Glenn will still be Bledsoe's guy, in spite of T.O.
Tim Cowlishaw: Glenn will still be Bledsoe's guy, in spite of T.O.
IRVING – The doubters insisted that after one season of good behavior, Terrell Owens would revert to form and the Cowboys would be just as ready and willing as the 49ers and Eagles were to shove Owens out of town.
How wrong they were.
Owens didn't make it a year. Didn't make it a month of training camp, in fact.
Even if you completely buy his hamstring injury as legit and that he has had no choice but to miss 19 practices so far, you can't excuse him for missing a team meeting and a rehab session Friday.
Owens, who will be fined by the club, has wasted no time in testing coach Bill Parcells' patience. He feuded with his coach and quarterback in San Francisco, and he feuded with his coach and quarterback in Philadelphia, and all the receiving talent in the world isn't worth putting up with that kind of team-splitting nonsense.
But you know what?
The Cowboys' offense isn't missing a beat without him. Dallas defeated the 49ers, 17-7, Saturday night at Texas Stadium with the first-team offense producing three scores in four first-half possessions.
A missed 35-yard field goal attempt kept them from scoring on four of four.
I know, I know. Last week was the Saints. Saturday night was the 49ers. Neither of these defenses conjures images of the Steelers.
But in those two first halves, Drew Bledsoe has shown he can still do what he loves to do. That's connect with Terry Glenn, who caught four balls for 98 yards, including a diving 28-yard touchdown grab.
Eight of Bledsoe's 24 completions (33 percent) in those two first halves have gone to Glenn. More significantly, Glenn has racked up 169 yards in those two games, accounting for 47 percent of Bledsoe's total.
Bledsoe completed 90 passes to Glenn his rookie year with New England. Last season, the first time Glenn had made 16 starts since 2000, he gained 1,136 yards and had an 18.3 per-catch average.
The point?
Glenn is going to be Bledsoe's favorite target even after Owens returns. And tight end Jason Witten figures heavily into the passing mix, too.
"Terry Glenn is playing great football," Bledsoe said. "Terry's a guy that probably doesn't get the credit he deserves as a football player. Teams prepare for him and roll coverage to his side. [When] we get T.O. going this year, they won't be able to do that so much, and Terry will benefit."
But when do they get Owens going? Only Thursday's game with Minnesota remains on the preseason schedule. Teams traditionally rest their starters for almost the entirety of that last exhibition game.
And if Owens already is skipping meetings and sulking and doing nothing to endear himself to teammates, how is that situation going to get better when the season is under way and Owens realizes his 90-reception years, probably even his 80-reception years, are behind him?
Owens can talk all he wants about that "10 years of film" Parcells can study in order to see what he can do.
It's meaningless. What he did with Steve Young or Jeff Garcia five or six years ago is irrelevant. What he did with Donovan McNabb two years ago is irrelevant.
What he can do with Bledsoe in a system in which he's never played is all that matters now.
And we don't know what that is. The two made very few connections in the practices Owens managed to attend in Oxnard.
The Bledsoe-Glenn connection almost certainly will remain this team's best option. At least it's going to take a lot from Owens to cause Bledsoe to start believing otherwise.
"From the first time I ever threw to Terry, he was a guy whose body language was very easy to read," Bledsoe said.
Funny how Glenn was viewed as a troublemaker, how much skepticism there was around here when Parcells made him one of his first additions to the roster.
Now Glenn stands out as the model. As the team guy.
And the receiver who lines up on the opposite side of the field?
We know what he's capable of producing on the field. We know what he's capable of damaging off the field.
In August, the damage is outweighing the production.
IRVING – The doubters insisted that after one season of good behavior, Terrell Owens would revert to form and the Cowboys would be just as ready and willing as the 49ers and Eagles were to shove Owens out of town.
How wrong they were.
Owens didn't make it a year. Didn't make it a month of training camp, in fact.
Even if you completely buy his hamstring injury as legit and that he has had no choice but to miss 19 practices so far, you can't excuse him for missing a team meeting and a rehab session Friday.
Owens, who will be fined by the club, has wasted no time in testing coach Bill Parcells' patience. He feuded with his coach and quarterback in San Francisco, and he feuded with his coach and quarterback in Philadelphia, and all the receiving talent in the world isn't worth putting up with that kind of team-splitting nonsense.
But you know what?
The Cowboys' offense isn't missing a beat without him. Dallas defeated the 49ers, 17-7, Saturday night at Texas Stadium with the first-team offense producing three scores in four first-half possessions.
A missed 35-yard field goal attempt kept them from scoring on four of four.
I know, I know. Last week was the Saints. Saturday night was the 49ers. Neither of these defenses conjures images of the Steelers.
But in those two first halves, Drew Bledsoe has shown he can still do what he loves to do. That's connect with Terry Glenn, who caught four balls for 98 yards, including a diving 28-yard touchdown grab.
Eight of Bledsoe's 24 completions (33 percent) in those two first halves have gone to Glenn. More significantly, Glenn has racked up 169 yards in those two games, accounting for 47 percent of Bledsoe's total.
Bledsoe completed 90 passes to Glenn his rookie year with New England. Last season, the first time Glenn had made 16 starts since 2000, he gained 1,136 yards and had an 18.3 per-catch average.
The point?
Glenn is going to be Bledsoe's favorite target even after Owens returns. And tight end Jason Witten figures heavily into the passing mix, too.
"Terry Glenn is playing great football," Bledsoe said. "Terry's a guy that probably doesn't get the credit he deserves as a football player. Teams prepare for him and roll coverage to his side. [When] we get T.O. going this year, they won't be able to do that so much, and Terry will benefit."
But when do they get Owens going? Only Thursday's game with Minnesota remains on the preseason schedule. Teams traditionally rest their starters for almost the entirety of that last exhibition game.
And if Owens already is skipping meetings and sulking and doing nothing to endear himself to teammates, how is that situation going to get better when the season is under way and Owens realizes his 90-reception years, probably even his 80-reception years, are behind him?
Owens can talk all he wants about that "10 years of film" Parcells can study in order to see what he can do.
It's meaningless. What he did with Steve Young or Jeff Garcia five or six years ago is irrelevant. What he did with Donovan McNabb two years ago is irrelevant.
What he can do with Bledsoe in a system in which he's never played is all that matters now.
And we don't know what that is. The two made very few connections in the practices Owens managed to attend in Oxnard.
The Bledsoe-Glenn connection almost certainly will remain this team's best option. At least it's going to take a lot from Owens to cause Bledsoe to start believing otherwise.
"From the first time I ever threw to Terry, he was a guy whose body language was very easy to read," Bledsoe said.
Funny how Glenn was viewed as a troublemaker, how much skepticism there was around here when Parcells made him one of his first additions to the roster.
Now Glenn stands out as the model. As the team guy.
And the receiver who lines up on the opposite side of the field?
We know what he's capable of producing on the field. We know what he's capable of damaging off the field.
In August, the damage is outweighing the production.
posted by The Gryphon at 1:06 PM
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