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Outlook is dire for Cowboys; Roy Williams: We can end up 12-4
12:42 AM CDT on Monday, October 18, 2010
By DAVID MOORE / The Dallas Morning News
MINNEAPOLIS – One definition of insanity is to do the same thing over and over and expect a different result.
Or is that the definition of a bad football team?
The Cowboys' inexorable slide into irrelevance continues. Sunday's 24-21 loss to Minnesota again featured the penalties, turnovers and breakdowns that have become all too familiar in this 1-4 start.
On this afternoon at the Metrodome, quarterback Tony Romo was unsure what happened on his first interception and never saw the player who picked off the second. The Cowboys were penalized 11 times for 91 yards and a penalty nullified what would have been a 68-yard touchdown strike to Miles Austin because the receiver interfered to get open.
The team kept Brett Favre, Randy Moss and Adrian Peterson in check but allowed Percy Harvin to change the complexion of the game with a 95-yard kickoff return for a touchdown to open the second half.
The Cowboys are stuck in the movie Groundhog Day with one, key exception.
No one is laughing. The Cowboys have even drained the optimism from owner Jerry Jones, something psychologists once believed was impossible.
The outlook is dire. Carolina, Detroit and San Francisco are the only teams in the NFC with worse records. Of the 96 teams that opened 1-4 since the playoff format changed in 1990, only four rebounded to make the playoffs.
The Cowboys are not on the list.
"I think you can crawl out of being 2-3," cornerback Terence Newman said. "One-and-four is a hole."
A hole the Cowboys have a 4.2 percent chance of escaping.
"We're not thinking about playoffs," coach Wade Phillips said. "We've got to get through this game, we've got a lot of things that we need to go over to try and get better on and go from there.
"We're going to play one play at a time, one game at a time."
Romo had another decent statistical afternoon. He was content to throw underneath Minnesota's Cover 2 scheme and completed 24-of-32 passes for 220 yards and three touchdowns. He wasn't sacked.
But the quarterback who worked so hard on ball security last season threw two interceptions, giving him five in the last eight days.
"I'm kind of snakebitten right now," said Romo, who threw only five interceptions in the final nine weeks of last season. "It's a hard thing to come back from.
"We've got to find a way to not turn the ball over and I've got to do better at that."
Romo's first interception bounced off the helmet of a Minnesota defender and landed in the hands of linebacker E.J. Henderson to give the Vikings the ball on the Cowboys 16-yard line. That led to a touchdown.
With the score tied at 21 in the fourth, Romo tried to hit tight end Jason Witten over the middle. Henderson faked the rush then dropped back in coverage to pick off the pass, giving the Vikings the ball on the Cowboys 30-yard line. That set up Ryan Longwell's game-winning field goal.
"I didn't see him," Romo said of Henderson. "I thought he was rushing. That was a big play in the game."
So was Gerald Sensabaugh's missed tackle on Harvin's 95-yard kickoff return to open the second half, a ball that never should have been kicked down the middle by David Buehler.
So were the pass interference calls and all those other penalties.
"The answers are plain as day," defensive end Marcus Spears said. "Stop shooting yourself in the foot and stop committing these bad plays and bad penalties in games and you'll probably win by a good margin. Until then, we'll be having this same conversation."
It has become frustratingly monotonous.
The Cowboys spoke of being desperate, but not panicked entering this game.
Now seems like a good time to panic. The team knows a playoff berth is unlikely if it can't reach 10 wins.
"We've got two more stumbles then we're out," receiver Roy Williams said.
"Can we end up 12-4? Can we end up 11-5? No doubt. Can we end up 10-6? Sure.
"But it's going to be tough."
• • •
12:42 AM CDT on Monday, October 18, 2010
By DAVID MOORE / The Dallas Morning News
MINNEAPOLIS – One definition of insanity is to do the same thing over and over and expect a different result.
Or is that the definition of a bad football team?
The Cowboys' inexorable slide into irrelevance continues. Sunday's 24-21 loss to Minnesota again featured the penalties, turnovers and breakdowns that have become all too familiar in this 1-4 start.
On this afternoon at the Metrodome, quarterback Tony Romo was unsure what happened on his first interception and never saw the player who picked off the second. The Cowboys were penalized 11 times for 91 yards and a penalty nullified what would have been a 68-yard touchdown strike to Miles Austin because the receiver interfered to get open.
The team kept Brett Favre, Randy Moss and Adrian Peterson in check but allowed Percy Harvin to change the complexion of the game with a 95-yard kickoff return for a touchdown to open the second half.
The Cowboys are stuck in the movie Groundhog Day with one, key exception.
No one is laughing. The Cowboys have even drained the optimism from owner Jerry Jones, something psychologists once believed was impossible.
The outlook is dire. Carolina, Detroit and San Francisco are the only teams in the NFC with worse records. Of the 96 teams that opened 1-4 since the playoff format changed in 1990, only four rebounded to make the playoffs.
The Cowboys are not on the list.
"I think you can crawl out of being 2-3," cornerback Terence Newman said. "One-and-four is a hole."
A hole the Cowboys have a 4.2 percent chance of escaping.
"We're not thinking about playoffs," coach Wade Phillips said. "We've got to get through this game, we've got a lot of things that we need to go over to try and get better on and go from there.
"We're going to play one play at a time, one game at a time."
Romo had another decent statistical afternoon. He was content to throw underneath Minnesota's Cover 2 scheme and completed 24-of-32 passes for 220 yards and three touchdowns. He wasn't sacked.
But the quarterback who worked so hard on ball security last season threw two interceptions, giving him five in the last eight days.
"I'm kind of snakebitten right now," said Romo, who threw only five interceptions in the final nine weeks of last season. "It's a hard thing to come back from.
"We've got to find a way to not turn the ball over and I've got to do better at that."
Romo's first interception bounced off the helmet of a Minnesota defender and landed in the hands of linebacker E.J. Henderson to give the Vikings the ball on the Cowboys 16-yard line. That led to a touchdown.
With the score tied at 21 in the fourth, Romo tried to hit tight end Jason Witten over the middle. Henderson faked the rush then dropped back in coverage to pick off the pass, giving the Vikings the ball on the Cowboys 30-yard line. That set up Ryan Longwell's game-winning field goal.
"I didn't see him," Romo said of Henderson. "I thought he was rushing. That was a big play in the game."
So was Gerald Sensabaugh's missed tackle on Harvin's 95-yard kickoff return to open the second half, a ball that never should have been kicked down the middle by David Buehler.
So were the pass interference calls and all those other penalties.
"The answers are plain as day," defensive end Marcus Spears said. "Stop shooting yourself in the foot and stop committing these bad plays and bad penalties in games and you'll probably win by a good margin. Until then, we'll be having this same conversation."
It has become frustratingly monotonous.
The Cowboys spoke of being desperate, but not panicked entering this game.
Now seems like a good time to panic. The team knows a playoff berth is unlikely if it can't reach 10 wins.
"We've got two more stumbles then we're out," receiver Roy Williams said.
"Can we end up 12-4? Can we end up 11-5? No doubt. Can we end up 10-6? Sure.
"But it's going to be tough."
• • •