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Cowlishaw: 1-5 Cowboys should start looking to NFL Draft
02:02 AM CDT on Tuesday, October 26, 2010
ARLINGTON – If the Cowboys can’t play in the Super Bowl this city will host in February, they can at least be major players in the NFL’s second biggest event.
Tim Cowlishaw
Archive | Blog | Bio | E-mail
And for the April draft, the 1-5 Cowboys are practically on the clock.
Too soon?
It will be recorded for posterity that the Cowboys' 2010 season ended with 12:07 left in the second quarter Monday night. That's when Tony Romo lay motionless on the turf with what would be diagnosed at halftime as a fractured left clavicle.
There is absolutely no question that, in his absence, things got noticeably worse in the second half of the New York Giants' 41-35 win over the Cowboys.
And the losses will mount these next 10 weeks since there's no reason to think Romo could return before all mathematical playoff hopes have been eliminated.
The Cowboys had 38-year-old Jon Kitna on the roster as a backup for one- or two-game emergencies, not half a season of football.
But the truth is that Romo's injury will obscure this team's deficiencies. The Cowboys were playing lousy football before he showed up on the sideline in a sling. Not just Monday night, but all season.
You don't get to 1-5 against the teams the Cowboys have faced and fallen to without having serious flaws.
Even Monday night with what some might have seen as the season on the line – that was actually last week in Minnesota – the Cowboys had everything going their way early and it wasn't enough.
Two interceptions provided a quick 10 points. Dez Bryant's 93-yard punt return, second longest in team history, energized the crowd and staked Dallas to a 20-7 advantage.
Yet even with that, Eli Manning (306 yards passing, four TDs) was picking apart the Dallas secondary, isolating receivers on safety Gerald Sensabaugh and nickel cornerback Orlando Scandrick seemingly at will.
Quarterback injuries are game changers, and they are season changers – no question about that. But the manner in which the Giants got this game from a 20-7 deficit to a 38-20 advantage poked substantial holes in the myth of the Cowboys as a contender.
These numbers don't lie as to just how much the Cowboys defense either quit or got exposed (take your pick).
The Giants scored 31 points in slightly fewer than 15 minutes from mid-second to mid-third quarter. On those five scoring drives, the Giants totaled 270 yards.
In less than a quarter.
That's not a product of the Cowboys not having a quarterback.
That's about not covering receivers, about making Giants back Brandon Jacobs look like he was a true force again, about repeatedly whiffing on open-field tackles.
That's a team that either can't play or doesn't care enough to play hard because it knows it will never get called out publicly by its head coach.
Wade Phillips said he thought his defense wore down from too many three-and-outs by the offense.
Ball in your court, Jason?
Doesn't matter.
This Cowboys team – yes, one picked oh-so-wrongly as Super Bowl-bound by myself and many others – stinks for many reasons. But one of the biggest is that you can't identify its problems from week to week.
If you thought it was all about special teams in previous losses, well, the special teams were great Monday night.
If you thought it was all about penalties, the Cowboys didn't commit their first until past the midpoint of the second quarter.
The Cowboys' problems change on a game-to-game basis. But it's impossible to watch Chicago's Jay Cutler these days and think, "The Cowboys couldn't sack him repeatedly or pick off his passes?" Phillips' defense is awful. Garrett's offense, much better at piling up yards than points, is about to get worse.
At 1-5, the Cowboys are off to their worst start since the 1989 team lost its first eight games and finished 1-15.
Those Cowboys drafted Emmitt Smith the next spring and won a Super Bowl in three years.
Forget the question I posed at the start.
Bring on the draft talk. It's never too soon.
• • •
02:02 AM CDT on Tuesday, October 26, 2010
ARLINGTON – If the Cowboys can’t play in the Super Bowl this city will host in February, they can at least be major players in the NFL’s second biggest event.
Tim Cowlishaw
Archive | Blog | Bio | E-mail
And for the April draft, the 1-5 Cowboys are practically on the clock.
Too soon?
It will be recorded for posterity that the Cowboys' 2010 season ended with 12:07 left in the second quarter Monday night. That's when Tony Romo lay motionless on the turf with what would be diagnosed at halftime as a fractured left clavicle.
There is absolutely no question that, in his absence, things got noticeably worse in the second half of the New York Giants' 41-35 win over the Cowboys.
And the losses will mount these next 10 weeks since there's no reason to think Romo could return before all mathematical playoff hopes have been eliminated.
The Cowboys had 38-year-old Jon Kitna on the roster as a backup for one- or two-game emergencies, not half a season of football.
But the truth is that Romo's injury will obscure this team's deficiencies. The Cowboys were playing lousy football before he showed up on the sideline in a sling. Not just Monday night, but all season.
You don't get to 1-5 against the teams the Cowboys have faced and fallen to without having serious flaws.
Even Monday night with what some might have seen as the season on the line – that was actually last week in Minnesota – the Cowboys had everything going their way early and it wasn't enough.
Two interceptions provided a quick 10 points. Dez Bryant's 93-yard punt return, second longest in team history, energized the crowd and staked Dallas to a 20-7 advantage.
Yet even with that, Eli Manning (306 yards passing, four TDs) was picking apart the Dallas secondary, isolating receivers on safety Gerald Sensabaugh and nickel cornerback Orlando Scandrick seemingly at will.
Quarterback injuries are game changers, and they are season changers – no question about that. But the manner in which the Giants got this game from a 20-7 deficit to a 38-20 advantage poked substantial holes in the myth of the Cowboys as a contender.
These numbers don't lie as to just how much the Cowboys defense either quit or got exposed (take your pick).
The Giants scored 31 points in slightly fewer than 15 minutes from mid-second to mid-third quarter. On those five scoring drives, the Giants totaled 270 yards.
In less than a quarter.
That's not a product of the Cowboys not having a quarterback.
That's about not covering receivers, about making Giants back Brandon Jacobs look like he was a true force again, about repeatedly whiffing on open-field tackles.
That's a team that either can't play or doesn't care enough to play hard because it knows it will never get called out publicly by its head coach.
Wade Phillips said he thought his defense wore down from too many three-and-outs by the offense.
Ball in your court, Jason?
Doesn't matter.
This Cowboys team – yes, one picked oh-so-wrongly as Super Bowl-bound by myself and many others – stinks for many reasons. But one of the biggest is that you can't identify its problems from week to week.
If you thought it was all about special teams in previous losses, well, the special teams were great Monday night.
If you thought it was all about penalties, the Cowboys didn't commit their first until past the midpoint of the second quarter.
The Cowboys' problems change on a game-to-game basis. But it's impossible to watch Chicago's Jay Cutler these days and think, "The Cowboys couldn't sack him repeatedly or pick off his passes?" Phillips' defense is awful. Garrett's offense, much better at piling up yards than points, is about to get worse.
At 1-5, the Cowboys are off to their worst start since the 1989 team lost its first eight games and finished 1-15.
Those Cowboys drafted Emmitt Smith the next spring and won a Super Bowl in three years.
Forget the question I posed at the start.
Bring on the draft talk. It's never too soon.
• • •
