2018 NFL Game Thread - Week 13
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You can't assume they'd throw on third down? If anything, you want to force them into that decision. After the 2:00 minute, they have to run, to force New Orleans to use their last timeout. Then it's third and long. If they don't run, and it's imcomplete, they are going to give Brees the ball with like 1:50 on the clock. How can you assume they would pass there, and take that chance, instead of running, kicking the field goal and then giving Brees the ball with about 1:10 left and a 16-10 deficit?
Edit: After New Orleans used that last timeout, there was no chance Dallas was passing on third down, even if they didn't get the penalty or incompletion. They can't risk giving Brees that much time. It was a terrible, terrible decision by Payton.
Search found it, actually Tyreek Hill, who did some dumb stuff this past Sunday, but who knows how smart he actually is.
I guess they’d probably run it twice and force Brees to go the length with no timeouts and 1:10 or so. Back to terrible decision.
Jason Garrett as coach of the year is the funniest thing ever. But what the hell.
My feelings on him have not changed one bit. Yeah he made some nice plays but he put the ball on the ground twice, missed a WIDE open receiver for what should have been a walk in TD and took a shitload of sacks courtesy of his lack of pocket presence. That game was won by the defense, not Prescott.
Tough crowd, he was 24/28 for 248 yards, a touchdown, (115.5 passer rating) and had two massive first downs with his legs to keep drives alive and keep Brees of the field. The guy literally threw one bad pass tonight.
Fantastic Couldnt happen to nicer group of fans.
Playing Pats in Super Bowl curse keep going.
Sure, but how many bad ones did Brees have tonight? One bad pass is still just one bad pass. The first drive of the game, he threw multiple dimes in coverage that led to the first field goal, and set the tone early. I agree that his fumbling issues are a major problem, but aside from that, I thought he was fantastic.
I'll convince you Cowboys fans at some point that you're too hard on Dak. One more weapon, like a good tight end, and he'll be fantastic. Right now, I think he's easily a top 15 QB in the NFL, and if he can just stop putting the ball on the ground, I think he can be a top 10 QB. With how young that defense is, and if they can figure out a way to restock the offensive line, I think he's just fine to lead them going forward.
With Zeke, Dak, Gallup and like the whole defense aside from Lawrence, on rookie deals, where is all of the money going on that team?
I like the cut of your jib.
And fuck the Eagles, Bradley Cooper, Mike Trout and the rest of their assbag fans.
Take your gift Super Bowl win and go the fuck away.
Nope, he's still on his rookie deal too. He's only in the 4th year of a 5 year deal that was only like $5million a year or so. He's cheap for a #1 receiver.
I thought you meant where is it going to go...yeah they don't have a ton of money invested in this team.
That's what I'm saying. As far as the salary cap goes, they have to be set up to be in a great position this offseason to sign some free agent talent, maybe resign some guys a year or so early to long term deals. Their defense is so young, and almost all of them (I think it might even be all of them) are Cowboy draft picks. It's pretty amazing how well they've done drafting the last 4-5 years.
The Saints would have to lose their next 2, Rams win their next 3, Bears and Vikings lose at least 2 out of 3 and the Cowboys lose at least 1 of 3 for the Saints to be locked into the 2 seed heading into the Week 16 game against the Steelers.
Supposedly they have 50 some million free (according to overthecap) so yes they're in a much better place than they have been.
New Orleans must not be allowed to win the Super Bowl in Atlanta. Period. (If they might now have to go to LA for the NFC Championship Game, that makes last night a huge win in my book.)
Aaron Rodgers is currently at 20/1 in that regard, FWIW.
And a fumble that should have cost them the game.
The dude struggles to throw the ball more than 8 yards downfield. You can win with him, but boy it'll be hard.
Yeah, I mean, they were one of the top 2-3 teams last year from wire to wire, and played a closely contested Super a Bowl that they led for most of the game and had a multi-score lead to boot.
That’s like saying the Seahawks ‘gifted’ SB49. Pretty uncharitable and counterfactual.
It's definitely the beginning of the end for Brees. The cliff is coming. Sad to see.
Yup. They won a SB with their backup QB playing the final 2 months of the season. We Patriots fans are a spoiled lot but I hate when we can't even acknowledge that sometimes other teams are just better.
Let's be better than Kordell Stewart.
He's cheap for the rest of 2018 but his fifth-year option for 2019 is like $14 MM.
Yep. I might have overreacted earlier by saying he's not an NFL QB. He can succeed in the right system but the ability to boost his team like a Brees, Rodgers, Brady is limited. Having a mediocre QB though is a blessing and a curse. Teams like JAX would kill for a mediocre QB. You can win a Super Bowl with a mediocre QB but it is harder to obviously.
Quick edit: I didn't see the game last night but he has played better in the last 3-4 games.
If Dak could cut down on the sacks a bit, he'd probably be pretty solidly in the top 12-14 QBs in the league. For whatever reason, his sacks are way up in 2018. He seemed to have better pocket presence prior to the end of last year.
He really needs to get a little more air under his deep balls too. The line drive last night where he missed Gallup for the wide open TD isn't an isolated incident, he throws a lot of deep balls like that.
All that said, he's 25 years old and probably still has a couple of legit years of development before he more or less reaches a peak. The Cowboys would probably be correct to stick with him rather than blowing everything up and starting over and gamble you'll draft the savior.
O-Line isn't as good with all the injuries and he hasn't adjusted.
I also think (and he's said) that Atlanta game last year where Adrian Clayborn wrecked him messed with his head too.
Yeah, Frederick being out has to hurt a lot...he was arguably the best center in the league. If not, def top 3.
Exactly. And that fumble - as well as his inability to throw the deep ball - was not an isolated incident. He put the ball on the ground twice last night, giving him 11 fumbles for the season. That's an astonishingly bad number and any player who does that deserves every ounce of criticism they receive.
That excuse didn't fly for Romo when he was young and it's not going to fly now, especially since this reduced o-line is still light years better than anything Romo saw prior to the arrival of Tyron Smith. I don't know if it's the absence of Frederick or what but he simply refuses to step up in the pocket. If he feels the pressure (a big if at this point), he immediately steps back or rolls out, which inevitably puts him right into the pass rush. Far more times than I care to count last night I found myself screaming "STEP UP!" when he either had a lane to step up and throw or flat out take off and run, but he either hesitated or rolled out and into the pressure.
He might have gotten away with that hesitation in college but the windows are so small in the NFL that even a fraction of a second of indecision can be disastrous. Particularly if you're going to dangle the ball away from your body as Prescott often does.
Is he playing better? Of course he is and I don't think anyone can say with a straight face that he isn't. But he's had stretches like this before where he played well enough to win. And same as in 2016, I think they could pull Romo from the broadcast booth tomorrow and go further in the playoffs with him than with Prescott. He flat-out lacks the two things that would ever make him anything more than the mediocre bus driver he's destined to be: pocket presence and a passable deep ball.
To me, it basically boils down to a chicken vs egg argument: Is Prescott's improved play elevating the team's or is the team's improved play elevating Prescott? Put me down for the latter.
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Cam Fleming was the LT last night, no? That was a far cry from the 2016 Cowboys line out there; a lot of castoffs.
Sure. I won't dispute this line isn't as good as it was in 2016. Though it's playing a shit ton better than last year and even earlier this season; and I contend it's better than the line Romo played behind in his 3rd season:
LT - Flozell Adams
LG - Cory Procter
C - Andre Gurode
RG - Leonard Davis
RT - Marc Colombo
Romo spent a ton of time running for his life that year but no one made any o-line excuses for him. Presumably because Adams, Gurode, and Davis all inexplicably made the Pro Bowl.
I dunno about now in 2018 since he's been out of football for like 21 months, but I remember in the season finale in 2016, Romo got to play a series against the Eagles and was throwing seeds. Drove them right down the field for a TD in his final snaps for his career. I was actually saying to myself "they should absolutely start him over Dak Prescott in the divisional round"...I knew they wouldn't obviously, but at the time, a lot of Cowboys fans only concern about Romo was how he would look after rehabbing his back. If he could throw the ball still. That drive proved he could with flying colors. But he never got another chance and retired instead.
The retirement was probably the right decision since he couldn't stay healthy for a full season anymore, but in 2016, they only needed him for 3 games which is what made the line of thought a lot more intriguing.
If Butler played in the game and they lost, then fine.
He didn't.
IMO, he plays, they win.
By stapling him to the bench, it was a gift.
So there you go, nothing uncharitable and counterfactual about it.
The one thing I keep bringing up and you keep ignoring about early in the season isn't the offensive line. Tony Romo didn't get as much benefit of the doubt because he had Terrell Owens, Dez Bryant and Jason Witten in their peaks during his career (not to mention guys like Miles Austin, who was pretty damn good for a few years), and a running game that's been near the top of the NFL since about 2008 (hello Demarco Murray, or the Marion Barber/Felix Jones two headed combo).
Until they got Amari Cooper, Dallas was rolling out one of the 3 worst wide receiver groups in all of football this season. Allen Hurns, Beasley, Gallup, uggh...Maybe Dak can't throw a deep ball, because there's rarely anyone to throw it to. The deep ball he threw to Gallup on the first drive yesterday, while getting laid out mind you, was absolutely perfect. Sure, he missed one later in the game, but you can't expect perfection from any quarterback. It shouldn't really surprise anyone that they've won 4 in a row, Dak has looked great, and it all started with a trade for Amari Cooper. You can't expect any quarterback to look good when he's got nothing to work with. Even Brady struggled this year without Edelman and Gronk and Sony Michel...
If you guys are holding out hope for the next Brady, Brees or Rodgers, and anything less will not do, I got news for you. You might be waiting a long, long time. A top 10-15 quarterback with that defense, and the money they have in reserve to sign some free agents, is enough to make a deep run in the NFC playoffs in the next few years. And I think Dak can easily be a top 10-15 quarterback with a little more experience, some improved offensive line play (which they can get with the money they have) and maybe one more receiver or tight end (especially if Gallup continues to improve). I think it would be insanity to move on from Dak right now.
Inexplicably? Adams and Gurode were both 5 time Pro Bowlers? I assume you're talking about 2008? Adams made the Pro Bowl every season from 2003-2008, except for 2005. Gurode made 5 straight Pro bowls from 2006-2010 with Dallas. Did he forget how to block in 2008 and just figured it back out again? Same with Davis, he made 3 straight pro bowls from 2007-2009.
I realize Dallas has had some seriously, seriously otherworldly offensive lines over the years, so you guys might expect a bit more, but that's a fantastic offensive line, for any team.
That's not what I'm saying, so don't put words in my mouth.
I'm saying in a game where one defensive play would have made a difference, him playing would have improved those odds.
Dramatically.
Were it not for the strip sack on the second to last Patriots drive, the chances were pretty good Brady leads the Patriots down the field for the game winning score.
One play made a difference for your team.
One could have made a difference for the Patriots.
What's done is done.
Enjoy your championship.
You do realize that the Pats could be anywhere from 1-7 to 8-0 in Brady/Belichick SBs based on one play here or there in each game right? If you want to play this game, it was a gift that Quinn didn't run the ball twice and end the game with a FG. It's silly.
The Pats won three SBs by 3, one by 4 and one in overtime.
One play could have changed the outcome of any of those games.
I hope you enjoyed those gifts.
One play could have changed the outcome of any of those games.
I hope you enjoyed those gifts.
