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Post by kamandi on Sept 8, 2012 9:06:43 GMT -5
Wow, Romo played a great game. He only had that one pick when he rushed his throw while the pocket was collapsing, but aside from that, he read the Giants D real well and adjusted the offense accordingly.
He also made broken plays work, using his mobility.
Eli was still pretty good, but the Cowboys' new corners were doing a pretty good job.
Officiating was, overall, pretty decent.
Also, that 4 year receiver finally broke out and had a great game. Murray(?) ran real well, too.
I still think the Giants are the best of that division, though.
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Post by Richie3Jack on Sept 8, 2012 10:21:37 GMT -5
I thought the officiating was so-so. They missed the hold by Scandrick on Cruz. But they also missed an illegal pick by Cruz early on. I did think some of the holding non-calls on the O-lines were reasonable as the QB was usually letting go of the ball right as it happened.
To me, that was the game that the Cowboys had lacked over the past 10 years.
First, they played a good team with a decimated secondary and took advantage of that secondary. For the past 10 years, it was almost the kiss of death for the Cowboys as they could never take advantage of good teams with injury ravished secondaries. Personally, i thought if they wanted to go to Dez, they pretty much could at any time, particularly one-on-one. But Ogletree was simply a more effective choice.
The other part was over the past 10 years, they would have either lost that game (in regulation, too) or it would have been tied up and they would squeek thru by luck and the game should have never been that close to begin with. Instead, they closed out the game.
It's a real different look on defense with corners who can press the WR's and play man-to-man, rangy safeties and rangy ILB's. Personally, DeMarco Murray is becoming my favorite Cowboys player now because he has the mentality that they have sorely lacked for so many years.
3JACK
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Post by cwdlaw223 on Sept 8, 2012 13:44:18 GMT -5
Boys looked really good. They didn't fold and beat themselves. I've always like Romo as a QB. You have a legit D and strong offense. The NFC East has too many good teams. That was a huge win for Dallas IMO. Murray is a man and Dez is one talented and angry receiver. He's always open even if double teamed. I'm now concerned about Dallas.
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Post by Richie3Jack on Sept 10, 2012 11:19:31 GMT -5
Some thoughts from week 1:
1. The Eagles were terrible on offense, although I thought the defense played well...but that was against the Browns. The tough part about this game for the Eagles is that other teams will use this to gameplan against Vick.
2. The Saints are in big trouble. Their defense stinks and they miss Sean Payton's playcalling on offense. RG III looked good all things considered, but they are running a college read option, pistol formation offense which requires RGIII to run a lot and throw a ton of bubble screens. I think a defense with good corners who are physical will shut down RGIII and could knock him out of a ball game.
3. Blaine Gabbert really impressed me with his arm and athleticism. I think if they can ever get some more offensive talent on the team and he can stay healthy, Jacksonville could be tough in a couple of years.
4. Warren Sapp predicted the Chiefs would beat the Falcons 41-0 and was being serious. Nice pick, Sapp.
5. I think Tannehill is going to be a disaster in Miami. He's very athletic, but he's just nowhere near ready to play QB in the NFL at this point.
6. This may be the first time in Peyton's career where he's had a solid defense AND running game. He doesn't have the WR's he used to have, but I think it may be: Good defense + Good Running Game > Great WR's for Peyton. Peyton has a fantastic call on a WR screen in the 2nd half that burned the Steelers for a TD.
7. For all of the complaints about the officials, I could not help but think if they were any worse than the 'real refs.' For the most part, I would say they are not. The only thing that annoyed me about the scab refs was their struggles with spotting the ball. The positive part was that the scab refs didn't seem to have many issues with knowing the actual rulebook. I saw a 'clip' that was actually a block in the back called. They screwed up a timeout situation in the ARI vs. SEA game (but it didn't matter in the end). But other than that, they actually knew the rules, compared to the real refs who have gone thru each of the last ten years where they either get the rule wrong or have to call the freaking league office, in the middle of the game, to get what the ruling is.
The refereeing has been lousy. But guess what? It's been lousy for a long time.
3JACK
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Post by kamandi on Sept 13, 2012 12:02:06 GMT -5
On RGIII versus the Saints' defense ..... Shanny is a master at preparing for the 1st game of the season; he studied the Saints inside-out during the whole offseason, and everything they prepared and practiced for was for this 1st game. Each offensive drive had a different approach and purpose .... the 1st was about getting RGIII's confidence up with simple screens, as well as discouraging the Saints from blitzing. The 2nd was about suddenly attacking intermediate and taking them by surprise. The 3rd was about attacking the edges with the zone rushing. Then after all that, the Saints' defense was spinning, not knowing what to expect. Everything was well executed, because they used a lot of the offseason to install this gameplan. No accident, the Redskins were prepared, and the Saints were not.
What I liked about RGIII is not just his poise, but his attention to detail. He executes the hand-off or fake hand-off exactly the same way, shielding the ball with his body, and always continuing his same after-motion going away from the action. He really sells it.
I also like that he really works on his footwork, like every step is measured, and he looked like he was intentionally slowing down his movement, to prevent himself from rushing his actions. Most of his throws were on rhythm.
One of the factors that made the Saints defense more effective was their dirty play. Take that away, and they're pretty average.
Funny that all these sports hosts were saying how Brees is as good as a coach in the field, so that the impact of losing Sean Payton was lessened, but you don't lose a coach that good and not notice the difference.
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Post by kamandi on Sept 13, 2012 12:07:54 GMT -5
On Gabbert and the Jaguars ... I was never impressed with Jack Del Rio as a head coach, because he's a holdover of the ball-control offense at all costs approach of coaching. You look at the offenses in Jacksonville, and they were basically rushing offenses and game manager QBs. Jaguars should've fired him much earlier.
Last season, there was no offseason for Gabbert to learn the playbook, nor prepare for the NFL, and now we're seeing what a difference it makes. Probably a bad decision by Del Rio to just throw him to the fire, without much preparation.
Mularkey will be good for Gabbert, as he's shown he knows how to bring along young QBs, like Matt Ryan.
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Post by cwdlaw223 on Sept 13, 2012 12:16:53 GMT -5
kamandi -
I like your perspective and insight. Please keep posting.
Do you have any thoughts about the Patriots phasing out Welker? I suspect that he is being phased out and that Bellichick knows that defenses are scheming to stop Welker so he tries to stay ahead with monster tight end play.
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Post by kamandi on Sept 13, 2012 12:20:41 GMT -5
I also don't like Tannehill; actually, I don't like Miami's GM, Ireland. You don't just give away a player of Brandon Marshall's calibre for 2 3rd rounders, and later wonder why you don't have a capable #1 WR. Tannehill was taken way too early ... I would've instead spent money on Flynn instead, and re-unite him with Philbin, then maybe in the coming drafts take a really good QB prospect.
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imo, the Eagle's main problem is that Vick is injury prone, yet they transformed their OL to a speedy, athletic one, that has big play potential, but get Vick hit a lot. For Vick's sake, they should've gone with the hulking types, who'll help keep Vick upright. I don't think Vick feels comfortable with his protection, and that will cause any QB to make mistakes. Too many hits, and most QBs turn into David Carr.
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I didn't expect Peyton to still be effective, but he's shown himself to still be one of the best.
I'm expecting a defense to later test him, by taking away the short stuff, and forcing him to throw deep passes against good press corners. He's fortunate to have Ryan Clady at LT.
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The replacement refs are getting better and better, so the longer they officiate, the regular refs will continue to lose leverage.
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Post by kamandi on Sept 13, 2012 12:31:33 GMT -5
kamandi - I like your perspective and insight. Please keep posting. Do you have any thoughts about the Patriots phasing out Welker? I suspect that he is being phased out and that Bellichick knows that defenses are scheming to stop Welker so he tries to stay ahead with monster tight end play. Thanks man; hope you still feel the same way, as I posted something about the Eagles, hehehe. It's funny; Bellichick is a defense guy, but he's evolved into a master strategist, and the offenses he rolls out set trends in the NFL. The Pats have gone from a dink-and-dunk, ball control offense during their superbowl wins, to the high powered 2007 Moss deep attack, to about a couple of seasons ago, when they went catch-and-run, using big, athletic guys to run over DBs. Welker's always been productive and seemingly unstoppable, but at the heart of it is, he's a slot guy ... that's the stuff defenses are willing to give up. Gronk can catch in the backfield, intermediate, or deep, and run over anyone. Hernandez can do the slot stuff, catch in the backfield, or even run like an RB. If Lloyd becomes the answer they need for their missing deep attack, maybe Bellichick doesn't want to pay Welker big bucks, and he is getting older.
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Post by kamandi on Sept 13, 2012 12:34:33 GMT -5
Btw, the Bears destroyed the Colts ... yeah, the rebuilding Colts. Big game against the Packers some hours from now. Rodgers is a QB android from the future; no way can anyone be that good.
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Post by Richie3Jack on Sept 13, 2012 12:45:12 GMT -5
The Cowboys go to Seattle on Sunday. I think they should win. I don't think Seattle has the offense right now and I would like to see them keep the diminutive Russell Wilson in the pocket and see if the rookie can beat them from there.
While I hate talking in general terms, this game will be intesting to see how the team handles coming off a win in a big game. It's one thing to win, but it would be nice to see them pull off a rather decisive win here and with Ryan Cook having a week at center, to see the O-Line cut down their penalties.
If they can do that, then the NFC East should be on watch for this team because they are not your same ole Cowboys from the past ten years.
3JACK
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Post by cwdlaw223 on Sept 13, 2012 15:59:16 GMT -5
The win by Dallas last week was HUGE! In the past Dallas would have lost that game 10 out of 10 times. Dallas finally has a defense that can keep them in games through corners that can hold for that extra half second.
Vick is an ornament. He's a normal size human being playing against giants. If those D lineman just brushed against me I suspect that I would be out 2-4 weeks.
Mike Martz was a disaster for Cutler. The Bears defense oddly enough will be their downfall this year. If they beat GB watch out, a new sheriff is in the NFC North.
Bellichick is a genius! I love watching what he does and the rest of the league follows because they know he's right and if you don't make decent size change defenses will adapt and shut any system down over time (or else your players wear down over time).
If I had to take two teams right now for the SB I would pick Ravens vs. 49ers with the 49ers winning it all.
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Post by cwdlaw223 on Sept 13, 2012 16:01:55 GMT -5
I think the replacement refs are getting much better. I like the fact that they don't let corners hold receivers. The old refs better give a little or else they could end up losing a ton of leverage.
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Post by cwdlaw223 on Sept 13, 2012 16:02:34 GMT -5
For the record Richie, Dallas still sucks! Don't let my non-emotional post above get in the way of my raw hatred for Lucifer's team! (I have Romo as my QB in my fantasy league - a true Eagles fan compromises for $$$).
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Post by Richie3Jack on Sept 13, 2012 19:14:47 GMT -5
Dallas would not have necessarily lost that game. There were plenty of times where the other team ties that game up and they get lucky and somehow win it when it should never have been that close to begin with. The heartbreaking part of the losses in those games is that they would almost always find a way to lose in regulation, not even making it to OT. Probably the toughest one for me to swallow was the '08 game against Pittsburgh where they dominated the game AT Pittsburgh and managed to lose in regulation and the Steelers went on to be the SB champs.
3JACK
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