September 2007 - Posts
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 Maybe Cowboys owner Jerry Jones has become clairvoyant, because before the game, when asked on the Dallas Cowboys Radio Network pregame show about veteran linebacker Greg Ellis set to play for the first time since tearing his Achilles back on Nov. 12 of last season, he said, “He’s in as good or better shape than most guys on the field. It’s time he gets out here and contributes to our sack total.” And so Ellis, in his first appearance of 2007, did, racking up 1½ sacks to lead the team’s three-sack attack against the Rams and vault himself into second place on the team, just 2½ behind DeMarcus Ware’s team-leading three sacks.
The Cowboys did it again in the fourth quarter when it’s closing time, rushing for 85 of their 171 rushing yards. That’s now 273 yards rushing in fourth quarters this season, an average of 68.24 a fourth.
The Cowboys held the St. Louis Rams to 3-of-12 on third-down conversions, and that 25-percent rate was their best since limiting Houston to 3-of-13 last year, 16 games ago. The pressure on St. Louis quarterback Marc Bulger was impressive - the Cowboys finished with three sacks, six hurries and much intimidation.
Oh my, the Cowboys put up 502 yards total offense, the first time they have done so in a non-overtime game since 1998. And to think, what might have happened if they didn’t shift into first gear in the fourth quarter, first running the ball on seven of nine plays in their initial fourth-quarter possession and then pulling Romo and Julius Jones/Marion Barber for the second.
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How much fun is Terrell Owens having so far this year? Night and day from last season. “But I do feel like a Cowboy,” Owens said. “At this point in time, I definitely would like to retire here and go into the Hall of Fame as a Cowboy. It’s a lot of fun right now. It’s nothing that I didn’t envision as far as the success we’ve had so far. Throughout training camp, we knew we had something special.” As he says, what a difference year makes, because last year at this time “fun” and “Owens” were anonyms.
Don’t expect the Cowboys to get a lot of pressure on Rams quarterback Marc Bulger even though he could be without three-fifths of his offensive line. The Rams chose last week to protect him and his two broken ribs with a lot of short drops and getting the ball out quickly. Can’t imagine that will change much this week, even if they continue to administer pain-killing injections to his ribcage area. This will put a lot of pressure on the Cowboys’ corners to tackle well and the defensive front to get the hands up. Deflections will be more likely than sacks.
Everyone keeps trying to compare Marion Barber and his running style to someone. Well, I always listened to La’Roi Glover when he was here, so no sense stopping now: “A smaller Jerome Bettis.”
And the score . . . now I’m wondering when the last time anyone thought the Cowboys were 13-point favorites? But as beat up as the Rams are, and as seemingly mature as these Cowboys seem to be, that might not be that far fetched. How about Cowboys 27, Rams 17.
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Not to be getting too far ahead of ourselves, but if the Cowboys can defeat St. Louis Sunday, this will be the first 4-0 start since the 1995 season, the last time the Cowboys won a Super Bowl. In fact, the Cowboys have started off a season 4-0 nine previous times, all resulting in a playoff berth. Three of those times the Cowboys landed in the Super Bowl, and another time in the NFC Championship game. The Cowboys did start off the 1966 season 4-0 when they ended up playing Green Bay for the NFL Championship.
Funny how tunes change. Before Sunday night’s game, there were many Chicago media members questioning Tony Romo’s ability to play quarterback consistently in the NFL. Then after Sunday night’s game when Romo put 329 passing yards on the Bears, that same media was calling for Rex Grossman’s head, saying he couldn’t provide Chicago what Romo did the Cowboys.
How quickly the mighty can fall. Last year at this time former Cowboys assistant head coach Sean Payton was the toast of New Orleans, the Saints getting off to a 3-0 start and eventually landing in Chicago for the NFC title game. They lost, and now have lost the opening three games of the 2007 season for an actual four-game losing streak. In fact, if you look at the Saints’ record in all games after beating the Cowboys 42-17 at Texas Stadium, they are now 2-6.
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Just how resilient are these Cowboys? In the first quarter alone, they committed four penalties, endured two three-and-outs, only had three plays for positive yardage, suffered one sack and only had the ball for 4 minutes, 21 seconds. Yet they still won.
At halftime, the Cowboys only had 18 rushing yards on seven attempts. At the end of the game, they had 131 on 25 thanks to Marion Barber’s 54-yard run. Appears as if that big Cowboys offensive line simply wore down those Bears and closed in the fourth quarter. Camp Cupcake, eh? Wonder if whoever started that wished they had those two cute words back?
Can someone just enroll Roy Williams in tackling school? He either pulls someone down from behind, getting called for a horse-collar tackle, or he simply misses the tackle, as he did on what turned out to be a 52-yard pass play to Desmond Clark.
Hester who? The combination of Nick Folk’s kickoffs, with much better hang time, and Mat McBriar’s pinpoint punting, neutralized Devin Hester into just another guy. He had seven returns for a total of 87 yards, and 86 of those were on five kickoff returns, averaging just 17.6.
And if I was giving out game balls, one would go to Tony Romo, one to Terrell Owens, one to Anthony Henry (again) and one to Remi Ayodele for stripping Cedric Benson on that second-and-2 run at the Chicago 45 with the Cowboys leading only 17-10 at the 30-second mark of the third quarter. That opened the floodgates, the Cowboys driving for a field goal, followed by Henry’s pick returned for a touchdown. So in a span of 3:41, a 17-10 game somersaulted into 27-10. Can I split one between Folk and McBriar? Oh, and D-Ware, he was a monster.
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Has anyone bothered to look at Chicago quarterback Rex Grossman’s stat line? Try 32 of 57 (56.1 percent) for 305 yards, 5.35 yards per attempt, one TD, three INT’s and a QB rating of 55.1. No wonder the guy gets criticized in Chicago.
Speaking of quarterbacks, while the Cowboys certainly have played the QB Shuffle here since Troy Aikman called it quits after the 2000 season, please consider these Chicago Bears. They have changed starting quarterbacks 30 times in a 108-game span from Week 6 of the 1999 season to the start of last season. So must be a relative luxury for them to have Grossman starting his 19th consecutive game Sunday, one short of Erik Kramer’s streak back in 1995-96.
Sure appeared to me on Wednesday after listening to head coach Wade Phillips and seeing how the Cowboys cleared room for one day on the 53-man roster for Tank Johnson that Terence Newman would be a go Sunday night against the Bears. And now that seems more likely than ever with Phillips saying on Thursday, “I think he’s close to being ready to play.” But as for Greg Ellis, that seems to be a dead-end street at the moment.
Man, what a waste all this analysis could be if Bears kick returner Devin Hester decides the game. Just realize so far in his NFL careers he has returned eight of his 75 kickoff or punt returns for touchdowns – that’s like touchdowns eight percent of the times he gets his hands on the ball.
And the score . . . the safe thing to do would be to play the percentages since they scream the Bears will win at home, but for the life of me I can’t see the Bears’ offense scoring enough points even if their defense shuts down the Cowboys’ offense . . . so out-on-a-limb Cowboys 23, Bears 17 (some of that Hester).
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Sure doesn’t sound as if the Cowboys made a spur of the moment decision to sign Tank Johnson, nor did they do this in response to losing Jason Ferguson for the season. Cowboys owner Jerry Jones and head coach Wade Phillips pointed out how these discussions about Tank have been going on for some time. And certainly the Cowboys would have needed more than a week’s time to research this guy from head to toe, which it sounds as if they did. So this was not a decision made out of desperation to fill a need.
Sure glad to hear Johnson will check his guns at the Texas border, saying he has sold all he’s had and that he’s closed that “chapter in my life.” There is a step in the right direction. Now why a man would need that many guns in his house is beyond me. I guess you could be a collector of firearms as a hobby. Fine. But do they have to be loaded in the house? That tells me he’s worried about something or somebody.
Oh, by the way, with all this Tank stuff going on, does everyone remember the Cowboys are playing the Chicago Bears this Sunday? NBC must be wetting their pants over this one: The undefeated Dallas Cowboys, with Terrell Owens and the emerging Tony Romo and having just signed former Bears suspended defensive tackle Tank Johnson playing the defending NFC champs in Chi-town. Not to mention the two head coaches coming from small Texas towns. As John Madden said in a recent release, “Bears-Cowboys, that just sounds like NFC football.”
That the Cowboys rolled the dice by releasing Nate Jones and then hoping he’d clear waivers so they could re-sign him in 24 hours after Johnson reverted to the NFL’s reserve/suspended list must mean Terence Newman is real close to returning. I mean, had Jones not cleared waivers as he did on Wednesday and re-sign with the Cowboys, who would have been the next guy up? Evan Olgesby? Quincy Butler off the practice squad? That’s why me thinks Newman must be real close.
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While this defense did show some improvement, here is the one number that continues to trouble me, stemming all the way back to last year. That the Dolphins were able to convert 50 percent of their third downs into firsts (6 of 12) means the Cowboys’ last nine regular-season opponents have converted at least 50 percent of their third downs. Not good.
Leave it to T. O. to come up with a suitable nickname for Marion Barber. Try “Marion the Barbarian.” And who says he doesn’t have a clue?
Cowboys defensive end Chris Canty was asked to describe nose tackle Jay Ratliff, starting his first NFL game in the middle. Said Canty, “Distruptive . . . disruptive. He’s everywhere. He literally is. He’s everywhere on the field.”
And here is Tony Romo’s line on third-down plays: 12 of 18 (66.7 percent) for 203 yards, 11.28 an attempt, two TD’s, no INT’s and a QB rating of 141.7. Get out of here.
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When Patrick Crayton went up to basically knock down a Tony Romo pass at the goal line that was about to be intercepted, he said he heard something snap, and while lying on the ground looked at his finger and said to himself, “That ain’t right.” And it wasn’t, having dislocated the little finger on his right hand. He would return for a third-down play just before halftime, and tested to see if he still could catch with his pinky taped to his ring finger by having the inactive wide receiver Isaiah Stanback throw passes to him on the sideline. And then, to just make sure he still could catch punts, he had Mat McBriar kick him a few just before the start of the second half.
Any more complaints about Anthony Henry? The Cowboys’ veteran corner did a great job running stride for stride with Miami’s Marty Booker on that deep route to record his first interception. And the second one was a beauty, diving in front of Chris Chambers for his first two-interception game since signing with the Cowboys in 2005.
This from outside linebacker DeMarcus Ware, who played an awful lot of defensive end Sunday with the Cowboys having to move into their nickel alignment since the Dolphins went three wides so much: “That’s the most I ever been chipped. That’s all they did.”
And if you think it wasn’t that big a deal kicking field goals off the infield dirt here at Dolphin Stadium shared by the Florida Marlins, just remember it was Miami calling timeout with seven seconds left in the first quarter to force Cowboys rookie kicker Nick Folk to attempt the 26-yard field goal off that cement-like infield dirt instead of changing ends and allowing him to kick off the plush grass.
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-8 p.m. (CDT)
The Dallas Cowboys' charter flight to Fort Lauderdale, Fla., Saturday afternoon was forced to make an unscheduled landing in New Orleans about 3 p.m. (CDT) because of a mechanical problem, but the team later resumed its flight and arrived safely in Fort Lauderdale about 7:45 p.m. (CDT).
The emergency landing in New Orleans earlier Saturday was caused by one of the three hydraulic systems malfunctioning. The plane landed without incident, although, according to official procedure, at least five emergency vehicles lined the runway at the New Orleans International Airport. The plane never was in jeopardy, and mechanics on the ground were able to fix the problem.
The Cowboys are scheduled to meet the Miami Dolphins at 3:05 p.m. (CDT) at Dolphin Stadium on Sunday in the second game of the season. The Cowboys head into the game with a 1-0 record, having beaten the Giants in the opener while the Dolphins lost their opener, 16-13 to Washington.
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That Terry Glenn opted to go the arthroscopic surgery route to remove torn articular cartilage from his right knee is not some elixir procedure. This gives him a chance to return this year, possibly in four to six weeks, but that is not guaranteed and certainly does not guarantee he will not require microfracture surgery either at the end of the season or at the end of his career. The scope removes the loose bodies in his knee but does not address the hole created by the torn cartilage, and further wear and tear in there will cause that opening to enlarge, the degeneration increasing the probability of an eventual painful bone on bone condition.
Glenn II: Those questioning our credibility here at DallasCowboys.com should readdress their accusations of some club-wide cover-up of an injury taking place. Cowboys owner Jerry Jones was very accurate when he initially said Glenn needed season-ending microfracture surgery, and only then when he discovered like 15 minutes later a scope was an option did our story change to Glenn being out for at least two weeks and probably longer, since the team’s starting wide receiver had a decision to make. And in the end, what you got with the reposted story just minutes later was quite accurate, thank you very much.
Not saying NFL commissioner Roger Goodell will factor this into his punishment of the Patriots for illegally videotaping opposing teams’ defensive signals during games, but his skin must have crawled on Thursday when he saw this headline above a picture of Patriots head coach Bill Belichick on the back page of the Philadelphia Daily News: "Counterfeit RING: Spy Scandal Helps Explain Birds' Super Bowl Loss." And yes, there were some Eagles players questioning why the Patriots always seemed to have a screen called when they were running a blitz in the Super Bowl. Might we have a case of diminished genius going on here? This is what happens when you damage the fabric of the game.
And the score . . . hard for me to predict a Cowboys loss based on high temperature and humidity or the Dolphins’ sparkling home record in September: Cowboys 27, Dolphins 23, the offense bailing out the defense only somewhat this time around.
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Well, if the Cowboys had any designs on signing wide receiver Reche Caldwell as a potential replacement for Terry Glenn if the veteran decides to undergo season-ending microfracture surgery, they can’t, at least for now, since Washington beat them to the punch on Tuesday. The Skins have been in the market for another veteran guy behind Santana Moss and Antwaan Randle El.
The Jacksonville Jaguars had a kicking day, Tuesday, working out five kickers before deciding to sign 42-year-old veteran John Carney to replace, Josh Scobee, likely sidelined a couple of weeks with a quad strain suffered during Sunday’s warmups. Included among the five were two former Cowboys kickers, Billy Cundiff and, yes, Mike Vanderjagt, who has been out of work since the Cowboys released him 11 games into last season.
NFL teams placed nine players on injured reserve Tuesday, a rash of season-ending injuries hitting after just the first game. Cowboys nose tackle Jason Ferguson was among that group, and Fergie said on his weekly KTBB-AM radio show in Tyler, Texas, this hasn’t been easy to accept. “I’m close to all my D-linemen, and they been calling and checking on me every hour of the day,” said Ferguson, who will have surgery to repair his torn biceps tendon. “I told them to stop calling, ‘you are going to cause me to shed some tears.’”
Oh man, how hot is that story now coming out of New England, where sources have told ESPN that NFL commissioner Roger Goodell is calling the Pats on the carpet for having an in-house video department employee taping the Jets bench area Sunday. There also might be an investigation into the number of radio frequencies the Patriots were using on Sunday. If they are found guilty, man, what, like a $1 million fine and significant draft choices. What you think?
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When asked who would make the decision on which knee surgery Terry Glenn has, Cowboys owner Jerry Jones said, “Of course this is America, the one getting operated on gets the final say.” That would be Glenn, and he has two choices. He either has season-ending microfracture surgery, the procedure which attempts to promote re-growth of the damaged articular cartilage behind the kneecap, or he can have the torn cartilage removed through arthroscopic surgery, which if successful could have him back in just more than a month. A successful microfracture procedure would be best for his long-term quality of life while the scope would get him on the field sooner but probably lead to arthritic problems late in life since the necessary cartilage between adjoining bones would be missing. As Jones said, it’s his choice.
The Cowboys will receive no injury sympathy around the league for losing nose tackle Jason Ferguson for the season in the season opener. In the opening week, the Bears lost two starters for the season, safety Mike Brown and defensive tackle Dusty Dvoracek, who was starting for the suspended and then released Tank Johnson. The Redskins lost offensive tackle Jon Jansen for the season. St. Louis lost starting tackle Orlando Pace for the season. Miami lost starting safety Yeremiah Bell for the season. And look at the Giants, with Osi Umenyiora, Brandon Jacobs and Eli Manning all expected to miss time.
Funny thing on Terrell Owens’ first touchdown reception in the very back of the end zone: Cowboys quarterback Tony Romo said he “took something off the throw” at the last second with Owens so wide open and yet still almost overthrew him. Owens had to stretch out to pull the ball in one-handed, just getting his second foot down inbounds.
After scoring 45 points in the opener, the NFL record for most points in a single season came up, and not only did Romo know it was 556 points, belonging to Minnesota in 1998, he also knew his backup, Brad Johnson, began that season as the Vikings starter in the opening two games before suffering a fractured leg and giving way to Randall Cunningham. Johnson did, though account for seven touchdown passes that year. By the way, that’s averaging now 34.75 points a game. Four times the Vikings scored more than 40 points in a game that season, including the 46 put up on Thanksgiving Day in a 46-36 beating of the Cowboys.
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So you want to know what veteran wide receivers might be available on the free-agent market? Well, there are a few. Nothing that will get you overly excited, although the Patriots earlier in the week did just release Reche Caldwell. Yeah, yeah, I know he had those two drops in the AFC title game this past season, but he also had 61 catches for 760 yards during the regular season. As for a list, well, here are a few names you might recognize if the Cowboys decide they need to supplement their roster with Terry Glenn’s status rather iffy, but probably not before next week: Rod Gardner, Keenan McCardell, Bethel Johnson, Quincy Morgan, Az-Zahir Akeem, Billy McMullen, Alvis Whitted, Corey Bradford, Cortez Hankton and, yes, Antonio Bryant, though remember, he would have to serve a two-game suspension after signing him, so he’s not much help. McCardell would have played in San Diego when Wade Phillips was there as the defensive coordinator, but he doesn’t offer much speed.
Hey, how about Will Pettis, the Dallas Desperados’ Ironman? He can play wide receiver and probably can help at cornerback, too. Special teams? You bet. And he’s already here.
The closer it gets to Sunday night’s season opener, the more I believe Terence Newman will be able to play. His rehab work on Thursday was impressive, and it appears if he proves he can run well at any point 1 hour, 30 minutes before kickoff – when the inactives must be turned in – Newman is in the starting lineup. Book it.
And the score . . . Everyone has their problems, even the Giants. What I worry about most is the Giants coming out in three-wide sets to test that Cowboys secondary immediately. That means the offense needs to score, and score big on a Giants defense ranked 25th last year and 28th against the pass . . . and they will. Cowboys 31, Giants 27.
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Now books are books, and while you want them to be factual, you also want them to be readable, too. In Tom Callahan’s latest, The GM: The Inside Story of a Dream Job and the Nightmares That Go With It – a recounting of the 2006 New York Giants season with the help of their retiring GM Ernie Accorsi – former Cowboys head coach Bill Parcells is said to have sat in a car in the parking lot of Giants Stadium some six hours before the teams met on Dec. 3 with a “former Giants colleague” and told that unnamed person “I’m available to be the Giants’ GM if they get stuck. Keep me alive with John Mara, will you?” If you remember, Parcells, when reported in New York he was interested in the job, claimed here during a press conference, “Whoever said it is a liar.” Well, Callahan writes Parcells denial was met with “hilarity” in the Giants front office. Hmmmm.
Former Cowboys fullback Lousaka Polite, released on the final cut and cleared waivers, was brought in by the Chicago Bears for a workout on Monday. Wonder if the Bears are considering signing him to pick his brain on the Cowboys’ new offense? Also clearing waivers was second-year safety Abram Elam.
See where Randy Moss, after missing all four preseason games with a hamstring strain and practically all of training camp, returned to practice on Monday with little national fanfare. Could you imagine what would have taken place had that been Terrell Owens? ESPN would have taken up permanent residence in San Antonio and then The Ranch. That’s what happens when ESPN’s viewers and readers in a poll name the Dallas Cowboys the most popular team in sports.
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There was a litter of former Cowboys released over the weekend as NFL teams trimmed rosters to 53. Included among the cuts were kicker Bill Cundiff (Atlanta), cornerback Pete Hunter (Seattle), quarterback Vinny Testaverde (New England), safety Omar Stoutmire (Washington), wide receiver Quincy Morgan (Denver), cornerback Bruce Thornton (Jacksonville) and punter Micah Knorr (Detroit). Also, former offensive lineman D’Anthony Batiste was released by Carolina and claimed by Atlanta.
There were a couple of e-mailers suggesting the Cowboys should bring back wide receiver Antonio Bryant. Well, just remember, whoever signs Bryant must make room on their 53-man roster for a day – meaning cutting someone – before Bryant goes on reserve/suspended to serve his looming two-game suspension. While the Cowboys were awarded two players on waiver claims, cornerback Evan Oglesby and linebacker Justin Rogers, they also had put in priority claims on New Orleans linebacker Marvin Mitchell and San Diego linebacker Nick Roach. The NFL allows teams to rank their waiver-wire claims, meaning teams can put in four claims for like two spots, knowing chances are they will not be awarded each claim. If they are, then the teams rank the priority for each player. Obviously, the Cowboys preferred Oglesby and Rogers to Mitchell and Roach.
While Cowboys released fullback Lousaka Polite did clear waivers, he was claimed by Green Bay, but lost out on heading to the Packers because they had a higher priority claim on running back John Kuhn.
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