Radio Free Texas

Tuesday, September 29, 2009

ankle breaker

Do People Really Expect Cowboys to Win Big Everytime ?

I may read too much.

After the game, which the Boys did win in spite of what you may read about how sorry they looked, I checked out my favorite message board for reaction.

WOW...Cowboy fans seem to be losing their ever-loving minds.


I thought I would read about how awesome our running game looked, especially since our # 3 running back had to carry the load in the 2nd half. NOPE, what i read was idiots, I mean fans crying about Felix being made of glass and injury prone. Silly me, I thought he had a knee sprain and the team was playing it smart and not risking him since Choice seemed to be handling things pretty well.

I then looked for the talk about how our secondary, which had gotten torched by the Giants seemed to be improved since they held Steve Smith to 4 catches and about 40 yards. Once again i was surprised to see that SOME people thought we played "too soft" and let the Panthers complete too many easy passes. REALLY ??

It makes me wonder if I am watching the same game as those people.

Now I will admit that I too was scratching my head in amazement when the RHG (red headed genius...Jason Garrett) called for the 2 fade passes on the goal line. I kind of thought the first one was okay in a catch em napping sorta way. 9 times out of 10 RW catches that and everybody is high fiving and happy. The second attempt seemed forced and after it failed I thought maybe we should have just tried to run the ball in. Not necessarily right up the middle which seemed clogged but maybe something around the corner.

200 plus yards of rushing, winning the field position battle, a stingier defense that seemed to play with some intensity, being ahead in the turnover count made it seem like a game we would have won when ol Bill Parcells was here. Not pretty, not dominating in the sense that by halftime we could all just eat, drink and casually watch the game. But dadgum not all gloom and doom either.

I know the Panthers are now 0-3. I dont care, they have some very good players, a very good coach and before the year is over some teams are gonna find themselves losing to them. Its the NFL, the big leagues, you don't often beat teams by 14 points and still get criticized. Well if you are the Guys with the Blue Stars you do apparently.

I gotta stop reading so much. later Poke

Saturday, September 26, 2009

What the Heck to Expect ?

First game the D looks like they couldn't stop a strong Texas high school team from running the ball
Second game they hold the Giants to less than 100 yards rushing

First game Tony throws for a career high 344 yards passing.
Second game Tony throws for what seemed like that much, only to the guys in blue shirts.

First game the Good Guys win by 13 on the road.
Second game the same Good Guys lose by 2 at home.

First game, played in Tampa, team looked to be in good shape.
Second game, in Arlington , team (especially the D) looked to be gassed in 4th qtr.

Point to make.  The writers don't know, the TV guys don't know, and I don't know what
to expect this Monday night.  It may be the greatest Cowboy team ever or they may stink
up that new Stadium again.

Football is still a game that has to play out on the field.  Stats, past records and depth charts
mean nothing.  The play on the field, the bounces of the ball, all of that can change probable
outcomes into surprising results.  Dontcha just LOVE it !!!

of course I could be wrong so if ya'll know feel free to lemme know....later Poke

Monday, September 21, 2009

Cowboys-Giants Part Deux

So maybe I can put my thoughts down without using all the words I learned in the 8th grade lockerroom and the 24 years working on the railroad.

The easy thing to do would be for me to say Romo sucks.  Sure he played terrible, I mean really terrible but do you want his backup, Jon Kitna in there ?  I don't.  It's kind of silly to say the Cowboys QB is what makes them a terrible team just one short week after he threw for more than 300 yards.  He was definitely a large part of the problem Sunday night.  I saw Eli do a 360 and throw without looking, if Romo would have done that last night it would have been a disaster, Eli got a completion.  Some games you just don't have "it", whatever the heck "it" is.  

The next easiest thing to do would be to blame the secondary.  Orlando Scandrick in particular but not forgetting Terence Newman and Ken Hamlin.  Heck throw Mike Jenkins in there too because he wasn't exactly shining.  Sensabaugh looked like he came ready to play.  The Good Guys just looked lost against Little Eli.  I am going to look a little deeper though and suggest that maybe the secondary coach Dave Campo just isn't that good of a coach.  Anybody remember the 5-11 seasons he had as head coach ?

Since I am looking for easy answers lets just all scratch our heads and wonder what has happened to our pass rush.  DeMarcus Ware had 20 sacks last year.  This year he has zero.  Nobody else has any either.  Has something changed ? Different coach ?  New scheme ?  The answer is no.  The biggest thing I think is that Greg Ellis is no longer on the other side of the field bringing what he always brought to the field.  I know there are fans who were tired of hearing him gripe about his role or his contract or all the other things he griped about.  For all his griping though he played a good game.  His replacement Spencer just doesn't seem to have any consistency. 

It is hard to judge our wide receivers.  When balls aren't thrown close to where they should be I find it hard to say somebody sucks if they don't catch it.  For whatever reason Romo doesn't look that hard for Williams and Bennett yet.  His security blanket Witten is the only thing that saves him when he is having the kind of night he had Sunday.

Hats off to the O-line.  They gave up no sacks versus a team that lives by the sack.  It's amazing but they also opened up holes for over 250 yards rushing.  Should we have rushed more ? 

Special teams were okay but the fumble by Felix didn't help.  The defense held them to just a field goal so that may be getting overlooked.

So where does that leave us ?  The answer is...there is no SIMPLE answer.  I don't care what the local idiots are saying in their columns or on the radio.  ESPN doesn't give answers, they give sound bites.
So if your QB played terrible (he did ) but your offense gains 250 yards rushing and scores 31 points can you put all the blame on them ?
So if your defense gets no pressure and defends the pass poorly ( it did) but keeps the Giants out of the end zone after turnovers do you put all the blame on them ?

Nope it's a team game and you win and lose as team.  That's the way football is.  Each part has to win their battles or one part has to perform at a level that can't be reasonably expected.  That doesn't sound near as good as saying Romo lost us that game but it really is the truth.

of course I could be wrong...doesn't matter though because next week I still expect the Boys of the Blue Star
to win.  That's what fans do.

Cowboys-Giants Part Uno

1st Game Experience

4:08 PM Mon, Sep 21, 2009 |  | Yahoo! Buzz
Larry Dunaway/Guest Blogger    Bio |  E-mail  |  News tips
Okay here we go.
Yesterday was a great day. It could have been a GREAT DAY but a little thing called reality reared its ugly head late last night and brought us all crashing down to earth.

The day started off just fine. The parking lots, which were supposed to open at 1pm actually opened at 11:30 but guess what ? We were there and ready to tailgate so that’s just more time to enjoy ourselves. DSC04867.JPG
Tailgating in Lot 11, right beside Collins St has changed the way I will feel about that street forever. Ya gotta understand that I have never even liked driving on Collins and now on Game Day it looks like Party Town. DSC04890.JPG
One of the best things about tailgating is meeting the people around you, hearing their stories of why, when and how long they have been fans. Yesterday was one of the best for that. Our neighbors on one side were 2 couples from……..Pennsylvania !! They hated the eagles and they hated the stealers (sic) ! They had flown into DFW, rented rooms at an Arlington hotel, rented a car and spent hard earned money to help the Boys win and to help us lowly citizens of Arlington pay for the Stadium that somehow got compared to Taj Mahal, The Great Wall of China and the Pyramids. Those two couples then met a father and daughter, also from Pennsylvania at the Pro Shop and brought them back to tailgate with us. Great people who invited us up to tailgate with them at a Penn State game with them. The dad said his daughter bleeds silver and blue and he wasn’t going to let her miss opening day at the Crystal Cathedral.

 


Neighbors on the other side were ALL TEXAN. I mean big truck, satellite TV hook up, generator going, air filled Cowboy helmet on top kinda Texas tailgaters. Enough food to feed the 105,000+ people and willing to share kind of Texans. I like the way the new parking works for tailgating but I am sure there are folks who don’t. If you don’t get there early enough to grab a spot on the perimeter of the lots they don’t let you tailgate anywhere else.



The stadium was all I expected it to be for a game. The complaints about no scoreboard were addressed with information in each corner of the lower electronic ribbons, and yes it showed down, distance, score and timeouts. The video board was perfect for replays but I actually didn’t watch it as much as I thought I would. Our seats are in the lower level and so it isn’t “in my face” and I prefer watching the play on the field. My 25 year old son wisely decided he really liked the board after seeing the cheerleaders on it though.

The sound is pretty poor and the stadium announcer was pretty much non-existent for me but hey I am old so maybe somebody else could hear it better.

I know Mr. Jones wanted the huge crowd and he wanted everybody to see the Stadium from the blimp, but I gotta tell you I thought it was a bad decision to have the doors and roof open. It was hot where I was and the crowd noise was really bad for a football game against one of your division rivals. I have defended our crowd in the past for not being loud but the crowd didn’t get really loud until the last drive and even then it wasn’t as loud as it should have been.

The concession prices are concession prices. We bought some water, some quesadillas, (hey a 25 year old gets hungry pretty often) and sure enough it was high priced but it beat leaving the stadium and missing some football !

Getting out of the stadium for us was a walk in the park. We don’t jump up and rush to get out of the stadium. We casually walked to our car (strategically parked close to an exit), started it up, eased into the flow,(thank you to those folks who let us in ) and we were on our way. I will say most of the people were doing it right, a car from each direction would go, taking turns, alternating, just like it should. There were some drunk or just bad drivers once we got on the street. I am not saying it was like this everywhere, but Lot 11 worked well for us this time.

All in all I was thrilled with the whole experience. I am looking forward to seeing a game there when the hoopla dies down a notch. I loved seeing the Ring of Honor guys but to be honest I wouldn’t be surprised if the next time Jerry calls them they all say thanks but no thanks. Our current team seems to not play too well when those guys are around. ( see last years Baltimore game).

This is mostly from a guest blog I do on the DMN website but I added some pictures of the folks we met.
I will get around to cussing and discussing the game when my emotions have subsided, maybe in a year or two.

This will give you time to get the young children out of the room cuz they don't  need to see words like the ones I would have to use to describe it.

Thursday, September 17, 2009

Cowboy Stadium is a Busy Place

6:23 PM Thu, Sep 17, 2009 |  | Yahoo! Buzz
Larry Dunaway/Guest Blogger    Bio |  E-mail  |  News tips
Went to the Crystal Cathedral today. Had to make sure i got a program for Sundays game. Pro shop had a lot of folks in there. Workers were filling the shelves. Fans were trying to empty them. I was amazed at how many people were there.
Workers were cutting grass, planting flowers, weed-eating. Looked they were trying to get the base finished around the statue of Mr. Landry.
DSC04857.JPG
Workers were also hanging signs in the end zone areas. Had the doors open on both ends. A lot of big white tents were set up in the plazas. All getting ready for the flood of folks planning on watching the game a whole new way.
Thumbnail image for DSC04863.JPG
If you’re going to the game bring your outside voice because I am hearing the doors and roof are going to be open. From what I have been reading expect to hear a lot of cowbells.
Time to get together with “100,000 of your closest friends” and have a Ball !!
DSC04859.JPG

Wednesday, September 16, 2009

Okay I am really tired of fighting, a...

    Okay I am really tired of fighting, and losing to Bloggers formatting.  I'm sure it's correct and I am not. 
I give up.  I am now going to try to post to Blogger using Google docs.  Who knows.

    I had written a beautifully crafted piece on how the fans of the Good Guys were expecting way too much out of our Heroes.
I have read more crazy stuff this week about how bad the Boys looked.  I saw the game.  I know it wasn't a shutout.
The Boys of the Blue Star did not hang " half a hundred " on the Yuccaneers. 

    Bums lil boy Wade admitted the team hadn't practiced their blitzes as much as they should have.  A lot of that yardage
gained by the Bucs came when our D was run blitzing.  Okay let's work on that this week.

    Tony started off throwing the ball a little bit off.  Okay I have always thought he comes out too amped up.  It usually
works itself out.  It did.  He ended up with more yards throwing than he ever had as pro.

    I know the Giants are better than Tampa.  I know the Cowboys have to do better to beat the G-men.  Is that any reason
for some moron on the internetz to say we need to trade Barber for a run stopping nose tackle ??

    Have we as "fandom" forgotten how to enjoy a WIN ? Is everybody so informed and smart now that they have broadband
access that they feel like they can actually coach a NFL team ?  Is this what Madden football and all the fantasy leagues
have brought us to ?

    I will just mark this down on the left side of the column under W.  Then at the end of the year I will count them up, compare
them to the other teams in our division and see who comes out the winner.  In the meantime I will enjoy every game we win.
There's a reason that there is an old saying called "winning ugly".  Beats the heck outta "losing pretty".

    Anyway it's Wedensday morning.  Time to think ahead to the first ever game that counts at the Crystal Cathedral known as
Cowboys Stadium in Arlington.  I have waited for years for this.  I already have the grill ready to go, the food is bought.  I hate
to admit it but if they would let me camp out in the parking lot this week I would.

    Hopefully this gets posted right cause I really wish you could have read the original.  It was way better than this one. I promise.
See ya later....poke

Sunday, September 13, 2009

Test Mobile Blogging Capability

My key to beating Tampa Bay

1. Score more points than they do.

Sent from mobile device

Friday, September 11, 2009

Bring it ON !

I am so ready to see the 2009 Cowboys !

I have read, seen, speculated, postulated, cussed and discussed this years team till I am blue in the face. Who the heck knows what we got ? Ya gotta play the games, real games to know what kind of team you’re gonna have. We have finally arrived at that point.

So what if this Sunday our Heroes play in Tampa, I have to get my tailgate gear in order. I will be setting up in the driveway just to see what works and what needs replacing. See which folding chairs rotted since last year. To be honest the ones i took to the last game at Texas Stadium probably need replacing just to keep the STINK of that game away from the new digs.

Hopefully the canopy can make it another season, the Stadium may be air-conditioned but I know the parking lot will be just as hot in Arlington as it was in Irving. Folding tables that haven’t been unfolded since last year may be a little cantankerous too.

The Freedom Grill should be just fine and so should the 20 foot flagpole, which sports the Texas Flag and the Cowboys flag so I can find my SUV when I wander off to look at the other fanatics with their blue painted faces.

The menu for the first home game will be a simple one. I don’t plan on being in the parking lot when they unveil the Ring of Honor or the midfield Star or anything else. Maybe some Zummo Party Time sausages and tortillas and cheese. Of course there will be homemade salsa, just as HOT as I can make it. Cold beverages are a given, gotta stay hydrated !

Time to see if the Cathedral is as bad as I have been reading as far as poor sound and even poorer game info on the scoreboards. I am really hoping it’s not but to be honest I never listened to the stadium announcer at Texas Stadium anyway. The scoreboard stuff is important though so I wanna see how that works out.

I could have already gone and seen all that but I have already mentioned how much I dislike the exhibition games. Truth be told I already had my mind made up not to go see The Heroes until the game counted. After the stomach turning loss to the Ravens to close down Texas Stadium they owe the fans a more inspired effort and I knew I wouldn’t see that during preseason.

So after a weekend full of watching college games and then last nights NFL game I can’t wait to see Wade and the Boys show us what they got this year.

Wednesday, September 02, 2009

Things To Know Before Your Pilgrimage to the Cathedral

I really am going to start posting original stuff on here as soon as the season starts, until then not so much.

Things To Know Before Your Pilgrimage to the Cathedral

5:30 PM Wed, Sep 02, 2009 |  | Yahoo! Buzz
Larry Dunaway/Guest Blogger    Bio |  E-mail  |  News tips
So yeah this a Cowboys Stadium blog. Tons of stories about video boards, high priced concessions, first impressions, air conditioned football in Texas (thank you), and opinions on everything .
I live in Arlington and I am getting a lot of questions about where to stay, eat and park. I don’t stay in Arlington hotels, I usually eat in places close to the part of town I live in and as far as parking all I can say is be ready to either pay a lot of money or walk a bit. (and still pay a bit )
I did do some research ( search engines are research aren’t they?) and found some places where you can get information that just might come in handy when you get ready to head for Cowboys Stadium. Most of this information can be found at the Cowboys website but I know how most folks hate to click around looking so I did it for you.
Wanna know which hotels and restaurants are close to the Stadium ?

Everything from A to W, from the Cowboys Guest Services site ( there was no Z )

Need information about parking, what’s allowed, what’s not ?

Now that you bought some of that expensive parking, where the heck is it ?

What’s the best way to get from here to there ? (customized directions to your parking from the Cowboys site, not from me. Please remember that if you end up in Oklahoma.)

Another thing to remember is to look on your ticket to see what entry you are supposed to use. I think the Stadium staff is going to enforce that and by knowing where you are supposed to go in you might not have to make a trip around the “biggest room in the world.” ( Jerry said it, not me) Entrances are lettered A-K, except I couldn’t find an I entrance. 

That last link is to a Cowboys message board that also has a lot of good information and since i linked to it I feel an obligation to include a link to their home page. 
 
I also just read in the newspaper that you can catch a bus in Fort Worth and ride it to the Stadium for 5 dollars, plus 5 dollars if you park in the T parking lot.
I am sure before the first real game the DMN will put together a much more detailed and informative package of information to help everybody out but for you folks who have to know and you have to know right now so you can make your plans I hope this comes in handy.
Hopefully this information will help all the visitors to our fair city and maybe even a few from here who might not be familiar with the new digs in Arlington. So get on out there, but please remember, BE LOUD when the other team has the ball, and BE QUIET when the Cowboys have the ball.