I may say things I later change my mind about but right now I'm feeling pretty gloomy. Let's get right into the recap, no matter how tough it is to write.In an early must-win game against an NFC foe, Dallas dropped the ball again (literally... plus two interceptions) and will start their season 0-2 for the first time since 2001, when we began our Quincy Carter era.
It's easy to overlook the positives and focus on the negatives at a time like this, and I will be no different, simply because the negatives were far too frequent.
Who gets crucified this week? Buehler? Jason Garrett? Wade? Sure... How about Romo? Roy Williams? Alan Ball? Yea, them too. The whole organization failed miserably in many ways.
Before I go into the problems, I do however want to acknowledge Dez Bryant's 62 yard punt return touchdown and Miles Austin's impressive 10 catches for 142 yards. These two were rays of sunshine peaking through an overcast cloud.Now on to the problems... where to begin... How about play-calling. The worst call which changed momentum terribly was the pooch kick right after Dez's punt return touchdown. Whatever the thought was, it failed. Chicago had great field position and drove for a three play touchdown drive. Dallas couldn't get any rhythm after this.
Another frustrating bit of play-calling was giving up on the run so early in the game and constantly throwing on first down. The running game was just picking up when Garrett decided to shut it down and pass. Garrett needs to work on fundamentals and stop playing so damn fancy. Just get the basic things to work and then experiment a little. Simple as that.
David Buehler. Tsk, Tsk, Tsk. I had really high hopes for this kid but he failed to get a touchback again, messed up the pooch kick and of course missed a crucial 40 some yard field goal.I think we're going to have to bring in a new kicker either this week or during the bye. Maybe we keep Buehler in his kick-off specialist role, but we need a dedicated field goal kicker soon... He's had his chance and now for whatever reason he's just not showing up under pressure.
Roy Williams... another guy that we want so badly to be good, just can't do it. Sure, he had some good catches but he had a few more bad drops and he was behind the very costly fumble in the forth quarter.
Roy, it just seems that it wasn't meant to be, I wish it would've worked out but there just isn't any chemistry. It's not you, it's me, I swear... Oh wait, maybe it is you.
The Cowboys' defense was not horrible, but they were not great. They gave up some critical big plays that changed the game and they failed to have any turnovers. 2 weeks, 0 turnovers... this was something Wade was hoping to rectify in the off-season. I guess it's back to the drawing board.
Also, our co-number 1 cornerback, Mike Jenkins was injured late in the game. Initial x-ray's were negative, but he will be getting an MRI today to determine the extent of his injuries. It appears to be a knee problem. Crossing my fingers that he is back sooner than later, Jenkins is a key element in this defense.
There were tons of other errors, too many to list unless I want this blog post to be too long to comfortably read (which is already is.)
The Bottom line is this... Dallas is in trouble. You wouldn't often say that after only the second game of the season, but after losing two winnable games, going 0-2 and looking ahead at an extremely difficult schedule, these Cowboys are in trouble.
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