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Jason Garrett believes in Brandon Weeden
November, 3, 2014
By Todd Archer | ESPNDallas.com
IRVING, Texas -- It might fall under the category of what else can he say, but coach Jason Garrett said he believes the Dallas Cowboys can win with Brandon Weeden.
Filling in for an injured Tony Romo, Weeden completed 18 of 33 passes for 183 yards with a touchdown and two interceptions in the Cowboys' 28-17 loss to the Arizona Cardinals.
Garrett's basis for optimism was based on the relief performance against the Washington Redskins on Oct. 27 in which Weeden completed 4 of 6 passes for 69 yards and a touchdown.
"There were some positive things in the game [Sunday] that you can point to," Garrett said. "But for the most part we didn't do what we needed to do in the passing game throughout the game. We've got to build on some of the good things that did happen. There were a couple of scoring drives that were positive. What happens in a game like that, you hear me say this a lot, there's one play within one drive, you have 10 scoring opportunities in the game and if you don't make it in the run game or the pass game or you get behind the chains with a penalty, it starts to impact the game. We had a couple of those. [We] didn't convert on third down like we had up to this point this year and some of those plays that impacted those scoring chances certainly hurt us."
Garrett did not absolve Weeden of blame, but the coach spread it around to other parts of the offense. The Cardinals' top goal was to stop DeMarco Murray. He had his streak of 100-yard games stopped at eight 79 yards on 19 carries, and that put more of a burden on Weeden.
"They want to have a lot of guys up there around the line of scrimmage to force you to become a one-dimensional team," Garrett said. "We feel like it's important to continue to persist and be stubborn with the running game. But having said that you have to make some plays in the passing game. There were some opportunities there that we didn't take full advantage of. Everybody's a part of that. The quarterback's a part of that, but the receivers, the tight ends, the runners, the offensive line, everybody's a part of that. If you're not effective in the passing game against this style of defense you're going to have a hard day because they're going to make it hard on you to run the football. We just weren't balanced enough and efficient enough in our balance to play the game we needed to play offensively."
Despite getting all the snaps during the week of practice and taking the first-team work on six straight Wednesdays, Weeden showed some rust against Arizona. At times he missed reads, locking in on a receiver instead of going through his progressions.
"I think anytime you're talking about a young quarterback, that's something they have to develop a skill to be able to go from receiver to receiver, go through a progression, read a coverage and know where to go and that triggers a progression," Garrett said. "That's something all young quarterbacks go through. Brandon hasn't started that many games. I don't think that's a big issue but it did show up a couple times in this game."
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November, 3, 2014
By Todd Archer | ESPNDallas.com
IRVING, Texas -- It might fall under the category of what else can he say, but coach Jason Garrett said he believes the Dallas Cowboys can win with Brandon Weeden.
Filling in for an injured Tony Romo, Weeden completed 18 of 33 passes for 183 yards with a touchdown and two interceptions in the Cowboys' 28-17 loss to the Arizona Cardinals.
Garrett's basis for optimism was based on the relief performance against the Washington Redskins on Oct. 27 in which Weeden completed 4 of 6 passes for 69 yards and a touchdown.
"There were some positive things in the game [Sunday] that you can point to," Garrett said. "But for the most part we didn't do what we needed to do in the passing game throughout the game. We've got to build on some of the good things that did happen. There were a couple of scoring drives that were positive. What happens in a game like that, you hear me say this a lot, there's one play within one drive, you have 10 scoring opportunities in the game and if you don't make it in the run game or the pass game or you get behind the chains with a penalty, it starts to impact the game. We had a couple of those. [We] didn't convert on third down like we had up to this point this year and some of those plays that impacted those scoring chances certainly hurt us."
Garrett did not absolve Weeden of blame, but the coach spread it around to other parts of the offense. The Cardinals' top goal was to stop DeMarco Murray. He had his streak of 100-yard games stopped at eight 79 yards on 19 carries, and that put more of a burden on Weeden.
"They want to have a lot of guys up there around the line of scrimmage to force you to become a one-dimensional team," Garrett said. "We feel like it's important to continue to persist and be stubborn with the running game. But having said that you have to make some plays in the passing game. There were some opportunities there that we didn't take full advantage of. Everybody's a part of that. The quarterback's a part of that, but the receivers, the tight ends, the runners, the offensive line, everybody's a part of that. If you're not effective in the passing game against this style of defense you're going to have a hard day because they're going to make it hard on you to run the football. We just weren't balanced enough and efficient enough in our balance to play the game we needed to play offensively."
Despite getting all the snaps during the week of practice and taking the first-team work on six straight Wednesdays, Weeden showed some rust against Arizona. At times he missed reads, locking in on a receiver instead of going through his progressions.
"I think anytime you're talking about a young quarterback, that's something they have to develop a skill to be able to go from receiver to receiver, go through a progression, read a coverage and know where to go and that triggers a progression," Garrett said. "That's something all young quarterbacks go through. Brandon hasn't started that many games. I don't think that's a big issue but it did show up a couple times in this game."
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