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Tag Archives: Felix Jones

Replacing Owens Not Impossible

With everything that has been going on the past week, since free agency started, the picture in Dallas not only has changed, but has a whole new color scheme. The releases of Terrell Owens and SS Roy Williams drastically change both the offense and defense, and while one of those positions has been taken care of, for the most part, the safety position still needs help.

Since we last saw Darren Woodson and Roy Williams both back at safety, this team has struggled for consistency at the position, one that requires a fair bit of solid play, great athleticism, and quick thinking.

The release of Owens, merely a year after paying him almost a $13 million signing bonus on a new four year deal, without having seen any solid production from his replacement is a gamble. Albeit one that has been taken already, many fans are concerned about WR Roy Williams and the fact that despite joining the team in week 6 of the 2008 season, he failed to live up to even the number 2 position on the team after Dallas traded multiple picks for him, one of which being a first rounder, and resigned him to a lucrative deal.

But many people seem to forget one thing … you can find transactions in the NFL where a player warrants a first round pick in a trade without deserving a value that high, but it’s hard to say that when a first, third, and seventh round pick were all traded for one guy. Some may point to the near-infamous trade for Joey Galloway a while back, but that situation was different from the one Dallas and Williams are in.

Williams is younger, been stuck on a team that has now posted the worst season record ever, and he still managed to have 1,000+ yard seasons there. To make that deal even sweeter, we now have the quarterback on staff that helped Williams to stand out from the pack a couple of years ago. Sure, Kitna won’t play a down, unless Romo is either injured or plays so badly that he’s benched, but there’s a lot that goes into the relationship on the field for a quarterback and his receiver.

Take it from Kurt Warner who said that he had to re-learn what open meant when he arrived in Arizona and saw Fitzgerald play. Imagine that, a veteran quarterback that led the Greatest Show on Turf to a Super Bowl not so long ago saying that he had to learn what it meant for his number 1 receiver to be open. It comes down to trust, also to experience and to practice, but most of all it means trusting your receiver to take care of business if you get it to him.

Last year, Williams and Romo didn’t get a chance to build that trust. Either Romo was hurt and out or playing with that split on his hand, or Owens was making a stink about getting the ball more and his perceived notion that Romo and Witten were hooking up intentionally whenever possible. Whether that was true or not, the distraction it caused leaked onto the field during games, and it hampered the progress of Williams.

Now you might say that with Owens gone you won’t have those problems anymore and that that should help, but it goes much deeper than that. You lose some major distractions with Owens gone, but you also make Williams the top guy, a guy who ran the 40 in 4.38 seconds at the 2004 combine. A big, physical receiver that knows how to win the jump ball and has always been a smart route runner. Any of this sound familiar?

He had the number 2 spot in Detroit, but not because he wasn’t good enough to be number 1, but because that spot was already filled. He came to Dallas and found the same situation, until now. Now he’s the guy that will be on the field every single offensive down, he’ll get the practice reps, he’ll be the guy Garrett designs the passing game around; he’ll be the guy Romo will throw to aside from Witten, he’s the new deep guy.

He won’t draw double coverage, not at first, but if he can prove that he deserves it just for a couple of games, then he’ll get it and free up everything else like Owens did. Then it’ll be Jason Garrett’s job to make the most of that situation, the defense sacrificing balance to put an extra guy on him. But they’ll be doing that anyway because Witten still deserves the double-cover now. If Felix Jones is on the field, linebackers will be keeping a close eye on him just for being there.

It’s just going to take time for Williams and Romo to get in sync with each other, and time is what we have right now with the off-season conditioning program scheduled to start in about three weeks.

Things have changed in Dallas; Marion Barber giving two interviews in one day should show that much. On paper it may look like we’ve taken away talent, but really we’ve just allowed the talent that’s there to step up. We’ve taken away that constant nagging of the media, the constant speculation that the Dallas locker room is in shambles. That’s a remarkable feat in itself, but we do have the talent, and barring any further injuries we’ve got a roster full of it and with a year of experience for most of these guys.

Things have changed in Dallas, and it’s going to be some time for the direction of that change to be fully realized. It’s a process that I can’t wait to see.

And Then Came Injury

See, my theory is that Tony Romo being injured caused more problems for the Cowboys than in just the three games he missed. Sure, suffering through the play of Brad Johnson and Brooks Bollinger was bad, but nobody seemed to catch on to just how limited Romo was after he came back.

Most people can tell you about the split he wore on his hand, and how that did affect his game, but overall, the split couldn’t have been the cause for his troubles after his return. Just look at the numbers from the season and you can see that before Romo’s injury, he played a lot better than he did after. Just for the record, the before represents the 6 games he played before, including the loss to Arizona where he was injured. The After represents the 7 games he played starting with the second Washington game.

Tony Romo Yds. YPG Comp. % TD INT Fumb Turnovers Sacked Rating
Before 1,689 281.5 64.2 14 5 6 11 7 103.7
After 1,759 251.3 60.1 12 9 7   16   13 82.9

The only real confusing statistic there is that he had more yards after his injury, but remember he only played 6 games before, and 7 games after. His average yards per game tells the story better, but looking at his average yards per completion is the most telling.

Before his injury, he averaged 13.2 yards per completion, and never had an average below 10.7 or above 15.3. After his injury, his average per completion was only 11.7 yards, with his low and high being 8.7 and 15, respectively.

Now those numbers show that Romo was obviously different after returning from his broken pinkie finger, but it wasn’t just his injury that caused problems. Another injury that compounded the affects of his injury was that to Pro Bowl Punter Matt McBriar, who was also injured in week 6 against the Cardinals.

He was averaging 49 yards per punt, and his replacement, Sam Paulesque only averaged 41.8. Sam did punt the ball twice as many times as McBriar did, but looking to McBriar’s numbers from last year shows that he punted 10 more times than Paulesque did and still averaged 47.1 yards. In a game where field position means so much, this is a huge statistic.

During the same time frames of before and after Romo’s injury, the running game played a part as well. Never mind that Felix Jones didn’t take another snap after that Arizona game. The Cowboys ran the ball an average of 23.5 times per game before, and 20.8 times per game after Romo’s injury. As we all know, the primary job of a defense is to make a team one dimensional, and these numbers clearly show that once Romo came back, this team was forced to rely on its passing game more.

That also lends to the increased number of times that Romo was sacked after his injury than over the first 6 games of the season.

So when someone says that every team sustains injuries in a season, I have to agree, every team does; just look at New England. But unlike the Patriots, who only lost one key player for the season, the Cowboys lost several. It doesn’t take long to figure out that the game against the Cardinals affected every game we played after.

It’s also not hard to understand that Romo, as a quarterback, had less to do with this team’s failures in 2008 than people want to believe. It’s still something he has to work on, but every quarterback spends all year working on less turnovers and more completions. That’s his job.

Greg “The Whiner King” Ellis at it again

Well that didn’t take long. Greg Ellis has already started his campaign for biggest pain in the ass, and it’s not even February yet.

Now maybe we can’t really disagree with him too much since he is saying that he wasn’t used right on the field, but yeah, we can disagree. Ellis is old and he fades fast when he’s used as a 3 down player. He is a good pass rusher, but his coverage skills are below average for a linebacker.

He does have a point when it comes to the coaches not utilizing the players correctly in games, but he was hardly one to focus on. Yes, Wade and Stewart should have kept him out of coverage more than they did, but he wasn’t a liability in coverage, so it’s not that big of a deal.

But we all know about the lack of proper management when it came to players like Felix Jones, Terrell Owens, and others. So I say it’s a good thing that Ellis said some of what he did, but it’s about time that he accepts his position as a linebacker.

This is the fourth year in a row that he has complained about something, and it all started when he was switched from defensive end, his natural position throughout his career, to outside linebacker by Bill Parcels. Maybe he thinks if he becomes a big enough whiner that they’ll move him back to DE.

In reality, he’ll just be released or traded once the team feels they can rely on Spencer to fill his shoes full time. Something tells me that we might be seeing that situation this off-season.

Check out his comments on the DMN Cowboys Blog

How About a “Barbarian” Full Back?

Has anyone thought about moving Barber to Full Back?

Think about it, he’s got the strength, he can block better than most, and he can field passes in the flats.

Look, nobody is doubting that Barber has been a good running back for this team, but his style is obviously closer to that of a full back. You usually see power running backs with a little bit of speed, a great vision for the field, and the explosiveness to burst through holes on a moments notice. Barber doesn’t quite fit the bill of a power back, though he certainly is powerful.

And Deon Anderson, the only full back on the roster currently, has never really stepped up to be that guy. We’re all a little spoiled here after witnessing the terror of Moose Johnston for so many years, granted, but Anderson would have a hard time making it as a full back on any team, let alone these Dallas Cowboys.

Plus, it just makes sense, and arouses the most competitive side of me, to think about lining up in the offset I formation with T.O., Roy Williams, Jason Witten, and Tony Romo ahead of both Marion barber at full back and Felix Jones at tail back. Talk about a challenge for the defense.

You get two great blockers, run and pass, in both Jason Witten and Marion Barber. You get speed across the field with Felix Jones, Williams, and Owens. You get power running up the middle or to the outside with Barber, or you can have the lightning quick striking ability of Jones anywhere on the field. You’ve got the physical, tough, and in your face receiving styles of both Owens and Williams, plus Romo can make something all on his own. And let’s not forget the reliability of Witten in the passing game.

How could we not try to make use of such weaponry as we could have with Barber at full back? That doesn’t even start on Choice, a running back resembling a nice hybrid of Barber and the great Emmitt Smith.

I know you could make a case for this without switching Barber to full back, but that just doesn’t do as much. Yeah, we can still do the offset I like I described above if he is a tail back, but then every time he comes in to line up next to either Choice or Jones, the opposing defense already has some clue of what’s going on.

Moving Barber to full back makes the best use of his best skills. Why wouldn’t we make that kind of move? Just think about it.