Archer: Jason Garrett's Dallas Cowboys program is on the line in 2016

Chocolate Lab · Feb 8, 2016

Iamtdg said:
He wasn't out for the season. He was in the game when we lost 5 in a row. Weird, huh?

So many people refuse to acknowledge this. Dez wasn't out for the year. He played many games, and could have played the last couple also.

But too many act like he got hurt in the preseason and missed the whole season, like, say, Denver's great left tackle or Carolina's version of Dez Benjamin.

And the people who mention McClain and Murray need to stop. We didn't "lose" them, we let them go or signed them knowing they'd be suspended some games. Scandrick and Dunbar aren't season-changing players.

Smitty · Feb 8, 2016

Iamtdg said:
He wasn't out for the season. He was in the game when we lost 5 in a row. Weird, huh?

He wasn't the same and is having surgery to correct the problems that remained. Just saying his was not 2014 Dez.

Smitty · Feb 8, 2016

Chocolate Lab said:
So many people refuse to acknowledge this. Dez wasn't out for the year. He played many games, and could have played the last couple also.

But too many act like he got hurt in the preseason and missed the whole season, like, say, Denver's great left tackle or Carolina's version of Dez Benjamin.

And the people who mention McClain and Murray need to stop. We didn't "lose" them, we let them go or signed them knowing they'd be suspended some games. Scandrick and Dunbar aren't season-changing players.

I mention Murray not as an excuse -- I just think they missed him and didn't have an answer. That's on them for assuming they could roll with Randle though.

p1_ · Feb 8, 2016

Iamtdg said:
He wasn't out for the season. He was in the game when we lost 5 in a row. Weird, huh?

not to refute your point, but the games Bryant played upon his return saw him clearly not at full strength. He
wasn't close to his full capabilities. That is all.

GShock · Feb 8, 2016

As Sturm points out, Denver presents an interesting example. Tebow got them to a playoff game, won it, and they canned him for Manning (who at the time, couldn't throw). Seems obvious in retrospect, but they made the call that Tebow was not the future and moved on.

Manning gets them to a Super Bowl and gets blown out, so they build the best defense in football.

John Fox was their playoff winning coach who got them to a Super Bowl. Not cutting it, so he's gone in favor of Gary frakkin' Kubiak and his band of cast off coaches. Obvious upgrade? Not in my book, but there it is - Kubiak and Wade are Super Bowl Champions.

I don't know how ruthlessly competitive we are or are willing to be.

Smitty · Feb 8, 2016

Not that I'm a huge John Fox fan but I never would have signed off on replacing Fox with Kubiak (even leaving Wade out of the equation) if I was a Broncos fan.

Tebow isn't a fair example... everyone pretty much knew he sucked.

Chocolate Lab · Feb 8, 2016

GShock said:
I don't know how ruthlessly competitive we are or are willing to be.

Well, we all know Jerry has priorities other than building the best possible football team and coaching staff.

And on Kubiak, I always though he was good, way before this year. You don't win multiple playoff games with Matt Freaking Schaub without being pretty very good. His schemes and the way he teaches them are outstanding. And Phillips is as good or better than anyone on defense.

If we had Denver's coaching staff instead of Clapper Jones we'd have already won a Superbowl.

UncleMilti · Feb 8, 2016

Chocolate Lab said:
Well, we all know Jerry has priorities other than building the best possible football team and coaching staff.

And on Kubiak, I always though he was good, way before this year. You don't win multiple playoff games with Matt Freaking Schaub without being pretty very good. His schemes and the way he teaches them are outstanding. And Phillips is as good or better than anyone on defense.

If we had Denver's coaching staff instead of Clapper Jones we'd have already won a Superbowl.

Denver didn't get cute...they went out and paid money to bring in the pieces they felt were missing.....unlike Jones who still covets signing a "name" player, but yet lets important pieces of a team go and then acts like he has these unknown gems waiting in the wings to take their place. Stupidest shit I have ever seen, and a good reason why this team is no where near a SB.

Romo's chance was 2014, which Jerry fucked up-yet again- by getting cute and not addressing a glaringly pathetic pass rush from 2013.

Cowboysrock55 · Feb 8, 2016

UncleMilti said:
Denver didn't get cute...they went out and paid money to bring in the pieces they felt were missing.....unlike Jones who still covets signing a "name" player, but yet lets important pieces of a team go and then acts like he has these unknown gems waiting in the wings to take their place. Stupidest shit I have ever seen, and a good reason why this team is no where near a SB.

Romo's chance was 2014, which Jerry fucked up-yet again- by getting cute and not addressing a glaringly pathetic pass rush from 2013.

That's probably what Denver fans were saying a couple of years ago. It's not always possible to address every need in an offseason.

Clay_Allison · Feb 9, 2016

Cowboysrock55 said:
That's probably what Denver fans were saying a couple of years ago. It's not always possible to address every need in an offseason.

I don't know when Denver fans would have last had a right to complain about the pass rush. Before they signed Ware they had Elvis Dumervil.

Cowboysrock55 · Feb 9, 2016

Clay_Allison said:
I don't know when Denver fans would have last had a right to complain about the pass rush. Before they signed Ware they had Elvis Dumervil.

No but I'm sure when they went and lost the superbowl with an older QB they probably thought that was their one shot and they blew it. Maybe for them that year it was their Oline instead of a pass rush. Because their Oline looked like shit.

Clay_Allison · Feb 9, 2016

Cowboysrock55 said:
No but I'm sure when they went and lost the superbowl with an older QB they probably thought that was their one shot and they blew it. Maybe for them that year it was their Oline instead of a pass rush. Because their Oline looked like shit.

they year after they lost the SB they went 12-4 and had Ryan Clady back (he missed the SB season with injury) to improve the OL. They were still in the mix until Manning laid his annual playoff egg.

Cowboysrock55 · Feb 9, 2016

Clay_Allison said:
they year after they lost the SB they went 12-4 and had Ryan Clady back (he missed the SB season with injury) to improve the OL. They were still in the mix until Manning laid his annual playoff egg.

Sure and if we have a healthy Romo we will be right in the mix next year. Just like we were in 2014. Hell it's a shame we didn't have a healthy Romo this year because the NFL kind of stunk. The Broncos were one of the weaker superbowl winning teams in memory. Poor QB play. No great RB. Their defense was exceptional but not legendary either.

Clay_Allison · Feb 9, 2016

Cowboysrock55 said:
Sure and if we have a healthy Romo we will be right in the mix next year. Just like we were in 2014. Hell it's a shame we didn't have a healthy Romo this year because the NFL kind of stunk. The Broncos were one of the weaker superbowl winning teams in memory. Poor QB play. No great RB. Their defense was exceptional but not legendary either.

The defense is going to have to get a lot better for us to be in serious competition for anything. We still have a worse defense than the one Aaron Rodgers carved up while hopping on one leg.

Cowboysrock55 · Feb 9, 2016

Clay_Allison said:
The defense is going to have to get a lot better for us to be in serious competition for anything. We still have a worse defense than the one Aaron Rodgers carved up while hopping on one leg.

So you think the defense was worse in 2015 then it was in 2014? I disagree. I think the difference is our offense in 2014 absolutely dominated the TOP and was elite. It took all the pressure off the defense. In 2015 our offense was horrific. Basically doing the exact opposite. We gave up less yards in 2015 then we did in 2014 for example. We were 15th in the NFL in Defense in 2014 and we were 16th in Defense in 2015 (by points per game which is way more important then yards in reality). Our pass rush improved in 2015.

Honestly, give the 2015 defense the same offense as we had in 2014 and I think you would have noticed the marked improvement. It's just hard to see when your offense is going 3 and out every drive.

Clay_Allison · Feb 9, 2016

Cowboysrock55 said:
So you think the defense was worse in 2015 then it was in 2014? I disagree. I think the difference is our offense in 2014 absolutely dominated the TOP and was elite. It took all the pressure off the defense. In 2015 our offense was horrific. Basically doing the exact opposite. We gave up less yards in 2015 then we did in 2014 for example. We were 15th in the NFL in Defense in 2014 and we were 16th in Defense in 2015 (by points per game which is way more important then yards in reality). Our pass rush improved in 2015.

Honestly, give the 2015 defense the same offense as we had in 2014 and I think you would have noticed the marked improvement. It's just hard to see when your offense is going 3 and out every drive.

They regressed when it came to generating turnovers. I know teams were content to play it very conservative knowing that with Cassell they didn't have to score much to win, but whether the 2015 defense was better or worse than 2014 is immaterial. Neither one is good enough to win a championship.

Carolina and Seattle have been riding defense as well as an efficient balanced offense to the SB. We don't have a defense of their quality.

Cowboysrock55 · Feb 9, 2016

Clay_Allison said:
They regressed when it came to generating turnovers. I know teams were content to play it very conservative knowing that with Cassell they didn't have to score much to win, but whether the 2015 defense was better or worse than 2014 is immaterial. Neither one is good enough to win a championship.

Well they may be good enough to win a championship, it's just a matter of how good the offense is. You bring up Carolina and Seattle but neither of their offenses were very scary either. So they needed dominant defenses. The Patriots have been able to win Superbowls with less then stellar defenses for example.

I agree that we need to keep building the defense though. We have added some really good young pieces over the last couple of drafts and need to continue doing that. Guys like Demarcus Lawrence, Randy Gregory, Anthony Hitchens and Byron Jones need to continue to develop and hopefully because excellent starters. We have some nice veterans when healthy in Scandrick, Sean Lee and Tyrone Crawford. Obviously still some spots for major improvement and depth such as DT and safety. But I think you have to trust the development of a guy like Gregory who is an elite talent.

Clay_Allison · Feb 9, 2016

Cowboysrock55 said:
Well they may be good enough to win a championship, it's just a matter of how good the offense is. You bring up Carolina and Seattle but neither of their offenses were very scary either. So they needed dominant defenses. The Patriots have been able to win Superbowls with less then stellar defenses for example.

I agree that we need to keep building the defense though. We have added some really good young pieces over the last couple of drafts and need to continue doing that. Guys like Demarcus Lawrence, Randy Gregory, Anthony Hitchens and Byron Jones need to continue to develop and hopefully because excellent starters. We have some nice veterans when healthy in Scandrick, Sean Lee and Tyrone Crawford. Obviously still some spots for major improvement and depth such as DT and safety. But I think you have to trust the development of a guy like Gregory who is an elite talent.

I don't trust Marinelli's defense to be flexible and come up with plays when we need them. He has his 'never blitz' 'never press' mentality and he won't change.

Cowboysrock55 · Feb 9, 2016

Clay_Allison said:
I don't trust Marinelli's defense to be flexible and come up with plays when we need them. He has his 'never blitz' 'never press' mentality and he won't change.

Like him or not he coached a Bears defense that led the NFL in INTs, takeaways and finished third in the NFL in terms of points. So the scheme absolutely can work. It can be frustrating at times. Trust me, I really wish we blitzed more. But it can definitely work. We just need the players to work it. Obviously that starts with pass rushers and DBs who can catch the god damn ball.

Clay_Allison · Feb 9, 2016

Cowboysrock55 said:
Like him or not he coached a Bears defense that led the NFL in INTs, takeaways and finished third in the NFL in terms of points. So the scheme absolutely can work. It can be frustrating at times. Trust me, I really wish we blitzed more. But it can definitely work. We just need the players to work it. Obviously that starts with pass rushers and DBs who can catch the god damn ball.

And we're stuck with 3-4 guys for db coaches. We haven't bothered interviewing guys like Leslie Frazier who have experience in the scheme. We're not using the zone to produce turnovers, we're just reverting to the old "ten yards of cushion" soft man coverage that this team always seems to run no matter what.

Archer: Jason Garrett's Dallas Cowboys program is on the line in 2016

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