrett was on my mind as I followed each snap.

Last year we all saw that Garrett had issues mixing up the run and pass, sometimes he didn’t do one enough and others he did one too much. That first drive started on the ground with Marion Barber pounding it out, and it was good too because he was gaining solid yards on each run. But once Tony Romo was cut loose the team started moving downfield.

It wasn’t a quick progression though; we didn’t just lob a deep pass into the endzone. Instead they took their time and consumed nearly 10 minutes off the clock. From then on my worries about how the starting offense and defense would do kind of faded away as I waited to see who’d kick the video board first.

By my count, the Cowboys were a little pass heavy the first half. They ran 13 times and threw the ball 19 times. But it was a good mix that kept the Titans defense working. Only on two plays did I see Romo under pressure early, and one of those times he threw the ball away, another time he completed a pass. He still had his dancing feet but the line gave him enough time to set up in the pocket, look over his receivers and pick the open guy.

082209-dc-boys-19 What’s probably most impressive about that is Romo actually used the pocket when it held up for him. He didn’t at any point just start running around trying to make the play, he waited and let the plays develop, and then shot the ball out like a cannon. We all know he’s got a quick release, but it’s been a while since we’ve seen it that quick.

Another thing we saw that we haven’t seen from Dallas in a couple of years was an even coverage across the field on ball distribution. They didn’t just look left each play. They ran up the middle, to both sides, and threw the same way – there really was no predictability that the Titans could capitalize on.

I did see a couple of things that bothered me in the game, like the special teams either missing tackles, unnecessary penalties like Sensabaugh shoving the guy further out of bounds, or simply dumb choices by returners. Look at Kevin Ogletree’s first return, he was full steam ahead when he ran into the back of his own blocker, the first guy he reached on the field.

And what about Patrick Crayton dropping the punt … good thing he got back on it fast. But in general, the special teams unit allowed a little too much on just about every return by the Titans.

Just two more things for me, first is that Felix Jones is damn fast. You don’t even see him coming. Very elusive and hard to catch from any angle – he will certainly be trouble for any defense we face this year.

And last is Kevin Ogletree, he may have chosen a bad lane on that one return, but he got involved in the passing game late. He was the biggest factor on a late drive and displayed some good hands for his touchdown pass. You might already know that I’m not a big supporter of Isaiah Stanback with his injuries and un-astounding play even when healthy, but now I really think it’s time for him to go.

Our receiving corps should line up like so:

Roy Williams
Patrick Crayton
Sam Hurd
Miles Austin
Kevin Ogletree

Too bad I’m not a coach or that’d be a done deal.

And a special mention to Mr. Fourth and Long – I suppose if you’re going to screw up and let a ball bounce off your facemask, it’s best if you at least end up with the ball. Maybe we could avoid letting a defender catch it, even if only for a moment, before actually securing it though. Just a thought.

Are The Titans Really Who They Think They Are? I Don’t Think So

Last week, as I looked into my crystal ball, it told me to expect the worse against the Raiders and it was pretty accurate. This week, my crystal ball is telling me to look for marked improvement, and not just because the starters will be playing the majority of the game; though that is a part of it.

The other part, and I realize I’m setting myself up for some serious mud slinging in my direction, I really don’t think the Titans are as good as everyone seems to think. Granted, it’s just the preseason, and given the likely vanilla approach to play calling, the Cowboys very well may lose, as far as the scoreboard is concerned. When I say the Cowboys should do better tonight, I’m not talking about the final score. I’m talking about the match ups; the individual battles like Martellus Bennett and Jason Witten against their Safeties who give up quite a bit in height both being 6’0″ and LB’s who likely give up quite a bit in speed. The Titans on their DL will be short Albert Haynesworth and did little to refortify that position against a team who has four running backs all capable of running it between the tackles effectively (I include Keon Lattimore in this assessment based off of his performance last week). Cortland Finnegan received quite a bit of praise for his 5 picks last year, but if Romo is insync with Roy Williams, Roy’s 6’3″ height should create some serious issues for 5’10″ Cortland.

In other words, if the Cowboys play their game, the Titans shouldn’t get too many opportunities to field punts. You heard me right: If the Cowboys actually wanted to win the 1st half, I honestly believe the Titans would not be able to stop the Cowboys from, at least, getting a field goal on every opportunity the Cowboys offense has with the ball. And you may have noticed I said in an earlier post that the Titans identity was established through defense in 08; but then I looked at their competition, and I got a better idea of how their success story came about in 2008.

The Titans placed 27th in the league in passing and placed 7th in the league in rushing. Where is the Titans offensive identity? The run game. How did their opposition fair as whole a in both aspects of the game? See the below table.

Titans 2008 Opponents	Win/Loss Ratio	Results	Point Margin	Rush Defense	Pass Defense	Rush Offense	Pass Offense
Baltimore	11-5	W	+3	3rd	2nd	4th	28th
Chicago	9-7	W	+7	5th	30th	24th	21st
Cincinnatti	4-11-1	W	+17	21st	11th
Cleveland	4-12	W	+19	28th	7th
Detroit	0-16	W	+37	32nd	28th
Green Bay	6-10	W	+3	26th	9th
Houston	8-8	SPLIT	+19/-1	23rd	16th
Indianapolis	12-4	SPLIT	+10/-23	24th	4th	31st	5th
Jacksonville	5-11	W SPLIT	+10	13th	24th
Kansas City	2-14	W	+24	30th	26th
Minnesota	10-6	W	+13	1st	22nd	5th	25th
New York Jets	9-7	L	-21	7th	29th	9th	16th
Pittsburgh	12-4	W	+17	2nd	1st	23rd	17th

Titans	Rush Defense	Pass Defense	Rush Offense	Pass Offense
	6th	9th	7th	27th

The first thing that stands out is that the Titans only beat 5 teams with winning records. The next thing that stands out is the Titans strengths versus their oppositions weaknesses. For instance, when looking at the 5 wins against opponents that had winning records only (highlighted in blue), since the other 8 wins where games the Titans should have won, note how they ranked in the league and compare to where the Titans ranked. Also consider the point margins that they won by, which is also important. From these numbers I’ll let you draw your own conclusion, but in my opinion, the Titans are not the complete package that they are being touted as (because truthfully I just don’t have the time to spell it out).

They are a run first team, which may give the Cowboys trouble, but passing the ball might be pretty difficult against the Cowboys with the secondary at full strength tonight. On the other side of the ball, the Cowboys are strong at rushing and passing. But since the Titans in 08 rarely faced teams that were good at doing both, I am predicting they will find it much more difficult to identify what the Cowboys are going to do presnap. This should play heavily in the Cowboys favor. If this was a regular season game, I’d predict an upset by a large margin in the Cowboys favor 35 – 13. But since it a preseason game and the Cowboys primary weakness is depth, I’ll say the Cowboys will put up some serious points of about 24, limiting the Titans to 9, but likely will lose ground in the 2nd half putting up maybe 6 more points and giving up 17 for a final score of Cowboys 30 Titans 26.

Preseason Week 2 Preview: Titans at Cowboys

Well it’s here. It’s what we’ve all been waiting for. I know, I know … it’s just the second preseason game, what does it really matter?

Well the first preseason game mattered for a blowout loss, a few sharp comments from coach Phillips about a lack of effort all around, a few players being cut from the roster, and plenty of fodder for a week as we awaited the game tonight.

But more than that, it is the follow up to something that we all basically agreed was a crap-shoot. This team is on the rebound – from last season, from the last regular season game, from the last preseason game, even from the last stadium. It’s an important game because we get to see how, and if, the team has adjusted to overcome the many things that kept them from winning last week.

So yeah, maybe a preseason game is just a preseason game, but we play these games for a reason, and tonight we’ve got a bucket full of reasons to watch. Let’s start with the offense this week.

Offense

Tonight the Cowboys will square off against the Titans. The hype will be around the grand opening of Cowboys Stadium. The offense can expect to see it’s first team play about half the game, and what a game it should be!

What to expect?

Expect … more and more of this dynamic first team offense. Last week they showed us that they can deliver with ease. The Titans defense is pretty solid, but with a combination of Felix Jones, Jason Witten, Martellus Bennett, Roy Williams, Patrick Crayton, Sam Hurd, and Miles Austin, they are looking at a serious challenge to stop these ‘Boys.

We should be able to truly grasp what the offense is offering to us now, as we get them in more of rhythm. This is where Jason Garrett will be able to see the way the triple headed running game will react in game time situations, from third and inches and goal line sets to long distance and receiving play choices. This offense is fully equipped to go the distance on any play – Romo will continue to build a report with Williams, and Witten and Romo will continue to dominate.

What to Look for?

First Team Offense – Durability, you want to make sure that this team is conditioned enough to get through games. If players are exhausted their skill set quickly diminishes.

Execution, The NFL playbook is complex, it isn’t just a bunch of dumb jocks running around clueless. You really need to pay attention to the receivers route running, catching, and explosion. Same thing goes for the running backs and Offensive Line. If plays are breaking down and Romo is eating grass you can almost surely blame it on the execution of the rest of the team.

Second and Third Team offense – Chemistry, these units were less than impressive last week at Oakland. If they don’t start producing and playing as a team, the lack of depth will become that much more of an issue. With turnovers the result of poor plays, you can expect that if they continue the way they have that the second team will be a turnover machine.

The Result

The first team offense will hush critics, conquering a top 10 defense. Romo will deliver sharp passes and the running backs will contribute effectively. Expect Roy Williams to have his preseason breakout and Witten to catch on in the end zone….again.

For the second team, same ole same ole – expect inconsistent play from most positions except at receiver where position battles have never been more competitive. Turnovers and ineffective scoring drives are the end of this story though.

Offensive analysis provided by Bryan Martin

Defense

Okay, last week against the Raiders we talked about the three main areas of concern for the Cowboys heading into the season.

Interior Run Defense
Secondary
Ability to Force Turnovers

After the performance last week I think it would be safe to say that those concerns are still there! Granted we didn’t get an extended look at the starters, but what we saw from the 2nd and 3rd string guys definitely gave credence to those concerns.

The Cowboys faced the Raiders with only one first string caliber cornerback (Orlando Scandrick), and while he played well we still do not know how much or how little depth we have at the position.

Before we make a hard line stance on the secondary situation I really think we need to give the young guys a chance over the next couple of preseason games.

The interior run defense against the Raiders was, well let’s see how I can put this… not the most impressive performance I have ever witnessed. After giving up 176 rushing yards to the Raiders we need to see some improvement here this week and from now on or we could be in deep trouble.

Last but not least on our list from last week was the turnover battle, which the Cowboys lost two to zero! This defense MUST begin forcing turnovers!

Okay now that we have kind of glanced over what happened last week let’s preview what we can expect in preseason game 2 against the Tennessee Titans!

Here is this week’s list of things to keep a watchful eye on!

The Cowboys will get a heavy dose of Chris Johnson and LenDale White (This will be the best opportunity that we have before the season starts to get an accurate feel for the Cowboys run defense).

Can the Cowboys 3-4 scheme create enough pressure on a solid offensive line to force mistakes from Kerry Collins (Collins has looked very old to me in the Titans preseason games, but he is the epitome of a ball control, mistake free QB, no matter how old he is. The Cowboys should also get the opportunity to chase Vince Young around which could help prepare them for NFC East foe Philly)?

Does Wade Phillips begin to open the playbook up this week or is he holding back until the real games begin?

Look for the Cowboys starters to get a little more playing time this week, lord knows they need it! Wade Phillips instituted a no tackling policy in camp to help prevent preseason injuries, and boy does it show!

As for the 2nd and 3rd string guys we need to at least begin to see some consistency from these guys. Most of these guys are younger players and have had a lot thrown at them, but the time has come for them to prove that they belong!

Defensive analysis provided by Bags030404

Special Teams

Say what you like about the offensive and defensive collective performance at the Raiders, knee-jerk reaction or not, the Special Teams looked pretty good overall. In particular, my favorite rookie so far, David Buehler impressed me. Buehler was 1 for 3 on touchbacks, a statistic that sadly already surpasses Nick Folk’s stats from last year where he had 0 touchbacks. The other two were still, at least, beyond the 10 yard line. In addition, he also had two tackles on punt and kickoff coverage. That’s not a stat you see compiled amongst kickers very often. In fact, I’d go as far as to say already that he is the most intriguing kick off specialist in the history of football. Obviously, we haven’t seen enough of him to call him the most complete, but given the right amount of grooming, he really could grant the Cowboys quite a bit of flexibility when it comes to choosing their 53 man roster. He can do it all. But enough of the gratuitous bromancing; on to the Titans game.

Keeping this as short and sweet as possible, I will suffice to say I don’t really think with as dominant as the Titans can be in various aspects of the game, Special Teams should be a concern for any Dallas Cowboys unit. Don’t get me wrong, I’m not underestimating them, but if there is any aspect of the game I am confident the Cowboys can win, it’s the field position battles. See for yourself:

The Titans actually have two punters currently competing for the job and both still rank in the bottom 20 as far as average distance of punts are concerned; Craig Hentrich averages 43 and A.J. Trapasso has averaged 39.4. To get an idea of how poor that is consider number 3 ranked Mat McBriar who, coming off a season ending injury, averaged 51.8 per punt over the course of 5 punts. For further perspective, keep in mind that DeCamillis has requested that Mat place more emphasis on flight time, not distance.

Rob Bironas ranks 9th in the league for average distance, with only 1 touchback out of 8 kick off attempts. Buehler is right behind him in 10th place, but with 1 touchback out of 3 tries.

Ryan Mouton, a 3rd round rookie out of Hawaii so far has handled half of the kick returns for the Titans. Interestingly enough, he is actually at the bottom of the stats sheet (ranked 50th) with average return yards of 19.3 per kick off. Whether or not that’s a result of poor blocking or poor decision making on Ryan’s part remains to be seen, but according to his draft analysis, he is supposed to be a phenomenal return man with 4.3 speed. Ideally, we could forgo finding out with Buehler kicking touchbacks throughout the game. But chances are we will see what has the Titans rubbing their hands together ala Charles Montgomery Burns. Jason McCourty, per the team’s website, has handled the other 3 kick offs but he has only average 16 yards per return and doesn’t even register on nfl.com’s stat sheet.

Meanwhile, back in Dallas we have two receivers fighting to make the final 53 man roster who have game changer ability. Granted, Stanback’s first showing was not stellar, but considering he was the first Cowboys player to touch a ball in a game situation this season, I’ll write off that first mishandling to riled up nerves. He ranks 40th when you consider the 16 yard return he had to open up the game against the Raiders, but jumps up to 20th without it. Kevin Ogletree, out of the 50 kick returners, actually ranked 8th in the league, averaging 28.7 yards per return.

According to the Titans stat sheet, punt returns have been shared between Chris Davis (3 returns averaging 5.7 per return), Ryan Mouton (3 returns averaging 7 yards per return), and Tuff Harris (1 return averaging 5.4). Punt returner might not be as a big of a question as who backs up Jay Ratliff, the OL, or who starts opposite Terence Newman, but it has been a question.

The funny thing is, so far the Cowboys have only had two opportunities to field punts, both taken by Willie Reid, one of which was bobbled and resulted in him having to fall on it. Still, you would expect him to average more than 1 yard per return and do better than 2 yards which was his longest return. I don’t know if the Cowboys intend to continue trying to use him in the preseason, but I doubt he makes the final 53. That said, the Cowboys have other options in this area, and given Reid’s performance against the Raiders, I’d imagine we will get to see them come Friday night.

What to look for:

More touchbacks and special teams tackles from Buehler.

Has Folk lost his edge? He missed his first and only field goal attempt. After that, Buehler took over and was 1 for 1. There is still very little chance the Cowboys decide to cut Folk, but it does make things more interesting that Folk made this a question to begin with.

Coverage on both the punt and kickoff teams was much improved from last year; it shouldn’t be too difficult for the Cowboys to continue that trend against the Titans but, I’ll be watching for it just the same.

Again, who is going to be the Special Teams leader? My vote is still Buehler, as crazy as it may sound.

Special Teams analysis provided by Jonathan

- Don’t forget about the chat either, it’ll be open all day Friday for anyone to chat.

Weekly Roundup: Titans at Cowboys

Welcome to another edition of the Weekly Roundup. This week I had the opportunity to speak with Jimmy from Music City Miracles the top rated Tennessee Titans blog, and discuss this week’s game between the Dallas Cowboys and the Tennessee Titans.

We exchanged five questions with each other, and below you will find what Music City Miracles had to say in response to our questions. Then switch over there to see what we had to say to their questions.

(1) In the Off Season the Titans were not able to retain the services of Albert (I like to stomp on peoples heads) Haynesworth. How will his departure change the dynamics of the team and more so the defense in particular?

It won’t change things as much as people think. The Titans were already heavily using a rotation at the defensive tackle spot and will continue to do so. They obviously do not have a guy as talented as Haynesworth in that rotation, and you could argue that no one else in the NFL does either, but they think they can replace the production with the guys they have.

(2) I have never really “gotten up” for a Pre Season game, but many Cowboy followers including myself believe that this game means a ton as far as the development of the team. What is the overall feel of the Titan fanbase towards this game?

It is a preseason game. The Vince Young people are hoping he gets some time with the first team, but other than that it will just be another preseason game.

(3) I keep hearing that the Titans want Vince Young to become a better passer and not rely on his legs so much, but then when he gets in to play the plays selected for him seem to be primarily boot legs, and option plays, do the Titans have a plan for him? Or are they simply going through the motions until they can release him?

The plays called for him are not primarily boot legs and option plays. Do they run more of that stuff with him than Collins? Sure, but there is an obvious reason for that.I can assure they are not just going through the motions until they release him. They honestly feel that they have a team capable of winning the Super Bowl, and they are one injury to a 36 year old quarterback away from counting on VY. It would be dumb to give up on him considering how small the window is for winning a championship in this league.

(4) Who are some of the Titans that Cowboy fans should keep an eye on in this game?

The Titans have a very talented rookie class that is headlined by first round wide receiver Kenny Britt, third round tight end Jared Cook, and fifth round running back Javon Ringer. All 3 of those guys have made big plays in camp and games so far.

(5) Last year the Cowboys were given a ticket to the Super Bowl before the season ever started and we all know how that worked out! The Titans however were somewhat of a surprise. Can the Titans pick up where they left off last year to make another push for the trophy? And if they can what aspect of their game is going to allow them to do so?

I honestly believe they can. Jeff Fisher knows what it takes to get these guys back to the level they played at last season.

I also believe the offense will be a lot more potent this season with the editions of Nate Washington, Britt, Cook and a drastically slimmed down LenDale White. This should be more than enough to compensate for the loss of Albert.

Bonus: All of us here at Dallas Cowboys Nation would like to send our thoughts and prayers to the McNair family and the Tennessee Titans and all of their fans for the loss of Steve McNair.

Once again a big thank you to Jimmy and the guys over at Music City Miracles, and be sure you all head over there to see our answers and leave them some good natured comments, and keep it clean folks!

Keeping The Mediots Honest … Drama In a Compliment’s Dress.

This is the second installation of a series charged with the responsibility of keeping the local, as well as national media, honest when it comes to our Dallas Cowboys. I have yet to see an article that has been as blatant as the infamous “Jerry calls Marion Barber a wuss,” which was somehow derived from Jerry’s statement, “I was told he was healthy enough to play!” Even still, here and there the media is still trying to throw out potential land minds in hopes of filling their monthly quota to talk about the same thing, that if you are anything like me, you could not care less about.

My first entry picked on Dallas Morning News Jean-Jacques Taylor, a reporter whose arrogance and panache for twisting the truth is only rivaled by none other than ESPN Radio’s own and Ft. Worth Star Tribune contributor Randy Galloway. In Jean’s latest article, entitled “Cowboys need a leader in Romo,” at face value it would seem he is offering praise to Romo. But read between the lines:

Sometimes, leaders aren’t popular, and Romo must realize that’s OK.

He can’t worry about whether guys want to play golf or racquetball with him. He can’t worry about what they’re saying about him when he’s not around.

Who cares?

Romo’s job is to demand excellence every time he walks into the team’s Valley Ranch training complex. Do that consistently and the players will follow him on the football field – even if they don’t want to share a meal with him.

It doesn’t matter whether Romo agrees with what his teammates say about him. It doesn’t even matter whether their perceptions are true.

After all, perception is reality.

Understand, leadership doesn’t come easy to Romo. There’s no shame in that since we’re all built differently

That’s why he doesn’t like talking about it. And that’s why he acts, at times, like leadership isn’t a big deal.

(visit the following link for the whole article: http://www.dallasnews.com/sharedcontent/dws/spt/football/cowboys/stories/081909dnspotaylorcol.316491e.html1e.html)

Has anyone heard any complaints about Romo from the players? Has there been any reports of infighting involving Romo?

To me, JJT’s motivation was clear: To create drama where there is no drama. The truth is, if Romo really cared about thing’s like this and actually looked for an individual on this team that didn’t like him, there is a good chance he could find one. But it would only become an issue if he found that individual. Whether or not this prompts him to go looking for that trouble, articles like this have a tendency to help the players who do have a problem surface.

Imagine you are an individual who has an issue with Romo and you are on the team. As far as you know, you are the only one, so why make more of an issue and bring it to light? But then you read this article and knowing that you haven’t said anything to the media, you are led to believe that you are not the only one who has an issue, which vastly changes the complexion of the situation. Because if you now believe that there are more that are fed up with whatever it is about Romo you don’t like, the problem likely need’s to be addressed. You bring it to light, and JJT has a real story; not one that is the mental equivalent of pulling teeth, like actually complementing Romo for his efforts to improve as a leader and Quarterback.

Make no mistake, this article was difficult for Jean to write; but in the guise of a compliment, he’s looking for this assertion to pay dividends in the currency of future articles, without the pesky backlash that otherwise could blow up in his face. It’s diabolical. It’s borderline genius. And it’s why he’s the focus of yet another Keeping the mediots honest!

The Glass Half-Full Perspective – Cowboys Vs Raiders

This response to the Cowboy’s vs. Raider’s game is a little late because my son was sick the Friday following the game up until Monday of this week. Better late than never…

Call it ESP(N),but I had a premonition about Thursday night, as noted a few articles down in” Expect the worse when the Cowboy’s meet the Raider’s tonight.” I prepared myself for the worse in view of one concept that I think tend’s to be overlooked by the average fan: An offensive or defensive unit is only as strong as it’s weakest member. If you consider the “youth movement” that has absorbed the majority of the attention concerning the Cowboy’s, there are quite a few player’s out there still learning their positions, which mean’s regardless of how fast they can run the 40, their mental speed is still going to be relatively slow.

Here are just a few quick observation’s from the glass half-full perspective:

1: In an effort to keep this team healthy, Wade has prohibited tackling throughout training camp. Therefore, missed tackles are going to happen at this stage in the process.

2: Newman, Jenkins and Hawkins were all hurt, which represent the 1st, 2nd/3rd, and 4th Corner’s on the depth chart. Hawkins was recently cut, so the Cowboy’s are placing quite a bit of faith in Mickens and Brown to turn the corner, so-to-speak.

3: Should a 2nd teamer be forced into action in the regular season, he’ll be surrounded by 1st teamer’s, not more 2nd teamer’s. That’s a huge difference to consider.

4: If anything, the Raider’s are fast. Al Davis covet’s speed over all attributes a player can have. Judging angles on a team filled with speedster is not typically an ability younger defensive player’s playing in a new position are going to do well at this point.

5: I’d prefer my rookies to be overly-aggressive in the preseason than invisible. Victor Butler, despite his many instances of over-pursuit, still looked decent for a player in a stand up role vs. his three-down technique in college.

6: Play calling is generally extremely vanilla during the pre-season. I’m sure many of you may have noticed the running game being relied on quite a bit, especially in the closing minutes of the game. If anything, that should have served as a reminder that the coaching staff was not trying to win the game.

7: How about that starting unit? Granted, the first series wasn’t pretty for either unit, defense or offense. But the offense made up for it with their second chance, moving down the field, Romo getting the ball into the hand’s of a variety of different weapons to score and take the lead. Despite a few debilitating penalties, the starting defensive unit was able to limit the Raider’s to a field goal, and that being very short-handed in the secondary. As previously stated, it’s too early to judge the second and third unit’s considering the youth; but if they are still a turnstile come the fourth game of preseason, concerns will be warranted.