If a team doesn't want to see blitzes, don't play Cowboys
By GIL LeBRETON
Star-Telegram Staff Writer
Early in the fourth quarter Saturday night, the Cowboys were soundly beating the Denver Broncos, two guys named Jerheme and Jerard were lined up at wide receiver, that Jerry Jones pizza breakdance commercial was about to play on the video board for the 176th time, and the seats at Texas Stadium were mostly empty.
Cowboys fans get it, in other words.
Oh, they cheered early when Terrell Owens caught a pass and Marcus Spears recovered a fumble. The perspiring spectators paid the filet mignon price that Owner Jones charges for this exhibition baloney.
But the game itself had long since passed its due date. With the starters all on the sidelines, chewing bubble gum or wondering how late the clubs would be open, there was nothing more to see here, not even the preseason's No. 1 reclamation project -- the Cowboys' defense.
The Cowboys are 2-0, though I wouldn't book my tickets for Super Bowl XLII just yet.
The Texas Stadium spectators grasped the insignificance of Cowboys 31, Broncos 20, even if the Denver players apparently weren't convinced that the home team's coaching staff did.
Broncos safety John Lynch told Mike Klis of The Denver Post after the game, "They came out and game-planned us, blitzing every play. They came after us.
"It's not an excuse for the way we played. But I think they might have broken the code of ethics for the preseason."
Code of ethics? The home team charges regular-season prices for preseason tickets -- the league average is around $60 -- the starters seldom play even two quarters, and somebody expects to find ethics?
Lynch, a 15-year veteran, clearly was pulling the chain of the former Denver coach -- and new Cowboys head coach -- Wade Phillips. But it made for a lively round of postgame questioning, while prompting some of us to tap the brakes on praise for the new "Phillips 3-4" defense.
"I don't know if Wade's [ticked] off the Broncos fired him, but it sure looked that way," Lynch said, twisting the needle.
Well, now that he mentions it, the Cowboys did seem to blitz a lot. But I thought that was the defense. It's the old Barry Switzer excuse -- he didn't mean for his Oklahoma team to score 60 on you, but he couldn't turn off the faucet on the wishbone.
Lynch merits some slack. But young Broncos quarterback Jay Cutler, who also muttered something about the blitzing, might have been looking for an alibi after a disappointing night.
"Well, they brought a lot of blitzes," Cutler said. "They came at us on first, second and third down.
"We started picking it up in the first half after we made some adjustments. But it kind of surprised us there off the jump."
Let me paraphrase Switzer again, however. If the Broncos didn't want to see blitzes, they shouldn't have scheduled a team that plays Wade Phillips' defense.
Plus, there's that new coach thing going on. You know -- win early, and the players will think the new head coach knows what he's doing.
Some of us have seen way too many Cowboys preseason games to remember much of any of them. But I do vividly recall one at San Diego in 1989. The Cowboys beat the Chargers 20-3, and you would have thought, judging from the hugging and the celebrating, that the new coach and new owner had just won the Orange Bowl. Winning that summer seemed to be deathly important for Jimmy Johnson and Jerry Jones.
The Cowboys went 3-1 in exhibition play in 1989 -- and 1-15 during the regular season that followed. The football gods obviously made their point.
Johnson remains the only Cowboys head coach to post a winning preseason record in his first season. Tom Landry went 1-5 in 1960, Switzer was 2-3 in 1994, Chan Gailey and Dave Campo were both 0-5 in their first preseasons, and Bill Parcells went 2-2 in 2003.
Draw your own conclusions.
There did appear to be a certain -- how shall I put this? -- manic sophistication in the way that the Cowboys' defense attacked Cutler and the Broncos on Saturday night. It's a marked contrast to the Deer-Frozen-in-Headlights defense that Parcells ran down the stretch last season.
"We're identifying our identity," linebacker Bradie James said. "And that's making plays and getting takeaways."
The idea of preseason, I thought, was to get accustomed to things, like new coaches and new defenses.
If you can't "identify your identity" on a preseason Saturday night, when can you?
Time, after all, is limited, when the audience is wise enough to depart shortly after halftime.
Star-Telegram Staff Writer
Early in the fourth quarter Saturday night, the Cowboys were soundly beating the Denver Broncos, two guys named Jerheme and Jerard were lined up at wide receiver, that Jerry Jones pizza breakdance commercial was about to play on the video board for the 176th time, and the seats at Texas Stadium were mostly empty.
Cowboys fans get it, in other words.
Oh, they cheered early when Terrell Owens caught a pass and Marcus Spears recovered a fumble. The perspiring spectators paid the filet mignon price that Owner Jones charges for this exhibition baloney.
But the game itself had long since passed its due date. With the starters all on the sidelines, chewing bubble gum or wondering how late the clubs would be open, there was nothing more to see here, not even the preseason's No. 1 reclamation project -- the Cowboys' defense.
The Cowboys are 2-0, though I wouldn't book my tickets for Super Bowl XLII just yet.
The Texas Stadium spectators grasped the insignificance of Cowboys 31, Broncos 20, even if the Denver players apparently weren't convinced that the home team's coaching staff did.
Broncos safety John Lynch told Mike Klis of The Denver Post after the game, "They came out and game-planned us, blitzing every play. They came after us.
"It's not an excuse for the way we played. But I think they might have broken the code of ethics for the preseason."
Code of ethics? The home team charges regular-season prices for preseason tickets -- the league average is around $60 -- the starters seldom play even two quarters, and somebody expects to find ethics?
Lynch, a 15-year veteran, clearly was pulling the chain of the former Denver coach -- and new Cowboys head coach -- Wade Phillips. But it made for a lively round of postgame questioning, while prompting some of us to tap the brakes on praise for the new "Phillips 3-4" defense.
"I don't know if Wade's [ticked] off the Broncos fired him, but it sure looked that way," Lynch said, twisting the needle.
Well, now that he mentions it, the Cowboys did seem to blitz a lot. But I thought that was the defense. It's the old Barry Switzer excuse -- he didn't mean for his Oklahoma team to score 60 on you, but he couldn't turn off the faucet on the wishbone.
Lynch merits some slack. But young Broncos quarterback Jay Cutler, who also muttered something about the blitzing, might have been looking for an alibi after a disappointing night.
"Well, they brought a lot of blitzes," Cutler said. "They came at us on first, second and third down.
"We started picking it up in the first half after we made some adjustments. But it kind of surprised us there off the jump."
Let me paraphrase Switzer again, however. If the Broncos didn't want to see blitzes, they shouldn't have scheduled a team that plays Wade Phillips' defense.
Plus, there's that new coach thing going on. You know -- win early, and the players will think the new head coach knows what he's doing.
Some of us have seen way too many Cowboys preseason games to remember much of any of them. But I do vividly recall one at San Diego in 1989. The Cowboys beat the Chargers 20-3, and you would have thought, judging from the hugging and the celebrating, that the new coach and new owner had just won the Orange Bowl. Winning that summer seemed to be deathly important for Jimmy Johnson and Jerry Jones.
The Cowboys went 3-1 in exhibition play in 1989 -- and 1-15 during the regular season that followed. The football gods obviously made their point.
Johnson remains the only Cowboys head coach to post a winning preseason record in his first season. Tom Landry went 1-5 in 1960, Switzer was 2-3 in 1994, Chan Gailey and Dave Campo were both 0-5 in their first preseasons, and Bill Parcells went 2-2 in 2003.
Draw your own conclusions.
There did appear to be a certain -- how shall I put this? -- manic sophistication in the way that the Cowboys' defense attacked Cutler and the Broncos on Saturday night. It's a marked contrast to the Deer-Frozen-in-Headlights defense that Parcells ran down the stretch last season.
"We're identifying our identity," linebacker Bradie James said. "And that's making plays and getting takeaways."
The idea of preseason, I thought, was to get accustomed to things, like new coaches and new defenses.
If you can't "identify your identity" on a preseason Saturday night, when can you?
Time, after all, is limited, when the audience is wise enough to depart shortly after halftime.
posted by The Gryphon at 10:06 AM
<< Home