Just Win, Baby
By Rafael Vela
The Cowboys enter the playoffs in a fog.
Lots of guys played hard Sunday. Demarcus Ware, Terry Glenn, Akin Ayodele, Jason Witten, Bobby Carpenter played with heart. Chris Canty emerged from his cave and made a handful of promising plays. Tony Romo made some improbable improvizations. Stephen Bowen made some hard inside pushes. The Cowboys threw their best rush at a team in a while.
They also faced a hot team. Jon Kitna made some incredible sideline throws with guys in his face. His first TD throw to Roy Williams was money. Roy Williams the receiver is going to be a huge star and would be hard to cover with a healthy Anthony Henry. He made the ailing Henry look, well, like a guy playing with a bad leg.
Sadly, too many Cowboys reverted to form we last saw in Washington at midseason. The offensive linemen missed assigments. When holes were created running backs missed holes. Julius Jones had a second week of missing big backside lanes. Flozell Adams, after weeks of steady play, sent the bad Flozell out on the field Sunday, the one who looks disinterested half the time. Terence Newman, after ripping on teammates for talking too much during the week, had one of, if not his worst game of the season. Roy Williams the Cowboy continues to run hot and cold.
Perhaps these later points are what had Bill Parcells so down after the game. Bad or inconsistent play from rookies or second year players you can understand. Letdowns from your veterans leaves you speechless.
One game will tell us a lot. This team put it together midseason. The winning streak was based on tighter mental focus, reduced penalties and better execution. It can play like that again, because it already has once. It has holes and an opponent that can hit them.
It also has an opponent it can exploit. The Seahawks are injured. Their defense was already inferior before the injuries. It ranked 7th last season. It’s 19th this year in scoring. Bad tackling has bedeviled Seattle all season. Now, it enters the game with no secondary.
The offense has suffered more. Nobody scored more points than Seattle last season. They scored 117 fewer points this year. Injuries caused some of the decline. Matt Hasselbeck and Shaun Alexander missed many games. Free agency took just as big a toll. The Seahawks o-line, arguably the best in football a season ago, never recovered from LG Steve Hutchinson’s defection. Seattle had to shuffle it’s o-line and its once-feared running game was struggling before Alexander went down.
They have no more mojo than Dallas. The Seahawks had lost three in a row prior to beating Tampa Bay on Sunday. Mike Holmgren was ripped by the press for submitting Hasselbeck to a rush and for rushing Alexander 28 times in a meaningless game.
In short, nobody has an edge. This game will come down to who focuses better and plays harder. When offseason ‘92 approached, everybody remembered Dallas’ gallant 17-13 wild card win over Chicago, not the blowout 38-6 loss the week after. Hope for the new season was high, because the team had showed heart knocking off an old NFC lion.
A win Saturday will do the same for this team. If they flop again, in Detroit fashion, at least we’ll know what dead wood needs to be pared away this offseason.
Note: The game does have draft ramifications. Seattle currently has the 22nd spot, one ahead of Dallas. Their pick now belongs to the Patriots, because of the Deion Branch trade. The Patriots were looking for a safety before but you can bet that spot has gone to the top of their list with news that Rodney Harrison will likely miss the playoffs with a knee injury.
That said, beat the Seahawks.
The Cowboys enter the playoffs in a fog.
Lots of guys played hard Sunday. Demarcus Ware, Terry Glenn, Akin Ayodele, Jason Witten, Bobby Carpenter played with heart. Chris Canty emerged from his cave and made a handful of promising plays. Tony Romo made some improbable improvizations. Stephen Bowen made some hard inside pushes. The Cowboys threw their best rush at a team in a while.
They also faced a hot team. Jon Kitna made some incredible sideline throws with guys in his face. His first TD throw to Roy Williams was money. Roy Williams the receiver is going to be a huge star and would be hard to cover with a healthy Anthony Henry. He made the ailing Henry look, well, like a guy playing with a bad leg.
Sadly, too many Cowboys reverted to form we last saw in Washington at midseason. The offensive linemen missed assigments. When holes were created running backs missed holes. Julius Jones had a second week of missing big backside lanes. Flozell Adams, after weeks of steady play, sent the bad Flozell out on the field Sunday, the one who looks disinterested half the time. Terence Newman, after ripping on teammates for talking too much during the week, had one of, if not his worst game of the season. Roy Williams the Cowboy continues to run hot and cold.
Perhaps these later points are what had Bill Parcells so down after the game. Bad or inconsistent play from rookies or second year players you can understand. Letdowns from your veterans leaves you speechless.
One game will tell us a lot. This team put it together midseason. The winning streak was based on tighter mental focus, reduced penalties and better execution. It can play like that again, because it already has once. It has holes and an opponent that can hit them.
It also has an opponent it can exploit. The Seahawks are injured. Their defense was already inferior before the injuries. It ranked 7th last season. It’s 19th this year in scoring. Bad tackling has bedeviled Seattle all season. Now, it enters the game with no secondary.
The offense has suffered more. Nobody scored more points than Seattle last season. They scored 117 fewer points this year. Injuries caused some of the decline. Matt Hasselbeck and Shaun Alexander missed many games. Free agency took just as big a toll. The Seahawks o-line, arguably the best in football a season ago, never recovered from LG Steve Hutchinson’s defection. Seattle had to shuffle it’s o-line and its once-feared running game was struggling before Alexander went down.
They have no more mojo than Dallas. The Seahawks had lost three in a row prior to beating Tampa Bay on Sunday. Mike Holmgren was ripped by the press for submitting Hasselbeck to a rush and for rushing Alexander 28 times in a meaningless game.
In short, nobody has an edge. This game will come down to who focuses better and plays harder. When offseason ‘92 approached, everybody remembered Dallas’ gallant 17-13 wild card win over Chicago, not the blowout 38-6 loss the week after. Hope for the new season was high, because the team had showed heart knocking off an old NFC lion.
A win Saturday will do the same for this team. If they flop again, in Detroit fashion, at least we’ll know what dead wood needs to be pared away this offseason.
Note: The game does have draft ramifications. Seattle currently has the 22nd spot, one ahead of Dallas. Their pick now belongs to the Patriots, because of the Deion Branch trade. The Patriots were looking for a safety before but you can bet that spot has gone to the top of their list with news that Rodney Harrison will likely miss the playoffs with a knee injury.
That said, beat the Seahawks.
posted by The Gryphon at 10:05 PM
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