2019 Cowboys: And Now for Something Completely Different...

Greg29fan

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A vintage Jerrah/Jason Garrett fraud Cowboys team. On paper they're talented enough to beat anybody but in reality they're coached poorly enough and make enough silly mental errors of their own to lose to anybody. If there's a silver lining, at least Jerrah didn't give Dak and/or Garrett bloated contract extensions when they were beating up on the little sisters of the poor to start the year.

The run defense is shockingly bad and there's been some inexplicable regression by Vander Esch, Smith, and Lawrence. Kris Richard has been the golden calf of Cowboys fan since he came in but I continue to be unimpressed.

They also might have the worst kicker/punter combo in the league and why Maher hasn't been cut yet today baffles me.
 
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Bosoxen

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Oh, it gets worse:
Maybe it didn’t just seem like the New Orleans Saints knew what was coming against the Dallas Cowboys’ offense two weeks ago.

Saints’ players told NFL.com’s Steve Wyche that they learned some of the hand signals from Cowboys’ offensive coordinator Kellen Moore from watching tape of Moore’s playing days at Boise State.
Pretty much the same thing happened when the Rams skull-fucked them right out of the playoffs 9 months ago. Clearly they didn't learn their lesson and it could be reasonably argued that the defensive regression has been aided by similar dumbfuckery.

The Cowboys are, without a doubt, the dumbest team in the league.
 

InstaFace

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Why the hell would Saints players admit to that? Do they not think that's useful knowledge they may be glad to keep private for any occasions in the future, this year or the next few?
 

reggiecleveland

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Why the hell would Saints players admit to that? Do they not think that's useful knowledge they may be glad to keep private for any occasions in the future, this year or the next few?
1. Wanting to act smart and cool, while sticking it to a rival they talked when they shouldn't have.
2. Now that hey have beaten Dallas it may help NO if other teams don't benefit from their ideas.

As a coach I have gotten a win by noticing something, then told the opposing coach what I saw, because it was good for me if they won their next game.
 

TFisNEXT

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Possibly the players knew one or two signals and the players are exaggerating their knowledge to screw with the Cowboys?
This is my take. I highly doubt they knew a bunch of plays before they happened. They won a close game where Dallas had two horrific fumbles and the offense struggled to move the ball consistently so they are probably feeling their oats a bit and embellishing a situation where maybe they had a jump on a couple plays.

But if the staff gave away even a couple plays, that could have very well cost them the game and it's inexcusable.
 

TFisNEXT

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FWIW,

Garrett said Tyron Smith may practice tomorrow, so they seemed to have dodged a bullet on him. That ankle roll late in the Saints game looked like a 4-6 weeker. So even if he doesn't play this week, he's almost certainly playing next week. They shouldn't need him against the Jets' awful defense anyway.
 

Bosoxen

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If this loss doesn't spell certain doom for Garrett, it's pretty safe to say he'd never be fired.
 

BigSoxFan

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If this loss doesn't spell certain doom for Garrett, it's pretty safe to say he'd never be fired.
Next week against Philly is the big one. Lose that and the Cowboys have real problems. Win it and things are ok. Cooper’s injury is a killer.
 

TFisNEXT

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Why on Earth that timeout with :47?
Because they were unprepared as is too often the case with Garrett.

Cowboys never should have been in that position to begin with though. They played only one half of football for the 3rd straight week.
 

Bosoxen

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Next week against Philly is the big one. Lose that and the Cowboys have real problems. Win it and things are ok. Cooper’s injury is a killer.
That game was lost long before the Cooper injury. This is the third straight week where the team didn't bother coming out of the locker room until the 3rd quarter.
 

BigSoxFan

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That game was lost long before the Cooper injury. This is the third straight week where the team didn't bother coming out of the locker room until the 3rd quarter.
Fair criticism. They’ve looked awful on offense for 3 straight weeks now. Now, it’s basically a death match with Philly rest of the way for a playoff spot. No WC coming out of this division. Still time to turn things around but margin for error is now gone. Lose to Philly and things really start to get messy heading into the bye.
 

TFisNEXT

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It's honestly hard to handicap this team. They keep outplaying their opponents on paper every week but they play some of the dumbest fuck football that they give away games. On the team stats they literally won every category against the Jets except the score.

And as already mentioned, they haven't been ready to play. Let's not forget they actually started slow against Miami and Washington too but those opponents were so bad that it didn't matter.
 

Greg29fan

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I could make a better case that they're going to lose out than one for them making the playoffs.

Either this roster was painfully, woefully overrated, or it's the poorest coached Cowboys team since the Dave Campo Era. I'm leaning more the latter but I really don't know. There are just a lot of simply dumb mistakes being made.

The regression throughout the defense smells like coaching...they're always out of position and soft AF. I'd run 20 screen passes a game on them cause I don't think they've held one under ten yards all year. Offensively I think The Clapper started meddling after the Giants game cause it looks like patented Linehan BS...the amount of runs on first down, a telltale sign, have gone through the roof since that first week. A lot of the motion and playaction that they ran in the first week has been 86'd as well.

It seems like an innocuous moment, but you couldn't help but notice the players wanted nothing to do with slapping fives with The Clapper in the fourth quarter. It looked like a coach that's lost his team, but maybe I'm reading too much into it. And as much as he probably deserves to go if they head into the bye week under .500 and with four straight losses, I'd get rid of a bunch more of them to boot.
 
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Bosoxen

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I could make a better case that they're going to lose out than one for them making the playoffs.
Going into the season, my view of the team was that they'd either go 6-10 or 10-6. Looks like I gave them too much credit - even on the low end - because, yeah, every single one of those games remaining could very plausibly be a loss. The only games in which they should be favored going forward would be Washington and New York - and we all know how division games can go.

Offensively I think The Clapper started meddling after the Giants game cause it looks like patented Linehan BS...the amount of runs on first down, a telltale sign, have gone through the roof since that first week. A lot of the motion and playaction that they ran in the first week has been 86'd as well.
I vehemently agree. This is no longer the same offense we saw in Week 1. I'm starting to think that game plan was a product of preparation for going into the game without Elliott, moreso than some kind of fundamental shift in offensive philosophy. All the same hallmarks of years past have been there since Week 2: slow starts, running on first down, give-up runs in third and long situations, Prescott being completely underwhelming until late in the second half.

If you ask me, Garrett's influence is felt more in short yardage situations. We're seeing a return of spread out formations down at the goal line, which were a staple of the Garrett as offensive coordinator days.
 
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BigSoxFan

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Any word on Cooper for this week? Or Smith?
Sounds like precautionary MRI today for Cooper. Being described as a painful thigh bruise. I’m sure Cowboys would be tempted to play him this week if they could but he’s probably missing the game with the bye week coming up.
 

TFisNEXT

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Sounds like precautionary MRI today for Cooper. Being described as a painful thigh bruise. I’m sure Cowboys would be tempted to play him this week if they could but he’s probably missing the game with the bye week coming up.
I dunno. I lean on Cooper plying if it's just a pain threshold. This game is basically a must-win for Dallas. As bad as the last 3 weeks have been, the Eagles starting 3-3 is leaving the division wide open.

If you ask me, Garrett's influence is felt more in short yardage situations. We're seeing a return of spread out formations down at the goal line, which were a staple of the Garrett as offensive coordinator days.
As soon as I saw those two short yardage plays on 3rd and 4th down in the first half around the Jets 5 yard line, I knew it was Garrett who designed those plays. It was disheartening to see.

Another observation is that in games where Dallas comes out throwing, they've instantly moved the ball. Giants game and the Green Bay game are the two that come to mind. Despite not scoring, Dallas moved the ball easily on the Packers throwing the ball in the first quarter and probably score 2 touchdowns if it weren't for the Cooper drop-turned-INT on one drive and him tripping over himself on another where he turned a 65-70 yard TD into a "mere" 40 yard gain which the Cowboys subsequently squandered. When they come out more conservative they have sucked and looked predictable on offense.
 

Greg29fan

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They also lost to an entire team of scab players when they played Washington during the strike in 1987.
 

Bosoxen

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They also lost to the expansion Texans in their first game. That one has always stuck in my craw.
 

TFisNEXT

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They also lost to the expansion Texans in their first game. That one has always stuck in my craw.
Yeah that was embarrassing but that Cowboys team was horrific. That was the abyss of the Campo era. So at least it wasn't like it was a decent team that lost to the Texans. The 2019 Cowboys had no business losing to the Jets.

That '84 Cowboys team losing to clearly the worst team in the league might be the worst I can come up with. While the '84 Cowboys weren't exactly a juggernaut, they were probably a playoff team that missed because of that game. They were 7-4 going into that game while Buffalo was 0-11....they recovered back to 9-5 before losing back to back excruciating games to the Redskins (30-28) and Dolphins (they nearly beat juggernaut Miami on the road...they were tied at 21 in the 4th quarter before losing 28-21 late) to finish 9-7 and miss the playoffs.
 

Bosoxen

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Apparently Connor Williams had knee surgery and will be out indefinitely. I'll always love the guy for his work in the burnt orange but I can't help but feel that this might be a blessing in disguise.
 

TFisNEXT

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Apparently Connor Williams had knee surgery and will be out indefinitely. I'll always love the guy for his work in the burnt orange but I can't help but feel that this might be a blessing in disguise.
Su’a-Filo is a better guard IMHO....at least at this point in their careers. Williams seems like he needs to put on about 25 lbs of muscle to be more effective...either that or perfect his footwork/technique. He's 315-320, but once you see that he is 6'5, that's actually a bit lean for his height to be an interior lineman.

I'm hoping Su’a-Filo will stabilize the line play like when he was starting most of the 2nd half of last year.
 

Greg29fan

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Every Cowboys game against a good team is the same

-Garrett coaching to lose
-Dak and the skill players not playing well enough
-Some sort of horrible special teams issue or issues
-Bent over by the stripes at least once
 
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RetractableRoof

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Every Cowboys game against a good team is the same

-Garrett coaching to lose
-Dak and the skill players not playing well enough
-Some sort of horrible special teams issue or issues
-Bent over by the stripes at least once
Help me out on the issue w/ the stripes. There could easily have been 5-6 pass interference calls against the Cowboys (with the one actually called being the least offensive). I know the 2nd tripping call/attempt didn't appear to be any contact - but if you are going to throw your leg out and the rusher goes down in the vicinity, you can't complain too much about the call. I'd lay this one at Garrett and the offensive play callings feet. The defense played well enough to win.
 

Greg29fan

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Help me out on the issue w/ the stripes. There could easily have been 5-6 pass interference calls against the Cowboys (with the one actually called being the least offensive). I know the 2nd tripping call/attempt didn't appear to be any contact - but if you are going to throw your leg out and the rusher goes down in the vicinity, you can't complain too much about the call. I'd lay this one at Garrett and the offensive play callings feet. The defense played well enough to win.
Making that "tripping" call in that situation is absurd, same as when the long snapper got popped for an illegal snap on a game tying FG against Washington last year.

Somehow they seem to pull out the doozies in those situations.
 

Bosoxen

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I’ll give the cowboys the tripping penalty if thePats can have those (at least) two pass interference calls.
Sure. You can have those if we can have at least 2 holding penalties on your offensive line. We can play this game all day if you like.
 

tims4wins

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Whatever on the penalty - what happened in the first 58 minutes that makes anyone think the Cowboys could have actually scored a touchdown?
 

Greg29fan

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Dallas probably loses anyways, though I'd never say it was impossible that they don't go down and score a TD. I'm also not arguing that penalty "cost" them the game or anything. But that penalty sent them from first down with the clock stopped to 3rd and 11, and in a game where it was hard to move the ball, that was a huge moment for an iffy at best call.

The Pats executed on defense all night, had a huge advantage in ST, and had the best player on the field in Gilmore...those were probably the difference.
 

luckiestman

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Cowboys to me, and I don’t watch that close, are far less than the sum of their parts. Right now, the Boys are only 2 games better than the Jets and I don’t think many of the Jets players would crack the Cowboys starting lineup.
Oline, no
Rb1, no
Wr1, no
TE, no (at least in reputation)

none of our LBers would start for you.

don’t know your Dline, enough. Our ends woulnt start maybe Ts would.

CBs, no

SS, yes

FS, maybe

This leads me to think coaching malpractice is happening in Dallas.
 

Pandemonium67

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If a tripping call like that were called against the Pats at a similarly crucial moment, this board would have exploded. It was a very marginal penalty (but arguably was one).

Still, we wouldn't be taking about it if Cooper had cleanly caught that very catchable pass.

Really, the difference was about two plays -- Slater's block and Harry's spectacular catch. The Cowboys were a very worthy opponent and this was a tough, grind-it-out game, and the Pats made those two plays.

And that defense is great.
 

TFisNEXT

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Cowboys had their chances but special teams did them in. Blocked punt was huge. In that type of weather, giving the opponent a short field was crucial.

I agree that tripping call near the end was horrendous...especially in that situation. But I was also skeptical they'd end up scoring the TD there anyway. They had bogged down previously in two red zone trips near the Patriots 10. Maybe they get it this time? But probably not.
 

snowmanny

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If a tripping call like that were called against the Pats at a similarly crucial moment, this board would have exploded. It was a very marginal penalty (but arguably was one).

Still, we wouldn't be taking about it if Cooper had cleanly caught that very catchable pass.

Really, the difference was about two plays -- Slater's block and Harry's spectacular catch. The Cowboys were a very worthy opponent and this was a tough, grind-it-out game, and the Pats made those two plays.

And that defense is great.
Actually several posters in the game thread said it was a very bad call. But not the only bad call in the game.