JJT: Monte Kiffin experiment a failure

[boozeman]

I am not unhappy we tok Frederick where we did...the issue I had was that we did not follow our board. We had Floyd at 5 and we passed on him at 18.

We had zero board integrity in this past draft as much as we like to talk that everyone we took was on it. We passed up Floyd for Frederick. We even took Escobust even though Williams was ranked higher and we simply got fortunate.

 

[Smitty]

If I'm looking for a guy who can run a 21st century offense that produces points I'm interested in Pete Carmichael Jr. He kept the offense rolling in New Orleans when Sean Payton was suspended. Since we will never have a running game or any semblance of balance on this team we might as well go all out and copy New Orleans. Sean Payton thought he could build his offense around Romo and tried to get him, he got a better QB in Brees, but that doesn't mean his offense won't work around Romo.

I actually think, other than the OL, we are most similar to most similar to New Orleans, out of all the other teams with top QBs.

 

[Smitty]

We had zero board integrity in this past draft as much as we like to talk that everyone we took was on it. We passed up Floyd for Frederick. We even took Escobust even though Williams was ranked higher and we simply got fortunate.

Yeah, kinda amazing that we seemed to luck into probably 2 of the better picks we've made in the last half decade or so (Frederick and Williams, relative to where they were taken, they were very good picks -- Williams an outright steal, and Frederick, while not a steal at 29, still an impressive projection of him as a first rounder when no one else had him there).

Both were done by really abandoning our board.

That's luck. We need to avoid that in the future.

 

[L.T. Fan]

I actually think, other than the OL, we are most similar to most similar to New Orleans, out of all the other teams with top QBs.

Are you saying that the Dallas OL can run block like N.O.?
Addendum. I think I misread your post.

 

[1bigfan13]

You know things are bad when fans of rival teams have pity on you and won't even talk trash to you.

Today is my first day back at work since Sunday night's game and I was expecting some friendly trash talk from the usual suspects that work in my building. Giant fans, Redskin fans, Saint fans, etc.

Sunday night's performance was so bad that they literally felt sorry for me.

I'd rather that talk trash to me than feel sorry for me.

 

[lostxn]

Are you saying that the Dallas OL can run block like N.O.?
Addendum. I think I misread your post.

If we played our defense sans Sean Lee I suspect they could...

 

[boozeman]

Garrett has “tremendous confidence” in Kiffin

Posted on November 12, 2013 | By Tom Orsborn



IRVING – The Cowboys rank last in total defense and are coming off a 49-17 loss to New Orleans in which they yielded a club-record 625 points and an NFL-record 40 first downs.

Despite all that, coach Jason Garrett said he has a “tremendous amount of confidence” in defensive coordinator Monte Kiffin and his assistants. A big reason why: The Cowboys have already surpassed last season’s takeaway total.

“He has done a lot of positive things,” Garrett said. “I keep going back to the takeaways but that is an important part of the game. That is a stat that can’t go unnoticed because it impacts the game. It impacts our scoring on offense and that’s a good thing for a our football team. We have to get better in some other areas. Health has been a huge factor on defense. It’s not an excuse, but its been a huge factor. We are playing a lot of different guys.”

Garrett also said he didn’t think any drastic schematic changes are needed.

“I think you go back and say, ‘What have we done well? What haven’t we done well?’ ” he said. “You build on the stuff you’ve done well and you maybe minimize some of the stuff that you haven’t been as good at. “

Asked what the defense has “done well” besides generate turnovers, Garrett said, “I don’t want to get into too many specifics of that from a scheme standpoint, but we have done some good things. I think the numbers are pretty revealing in that regard when you look at the first 10 weeks of the season. Again, you try to play to the strengths of your players and make sure you give them a chance to be successful.”

 

[boozeman]

Ware says Saints exposed Cowboys defense having to use inexperienced players



Defensive end DeMarcus Ware said a team like the Saints will take advantage of a defense that doesn’t have its most experienced players, like the Cowboys on Sunday night.

“I mean, when you have five guys, six of the starters out, the best way to fix it is get your guys back,” Ware said, asked what the Cowboys can do to get better following the 49-17 loss. “Sometimes you have guys in there who sort of don’t know what they’re doing because it’s probably their first time playing in a long time. When you have a team that doesn’t make mistakes and sort of exposes you that way, with those guys that are in the game, that’s what they did. So you’ve got to get the guys back who know what’s going on and use that bye week to make a big push.”

Ware said the scheme is fine.

“It’s the play. You’ve got to be fundamentally sound,” he said. “It’s so simple, but the thing is you’ve got to be fundamentally sound when you’re doing it.”

Ware said it was a helpless feeling for him when he wasn’t in the game. He aggravated his quadriceps injury on a sack in the second quarter and was in and out of the game. He said the leg is good, however.

“I’m doing everything I can not to let it happen again,” he said. “It was something minor on the sack. The play I got the sack, it’s just my knee hit the ground and tweaked it a little bit, and it was like that the whole game.”

Ware said he’s optimistic about playing in the Giants game, and he looked back on the season as a whole as the Cowboys hit their bye week.

“It was a lot of ups and downs,” he said. “There wasn’t enough consistency like we needed. Right now we’re half and half. We’re at 5-5. We’ve got to find some way to take this bye weekend and rejuvenate ourselves, get all the guys back and come to the table with a relentless demeanor of trying to win every game out.”

-- Carlos Mendez

 

[boozeman]

Garrett keeps confidence in Kiffin because of takeaways, but cutting no slack for injuries



Jason Garrett said he still has confidence in defensive coordinator Monte Kiffin largely because of the takeaway numbers this year.

“I keep going back to the takeaways, but that is an important part of the game,” Garrett said. “That is a stat that can’t be unnoticed, because it impacts the game. It impacts our scoring on offense, and that’s a good thing for our football team.”

The Cowboys have 22 takeaways through 10 games, better than the 19 through 16 games last year. That includes 12 interceptions and 10 fumble recoveries.

“We have to get better in some other areas,” Garrett said. “Health has been a huge factor on defense. It’s not an excuse, but its been a huge factor. We are playing a lot of different guys, a lot of new guys, a lot of young guys. That’s part of it. That’s where we are. We have to make sure it works.

“I have the utmost confidence in Kiffin and the defense to help get that done.”

Garrett said Kiffin is not getting a break in accountability because of injuries, however.

“We don’t make any excuses for anybody,” Garrett said. “We certainly understand that we have a lot of different guys playing on defense. We get that. We bring those guys in, we teach them quickly and they play in the game. That’s been a situation we’ve had all through the year, but teams that absorb the injuries the best are the ones playing at the end. We’re in the situation we’re in, and we have to figure it out. Players need to figure it out. Coaches need to figure it out.

“There’s going to be a game in a couple of weeks that we’ve got to get ready for and we’re going to have some guys available and some guys who aren’t. The guys who are available have got to go out and play.”

-- Carlos Mendez

 

[Genghis Khan]

Rob Ryan: "I'm only looking at corners."

Pointing out yet another Garrett flaw, that he has no control over his defenses and is at the mercy of his defensive coordinators? Cool.

 

[Genghis Khan]

Or maybe we could've drafted Floyd at 18 and Fredbeard in the 2nd round. You know, like what we should have done?

We wouldn't have Williams, and there's a good chance Frederick wouldn't have been there at our 2nd round pick considering how many offensive linemen were drafted higher than expected.

 

[Genghis Khan]

I am not unhappy we tok Frederick where we did...the issue I had was that we did not follow our board. We had Floyd at 5 and we passed on him at 18.

That's how I feel.

I like what we did. We got 2 good/very good players from one pick. That's excellent.

But I do find it disturbing that apparently we had no interest in drafting our number 5 ranked player. It suggests we weren't prepared.

 

[Genghis Khan]

Thanks, Phil, or shall I start calling you "schmitty"? Are you also going to say that only under the tutelage of one Jason Garrett could we have been able to muster 17 points? Because, without him and his "process" we couldn't possibly have been able to score more?

I think someone here is having a little trouble processing Phil's sarcasm.

 

[Genghis Khan]

If I'm looking for a guy who can run a 21st century offense that produces points I'm interested in Pete Carmichael Jr. He kept the offense rolling in New Orleans when Sean Payton was suspended. Since we will never have a running game or any semblance of balance on this team we might as well go all out and copy New Orleans. Sean Payton thought he could build his offense around Romo and tried to get him, he got a better QB in Brees, but that doesn't mean his offense won't work around Romo.

Carmichael had Brees, though. I'm hesitant to credit Carmichael for that.

 

[boozeman]

Pointing out yet another Garrett flaw, that he has no control over his defenses and is at the mercy of his defensive coordinators? Cool.

I will defend Garrett a bit here.

Most coaches that are too deep into one side of the football are like that.

Jimmy Johnson was a great D coach but struggled until he hired Norv Turner.

Sometimes you have to have the right marriage, especially if you are hiring guys you are not familiar with and have worked with a long time.

In Garrett's case, I think he's so weak on his side of the football that he's not able to field a dominant enough unit to be able to afford a weak defense. He's just not that smart or innovative. I also don't think he knows anything other than preaching process and execute and lacks the emotional temperament to get through to people. Sometimes you simply have to put it out there. Take risks, it sometimes excites players that in today's NFL honestly need strange little inspirations to just do their jobs.

He also hasn't had a deep history of cronies and battle axes he can pull from on that side of the football. He had a chance to get Ray Horton this year and I think he blew it. I am sure he could have pushed harder.

Personally, I would take a head coach with a defensive background over offense. Maybe even a special teams guy like Schottenheimer, Cowher or Harbaugh.

 

[boozeman]

Carmichael had Brees, though. I'm hesitant to credit Carmichael for that.

He could very easily be another McDaniel trying to be a pretend Hoodie. He even wears a visor like Sean Payton.

 

[Plan9Misfit]

I think someone here is having a little trouble processing Phil's sarcasm.

I picked up on the sarcasm but wanted to fuck with him, anyway. He's normally much funnier and more eloquent. I was kinda disappointed that Phil's trademark wit didn't shine through in that post.

 

[Clay_Allison]

Carmichael had Brees, though. I'm hesitant to credit Carmichael for that.

I don't know any great coordinators that have terrible QBs. A guy like him could be another McDaniel/Callahan or he might be another Reid/Gruden who grasps and can install a successful offense.

 

[Carp]

I like Roman because he gets quite a bit out of an offense with what I think is a very limited QB.

 

[boozeman]

I like Roman because he gets quite a bit out of an offense with what I think is a very limited QB.

I am more impressed with the concepts they use running the football. They have multiple power blocking schemes that you simply don't see most teams using.