Drew blues
by Paul Attner
So now we know this much: The Cowboys won't go undefeated, Terrell Owens can score a touchdown without celebrating, the Jaguars' mascot can be a better entertainer than T.O., Jacksonville once again will have an excellent defense and, most telling, Drew Bledsoe may have begun a slide toward becoming shockingly inadequate.
If Bledsoe does indeed crumble, it won't matter over the rest of the season what goes on within the T.O. World. Owens could produce a Hall of Fame season or he could call out Bill Parcells on the sideline -- or both -- and it all will be fun to watch. But the heavy investment, and substantial risk, taken by the Cowboys to bring Owens to Dallas will be so much money wasted if the quality of their quarterbacking doesn't improve dramatically.
The free world watched eagerly last Sunday to see what would happen in Owens' debut with the Cowboys. It might have been the most hyped opening game by a player in league history, considering virtually his every word and movement in training camp were chronicled and analyzed and disseminated to such a point you wanted to cry out, "Enough already!" Fans will tell you they can't stand the guy, yet they also can't resist soaking in the next chapter of the saga.
Maybe everyone should have paid more attention to Bledsoe. At 34 and in his 14th season, he has absorbed as much battering as any quarterback should ever take, and it shows more and more in how he performs. He is surrounded by all these wonderful options -- Owens, receiver Terry Glenn, tight end Jason Witten, running back Julius Jones -- but he needs to be sharp and unhurried to fully take advantage of these talents.
"They can't double-cover everyone," says CBS analyst Charley Casserly, the former Texans general manager. "It gives them incredible weapons and versatility. You have to feel they can move the ball on just about everyone."
But put the aging Bledsoe against a difficult defense such as Jacksonville's and it's not all that pretty. When he had to be efficient and really good, he wasn't. And that's something a club so reliant on its passing game requires on a weekly basis in order to become a Super Bowl team, which the Cowboys can be with adequate work from Bledsoe. But his awful quarterback rating (45.8) -- based on three interceptions, just one touchdown and 16-of-33 passing -- is more in Alex Smith's category than Tom Brady's.
It's known throughout the NFL: Put pressure on Bledsoe and watch him become uneasy. He did nothing in this 24-17 opening loss to cause any future opponent to adopt a different tack. Once the Jaguars got over standing around and watching Owens in the first quarter and realized they too were supposed to participate in this game, they methodically swarmed all around Bledsoe and forced unsteady throws, off-balance throws, uncertain throws and enough interceptions and bad decisions to overcome an early 10-0 deficit.
"We really wanted to apply pressure on Bledsoe," Jaguars coach Jack Del Rio says. "Whether we could actually sack him or not wasn't the most important thing. It was not letting him feel comfortable. He got hit a lot." And multiple hits will make any quarterback uncomfortable, particularly one who might be smelling the breath of onrushing defensive linemen a bit sooner than he did at 28. The Jags also mixed in changing coverages on Owens, all but eliminating him for huge chunks of the second half.
When Parcells was asked about Bledsoe's performance, he hardly gave him an encouraging endorsement. "Now's not a good time to be talking about that," Parcells answered. "Let me look at the film, and I'll let you know what I think."
Certainly, there was nothing in Owens' performance that revealed any lasting effects from the training camp hamstring pull, which forced him to miss a majority of the practices, or any unsteadiness from him not having played a real game since late last October, when he essentially was dumped by the Eagles for his disruptive actions.
But, hey, at least T.O. didn't add to Bledsoe's displeasure with any postgame comments. He refrained from doing much of anything all day except for playing football -- a novel and welcome change from his usual decorum. Here's the greatest shock: After he caught a 21-yard touchdown pass with 1:54 left, Owens did not dance, he did not gesture, he did not do anything except keep the football and run directly to the sideline. What's this? We expect him to give us a show, not be some teacher's pet.
That's where the Jaguars' mascot comes in. When the mangy-looking cat made his initial pregame appearance, he ran about 10 yards onto the field and then pulled up limping, dragging his leg behind him in a clear imitation of T.O. It was hilarious and creative. Owens outdone by a mascot? Tell us it ain't so.
When Bledsoe was able to get him the ball, Owens showed all the traits that might justify his three-year, $25 million contract. He broke tackles, turned short passes into longer gains and commanded the kind of extra attention that opens up parts of the secondary for teammates. His numbers -- six receptions for 80 yards -- could have been greater; he had two receptions nullified by penalties, the types of mistakes Parcells disgustingly blamed on lack of concentration by Owens' teammates.
"(My leg) felt good," Owens says. "I'm ready to play once I step on the field. I think I did a pretty good job of getting in and out of my routes. But I'm not happy with the results. We had too many turnovers and, obviously, you can't win with those."
At least Parcells, who went through the entire offseason calling Owens "the player" and just once referring to him as "Terrell," made sure his new receiver quickly became comfortable in his debut. On the Cowboys' first play from scrimmage, Bledsoe completed a 13-yard pass to Owens, then connected again two downs later, this one for 8. That ignited an eight-play, 70-yard drive ending in Jones' 23-yard touchdown and a 7-0 lead.
"After the opening drive, we were ready," Jaguars safety Deon Grant says. "We knew we had to play ball, we had a ballgame now. We knew they had the type of receivers, quarterback, running back to make those type of plays, and they really did it, so we had to buckle up and start playing."
But Grant laughs when asked about the presence of Owens and all the verbiage preceding this game. "Makes no difference to me," he says. "We play against Peyton (Manning) twice a year."
And they play Manning well. This is a formidable playoff defense with the best front four in the league and a secondary boosted by the offseason free-agent signing of cornerback Brian Williams, who was arrested earlier in the week and charged with driving while intoxicated. So, if nothing else, the specter of dealing with all of the T.O. nonsense left the Jaguars fascinated -- "It was really amazing, all that was being said," defensive tackle John Henderson says -- but not necessarily in awe.
"We had guys sticking their noses in where they didn't belong early in the game," says Del Rio, coachspeak for saying some of his defenders weren't executing their assignments as coached. "We settled down after the first series and a half and then played some really good defense."
Bledsoe was 6-of-10 in the first quarter, then 10-of-23 the rest of the way. He did have one touchdown negated when Witten was called for pushing off before pulling in a 10-yard pass late in the third quarter. But here is what happens when Bledsoe is spooked: Early in the second period, he was flushed from the pocket. While still on the move, he badly overthrew a wide-open Owens, who could have scored easily if the pass had been more accurate.
"They like to throw a lot of quick passes," Henderson says, "and it took us a quarter as a front four to do a better job of affecting (Bledsoe). We tried to penetrate as fast as we could and then get our arms up quickly. That way, he would have to change his arm angle and have to throw around us, and I think that makes a difference."
And that brings us to another looming problem for the Cowboys: the inconsistency of their offensive line. Left tackle Flozell Adams, coming off a severe knee injury from last season, had a mediocre performance, and his linemates didn't fare much better. With an immobile quarterback such as Bledsoe, you need superior protection. He didn't get it.
So you have Bledsoe and you have the line. If they get better, then Owens can have the kind of impact he should have on the Cowboys -- just reference what he did his first season in Philadelphia (see chart). Of course, it's not a given Owens won't create disruptions of his own, though expect those to happen in Year 2 with Dallas, not this season. He has too much to demonstrate first about his abilities to become embroiled with Parcells or Bledsoe in controversy that quickly.
But the Cowboys also are one of the few teams that would even take on his potential burden. "Jerry Jones is a risk taker; he is not afraid," says Fox analyst Jimmy Johnson, the former Cowboys coach. "Owens is a talented, talented player, and I think he can win a couple of ballgames. They have a mind-set within this team that they are going to handle their business and have blinders on as far as not letting him be a distraction."
For other clubs without the necessary surrounding talent and strong head coach personality, signing Owens would have been foolish. "I had a chance and didn't," Casserly says. "From a physical standpoint, I would want him. But if you look at his history with the chemistry issues with his last two quarterbacks and the fact he is a constant attention getter and when things don't go well, problems occur with him, you don't want that with a young team. But Parcells has his own ways. This won't be about Parcells and Owens; this will strictly be about Owens and how it plays out."
Yet remember this from NBC analyst Cris Collinsworth. "Let's just say that T.O. becomes a factor in the second half of the season and he doesn't destroy the team internally, then all of a sudden the weapons they have on offense look as good as what they have on defense," he says. "So that's a team, there's no question, you have to really keep an eye on."
And now we have more reasons to watch the Cowboys than T.O. alone.
So now we know this much: The Cowboys won't go undefeated, Terrell Owens can score a touchdown without celebrating, the Jaguars' mascot can be a better entertainer than T.O., Jacksonville once again will have an excellent defense and, most telling, Drew Bledsoe may have begun a slide toward becoming shockingly inadequate.
If Bledsoe does indeed crumble, it won't matter over the rest of the season what goes on within the T.O. World. Owens could produce a Hall of Fame season or he could call out Bill Parcells on the sideline -- or both -- and it all will be fun to watch. But the heavy investment, and substantial risk, taken by the Cowboys to bring Owens to Dallas will be so much money wasted if the quality of their quarterbacking doesn't improve dramatically.
The free world watched eagerly last Sunday to see what would happen in Owens' debut with the Cowboys. It might have been the most hyped opening game by a player in league history, considering virtually his every word and movement in training camp were chronicled and analyzed and disseminated to such a point you wanted to cry out, "Enough already!" Fans will tell you they can't stand the guy, yet they also can't resist soaking in the next chapter of the saga.
Maybe everyone should have paid more attention to Bledsoe. At 34 and in his 14th season, he has absorbed as much battering as any quarterback should ever take, and it shows more and more in how he performs. He is surrounded by all these wonderful options -- Owens, receiver Terry Glenn, tight end Jason Witten, running back Julius Jones -- but he needs to be sharp and unhurried to fully take advantage of these talents.
"They can't double-cover everyone," says CBS analyst Charley Casserly, the former Texans general manager. "It gives them incredible weapons and versatility. You have to feel they can move the ball on just about everyone."
But put the aging Bledsoe against a difficult defense such as Jacksonville's and it's not all that pretty. When he had to be efficient and really good, he wasn't. And that's something a club so reliant on its passing game requires on a weekly basis in order to become a Super Bowl team, which the Cowboys can be with adequate work from Bledsoe. But his awful quarterback rating (45.8) -- based on three interceptions, just one touchdown and 16-of-33 passing -- is more in Alex Smith's category than Tom Brady's.
It's known throughout the NFL: Put pressure on Bledsoe and watch him become uneasy. He did nothing in this 24-17 opening loss to cause any future opponent to adopt a different tack. Once the Jaguars got over standing around and watching Owens in the first quarter and realized they too were supposed to participate in this game, they methodically swarmed all around Bledsoe and forced unsteady throws, off-balance throws, uncertain throws and enough interceptions and bad decisions to overcome an early 10-0 deficit.
"We really wanted to apply pressure on Bledsoe," Jaguars coach Jack Del Rio says. "Whether we could actually sack him or not wasn't the most important thing. It was not letting him feel comfortable. He got hit a lot." And multiple hits will make any quarterback uncomfortable, particularly one who might be smelling the breath of onrushing defensive linemen a bit sooner than he did at 28. The Jags also mixed in changing coverages on Owens, all but eliminating him for huge chunks of the second half.
When Parcells was asked about Bledsoe's performance, he hardly gave him an encouraging endorsement. "Now's not a good time to be talking about that," Parcells answered. "Let me look at the film, and I'll let you know what I think."
Certainly, there was nothing in Owens' performance that revealed any lasting effects from the training camp hamstring pull, which forced him to miss a majority of the practices, or any unsteadiness from him not having played a real game since late last October, when he essentially was dumped by the Eagles for his disruptive actions.
But, hey, at least T.O. didn't add to Bledsoe's displeasure with any postgame comments. He refrained from doing much of anything all day except for playing football -- a novel and welcome change from his usual decorum. Here's the greatest shock: After he caught a 21-yard touchdown pass with 1:54 left, Owens did not dance, he did not gesture, he did not do anything except keep the football and run directly to the sideline. What's this? We expect him to give us a show, not be some teacher's pet.
That's where the Jaguars' mascot comes in. When the mangy-looking cat made his initial pregame appearance, he ran about 10 yards onto the field and then pulled up limping, dragging his leg behind him in a clear imitation of T.O. It was hilarious and creative. Owens outdone by a mascot? Tell us it ain't so.
When Bledsoe was able to get him the ball, Owens showed all the traits that might justify his three-year, $25 million contract. He broke tackles, turned short passes into longer gains and commanded the kind of extra attention that opens up parts of the secondary for teammates. His numbers -- six receptions for 80 yards -- could have been greater; he had two receptions nullified by penalties, the types of mistakes Parcells disgustingly blamed on lack of concentration by Owens' teammates.
"(My leg) felt good," Owens says. "I'm ready to play once I step on the field. I think I did a pretty good job of getting in and out of my routes. But I'm not happy with the results. We had too many turnovers and, obviously, you can't win with those."
At least Parcells, who went through the entire offseason calling Owens "the player" and just once referring to him as "Terrell," made sure his new receiver quickly became comfortable in his debut. On the Cowboys' first play from scrimmage, Bledsoe completed a 13-yard pass to Owens, then connected again two downs later, this one for 8. That ignited an eight-play, 70-yard drive ending in Jones' 23-yard touchdown and a 7-0 lead.
"After the opening drive, we were ready," Jaguars safety Deon Grant says. "We knew we had to play ball, we had a ballgame now. We knew they had the type of receivers, quarterback, running back to make those type of plays, and they really did it, so we had to buckle up and start playing."
But Grant laughs when asked about the presence of Owens and all the verbiage preceding this game. "Makes no difference to me," he says. "We play against Peyton (Manning) twice a year."
And they play Manning well. This is a formidable playoff defense with the best front four in the league and a secondary boosted by the offseason free-agent signing of cornerback Brian Williams, who was arrested earlier in the week and charged with driving while intoxicated. So, if nothing else, the specter of dealing with all of the T.O. nonsense left the Jaguars fascinated -- "It was really amazing, all that was being said," defensive tackle John Henderson says -- but not necessarily in awe.
"We had guys sticking their noses in where they didn't belong early in the game," says Del Rio, coachspeak for saying some of his defenders weren't executing their assignments as coached. "We settled down after the first series and a half and then played some really good defense."
Bledsoe was 6-of-10 in the first quarter, then 10-of-23 the rest of the way. He did have one touchdown negated when Witten was called for pushing off before pulling in a 10-yard pass late in the third quarter. But here is what happens when Bledsoe is spooked: Early in the second period, he was flushed from the pocket. While still on the move, he badly overthrew a wide-open Owens, who could have scored easily if the pass had been more accurate.
"They like to throw a lot of quick passes," Henderson says, "and it took us a quarter as a front four to do a better job of affecting (Bledsoe). We tried to penetrate as fast as we could and then get our arms up quickly. That way, he would have to change his arm angle and have to throw around us, and I think that makes a difference."
And that brings us to another looming problem for the Cowboys: the inconsistency of their offensive line. Left tackle Flozell Adams, coming off a severe knee injury from last season, had a mediocre performance, and his linemates didn't fare much better. With an immobile quarterback such as Bledsoe, you need superior protection. He didn't get it.
So you have Bledsoe and you have the line. If they get better, then Owens can have the kind of impact he should have on the Cowboys -- just reference what he did his first season in Philadelphia (see chart). Of course, it's not a given Owens won't create disruptions of his own, though expect those to happen in Year 2 with Dallas, not this season. He has too much to demonstrate first about his abilities to become embroiled with Parcells or Bledsoe in controversy that quickly.
But the Cowboys also are one of the few teams that would even take on his potential burden. "Jerry Jones is a risk taker; he is not afraid," says Fox analyst Jimmy Johnson, the former Cowboys coach. "Owens is a talented, talented player, and I think he can win a couple of ballgames. They have a mind-set within this team that they are going to handle their business and have blinders on as far as not letting him be a distraction."
For other clubs without the necessary surrounding talent and strong head coach personality, signing Owens would have been foolish. "I had a chance and didn't," Casserly says. "From a physical standpoint, I would want him. But if you look at his history with the chemistry issues with his last two quarterbacks and the fact he is a constant attention getter and when things don't go well, problems occur with him, you don't want that with a young team. But Parcells has his own ways. This won't be about Parcells and Owens; this will strictly be about Owens and how it plays out."
Yet remember this from NBC analyst Cris Collinsworth. "Let's just say that T.O. becomes a factor in the second half of the season and he doesn't destroy the team internally, then all of a sudden the weapons they have on offense look as good as what they have on defense," he says. "So that's a team, there's no question, you have to really keep an eye on."
And now we have more reasons to watch the Cowboys than T.O. alone.
posted by The Gryphon at 6:40 PM
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