When it was announced that Tony Romo would not start against the Cardinals, I knew we would have a hard time winning this game. I was not surprised by the performance, but some issues have been confirmed in this 28-17 loss.
Here are my takes on the game:
— Brandon Weeden is Babe Laughenberg, horrible #2QB. Weeden could not move the ball and was terrible on 3rd downs. 3-11 on 3rd down is not going to get it done. I wonder if Vaughan would have done worse?
— DeMarco Murray’s consecutive 100 yard games ended today. Murray ended with 19 for 79 hards.
— You can see how the offensive line is struggling without the starters, Free and Leary. Bernadeau and Parnell did not play good. Run blocking was the worst this game and the pass blocking was suspect too. The Cowboys need to get healthy on the offensive line and go back to shoving the running game down throats.
— DeMarcus Lawrence made his debut and held his own. He’ll be a work in progress the rest of the season. Hopefully, down the stretch Lawrence will get into a groove and be more of a nuisance. Didn’t happen today. The Cowboys will need more defense in the 2015 draft.
— Henry Melton has stepped up his game and could very well end up earning his contract extension if the Cowboys decide to pick up his club option at the end of the season. Crawford’s potential MCL injury will leave us lighter at the 3-tech. I wonder if Davon Coleman gets activated next game.
— Cowboys drop to second place in the NFC East. The Eagles made easy work of the lowly Texans and now sit atop the NFC East.
— Anthony Hitchens got the start and had a solid game, maybe the highlight of some poor defense today. Hopefully Hitchens can take that momentum the rest of the year.
— The Cowboys are not looking as dominate right now with some injuries starting to pop up as we are heading towards the final half of the season. We need to get healthy on both sides of the ball.
— Lance Dunbar is great in the screen game, but he’s very ineffective from the backfield in the running game.
Looking Ahead
The Cowboys game in London is a must win for me. We need to head into the bye at 7-3 and not 6-4.
8-8 has been our record the last three seasons and the Cowboys need to get to 10-6 to get into the playoff picture. I’d rather go on a winning streak and clinch the division, but things are going to get hairy after the bye.
Here’s who we have after the bye: @ Giants; Eagles; @ Bears; @ Eagles; Colts; @ Redskins
The Cowboys will need to win half of those games in my opinion. Do we have 3 wins in us after the bye week? Assuming we beat the Jaguars.
If we get healthy, and we should, then we should be able to control our destiny in regards to playoff hopes. There will probably be a wild card team coming from the NFC East and NFC North. If the Cowboys fall against the Jaguars, we are going to have a lot more pressure on us.
I think we can sweep the Giants, and with the Eagles being beat up we should be able to win at least 1 or 2 games against them. The Bears are a mess right now, but they have owned us the last few seasons, so who knows about that one. The Colts game will probably have some playoff implications for both of us, so this will be a battle.
The Cowboys need to get back to running over teams and keeping our defense off the field and fresh.
Johnny Manziel in 2015?
Would a third back surgery end Romo’s career? I’m worried the Cowboys are working on borrowed time with him, and if Romo continues to be injured and requires another surgery at the end of the year, he may retire for the sake of his longterm health and family.
Things will get very crazy around here if Romo does not heal up. I could see Jerry trading for Manziel. Hoyer is playing great in Cleveland and on his way to earning a new contract in Cleveland. If this happens, Manziel will be on the trading block and with the Cowboys doing draft day trades with Cleveland a few times over the years, this could come to fruition. I’m not saying I want this to happen, but if things start to fall in place it may happen.
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