Sorry Rudy. Hope you keep posting here because you've been rocking it all season.
I appreciate it SSF. Assuming they lose next week, they have to take at least six of seven in the CLE/WAS/at NYG/BUF/at BAL/PHI/at CLE stretch and then two of three of PIT/at HOU/BAL to close the season to have a chance. Oakland is in pretty good shape for one Wild Card now which likely leaves one spot among them, Buffalo, Baltimore and Kansas City. It's tough to imagine that happening at the moment given how broken they look.
Dalton is what he is at this point - an average quarterback. When you surround him with Marvin Jones and Eifert in addition to Green, keep him spotless and have a great OC, he's capable of having the season he had last year. However, that's not the case right now:
- Hill looks nothing like the player that ran over the league down the stretch in 2014. They've barely used FB Ryan Hewitt (who they extended before the season) who was on the field for a ton of those plays, but Hill has still significantly regressed on his own.
- The protection, long a staple of this team, has fucking sucked. Whitworth is finally starting to show signs of age while last year's first-rounder Cedric Ogbuehi has been a disaster on the right side. Andre Smith became increasingly unreliable as his tenure here came to a close and letting him go was the right move, but he was generally good when he was on the field. And this is in addition to the likely league-worst center play they've been getting for two-plus years from the utterly atrocious Russell Bodine. The Cowboys are pretty bereft of a pass rush (although getting Demarcus Lawrence back helped) and they got push at will.
- The complementary options are pretty terrible right now. LaFell's best days are behind him - ignore the garbage time production today and can they please stop running jet sweeps with him? C.J. Uzomah has made a couple plays but he can't catch a cold and he's not Eifert, especially in the red zone where they've been horrible. Eifert was supposed to be back this week as his ankle healed, but then he hurt his back at practice on Monday. He gets hurt. A lot.
- So when you add it all up, you have an average quarterback with an offense that can't run block, can't protect and only has one guy that can beat you. It's a miracle Green has taken over two games like he has - it's not that hard to take him out given the rest of the offense.
- Defensively, they miss Reggie Nelson and Leon Hall more than I thought. I still think it was the right move letting them go, but you're going to have growing pains with new starters. Shawn Williams has been out of position a ton and doesn't have anywhere near the ball skills Nelson had while Hall was one of the best slot corners in the league. Darqueze Dennard is not an NFL-quality player right now. Considering he was a first-round pick, that's not good.
- Michael Johnson is finished. He was never a great pass rusher, but he was a decent one while being a very good run defender and able to play a ton of snaps. He's none of that now.
- Adam Jones has fallen off. It's hardly surprising as he's about to be 33 and plays a really physical style while also returning kicks and punts, but considering he missed two seasons I was hoping his body would be two years younger.
- For the love of god, enough with Vincent Rey. Please. Stop. Let rookie Nick Vigil (who should be a starter next year) come in and take his lumps now. It can't be any worse than Rey, who is a glorified special teamer.
- Speaking of Rey, Maualuga really turned in a hell of a performance today. He prides himself on being an excellent run-stuffer and taking on linemen - he was either destroyed or way out of position repeatedly as Elliott and Morris went through this defense like a hot knife through butter. You could've driven an 18-wheeler through those cutback lanes.
- In addition to having his team dominated from the opening kickoff despite an extra three days to prepare, Marvin really turned in a chickenshit performance today. Good thing he punted on 4th and 5 from the Dallas 40 and 4th and 6 from the 41 on their first two possessions - that field position really ended up making a huge difference. And then to top it off, he kicks on 4th and 9 from the 32 to open the second half down 28-0 and Nugent (not one of the 32 best kickers around but hey he's from Ohio and went to OSU!) promptly misses from 50 in a dome. For reference, Vinatieri never misses. Like, ever.
Other than that, the play's been great says Mrs. Lincoln.