A Look at 10 Worrisome Issues For 2009 - Part I
Source: Yakuza Rich Dallas Cowboys Blog
1. Placeholder
I will say this for the millionth time, but I am worried about the placeholder situation. There's no doubt in my mind that one of the big reasons why the field goal kicking was so poor during the Parcells era was due to the poor placeholding with Drew Henson and Tony Romo. In '03 when Billy Cundiff had a pretty good year field goal kicking, Toby Gowin was doing the placeholding duties and he was one of the best placeholders in the league. Brad Johnson was excellent as a placeholder, but obviously the team needed to get a better backup QB and traded for Jon Kitna.
SOLUTION: For '09 they will likely need Kitna to take over the placeholding duties. If that does not work as well as Johnson did it could be very harmful because now we have 3 kickers on the roster that only do one particular duty with Folk kicking field goals, Buehler doing kickoffs only and McBriar doing punts. I think if this does not work, the Cowboys seriously need to consider McBriar's future with the team since all he does is punt. Folk's ability to kick field goals accurately is too hard to pass up on and bringing in a different kicker would do no good if the placeholding is the problem. Letting go a good backup QB because he can't placehold is a bit silly and wasteful. So in my mind, McBriar's future in Dallas should be determined by Kitna's placeholding.
2. Jason Garrett's ability to use the entire offensive personnel
Last year was a disappointing season for Garrett especially from how he used the rest of the personnel. The passing game seemed to revolve around Witten and Owens and you could debate that they looked more for Witten than Owens. And when teams could contain Witten on the deep pass and key on Owens, the passing game suffered badly. Garrett actually looked worse as Tashard Choice and Felix Jones played well. Jones was often neglected and came right in and made big plays instantaneously. I could see if you were worried about a rookie's blocking, but Jones did a sufficient job there as well. But when Choice was forced to start due to injuries and then looked downright superb, it drew criticism in my eyes that Garrett did a poor job on getting the entire offensive personnel.
The Cowboys have the talent to frustrate defenses and cause mismatches like the Patriots have done for the past few years. The Cowboys are far more talented at tight end and running back than the Patriots are and while they have nowhere near the talent of Moss and Welker at wide receiver, they probably have more talent at WR than the Pats had during the Deion Branch and David Patten years.
SOLUTION: Learn from last season. If a player like Manuel Johnson shows some promise in practice and you're not quite sure how he'll do in a game, get him some playing time and see how he does. If he does poorly, then he's not ready, but don't assume he's not ready. And get Felix Jones more ready to catch passes, either lining up as a receiver or out of the backfield. This will allow room for Choice and Barber to make plays and possibly create some mismatches. Experiment this with Martellus Bennett as well. Garrett shouldn't have many excuses anymore. He has no Terrell Owens to worry about and if he can't get the job done, it's time to look for a different O-Coordinator.
3. Consistency in the Pass Rush
Even though Dallas led the league in sacks last year, the pass rush sometimes suffered from inconsistency. As Dallas got on a roll with sacking the QB late in the season, they couldn't do much against the Eagles in the last week of the season.
SOLUTION: The solution may already be in place with Wade running the defense now. Part of the problem with Brian Stewart's blitzes is that they almost always came up the middle and Bradie James seemed to hit his stride by mixing up the blitzes and got wide open a lot with blitzes towards the edge instead of right up the gut. Teams will focus heavily on DeMarcus Ware after he almost broke the single season sacks record. GOOD! Use that to your advantage. Move Ware around and let the defense dictate what the offense instead of the other way around. That's why Lawrence Taylor was such a force on defense, he forced opposing offenses to react to where he was (and he also scared the crap out of opposing O-Linemen, tailbacks and QB's).
4. The Wide Receivers
Roy Williams has never lived up to his potential, although he's played in Detroit all but a few games last season. Patrick Crayton doesn't seem to get open much anymore and Miles Austin is still unproven. Isaiah Stanback seems like a failed experiment and will probably land with the Dolphins sometime down the road.
SOLUTION: Use the strength at tailback and tight end to its fullest. Not only can we throw to Felix, Bennett and Witten, but we can use these guys to help make things easier for the Wide Receivers. Particularly, run the ball more and set up big plays with play action and use different 2-TE formations to create mismatches.
5. The Safeties
Neither Dallas starting safety (Hamlin and Sensabaugh) are considered cover specialists. Hamlin probably gets too much criticism for my tastes and he can play very well, but he has about 2-3 games a year where he looks bad both in coverage and tackling and it usually plays a big part in costing Dallas the game.
SOLUTION: I get the feeling if Parcells was coaching this team you would see him put an intense effort in motivating Hamlin knowing that if Hamlin has a good year it can be the difference between going far in the postseason and missing the playoffs all together. He would also threaten to get somebody like Alan Ball to take over for Hamlin or maybe Orlando Scandrick. Parcells is obviously no longer with the Cowboys, but it's tactics like this is why he has 2 Super Bowl rings and will go down as one of the all time great head coaches.
1. Placeholder
I will say this for the millionth time, but I am worried about the placeholder situation. There's no doubt in my mind that one of the big reasons why the field goal kicking was so poor during the Parcells era was due to the poor placeholding with Drew Henson and Tony Romo. In '03 when Billy Cundiff had a pretty good year field goal kicking, Toby Gowin was doing the placeholding duties and he was one of the best placeholders in the league. Brad Johnson was excellent as a placeholder, but obviously the team needed to get a better backup QB and traded for Jon Kitna.
SOLUTION: For '09 they will likely need Kitna to take over the placeholding duties. If that does not work as well as Johnson did it could be very harmful because now we have 3 kickers on the roster that only do one particular duty with Folk kicking field goals, Buehler doing kickoffs only and McBriar doing punts. I think if this does not work, the Cowboys seriously need to consider McBriar's future with the team since all he does is punt. Folk's ability to kick field goals accurately is too hard to pass up on and bringing in a different kicker would do no good if the placeholding is the problem. Letting go a good backup QB because he can't placehold is a bit silly and wasteful. So in my mind, McBriar's future in Dallas should be determined by Kitna's placeholding.
2. Jason Garrett's ability to use the entire offensive personnel
Last year was a disappointing season for Garrett especially from how he used the rest of the personnel. The passing game seemed to revolve around Witten and Owens and you could debate that they looked more for Witten than Owens. And when teams could contain Witten on the deep pass and key on Owens, the passing game suffered badly. Garrett actually looked worse as Tashard Choice and Felix Jones played well. Jones was often neglected and came right in and made big plays instantaneously. I could see if you were worried about a rookie's blocking, but Jones did a sufficient job there as well. But when Choice was forced to start due to injuries and then looked downright superb, it drew criticism in my eyes that Garrett did a poor job on getting the entire offensive personnel.
The Cowboys have the talent to frustrate defenses and cause mismatches like the Patriots have done for the past few years. The Cowboys are far more talented at tight end and running back than the Patriots are and while they have nowhere near the talent of Moss and Welker at wide receiver, they probably have more talent at WR than the Pats had during the Deion Branch and David Patten years.
SOLUTION: Learn from last season. If a player like Manuel Johnson shows some promise in practice and you're not quite sure how he'll do in a game, get him some playing time and see how he does. If he does poorly, then he's not ready, but don't assume he's not ready. And get Felix Jones more ready to catch passes, either lining up as a receiver or out of the backfield. This will allow room for Choice and Barber to make plays and possibly create some mismatches. Experiment this with Martellus Bennett as well. Garrett shouldn't have many excuses anymore. He has no Terrell Owens to worry about and if he can't get the job done, it's time to look for a different O-Coordinator.
3. Consistency in the Pass Rush
Even though Dallas led the league in sacks last year, the pass rush sometimes suffered from inconsistency. As Dallas got on a roll with sacking the QB late in the season, they couldn't do much against the Eagles in the last week of the season.
SOLUTION: The solution may already be in place with Wade running the defense now. Part of the problem with Brian Stewart's blitzes is that they almost always came up the middle and Bradie James seemed to hit his stride by mixing up the blitzes and got wide open a lot with blitzes towards the edge instead of right up the gut. Teams will focus heavily on DeMarcus Ware after he almost broke the single season sacks record. GOOD! Use that to your advantage. Move Ware around and let the defense dictate what the offense instead of the other way around. That's why Lawrence Taylor was such a force on defense, he forced opposing offenses to react to where he was (and he also scared the crap out of opposing O-Linemen, tailbacks and QB's).
4. The Wide Receivers
Roy Williams has never lived up to his potential, although he's played in Detroit all but a few games last season. Patrick Crayton doesn't seem to get open much anymore and Miles Austin is still unproven. Isaiah Stanback seems like a failed experiment and will probably land with the Dolphins sometime down the road.
SOLUTION: Use the strength at tailback and tight end to its fullest. Not only can we throw to Felix, Bennett and Witten, but we can use these guys to help make things easier for the Wide Receivers. Particularly, run the ball more and set up big plays with play action and use different 2-TE formations to create mismatches.
5. The Safeties
Neither Dallas starting safety (Hamlin and Sensabaugh) are considered cover specialists. Hamlin probably gets too much criticism for my tastes and he can play very well, but he has about 2-3 games a year where he looks bad both in coverage and tackling and it usually plays a big part in costing Dallas the game.
SOLUTION: I get the feeling if Parcells was coaching this team you would see him put an intense effort in motivating Hamlin knowing that if Hamlin has a good year it can be the difference between going far in the postseason and missing the playoffs all together. He would also threaten to get somebody like Alan Ball to take over for Hamlin or maybe Orlando Scandrick. Parcells is obviously no longer with the Cowboys, but it's tactics like this is why he has 2 Super Bowl rings and will go down as one of the all time great head coaches.
posted by The Gryphon at 8:54 AM
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