Slingin Sammy 33's (Late and Shortened) Cowboys Game Review

[Slingin Sammy 33]

Winning ugly is still winning! And a big to all the Cowgirl fans who want to cry and complain about holding penalties that are as blatant as the day is long.

I normally do a Good, Bad, Ugly type review but this week I'll break things down as I see it by unit and then add a few thoughts.

QB - McNabb's leadership and composure was key in keeping the team focused in a very difficult game. Outside of TW's false start (rookie mistake) the offense didn't hurt themselves with boneheaded penalties/plays as in years past. While McNabb's passing numbers weren't great 15 of 32, 0 TD, 0 INT, keep in mind that there were 4 flat out, no excuse, drops by Sellers (2), Armstrong (TD) and Moss. There were also two screens the the Cowpukes read and McNabb threw the ball away. I know it's coulda, shoulda, woulda, but taking those factors into consideration (drops as catches), his stat line would've been 19 of 32, 1 TD, 0 INT. McNabb's athleticism also saved at least 5 plays by avoiding the rush and getting rid of the ball or scrambling. These plays are huge in the field position battle and keeping the O out of 2nd/3rd long. McNabb only had a couple of passes that were flat out bad throws. I couldn't be happier with McNabb's play on Sunday.

RB - While not the explosive Portis from his Denver days, the rejuvenated version of Portis appears to be getting comfortable in the MS/KS run scheme and in the second half was beginning to find the seams. His Pass Pro was excellent. I counted 5 plays where his pass pro made plays possible. He whiffs, McNabb is toast.

LJ is a more North/South runner, but had a couple nice runs to the edge (but dammit, you can fall down to stay inbounds late in the game to keep the clock running) and I think over the next 2-3 weeks we'll see improvement. I think it's very important to have both Portis and LJ running effectively or Portis will break down later in the season. KW is still learning, but he'll be come around.

FB - :vomit: One good block, two piss poor ones, two dropped passes and otherwise ineffective....it's time to see what Young can do or possibly try Paulsen.

TE - Cooley is back to being Cooley in the passing game. I would really like to see FD on the field a bit more and certainly in the Red Zone. I'd rather take my chances throwing a couple fades to Davis than Armstrong.

WR - Moss had a good day, but we don't have much else at WR if DT can't get himself on the field.

OL - Dock was efficient not spectacular, Brown/Heyer same, Hicks had a couple of nice blocks in the run game but also got beaten badly once in the run game and once in pass-pro. LG, RG, RT will be adequate throughout the year, not great, not bad.

TW - I originally gave him a B+, but after reviewing the game I'll give him a B. Not sure what game Lavar was watching when he did his write up for the WP, but I didn't see any help for TW. He was on his own. He got beaten twice by Ware, once inside, once outside, giving up one sack. But it is Ware. He's still making misreads and letting folks come flying through his B-gap on overload blitzes. It didn't appear, based on formation, that the RB had B-gap responsibilty to his side on these either. I know Ware is a Pro Bowler, but the shortest distance between two points in a straight line, better to come down and cover the B-gap and let McNabb worry about the outside blitz and making the hot read. False start on the final drive, rookie mistake, but still a mistake. But all in all a good showing for our young LT.

Rabach......Major problem here. I counted 5 plays where he was driven back into the backfield by at least a yard or two, 3 plays where he was beaten badly in the pass rush and 1 holding penalty due to getting beaten in pass-pro. On that play Dallas got called for a hit to the QB's knees, it was Rabach who was beaten. Had McNabb been injured, penalty or not, that could've effectively ended any hopes of a playoff berth this season. I believe Rabach will be replaced by mid-season by Lichtensteiger. If KL steps up it's one less issue that needs to be addressed in the off-season.

Secondary - Doughty is on the field because of his play recognition and consistent tackling. A bad missed tackle and biting on PA to give up a TD will not keep him on the field. One thing for him to be beaten physically, or not be able to close fast enough, but he can't afford bad tackles or misreads.

If Rogers had some hands, the guy would be in the Pro Bowl. Not sure if it was a miscommunication between Rogers and Buchanon on the blown coverage late in the game or just a D that needed to be called off, but that can't happen, almost cost us the game. I'm assuming Haslett will get this fixed so we don't see it again.

Landry - Haslett is putting him in a position to succeed, which the prior coaching staff wouldn't do. Landry had 3 very good tackles and was flying around near the LoS, which is where he need to be. On the missed sack, he made a fundamental mistake by taking an inside angle instead of angling for Homo's outside hip. Other than that I was glad to see Haslett taking advantage of Landry's strengths and not putting him in a position to fail.

Hall - I was very critical of D. Hall last year for being "soft as cotton", but he seems to have made a committment to being more physical this year and it's a very good improvement. I counted two very good tackles and two more that kept WRs in-bounds late in the game. He had the batted pass and good coverage on Bryant late. Kudos to D. Hall for his more physical play, keep it up. We all saw the fumble recovery, he always seems to be at the right place, right time.

ILBs - Fletch had a typical game solid tackling (11 tackles). Rocky also had 10 and a sack. These two will be fine.

OLBs - This is one of my biggest concerns so far. We have converted D-lineman playing OLB. There's going to be a learning curve, but we've got to speed it up or we're going to have problems against teams that can run effectively.
I didn't see Carter as a factor either way this game. Alexander when he was in got sucked inside and handled creating running lanes on two plays late in the game. He wasn't in too much, so he better get that cleaned up or he'll be in even less.

Orakpo, while he gets a game ball for his tremendous pass rush, still is a liability in the run game. First the pass rush, I counted 4 plays where he either created a holding call or had an excellent pass rush. In pass rush he's a difference-maker and Haslett is keeping him out of Man coverage and getting him after the QB, another pleasant change from last year. In the run game he made a couple of nice plays, one was driving a double team in to the backfield, the other a great play off a block and tackle. But he also made 4 real bad plays where he's either not squeezing the play inside tight enough or he's getting sucked inside and getting blocked opening up big ruinning lanes. Rak does appear to be getting better from even the limited play in pre-season. I'm confident in this coaching staff, so I expect to see continued improvement and a Pro Bowl season from Rak.

DL - Carriker, Golston, Daniels, Holliday all are not generating any pass rush and not doing a particulary good job holding their ground in the run game. I had Carriker with 2 negative plays, Golston 1, Holliday 1 and Daniels 2. No positives for any of these guys. I'm very concerned when we face teams that can run the ball, the Texans this week, the Giants, Titans, Vikings, and Jags. This area will need to be addressed in the offseason.

NT - Another major problem. In the 3-4 the NT is the base of the whole defense. If we dont select a NT in the first round of the draft next year I'll be shocked (unless we've found a quality FA).

Kemo - I counted 5 plays where Kemo was being pushed off the line 1-2 yds just being dominated. He went wrong gap and took himself out of the play on another play. 6 negative plays with no positives, no pass rush either. At this point I would go with Bryant and see what he can do or try Daniels/Holliday. Ditto above on run game concerns.

Haynesworth - I have had it with this worthless PoS. His effort level was beyond embarrassing. He was paid to be a Pro Bowl level guy, a difference-maker, and he's just another guy. He and Kemo were no different out there. He had two decent plays all night, he created a gap for Rocky to get in and get a holding call on Dallas and on another play he took on a double team and helped make a tackle. However he had 4 plays where he either shot the wrong gap and took himself out of the play or got man-handled by Gurode. The other plays he was in he was no factor. I think it's very telling that in the 1 DL set and on the final drive, he was on the bench. He was supposed to be in on passing downs and is physically by far and away our best DL. If we can't move his worthless ass out of DC in some sort of trade the only other option may be to try him at DE. At least at DE he would only have B-gap responsibility and could take on a G/T double team. Other than that there's no use for this unmotivated, selfish thief. You take a check for $ 21M and then don't give any effort but just go through the motions, you're a thief.

Specials: Great play by Westbrook, much better than his near GL plays last year.
Gano, great 49yd FG under pressure, Hopefully we've got a keeper here.
Bidwell, two crappy punts but still a 41 yd average. Should've caught and brought down the high snap, but saved the low snap on the long FG.
Sundberg - Two bad snaps, one high, one low. Better straighten this out fast or Dearth will be back.
Coverage teams looked good.

Final Thoughts: We would've lost this game last year, no question. It's a huge breath of fresh air to have a top tier coaching staff in DC. You could see the enthusiasm of the players, they've bought what the coaches are selling (except AH and he's just an AH).

So far the O is a work in progress, but the playcalling was fine. The only bad call on O was the screen call at the +5, I hate screens down there.

You could see Homo looking uncomfortable and making bad throws. This was due to a great scheme by Haslett. As more film is out there on our new D, the challenge becomes to keep throwing new wrinkles in and not becoming predictable. Haslett is putting Landry where he needs to be to be successful, he's not putting Rak in pass coverage much which is a weakness for him. He's doing a good job tailoring the D to our personnel. I like the aggressiveness and not going into the prevent late in the game. We held Dallas to a 38% 3rd down conversion rate, much better than last year.

We've got some holes that won't get fixed this year. But we're definitely looking at a vastly improved team from last year. It's going to be fun to watch the games again in Nov. and Dec.