Dallas Cowboys

To most people’s surprise the Cowboys parted ways with Rob Ryan, their loud mouthed legacy hire Defensive Coordinator. At the end of yet another failed-to-make-the-playoffs season, Cowboys owner/general manager/team terrorist Jerry Jones promised that uncomfortable changes would lie ahead.

If I can presume to know the mind of most Cowboys fans, the most welcome uncomfortable changes that come to mind are the end of Jason Garrett’s short and shoddy tenure and an exit strategy to get QB Tony Romo out of there. Romo has become toxic and indicative of the team’s middling mindset. That’s not to say that I think Jerry Jones is content to swim in mediocrity’s room temperature waters but much like his irresolute division rival Jeffrey Lurie keeping Andy Reid past the 2007 season his decisions indicate otherwise. If Lurie is the helpless Mayor from the Powerpuff Girls than Jones is the ever plotting and failing Mojo JoJo. 

Speaking of the Eagles, firing Rob Ryan strikes me as very similar to firing Juan Castillo. Sure, it probably needed to be done at some point but not before this, that, that, and that other thing over there. Yes Ryan has some odd ways of communicating and conducting a defense, and no he was not consistently effective or disciplined, but were the Cowboys a more functional organization with strong leadership, I could see Ryan being managed better and outliving this current crop and being fired as the last part of methodical overhaul if necessary.

But the Cowboys are not particularly methodical when it comes to these things. Or, at least, it doesn’t seem that way.  One thing to remember is that, although the emerging storyline is that Rob Ryan never got the defenses of any of the dysfunctional teams he coached for into the postseason, only Head Coaches  (and front offices) are truly judged on wins and losses. And that may have factored into Ryan’s firing.

Jones’ golden choice Jason Garrett was given a pass last season as Jones informed us all in October that Garrett really hadn’t been given a chance as he hadn’t coached 2 full seasons yet.  Jason Garrett was hired January 6th 2011. Rob Ryan was hired January 11, 2011. Maybe Garrett was all for hiring Rob Ryan but 5 days in between the “official” hiring of a big name doesn’t seem like a lot of time for a nobody head coach, albeit one very well liked by his boss, to choose “his guy.”  Rob Ryan’s hair and last name scream “Jerry Jones hired me.” 

If I’m Jason Garrett, and Rob Ryan is not my guy, I’m going to go to Jerry and make a case about why I need to put together my own lineup in order to be judged. I’d also make the case that if we’re “stuck with” solid but catastrophic-accident-prone Romo we simply cannot have a defense led by the most maniacal Ryan twin despite the bang up job he did with a defense full of players nobody had heard of before mid-season. 

Garrett has to be judged on his own merits which will be hard enough with Toxic Tony and MoJo JoJo surrounding him like an island. But if Ryan’s firing is an attempt to get control where allowed, it totally makes sense to me looking from the outside. Nobody wants to be a failed experiment. 

Oh really Cowboys? I see you. IT’S ON LIKE POPCORN!!!

I’m expecting to see a whole lot of this though.

The Eagles account had some fun with the comment too.

Cowboys running back Demarco Murray broke his ankle against the Giants.

The Cowboys are a very frustrating team.

I can deal with a team that simply lacks the talent to beat other teams. But when a team has about all the talent you can ask for and is still rather middle-of-the-road it’s frustrating. The Cowboys have a good QB, two solid receivers, an elite Tight End, and a great running back, yet they still can’t put it together. And for all of Rob Ryan’s big talk his defense sure isn’t consistent especially when it matters most.

Both the Cowboys and the Giants played up and down last night. And ultimately it came down to the teams’ patterns: The Cowboys made costly mistakes at the end and the Giants were carried by Eli Manning’s heroics. By the way, he hit over 4K yards passing for the season last night. After the game was over, Arash Markazi made this observation that is 100% correct.

oh wow! You mean there are Cowboys NOT named Tony Romo?

Apparently the Cowboys still enjoy some semblance of being America’s team or whatever cause the Redskins/Cowboys Monday Night Football game got the highest week 3 ratings EVER!  Eva eva? Yes, eva eva. But then again, the NFL is rising in popularity all around so maybe all credit shouldn’t be given to Cowboys marketing and the storied rivalry between them and the Skins.

I fell asleep on this super exciting game right after one of the teams kicked the 5th field goal. Don’t ask me which one cause I don’t like lying in public.

I think the game played out as expected with both defenses playing hard and the stars having a good showing (Demarcus Ware and Brian Orakpo, for example). And at the end, being personified by whichever QB made the last critical mistake. Which in this case was Redskins QB Rex Grossman. I wonder what his haters are saying this morning?

The real story of the week was whether Tony NoNo would play with the cracked rib and miraculously healed punctured lung he sustained in the game against the world famous San Francisco 49ers. And, also,  whether CB Deangelo Hall would take a hurting to any of NoNo’s injuries. Tony delivered. Deangelo lost his package.

I hope Romo doesn’t read a lot of sports sites. Really, no athlete should. But Romo especially given the fact that if he paid attention to what’s said about him even he wouldn’t know what to think of himself.

Romo has been crucified and resurrected more times than any QB in recent memory. I hear there’s a 3rd testament to the bible in the works that covers only Romo’s career. He has been carried to the morgue then dug up and paraded through the streets like a hero several times this season already—and it’s only Week 3.

Why can’t the media just finally decide how fucking good they think Romo is or isn’t and stop taking us on an emotional Romocoaster?

Here’s the real as I see it. As a QB, Romo is…OKAY…GOOD…SOLID…RESPECTABLE. He’s not in my top 10, he’s not elite, but he’s not terrible, embarrassing , middling or below average. He’s just fine. He’s in a comfortable quarterback suite that features a three tier bunk bed with Jay Cutler on top and Mark Sanchez on the bottom. #NoRomo (I’m sorry, but why is his name so much fun!)

Romo makes some critical mistakes at some of the worst times.  Sometimes he wins in spite of them and sometimes he loses badly. That’s what makes him GOOD and not great. But he’s not the only person on the team and he damn sure doesn’t coach himself. Ain’t nothing in this world wrong with having a solid QB. In fact, in this league it’s a blessing.

But back to my point. Romo is 31…he’s not a youngin anymore. We should have decided what we think about him already. But because sports is nothing without superlatives, and “good” just isn’t a good enough in the world of SEO, we are alternately told that Romo is huge disappointment or a gigantic under-appreciated success depending on whether a groundhog sees his shadow that day or not.

Quite frankly, I’m tired of it.

I remember one of my favorite players, Demarcus Ware, complaining about his ranking on the NFL Top 100 players list among other griping about not getting his due. It’s quite possible Ware doesn’t get his due in part because people are too busy talking about Romo to realize there are other Cowboys.

The great talent that is Dez Bryant could barely get a mention until the world found out he was in diamond debt. Nary a peep about Miles Austin until he dated and then promptly dumped hot hottie Kim Kardashian.

The next time people are so inclined to discuss how good Romo is consider it a well-worn NoNo and give some lip service to one of the other Cowboys. Sean Lee perhaps?

Dallas Cowboys QB Tony Romo has a cracked rib and a punctured lung. Currently, it hurts when he laughs. Brian Orakpo just shared this on facebook.

I can’t believe I have to say this…but I really don’t think that Tony Romo and Michael Vick should play Sunday (Eagles/Giants) and Monday (Cowboys/Redskins). To catch you up, Romo suffered a cracked rib and punctured lung against the San Francisco 49ers. And Vick was concussed in the game against the Atlanta Falcons. 4 days later and Romo is expected to play on Monday and Vick is currently a game time decision having participated in team walk throughs the last couple of days.

I realize that football players are the superest of humans, but this is so dumb it’s sickening. I get that football season is short and that every win counts, and you certainly want to nail those wins against teams that aren’t great lessening the blow of not beating superior teams. But if ever there was a good chance for backup QBs Kitna and Kafka to win games in their starters’ absence it’s against the Redskins (umm yeah I know they’re 2 and 0) and the depleted Giants.

How can a league that changed kickoffs in the interest of safety also send two players out to play given what they experienced last week? Redskins Cornerback D’Angelo Hall has already publicly said he will target Romo’s injury which is appropriate football strategy (however terrible some people thought it sounded). Whether Hall makes will make it over the line of scrimmage I don’t know, but there’s a HIGH probability OLB Brian Orakpo will. And SS Laron Landry is coming back off injury with something to prove. What better way to welcome yourself back then to grab a couple of sacks against your division rival?

Romo could be without his best receivers leaving him vulnerable to holding the ball longer when he has to pass. But I suppose it’ll be okay because we’ve been assured that the puncture was “small” and could clear up in a matter of “days?”

I don’t care!

Kafka had a good showing for the Eagles last week when Vick had to leave the game. And if Vince Young’s hammy feel better this week he’s likely to be available to play as well. The Eagles have a former starter and a promising youngin backing up Vick and are headed to play an injured team whose best strength the past couple seasons has been getting to the QB. Given the Eagles offensive line woes if Vick absorbs more hits, knockdowns and sacks in the next game while he’s already feeling badly…the likelihood of him fulfilling the gruesome prophecy held by many that he’s going to miss most of the season increases exponentially.

I ain’t with it.

There were a number of other players that suffered concussions this week, and I’ll try to keep track of who plays and who doesn’t for a future post.