Dallas Cowboys Nation

Roy Williams, Linebacker Bound?

This is exactly the kind of stuff I want to be hearing right now!

Move Roy Williams from safety to linebacker? Why would anyone doubt that the soundness of a move like that? I could understand if someone like Ed Reed was available this off-season to the Cowboys, then yeah, cut Williams and get the extra cap space so you can get a high caliber safety. But that just isn’t the case.

If you cut Williams, who replaces him? Who is going to step in and be the hard hitter that he always been? Sure, he struggles in coverage, but against the run he’s still good old Roy.

Maybe there is a point in that he would be facing bigger and stronger linemen every down, but he did that at safety back when Woodson had the air covered. I see Roy Williams a little like Parcels saw Dat Nguyen, a little small, but definitely talented enough.

A middle linebacker usually gets enough help from the rest of the defensive backs that even put into coverage on a tight end or back; Williams could get the job done.

The Cowboys did try him at linebacker in sub-packages for a while, and he wasn’t that great, true. But there is a big difference between a safety coming in as a linebacker sometimes, and a linebacker roaming the field.

Maybe it’s just wishful thinking on my part, but I’d like to find ways to get our current personnel playing to their strengths. And at safety, in coverage, Roy Williams is not doing that.

Rumors of Peppers, Lewis

Being the off-season after a 9-7 year that followed 13-3 year for the Dallas Cowboys, it’s no great mystery why all these rumors are starting to fly up around Dallas and the league in regards to what Dallas should do to get things turned around.

Perhaps the most widely speculated acquisition at this point seems to be a report out of Baltimore that the Cowboys are interested in signing Ray Lewis, the future Hall of Fame linebacker and undoubted leader of that team for a decade now.

He is very loud, willing to get in anyone’s face, and doesn’t shy away from telling a player when they’ve screwed up. He also makes sure to tell players when they’ve done right, and when they should be fired up for a play or drive.

It’s only logical to think that, with the chemistry problems we’ve had in Dallas, he would be a good fit because of his obvious leadership abilities. It doesn’t hurt that we are likely going to be short a linebacker or two soon.

But I think it would be a bad move to bring in Lewis. Yeah, he’s a great linebacker, but that’s in Baltimore.

And who’s to say that the respect he is given in Baltimore will automatically carry over to Dallas? He’s spent a long time with that team, and been there longer than most everybody else; that’s something that naturally gains respect from any newcomer into the organization.

I still think Lewis is going to be making plays, but it’ll be in Baltimore, and in front of Ed Reed. Few can argue that Lewis would be able to do what he does without Reed at safety, and we certainly don’t have an Ed Reed caliber player at safety in Dallas.

Another rumor, compliments of Adam Jones’ signing last year it seems, is Julius Peppers saying he’d like to play in Dallas. I’m not even sure where he said it, or if he did say it.

I don’t think it would be a bad idea to sign Peppers, but only if Canty doesn’t return. Otherwise we’d be a little well stacked on the line, which doesn’t mean anything more than we’d be too short on cash to take care of bigger needs on the team.

Peppers isn’t exactly a rookie either, which calls into question whether or not he has any good years left in him. Overall, I’d say it’s a good idea to want more experience and power on defense, but it’s a bad fit for Peppers in Dallas.

Bill Parcels’ 11 Quarterback Commandments

1. Press or TV agents or advisors, family or wives, friends or relatives, fans or hangers on, ignore them on matters of football, they don’t know what’s happening here.

2. Don’t forget to have fun, but don’t be the class clown. Clowns and leaders don’t mix. Clowns can’t run a huddle.

3. A quarterback throws with his legs more than his arms. Squat and run. Fat quarterbacks can’t avoid the rush.

4. Know your job cold. This is not a game without errors. Keep yours to a minimum. Study.

5. Know your own players. Who’s fast? Who can catch? Who needs encouragement? Be precise. Know your opponent.

6. Be the same guy everyday. In condition, preparing to lead, studying your plan. A coach can’t prepare you for every eventuality. Prepare yourself and remember, impulse decisions usually equal mistakes.

7. Throwing the ball away is a good play. Sacks, interceptions, and fumbles are bad plays. Protect against those.

8. You must learn to manage the game. Personnel, play call, motions, ball handling, proper reads, accurate throws, play fakes. Clock, clock, clock, don’t you ever lose track of the clock.

9. Passing stats and td passes are not how you’re gonna be judged. Your job is to get your team in the endzone and that’s how you’re gonna be judged.

10. When all around you is in chaos, you must be the hand that steers the ship. If you have a panic button, so will everyone else. Our ship can’t have panic buttons.

11. Don’t be a celebrity quarterback. We don’t need any of those. We need battlefield commanders that are willing to fight it out everyday, every week, and every season, and lead their team to win after win after win.

 

The Tuna was certainly entertaining wasn’t he?

 

But these commandments do seem pretty sound, wonder how many of them Tony Romo feels like he broke. I bet it’s not half as many as I think he broke.

Dallas Morning News Article Today

Did anyone happen to catch that article from Dallas Morning News Cowboys beat writer, Calvin Watkins? If you missed it, check it out – Calvin Watkins Bogus Article.

According to him, and his ‘sources’, the team was basically acting like a family of 40 brothers in one house, aside from the outright fighting that would occur in that situation. I’m not even sure if I can trust any of what this writer claims in his article. Then again, I found myself questioning the DC.com writers as well during this article.

I guess it was Nick Eatman, today, that said on DC.com that he was on the flight to Philly in December with the team, and that the plane was late, but not because of a player. He even said they knew it would be late before they got there. He does work for the organization, and they (DC.com writers) have been known to misstate things before, so I don’t know if he was covering, or being truthful.

Kind of makes me wonder about the media in general. I know the article was all about how players and coaches are bitching about other players and coaches, but to me, the author of the article stood out beyond any of the alleged facts he presented.

I for one, find it very difficult to put any credibility into an unnamed source for the media. If what you’re saying is so good, why not make yourself known? If losing your job was a big concern for you, you wouldn’t be starting crap to begin with, so why not take some pride in being a rat? That’s my thought anyway.

It just goes to show us all one thing; there is not one single person in this organization responsible for all the Cowboys’ struggles this past season. They all had a hand in it, one way or another.

The question now becomes, how do we get this ship sailing smooth again?

So how about it guys, what is it going to take to get the Cowboys back on track after the 2008 season? Comments are open to all.

Did Injury Hijack Garrett’s Offense?

 

Jason Garrett

Jason Garrett

I don’t know everything about football, not by a long shot. All I know is when I see something that doesn’t work, and I usually want whoever to stop doing whatever isn’t working; no big surprise there.

 

But I’m not totally on-board with the “Fire Garrett” sentiments that I’ve been hearing from fellow fans.

I do think his offense is too vanilla for this league, but I have a hard time believing that he can’t change to go with it. Just look at the coaching changes he endured as a player in Dallas, that alone is enough evidence for me that he can adapt as needed to what an offense needs to do, that he can see how an opposing defense helps to dictate the scheme an offense uses.

Help me out here, though, does he really need to change his offensive scheme? Is it really his playbook that is the problem? Or could be something else?

It’s no doubt by now that something has to be figured out, and something has to be done about the problems that plagued this team last year, but being so quick to fire the Offensive Coordinator because the offense didn’t trounce on every team in the NFL seems a bit of a stretch.

This December gets a pass that no December in recent Cowboys history got, playing nothing but the best defenses in the league week in and week out. That has to account for something, right?

The injuries didn’t help either, but you can’t say that a lot of it was injuries because of all injuries on the offense this year, only four starting quality players were really affected. I’m not counting Jason Witten here, he was injured, but he also played through the injuries without too many issues.

First Felix Jones is hurt, then is hurt worse during rehab, then gone for the season. that certainly made things tougher for Garrett since he no longer had any speed on the offense at all, especially not on the ground. Then Romo goes out for three weeks, leaving Brad Johnson as the quarterback, insert your own derogatory comments about him here.

he wasn’t quite the veteran backup that Jerry Jones had envisioned, I’m sure, and I doubt he could have been a positive influence on young Tony Romo either.

And even coming back after only three weeks, Romo was still limited by the splint and healing finger. Though he did seem to do quite well during that time, maybe the splint held him back a bit, and saved the mishaps from him trying to do too much with a dead play.

Then Barber goes out, but wait, Choice actually rose to the challenge and did good starting as the teams only healthy back. Really, it says more about next year than anything.

Add in Kyle Kosier going down for most of the season, which left the other four starters on the line trying to compensate for Proctor, and you’ve got a few problems for Garrett to work out.

What kills me, and we all know this, that every team has certain things they do because of the personnel they have, the players. Garrett never made any noticeable changes to the offense no matter what players were hurt or not playing at all. Seems like if you have an offense designed for a specific group of guys, and one or two or three of those guys go down with injuries, your offense should change to fit whoever is playing.

Is it just me, or did he not ever seem to do that? It’s a weekly process, game planning, and he didn’t seem to do a lot to help out when it was needed most.

Help me out folks, help me understand what the problem is with that whole situation.

FireTheCowboysGM.com


FireTheCowboysGM.com

FireTheCowboysGM.com

Since I like to pass on things I find interesting, here is a site I discovered when the owner of the site put a link to it in a comment on the DC.com website.


The name pretty much says it all, and while I don’t totally agree with it, he has a few good points worth checking out on the site.

There is a petition that you can sign which will be sent to Jerry Jones along with a letter the website owner has written out. I don’t know if it’ll work, or even if it will lead to the results we all want if it does work, but it never hurts to try.

Check out www.FireTheCowboysGM.com

Garrett Rejected

It’s not like I’m Mickey Spagnola or anything. I’m not going to say “Passed Over” just because it’s nicer. Garrett was rejected, and for good reason that I can see.

Garrett missed out on three opportunities to be a head coach this year, so far. Though I wonder what really happened in Saint Louis last weekend, because everything lined up for him getting the job there. Maybe the pay cut wasn’t what he had in mind, nor what he would accept.

So we’re stuck with Garrett for another year, it seems, and I must admit that it doesn’t really sound like all that bad of an idea. Yeah, his offense struggled greatly in 2008, but how do you separate out his part from injuries, distractions, weather, the opposing defenses, and especially players lacking focus, drive, or concentration? That’s what I can’t wrap my head around; how do we really know that he was to blame for it all?

I still think having him back means things will change, I mean who is better motivated to turn this offense around now that he has missed three head coaching opportunities this year. If he wants to be a head coach anytime soon, he had better figure this out and fast.

Plus, he’s got a ton of examples to find in the game films from 2007 and 2008. Something changed there, and I doubt injuries and distractions cover it all. maybe he did get figured out, and just maybe, 2008 will prove to be his evidence of that and he’ll make the appropriate changes.