I am certain that there is no team in all of sports that is under a microscope more than the Dallas Cowboys. If a player so much as sneezes' in the locker room, I'm convinced you can find an article about it. It's pathetic. The media hype that surrounds this team is astonishing. I listen to a fair amount of sports talk radio, and its sickening how much these hosts can talk about one game. The topic this week is about the Cowboys struggle in the month of December. Thats not the only thing that they should be worried about.
December Woes: I thought December was suppost to bring joy and happiness and all that holiday goodness. Someone forgot to tell the Cowboys. The Cowboys havent had a winning record in the month of December since 1996. Are you kidding me? Thats laughable. Think about that for a minute. The #1 movie in America was "Independence Day", "Macarena" was the atop the music charts and Bill Clinton had just became President. And the news gets worse: Look for the streak to continue. Their remaining schedule looks as follows: San Diego (9-3), @New Orleans (12-0), @Washington (3-9), Philadelphia (8-4). A combined record of 32-16 . Ouch. The players are doing a good job of telling the media that this year is different and they are not thinking about past failures, but everyone knows its in the back of their minds. How can it not be.
Hot Seat: Being the head coach of the most recognizable franchise of all of sports is not easy. The spotlight is on you constantly and the pressure to win is unbearable. Its no suprise that Wade Phillips' contract is over after this year and Jerry Jones has made it clear that Wade's future will be determined by the Cowboys making the playoffs and winning a playoff game. Sorry Wade, but your time in Dallas is over. That kind of pressure on a person is explosive. Wont be so bad though. Have you ever heard a Wade Phillips press conference? I'd rather eat glass. It's that painful.
RB Situation: What the hell happened to the Three-Headed monster we were so accustomed to seeing? The potent combination of Marion Barber, Felix Jones and Tashard Choice worked wonders the first half of the season, as Dallas led the league in rushing. The last couple of games has been painful to watch. Romo is forced to throw over 50 times in a game and we all know thats playing with fire. Barber looks hurt and is not running over players as were so used to seeing. Felix has lost his explosiveness since his knee injury earlier in the year. Where is that homerun threat everytime he touches the ball? And Tashard saw time when Barber and Felix were out, but since then, has been non-existant.
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4 comments:
I am going to be touching on my reason for this on my blog - however, I am going to disagree that "Felix has lost his explosiveness since his knee injury earlier this year". I still feel that he will make and has made some this year. Sure his first few weeks back, when he was wearing the knee brace; Felix wasn't packing much punch in his step. However, he is back up to OVER 6 yards/carry. That's legit. While he averaged nearly 9 yards/carry last year, you can't honestly think he could keep that up in the NFL. The scouting report/film is out on him and he is STILL getting over 6 yards/carry. That's legit. And he will make some big plays for us the rest of the year. Also, he had a nice kickoff return yesterday nearly to the 50 yard line. Two weeks ago he had 7 carries for 68 yards, including a 46 yard TD. Is he Chris Johnson? NO!! But he's still one of the biggest weapon in the NFL to make a big play out of the backfield.
I must admit that watching Felix after the injury, I could have been asking too much of him to continue that 9 yards a carry he was producing before. Your right, to ask him to keep that pace would be unfair. And to be honest yesterdays game was his second since playing without the knee brace. It just shows that maybe he is not sneeking up on teams like he did earlier in the year. Teams now have a gameplan for him. I know Barber is the starter, but the role he played a couple seasons ago, when Julius Jones was wasting our time in the backfield, was the role that best suits him. Heavy doses of Felix and Choice, then Barber to finish them off. Romo should never throw the ball more than 25 times in a game to give them the best chance to win.
Will my only problem is with your comment on Jones' numbers in last weeks game. You said he had 7 carries for 68 yards. The only thing is exactly what you said one carry was 46 of those yards. The other six carries were for about 3 yds a piece and that just doesnt get it done. Here's my other problem: he does not have the speed it takes for a kick returner. And to make it worse he always starts his run back with a slow jog as if he's going to be patient until he finds a gap and then hit it with lightning fast speed. Problem is he isn't Dante Hall. Players like a Dante Hall and now maybe Darren Sproles or DeSean Jackson can do that but not Felix Jones. All that does is let them get to him before he can make it out to the 20 yd line. I mean his best bet is to start out as fast as possible and try to break a tackle but he's doesn't have that acceleration to sit around back their and dance until he sees a hole. His season average for returns is 21.7 yds. In my opinion I would rather lose the risk of a fumble and take a touchback everytime he touches it. He has no returns for touchdowns and his long is 41 or something like that. He has like the 25th best average in the league, not cutting it. His long of 41 is only longer than one other team in the NFL and that's Indy who I'm sorry but I don't think they really care when they have Manning marching them down the field.
Matt, I was addressing Manny's comment regarding Felix not being "explosive". Which is EXACTLY why I brought up his 7 carries for 68 yards and his 46 yard TD run. That run was the PERFECT example of his "explosiveness". He's a home run hitter. He's OBVIOUSLY not going to hit a home run every at bat. And is he returning kickoffs great this year? No, but last season he averaged over 27 yards/return which is good. But I'm fine with another guy returning kicks, I just have no idea who you want returning them. Either way, he's a RUNNING BACK; and he's averaging over 6 yards per carry. HE LEADS THE NFL IN YARDS PER CARRY (running backs with atleast 20 carries). If that's not good, I don't know what is.
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