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- Apr 7, 2013
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Woke up this morning still agitated about the game plan. I'm fine with the loss because any realistic football fan understands your team is going to suffer some losses throughout the course of a season. However, yesterday it felt like the game plan that was installed didn't give our guys a chance to win, at all. I'm mainly talking about the reluctance to commit to the run. As we kind of discussed in the chatter thread yesterday, even greats like Emmitt Smith had a stinker or two along the way. But what really bothers me is not Zeke's total yardage but his total rush attempts. NINE carries for the game. NINE!?!?! He should have had that by halftime. Chances are you aren't going to beat that Broncos team with a one-dimensional passing attack. Trying to do so plays right into the strength of their team, and for some reason we chose to attack their strength.
I'd be a little more at peace with this loss if Zeke had 20 carries for 8 yards. Because then I would at least know that we leaned on the strength of our team went down riding our best. But 9 carries leaves you wondering "What if". Granted there were a ton of other things that went wrong yesterday, so the lack of a running game wasn't the only reason we lost. But I single the lack of rush attempts out because running the ball is supposed to be who we are. Teams know we're coming at them with Zeke and the OL and we still bludgeon them repeatedly with it until they cry uncle late in the game. That philosophy worked beautifully in 2014 & 2016.
As for Dak, Garrett, & Linehan I'll say this. They'd better check their egos with all this passing because it will not end well. Never has ended well for these Cowboys. Tony Romo was a superior passer to Dak and every year the Cowboys decided to lean on the pass rather than the run, the results were typically an 8-8 kind of season. The seasons where we decided to lean on a strong run game and bludgeon teams in the trenches, the results were usually outstanding. Seems like an easy choice to make but egos tend to cloud judgement.
Dak has struggled against two very good secondaries so far this season. The Cardinals secondary is strong as well. If Dak and co. think they're going to have success slinging it around 40 times against the Cardinals, they're fooling themselves.
I'd be a little more at peace with this loss if Zeke had 20 carries for 8 yards. Because then I would at least know that we leaned on the strength of our team went down riding our best. But 9 carries leaves you wondering "What if". Granted there were a ton of other things that went wrong yesterday, so the lack of a running game wasn't the only reason we lost. But I single the lack of rush attempts out because running the ball is supposed to be who we are. Teams know we're coming at them with Zeke and the OL and we still bludgeon them repeatedly with it until they cry uncle late in the game. That philosophy worked beautifully in 2014 & 2016.
As for Dak, Garrett, & Linehan I'll say this. They'd better check their egos with all this passing because it will not end well. Never has ended well for these Cowboys. Tony Romo was a superior passer to Dak and every year the Cowboys decided to lean on the pass rather than the run, the results were typically an 8-8 kind of season. The seasons where we decided to lean on a strong run game and bludgeon teams in the trenches, the results were usually outstanding. Seems like an easy choice to make but egos tend to cloud judgement.
Dak has struggled against two very good secondaries so far this season. The Cardinals secondary is strong as well. If Dak and co. think they're going to have success slinging it around 40 times against the Cardinals, they're fooling themselves.