Cowboys vs Skins: Pre-Game thread

[JoeRedskin]

Originally Posted by Rotten1980

It would be awesome if Gruden puts a good game together tonight, his first as our HC. I like Gruden and think he could develop into a great HC, but so far it's been pretty bad. The plays come in too slow, his play design isn't impressive and he doesn't have the team playing their guts out.

Like said earlier a conservative gameplan on offense would be a mistake. Whip the oline and put it on them to open lanes for Morris to pound the rock, but then take big shots downfield.

I think Gruden has some ways to go as a HC BUT I think, generally, his game planning has been pretty damn good. He clearly plans to attack defenses at their weak points, however, the execution between interceptions, dropped balls and missed blocking assignments has been less than good. Throw in penalties and turnovers, and you just can't game plan around that.

As to "playing their guts out," maybe. Maybe not. Several players play injured, other than the NYG game, I haven't seen any "quit" on the field.

Don't get me wrong, the buck stops at the coaching and he needs to turn around the mistakes and execution errors or, alternatively, he needs to sit folks down - if only for a series or two - just to send a message.

[MTK]

I haven't noticed any issues with effort or plays either. I guess when you win you're fighting your guts out and when you lose you must be slacking. Injuries and mediocre QB play have killed us more than anything.

[Hog1]

DON'T start with your BS excuses about.....third string QB in the box.....
Next man up.....

[over the mountain]

for a 2-5 start, i also have confidence in gruden from what we have seen so far. i feel like he has been thrown a lot of wrenches with 1) having to try and figure out how he wants to use RG3 and implementing it through PS .. 2) injury to RG3 early-on throws almost everything out the window and we have to start over ... 3) handling the media and rg3 v cousins debate (very well) ... 4) turnovers and injuries ...

nothing in the first 7 games has come easy for Gruden.

[tshile]

listening to the national pundits talk about Griffin, his ability, the 2012 offense and this year's offense is painful.

You'd like as much as they're paid they'd have more of a clue.

Mike Tirico was embarrassingly uninformed for his spot today on 980 and Sheehan called him out, much more respectfully than he should of.

Listening to those guys, you'd like that Griffin is only capable of running the ball and the 2012 Shanahan offense was 100% read option runs or something.

[WillH]

Not sure what thread to put this in, but for what its worth:

My uncle is an orthopedic surgeon in the area. When Lavar Arrington had his degenerative knee problem he told me his career was done way before anyone else was saying it, and before we let him go and he played for NY.

Anyways, he seems to think RG3 will comeback close to his old form, (maybe not college form) and says if he continues to play the way he does, he is likely to get injured again, and any injury could be his last.

[over the mountain]

was riley benched or injured for the cards game?

i thought he was benched for poor play but sites are saying he was injured?

[SirLK26]

^Riley had a sprained MCL.

[calia]

^ true, although Compton has been a pleasant enough surprise, I wonder whether they will rush Riley back, who had been pretty poor in coverage.

[JoeRedskin]

Compton has been okay. He hasn't had his name called in a positive or negative way. Riley was a capable run-stopper and occasionally made tackles and stops I don't see Compton making. However, Riley was deadweight in pass defense. Again, I don't see Compton making the same mistakes Riley made.

I would rather overall mistake free defense than a few good plays on running downs coupled with completely blowing coverages.

[SirLK26]

Originally Posted by JoeRedskin

Compton has been okay. He hasn't had his name called in a positive or negative way. Riley was a capable run-stopper and occasionally made tackles and stops I don't see Compton making. However, Riley was deadweight in pass defense. Again, I don't see Compton making the same mistakes Riley made.

I would rather overall mistake free defense than a few good plays on running downs coupled with completely blowing coverages.

And he's a good blitzer, too. But he needs to come off the field in passing situations.

[TheSmurfs22]

I wish it wasn't national tv. I'm hopeful we pull the upset and shut the Cowfucker fans up.

[SirLK26]

Cowboys win, 28-23.

Record so far: 4-3.

[punch it in]

Originally Posted by calia

^ true, although Compton has been a pleasant enough surprise, I wonder whether they will rush Riley back, who had been pretty poor in coverage.

Only place they should rush Riley to is off the team.

[Rotten1980]

Former Washington Redskins LB London Fletcher on Jay Gruden: 'He's too wishy-washy' - NFL - SI.com

Fletcher is right, especially from the QB's POV (RG, Kirk and now Colt, in turn).

But I give Gruden the benefit of the doubt handling the QB situation because it's pretty unusual. Where there's real reason for concern with Gruden is like I alluded before, play calling, scheme, game management and motivation.

1. He's long struggled with the first three. My opinion the Bengals lost their playoff game last year because Gruden inexplicably gave up on the run for the 2nd half, even after it carried them through the 1st half. Heard at least a few commentators say the same thing. He's just a very inconstant play caller and doesn't really know how to win at the pro level yet.

2. We're still one of the sloppiest, most undisciplined teams in pro football. And I see players go easy and let up waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaay too soon, especially on offense. That's on the team leader. If it's not Gruden, who else?