You might not be able to tell, because my body of work in this blog is very limited, but I have yammered on for three years about the myriad of problems that plague the Cowboys. Head Coach? Done it. Offensive coordinator? Many, many times. General Manager? I've been there, done that. Then, out of the blue, it occurred to me. It's the classic break up line (no I'm not breaking up with the Cowboys), only this time it's really true. My expectations for this football team have been absurdly overblown for several seasons. It was an epiphany on the same level as Newton's Gravity and Einstein's Relativity. It's not them, it's me!
I'm not going to elaborate on my expectations for the previously mentioned individuals because, well, I have no expectations of the previously mentioned individuals. We are talking about an Arkansas wildcatter who played offensive line back in the Fifties who thinks he knows football because Jimmy Johnson built him a winner in the Nineties, a guy who is on the fast track to Head Coach in the League and the only reason I could think of as to why was that he's so bad as O-Coordnate that you have to find somewhere else to put him, and a career loser who finally won a game that mattered last season but whose defense was always great. And while I was watching said defense get smoked at home last Sunday by a terrible Titans offense, well on my way to becoming a drunk, muttering, farting heap, the retractable roof on my house opened and God himself peeked in and a chorus of angels chimed "It's Noteth Them, It Iseth You...My Child". Just as abruptly as it happened it all disappeared. So, while I was taking a shower and changing my drawers, I pondered the message. Every position I applied it to, it worked. It was the Theory of Everything.
Bill Parcell's warned us about Tony Romo a long time ago. Don't get me wrong, he's a good quarterback, there are a lot of teams that would take him in a heartbeat. But he will also sometimes break that heart, and those tendencies are exasperated by incompetent pass blocking. The Cowboys are having a tough time controlling rushers and Tony is not finding lanes to throw through, resulting in many tipped passes.
This might be the worst offensive line since 1989. You've got cast offs from other teams, some never weres and never will be's. Davis and Colombo can no longer physically do and never were that big on the mental game. Free can do, but for some reason this year he's had one long brain fart. Gurode and Kosier never really were that good, the national media just perceived them to be. That is probably true about all the Cowboys linemen. Their perceived as great players, but in reality they are all sizzle and no steak. The line has been neglected for many years, with GM Jones only occasionally throwing spare parts and 4th through 7th round picks at the problem with very little success.
Everyone has heard the football saying about if you have two QB's, than you don't have one. But have you heard the on that goes, if you got three RB's, than you don't have one? Does this team have a running back, one running back that can be the primary chain mover? And if Felix Jones is that one, give him the damn ball. A lot. And if he gets hurt, then let's see what Choice can do. Sounds easy, but it's apparently too difficult for a Princeton man to grasp. But like with Romo, the running backs get a little break because of the ineptitude of the offensive line. A good line can make an average back good and a good back great.
Does this team even have a defensive line? I know the 3-4 is more about linebackers than lineman, but if we had some ends that could provide pressure, than we wouldn't have to blitz all the time. If we had a d line worth beans we wouldn't have opponents offensive lineman rolling down field erasing linebackers and opening holes big enough to drive my mother-in-law through. I hate to say it, because he's the best lineman they have, but Ratliff doesn't fit here. He's the one guy that can get penetration, but he plays the nose and in the 3-4 the nose requires you to absorb lineman like a sham-wow. His talent is being wasted here. He would be dominate in a 4-3 defense.
Which brings me finally, and most ingloriously, to the defensive backs. This is where I've had the hardest time separating my heart from reality. In my heart of hearts I believe these guys, with the possible exception of Terrence Newman, who couldn't even find and interception with Uncle T-Bone's bloodhounds, are play makers. But in reality, they are average. They all seem to have wooden clog hands and get burnt on a regular basis. They are the masters of the pass interference, partly because they have little to no competent safety help and that leaves them in situations that that they feel are desperate and require desperate acts, and partly because they are sadistic bastards who love to torture me. None of these guys have any skins on the wall, yet once again there is a perception that The Three Corners are great players.
So you see, when you put down the Kool-Aid, sober up and take a peak at reality, you see we're the ones that are really to blame for this bad season. We had the blinders on and failed to see these guys for what they really are, for the most part, average. We pumped them up in our minds, and then allowed the media to stroke our ego about how good this team was, how much talent they have. If you look with your mind, not your heart, you see just a handful of talented guys and a lot of overrated and overpaid guys.
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