Radio Free Texas

Tuesday, December 27, 2011

It Wasn’t Meaningless To Me !! @##$&^%*^%$

Yeah I heard all the talk that said it didn’t matter if the Cowboys won after the Giants had beaten the Jets earlier Saturday.

I don’t/didn’t buy it.  It mattered.  There was still a slim chance that The Good Guys could have gotten a wild card if all the right teams lost.  It mattered,  I never like leaving a stadium after a loss.  I sure don’t like it when it looks like the team you root for is just trying to hurry up and lose and get back home to unwrap their Christmas presents.  I hope they all got a lump of coal this year !  It mattered,  thousands of people put off celebrating Christmas with families to spend several hours getting there, 100% effort isn’t asking for too much.  It mattered, I firmly believe in momentum in sports and do you really want to limp into the last game of the year, with the Division title on the line after turning in a performance like that stinker ?  It mattered and I don’t care what Jason Garrett says about “the process”, isn’t winning part of his process ?  I also heard him say ( and I paraphrase here a bit) that you have to try and take the emotion out of it , discussing the thought process of removing starters early.  Well he certainly succeeded in taking “emotion” out of it.  There was none !!#$%^^&&$%

At some point coaches have changed over the years, no coach I ever knew or was around ever played trying to not get anybody hurt or looking ahead to next weeks game. 

I bet it mattered to ole Jerry Jones too.  I didn’t see anybody lined up at the many souvenir stands after that game.  Not too many people want a memento from something that bad.  Pretty sure he lost money also when thousands of people left early meaning they weren’t buying his $5 sodas and $8 beers and $10 popcorns.

Now to be fair, if the Heroes of My Youth win in New York this week then maybe it was a smart thing to just give up and start thinking ahead.  Maybe smart but dadgummitt don’t tell me it didn’t MATTER !!!

later Poke

Tuesday, December 06, 2011

Time Outs

Saying anything about Jason Garrett’s use or non use of timeouts at the end of regulation seems almost silly at this point.

Every radio station, newspaper, blog, TV station and any other media has covered it more extensively than any other news story since Sunday evening.

I will do it anyway, in a limited fashion.

I have no problem with the time out called right before our kicker nailed his first attempt.  The brain trust thought it was needed, maybe they saw stuff they didn’t like and using one of their 2 remaining time outs was the smart thing to do.  Lets face it, you could see the Arizona players not really rushing and the kicker wisely just used it as a warm up kick. 

The time out, or lack of one is what makes me mad.  When Dez caught that last pass, The Good Guys should have called a time out. They had 2 left at that point.  There would have been 22-26 seconds left.  You could then have discussed what you wanted to do.  If you still wanted to kick, you could have done that.  I would have liked to have seen them try to get a few more yards and make it a more makeable kick myself.  Then use your last timeout.

Sadly Jason Garrett didn’t see it the same way I did.  His reasoning was that he didn’t want a “negative” play.  I don’t like that kind of reasoning. 

All is not lost.  A victory over the Giants Sunday smooths out this latest bump in the road.  I know it’s hard to imagine a win after watching that mess of a game against Arizona but last weeks performance has no bearing on this weeks.  At least I hope it doesn’t.

later, Poke

Thursday, December 01, 2011

Too Soon

So yeah the topic around the water cooler at work is about the Cowboys, it has to be right ?  First place in their division and Thanksgiving has come and gone.  What else would we be talking about ? Christmas ? Travel plans ? Politics ? Nope, just the important stuff. 

Pay attention and see if the fullback Chapas that got brought up from the practice squad makes a difference in the run game this week.  When Fiammetta went out the stats went down for DeMarco Murray.  The tight end Phillips is a good blocker BUT, it only makes sense that a guy who has spent his whole life running through holes and making blocks would be better at it than a guy who has spent his football playing life making blocks only while trying to get himself open to catch a pass.  The size issue also has to be a part of it. 

Playoffs ?? You’re talking Playoffs ?? ( cue Jim Mora)

Too soon to start penciling in all the different scenarios for me.  My rule of thumb is if I need a computer to figure out who MIGHT play who if Team A beats Team C and Team D loses to Team G then its TOO SOON.  Some people love doing that stuff and that’s okay, more power to them.  As for me I will wait until there are just a couple different possibilities THEN I will start over-worrying about those.

For now I only have enough energy to worry about beating the pesky Cardinals.  I know they have a horrible record.  I know there will be tons of Cowboys fans at the game in Arizona.

I also know that any team can beat any team so I have to hope that Jason Garrett makes sure his team is ready to play.  It might help if a couple of the injured players get to come back.

I also feel a need to post it here that the Cowboys SHOULD NOT PUNT THE BALL TO PATRICK PETERSON.  In case Jerry and Jason read this blog now they will have NO EXCUSE if they do.  On a more serious note I worry about Mat McBriar and his nerve problem in his leg.  I hope that works out for him and not just to benefit the Good Guys. 

The Heroes of Our Youth have put themselves in a good position, now they have to finish the job and keep winning ! later Poke

Monday, November 28, 2011

2 For The Price Of One Blog Sale

To honor the holiday shopping season I offer a two-fer.  This edition of this tired old blog will cover not one but two games.  Both victorious at that !  What a bargain and you didn’t have to camp out in front of any store.  You’re welcome.

First the game against the deadskins.  I was both amazed and ecstatic that their kicker missed 2 !! field goal attempts.  It seems like that never happens against the Boys.  I was afraid it would turn into the kind of game that it was.  The games against them always do.  Romo and Robinson seemed like they were looking at different game plans most of the day.  Thank goodness Jason Witten found that second gear he seemed to have misplaced for so long.  That was a sweet touchdown, especially considering that was DeAngelo Hall chasing him.

Second, the Turkey day game against the Dolphins.  I needed the Heroes to win this one.  I still had a bad taste from the last time they played us on Thanksgiving Day and beat us 40-21.  To make things worse a stupid Dolphin fan started crawling around under my seat after the game so he could grab those plastic souvenir cups and he got mouthy when I told him to get the heck away from my stuff.

This was truly a game to be thankful for, even before the game even started.  We had 11 of our family at this one and had the best tailgate ever.  Shrimp gumbo, home made beer, good music playing, plenty of room for everybody and beautiful weather.  Not to mention that one of the 11 was our 2 month old granddaughter so it was heaven on earth.

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As for the game itself I was confident but not very comfortable about our Good Guys.  I was afraid they would be a little flat, or tired and to be honest I don’t think we saw their best game.  They did give their best effort though and the crowd was very loud and it seemed to help them pick it up a bit.

When the defense finally made that stop with about 3 minutes left I started thinking we had a shot at winning that game.  When DeMarco kept ripping off the good runs I felt even better !   To be totally honest though I didn’t feel positive until the kick went through, I looked and didn’t see any penalty flags and then looked and saw the clock at 0:00.  Then and ony then did I resume actual breathing.

The Thanksgiving weekend kind of forced me to move on and so I haven’t spent much time thinking and doing my mental analysis of the game.  I promise the serious,in depth, analytical break down of all the X’s and O’s will be resumed after the 10 day break.  Or maybe not because as long as they keep winning who the HECK CARES HOW?

hope everybody had a great Thanksgiving, later Poke

Wednesday, November 16, 2011

Shock And Awe

My 24 hour rule got waylaid this week by the fact I have been in shock for the last 72 hours.

I didn’t see that coming.  44-7 against a team that was 5-3 and seemed to be one of the better AFC teams.  I may be a Cowboys homer but I never dreamed the Good Guys would put a whoopin like that on the Bills !

To satisfy those who need a critique, we did allow their running back to gain over 100 yards, of course about half of that was when the score was out of hand and we were not overly concerned about the run game beating us.

It was nice getting the lead and then running the clock out by running the ball Effectively !  That’s exactly how the Heroes of My Youth used to do it and also how the Triplets era team did it too.

So now that I have had 3 full days of bliss, I need to fire up my ulcer machine and start to worry about this weeks game.  Sure I know the redskins are 3-5.  I know they have a QB issue and a run game issue and a defensive issue.  I know all that.

I also know its Cowboys-redskins week.  Rip all the stats up and burn em.  Turn off the radio so the mediots telling us that the Boys should be 3 touchdown favorites are muted.  None of that matters this week.

One of Jason Garrett’s strong points is staying focused and tending to the task at hand.  He will need that trait this week to keep the Boy’s heads straight and hopefully convince the to come out and play with intensity again.

There’s a reason there is an old saying about…”any given Sunday”.  The reason is because it’s true !!!  Just because Team A beats Team C and Team C beats Team B, that doesn’t mean Team A gets a win against Team B.   Got it ?  I hope so cuz I think I nearly confused my ownself with all that logic and reasoning.

that did me in, need a nap, later Poke

Tuesday, November 08, 2011

Strange Day At The Stadium

We pretty much have a routine when we go to games at The Crystal Cathedral.  Try to get there before or right when the parking lots open 5 hours prior to game time.  That gives you plenty of time to set everything up, relax, cook, eat, relax, visit the neighbors, see what everybody is cooking, visit with people from out of town, and get ready to watch the Heroes beat whoever the opponent is that day.

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This week started off weird and got weirder.  First thing was that tickets were going cheap,cheap, cheap, if they were selling at all.  I had 2 folks from out of town who couldn’t make the game and they both were going to send me their tickets to try and sell in the parking lot.  Normally I have 3 or 4 people ask me if I have any extra tickets.  This week NOBODY asked and everybody I asked couldn’t or didn’t want to go.  One of the guys whose tickets I had told me he didn’t care what they sold for, he just wanted a Cowboys fan to have them.  We walked through the lot 2 times trying to sell them with no luck, our neighbors made phone calls, all to no avail.DSC07451

I sensed it was going to be different when for the first hour we were pretty much alone in the lot except for the guys with the customized Cowboys bus.  The tailgate spots go early but not this week, at 11am there were still empty spots for tailgating.  Crazy.DSC07456

The parking lot crowd was more subdued than normal, even for a noon game.  No loud music, no “characters” dancing through the crowd, very laid back.

We finally talked to a lady who had just come to meet her nephew from out of town and tailgate with him and his buddies from New York.  She didn’t have tickets and said she couldn’t afford them being a widow.  Luckily the guy who had given me the tickets had already said to find someone who had a party pass and just let them have his tickets so my wife gave the lady the tickets.  She had never been inside the stadium so she was super happy.  That made it a better day, but I wasn’t expecting much once we got inside.DSC07488

Inside you could see that it wasn’t going to be a full house.  I was amazed considering there was going to be inductions into the Ring Of Honor, with great players from the good old days. 

The game actually had the same feel as the parking lot, at least for the first half.  Lackadaisical seems to be the right word for both teams and the fans.  The halftime inductions got the crowds attention and the Boys made some headway and the crowd finally seemed to wake up a little bit.DSC07500DSC07503DSC07504

After the game we walked slowly to the car, took our time getting in and then promptly drove straight out of Lot 11 like we had a police escort.  30 minutes after the game we were home.  I guess a few people had left early sensing the Good Guys had the game in hand. (they are a lot more confident than I ever am !)DSC07530

Had a great time,  game ended with the right result, felt bad about not being to actually sell the extra tickets and I am still astounded by that.  Just wait, when The Boys pile up some wins people will be fighting over those tickets.  Oh well.  That’s the way football go.DSC07537

later Poke

Wednesday, November 02, 2011

Which Way Do I Go, Which Way Do I Go ???

It would be sooo easy to write off this years edition of the Good Guys after the debacle in Philly.  Too easy almost.

An offensive line that is actually offensive, a defense that kept the Eagirls punter off the field until the 4th quarter.  Special teams that did nothing special.

Injuries keep mounting up.  Young linebacker with broken/sprained/hurt wrist, Cornerback with hamstring issues, Punter with a bad foot ( which really worries me cuz reports of “drop foot” are kinda scary…besides which he is one of our best weapons sadly).  Not to mention a QB who doesn’t seem to have gotten over his prior injuries and may be getting a little gun shy in the pocket from dodging human missiles not blocked by his large friends up front.

Then you look at the schedule and realize that maybe, just maybe The Heroes of Our Wasted Youth might have caught a break.  Of our next 5 opponents, only one has a winning record.  One has NO wins, One has one win, One has two wins, One we have already beaten this year and has the same record we do as of right now.  The one team with a winning record we play at home which might or might not help but at least the team doesn’t have to travel to Buffalo.

None of that guarantees anything with this collection of underachievers though.  There are no gimme games in the NFL and this team has spit the bit on numerous occasions where you thought they would win but managed to surprise both teams involved and lose.

A few wins piled up in this 5 week stretch could set the Boys up nicely for a meaningful December.  A few losses could just as easily derail their train before it ever leaves the station.

So now that I have electronically erased last weeks game from my brain I look forward with great anticipation, hope and scant little confidence to this weeks game against the Seahawks…but, I do look forward.  Gonna head on out to the Crystal Cathedral and maybe say a few prayers and scream my fool head off cuz that’s what fans do.

right ?  later Poke

Sunday, October 30, 2011

24 hour rule extended

this week my 24 hour rule about posting thoughts about the Cowboys will be extended to
48 hours due to the extreme bad taste i have in my mouth right now.
that is all. later Poke

Tuesday, October 25, 2011

That Was Fun

Been a while since the Heroes of My Youth have been in a game like that !  2 years ago they beat the Seahawks by 21 points but other than that the wins for the Boys seem to be nail biters.

Different kind of game too,  the run game really shined but it’s hard to know if that was totally by design or a case of the Rams being so bad at defending against it.  Either way I was just tickled to see it.

Now all around the craziness that is Dallas Cowboy fan messageboards is talk of the Second Coming.  You know, DeMarco Murray !!  That was an impressive showing by the rookie running back.  I just have to be the one who says let’s wait before we start figuring out a way to put #29 up there with the numbers 22 and 33.

The best thing to see was the run blocking by the o-line and the fullback.  That’s the kind of stuff you will need late in the year to win division games.  I am not saying we will have to be a power run team but you need that component to seal the deal after Romo and Bryant and Witten and Austin get you the lead.

As for Romo, love him or hate him, just know that however his season goes is how the Cowboys season goes.  When he is playing at his best this team is hard to stop.  At his worst, well we have seen enough of that already this year, haven’t we ?

To be honest I don’t want to nit pick this team too early.  Keep reminding yourself that a lot of new pieces were added during an off season where there was no real off season.  The potential to be great is there.  The Good Guys just have to keep putting in the work.

I don’t know about ya’ll but I can’t wait till Sunday to see what happens against the eagles.  Been a while since I felt that way too.

later Poke

Wednesday, October 19, 2011

Where We Are vs Where I Thought We Would Be

We are 2-3.  I thought we would be 3-2 now.

Not time to wring hands, gnash teeth, moan and roll over playing dead.  One games difference in a league where fortunes can change in the snap of an ACL or a shoulder.

Close games, all competitive, in it to the end.  Not always the best end result but so far the Good Guys have shown they can play.

I hate the mistakes, turnovers, penalties and the way our Heroes look lost at times.  I really expected a Garrett coached team to not show those tendencies.

I am not a Romophobe, nor a RomoHater.  More of a wait and see kinda guy.  The same things that make us love watching him are at times the things that make us hate watching him.

I still see the offensive line as our biggest concern.  Run blocking especially.  Pass blocking too if you think its important for your QB to have time to make all his reads AND be able to step up into the pocket and make strong throws instead of making throws where the footwork isnt right and panic is setting in.

I still think this team gets better this year.  We have been seeing the results of the lockout and now its time for the Boys to start playing like a team that should know their assignments.

Rob Ryans defense has looked great at times but then they have let me down too.  Sure that was Tom Brady last week but I don’t care.  If you have a lead and there is 2 minutes left and you give back the ball the defense has to make a play if you are gonna win close games. On that last drive I don’t think the Pats had any negative plays other than one missed pass.  That aint gonna cut it from a championship type defense.

Looking forward to the next few weeks.  I think we will see a better result. I am thinking we go 3-2 over the next 5 games, if we can steal a win in there to make it 4-1 and be 6-4 at Thanksgiving then get ready for a exciting finish !

later Poke

Saturday, October 15, 2011

quick blog

just want to get this out there before sunday since i am busy playing with grandkids.

Cowboys will beat the patriots this sunday.later Poke

Sunday, October 02, 2011

A History Making Blog

Todays edition of this blog started out great.  I was writing at home. The words were just piling up and the other bloggers couldn’t keep up with me.  It looked like I had an insurmountable lead.  I had never written better.  I was scoring points with great ideas and awesome turns of phrase.

I wasn’t letting the other bloggers score any points as I shut them down with ease, everything they tried I outwitted them with style and grace.  If there was a “mercy rule” for blogging the writing would have been stopped halfway through this blog.

Then I took a short break, got a drink, listened to my blog coaches, devised a magnificent plan for the last of the blog.  Came back to finish this blog off and ride off into the sunset victorious with my fans cheering and telling me how great I was.

Then I goofed.  I threw in a poorly worded phrase.  Oh well I thought, that one phrase won’t hurt me even if the other bloggers capitalize on my mistake.

Amazingly my concentration must have faltered at that point because the very next paragraph I did the same exact thing.  With the same results, the other bloggers scored off my mistake.

Undaunted I wrote on, I still had a huge lead over the lowly bloggers chasing me, they haven’t been good in years I told myself.  My blog coach told me to keep throwing wild phrases out there.  So I did.  Sadly I slipped up again.  Mistakes seemed to be catching up to me at every turn.

Then the other bloggers started writing better than me.  They couldn’t be stopped it seemed.  One in particular appeared to be almost Superman-like in his ability to just grab phrases out of mid-air and nothing I did could keep him from it.

Before you knew it my huge lead in the blogging contest was gone, I was so stunned I couldn’t think straight.  Nothing I tried worked anymore and the other bloggers pressured me into even more bad writing.

I had one last chance to redeem myself, time was running out.  By this point though all my supporting bloggers also seemed to be bewildered.  My last gasp at writing the perfect ending to a superb blog came crashing to halt as I caught a phrase in my mind and then unexpectedly I just turned off the computer without trying to write it down.

I’ve never seen anything like this in all my years.  Well, that’s not totally true…I may have seen something eerily similar just today in fact as I watched the Heroes of My Youth.  later Poke

Tuesday, September 27, 2011

A Glimpse Inside a Troubled Mind

I have a rule about my blog posts.  I usually won’t write one until 24 hours have passed because I really don’t want everybody to see how fickle and faint hearted this long time, true blue, Cowboys fan can be.  It’s a good rule.

Rules are however made to be broken so I jotted down quick notes during the game.  Actually I put them in my notes section of my phone.  It seemed to help calm my nerves during this game although I will probably not do it again because it would be a shame to throw a perfectly good phone through a perfectly good TV set and it came perilously close to that on more than one occasion tonight.

So, my in game thoughts are written first and then after the game I added calmer thoughts.  Those are in parentheses.  Oh yeah I might have cleaned up some spelling but NO I don’t really worry too much about punctuation and whatnot.  Remember what I said earlier about rules ?  So here ya go, enjoy, be kind to those who share their innermost thoughts with you.

No consistent run game (thank you Felix for cranking it up late in game)
No wide receiver that can get open ( Dez did on that last drive)
Wide receivers that fumble (Ogletree did not make my list of favorite Cowboys during this game)
Run worst running back on 3rd and 1. ( Fiammetta in case you’re not sure because I know a lot of people would think Choice.)
No pass rush ( the longer the game went on the better our rush got)
conservative play calling due to wide receiver inexperience
Opposing kickers never miss ( not long after this Washington had the dropped snap )
First 3rd down pickup came in 3qtr? ( heard announcers say this, never sure if they know what they are talking about)
On td drive after interception in 3rd  quarter defense looked vanilla except vanilla would be more solid ( so by now I am getting mad and discouraged)
Still no pass rush  (we really weren't at this point, even Grossman was looking like a good NFL QB and we all know that’s not the case)
Ogletree is a good 3rd receiver sadly he was starting and trying to fill role of a #1 cuz Dez was just being used as a decoy ( my opinion only I have no idea if that’s what the Boys were doing or if he was just not open or if Romo didn’t have time to throw to him after chasing down errant snaps from Costa.
Costa is said to have short arms he also must have ridden the short bus ( ok that’s just me being mean…but really 4 early snaps ?)
I've been opposed to 4 preseason games but now I think they should play 8 so the boys can learn their jobs and their teammates names (at this point I am trying to humor myself because I am afraid our end is near and I really hate how I am going to feel if The Good Guys lose this game)
Too many penalties ( and not enough called on Redskins)
Stupid play calling in red zone ( I am sticking with this thought even though I also realize it doesn’t matter what play is called if the receivers don’t know what to do, maybe give Tony a dry erase board and let him diagram where they go before every play ? )
How do u not call holding when their offensive lineman shoestring tackles Ware ?  ( still bewildered by that non call)
Good job Felix  ( he was running strong late in the game and I should add good job O-line and fullback too)
Good job Tony on dropping back 20 yards to give Dez time to work himself open.  ( sad he has to do it that way)
Good job Dez who I think was more hurt than we know
Does every game have to come down to a kicker ?? (after seeing the graphic on TV that’s said 9th consecutive game decided by 3 points or less I guess it does…I can live with it as long as the Heroes win !)

Good job Heroes of My Wasted Youth, a win is a win and especially when so many good players are hurt .  later Poke

Thursday, September 22, 2011

That’s Life In The NFL

Wow, what a game.  I griped and complained the whole time.  From the poor offensive showing to the weak secondary play to the missing of chip shot field goals and even about the stupid announcers.

Fear set in about the time Kitna threw that second interception and all I could see was another poor start to this season just like last years.  I admit it, these guys have me spooked.  I no longer am able to watch a game and thing “ they got this.”  Too many times last year they tricked me, no way I’m falling for this again.

Until.  Somebody flipped a switch, the defense started getting off the field after 3 downs.  Romo went into the phone booth and came out in his Superman suit.  Miles Austin showed us why Jerry gave him that big contract. 

Slowly but surely they sucked me back in.  A week after dying seeing the Jets win I was back to thinking, if this happens, and then if that happens, and then if we can just….and amazingly it all did.

The Good Guys were hurt, shorthanded, playing out of town, behind in the 4th quarter only a week after blowing a 4th quarter lead.  Yet I fell hook,line and sinker for their chances to win.

I knew somehow it had to come down to the rookie kicker after he missed that first kick.  When he made the 48 yarder I started thinking that maybe he had found his groove but knowing that usually Cowboy kickers blow it.

I think they won it when the 49’ers won the toss for OT because that put the Cowboy defense on the field and they got the stop. 

I can’t blame the 49er safety for biting on that play fake cuz I figured that’s exactly what we would do.  Run the ball, get a little more room to operate, try to work our way down and then suffer through a nerve wracking field goal attempt.

More magic.  Jesse Holley, the guy from a reality show gets behind everybody and Tony(bless his heart) Romo nailed him with a perfect pass.  Of course the way Holley was holding the ball had me waiting for something bad to happen.  Him getting tackled was the least of my worries.  I just didn’t want the ball to slip, or bounce off his knee, or somehow fly straight up into the air to be snatched up by an evil 49er.  I was almost relieved when he just got tackled close to the goal line.  Lately those kind of plays havent been ending good for the Boys of the Blue Star Commune.

Luckily more excitement was still to come because who knew what Garrett was going to try.  The ball was on the 1 yard line, maybe he thought another double-triple wide receiver reverse screen toss, pitch, stumble would be just the thing to fool the 49ers.

A field goal.  By our rookie kicker. Its up. Its good.  Breathe now.

I love football, even when its killing me.  later Poke 

Tuesday, September 13, 2011

Calmer now

Maybe there should be a rule that says fans cant put stuff on the world wide internet bookface until at least 36 hours after a game their team plays.

Look at all the bandspace that could have been saved just by eliminating all the…cut Romo, Romo is a bum, Romo=Oh NO, diatribes.

I will be the first to admit it killed me seeing the fumble and the interception. Just killed me.  I also admit I too have those moments where I question whether this team can get to where WE want them to be.

BUT, I gotta admit I liked a lot, actually most, of what I saw Sunday night.  I am not claiming a moral victory here or nothing like that.  The Good Guys had it won and then dropped, threw and kicked it away.  They have got to learn how to finish the game.

Be honest though.  Did you really expect our guys to come out and look as good as they did ?  Touchdown on first drive,  attacking defense for most of the game good ??

I sure didn’t.  I said before my confidence was wavering and to my surprise the Boys actually were in this game and taking the Jets to the woodshed.

Then of course all the things that can happen did.  Injuries, penalties, mistakes.  At one point I actually had to count on my hand to figure out what string one of our cornerbacks was on the depth chart.  Luckily I still have all my fingers cuz it was a 5th string guy.

After the adrenaline stopped flowing, after cussing and discussing the failure of Tony, after asking why Witten didn’t appear to make more of an effort to actually fall into the end zone and not go out of bounds, after the disbelief of seeing the punt blocked I came to a realization.  I got to watch the team I love play a heckuva football game, against a good opponent, on the road, in an emotionally charged situation.  I am so glad football is back.

Remember, what happened last week is not as important as what happens this week in the NFL.  How our guys come out and play after that loss will tell me more about what this team might do this year than that lost game will.  As the man said, a wild ride is usually best !

later,Poke

Thursday, September 08, 2011

The Ultimate Homer Is Having a Weak Moment

I am a “homer”.  I always think the team I support is going to win.  This makes me a terrible gambler because I tend to bet with my heart and not my head.

Usually when the first game of the season rolls around I am overflowing with confidence and hoping for a home playoff game.

Not so much this year.  It’s killing me to write that down but I am trying to be honest.

A 6-10 team from last year, no BIG name players acquired in the off season, the LACK of an off season, injuries to players, these are all reasons to waver a bit.

There have been changes. Veterans have been replaced with young guys, non productive players replaced with new players who have their chance to show if they will BE productive.  Those are good things, BUT they may not show immediate results.  I understand it, I have seen it before.  I remember people wanting Landry fired until he got his system and his players in place,  the same with Jimmy Johnson and the disastrous 1-15 season.

An offensive line with 2, possibly 3 rookies playing,  a wide receiver corp with 2 stars and then who knows,  a defensive line that hasn’t shown me they have learned the new defense, a linebacking crew that may or may not have the physical ability to do what Rob Ryan intends for them to do, and then of course our defensive backfield.  The often burned, finger pointing bunch who haven’t inspired confidence since 2009.

Rob Ryan, sure he has a good resume, has posted some good results, says a lot of confident sound bites.  Gonna have to wait before I decide on him.  I am afraid I have a tendency to NOT like him but most of that comes from not liking his Daddy, so I will wait and see what he puts out there before I judge him too harshly.

Oh yeah, did I mention our kicker(S) ?  Notice how that’s plural.  As in , if you have 2 kickers you don’t really have 1 good one .  I love Buehler, going down and tackling, hitting people and all that good stuff.  Can this team really afford to use a roster spot to keep another guy around to kick field goals because they don’t have confidence in Buehler to do it ?  Plus the second kicker hit a rough patch during preseason and couldn’t hit the side of a barn.

So there you have it, plenty of reasons to worry.  Legitimate reasons I think, not gloom and doom stuff. 

So where does that leave me ?  Predicting season records before the first game has been played is not something I put much stock in but a lot of people ask so here goes nothing.

9-7.  I expect the Good Guys to play hard and do much better on penalties than in the past.  I expect them to be IN every game and not show us any more efforts like the one in Green Bay last year.

I also expect some growing pains as they get a handle on what kind of team they are going to be.  It won’t always be pretty, or give us the immediate desired result.  It should be fun though.

I could be wrong.  Every year a team rises from the ashes and makes a stronger showing than anybody expected.  Games can be decided by the smallest changes.  Good luck usually follows good preparation and Jason Garrett will hopefully have them prepared.

Hang on tight cuz it’s gonna be a wild ride this year !

later,Poke

Monday, August 22, 2011

A Practice Post

I am so ready for football to start that I was going to write a long, well crafted, finely detailed post about how the Boys looked last night at the Crystal Cathedral against the Chargers.

I was going to go into great detail about how it looked like our offense is going to need to be heavy on the run game and the short, quick passing game because the offensive line doesn’t seem like it’s going to be able to give Romo much time to throw many deep balls.

I was the going to draw X’s and O’s all over this blog to explain how dazed and confused our Defense looked every time the Chargers threw one of those short passes to an area that had been cleared out and they picked up an easy first down.

I was so ready to write that post.

Then I thought about it.  I am not the biggest, most well informed, smartest Cowboy fan in the world, BUT I do keep up with them on a daily basis.  I have looked at the roster so I am familiar with who is in training camp, who is injured, who has already been cut, who has been added.  I have more than a fleeting interest in The Good Guys.

So at the game last night as I am seeing the not-so-great results of blocking and defending and catching, my first thought was to react like it was a real football game.  You know, moan and worry and cuss the coaches and bad mouth the players.

Then it hit me.  Half the time I didn’t even know WHO the player was that I was griping about.  1/3 of those guys won’t be anywhere near Cowboys Stadium when the regular season starts.

This game was for the coaches to try stuff, get film on guys so they can evaluate their performance, move the pieces around and try to make the puzzle complete.  See what works, who does what better than the other guy. 

So, if you are fretting or foaming at the mouth today over the performance last night, try to remember…its PRESEASON.

I’m not saying you can’t or shouldn’t be a little worried.  I am.

but I could be wrong, later Poke

Monday, August 15, 2011

Procrastinate

Definition of PROCRASTINATE

transitive verb

: to put off intentionally and habitually

intransitive verb

: to put off intentionally the doing of something that should be done

That’s what I have been doing with this Blog.

I didn’t want to write while the Lockout was going on, no sense subjecting ya’ll to whatever my thoughts are on labor-management issues.  Chances are we wouldn’t have agreed and since I only get paid if I have a million or two readers I couldn’t risk losing all that big money.

Plus, I hate preseason football.  I can’t seem to let my hatred for having to buy preseason tickets at full price NOT cloud my thinking and since I know that I purposely don’t spend much time writing about what is or isn’t happening with the Boys.

I am getting excited about the upcoming season though.  Sure I wish Mr. Jones would have gotten a few more players, especially some proven vets to shore up the O-line and the D-secondary but hey I am also smart enough to know you can’t just go buy the best team.(unless you are the NY Yankees in baseball )

Right now oddly enough I am more worried about our kicker than anything else, neither of them has been consistent during Camp and we all saw how that hurts when you don’t get at least 3 points when you get in close.

It will be interesting to see what cuts are made and who starts but to me it seems like this year the Heroes of Our Youth are going to rely on coaching and culture changes to be the difference between this years team and last years.

We will see if that pans out, until next time, later Poke

Saturday, January 08, 2011

Just Wait Till Next Year !!!

I knew at some point I had to finish out this seasons blog.  I just didn’t have a clue what to say or not say.  Still don’t really. 

How does a team so highly thought of end up where the Boys did this year?  How do you fall so quickly and completely from the top of the NFL to 6-10 and waiting for the draft?  What the heck happened ?

Thousands of words have already been written, spoken and rehashed over all the reasons.  Who knows for sure what the correct answer is.

The easy answer seems to be that Wade wasn’t a good coach.  I don’t buy that.  How does a defensive guru lose his guru-ness ?

The next most popular theory is that Jerry Jones messes up the whole karma of the football gods by meddling with hiring coaches or not letting the coaches do what they want with the players or by having a bad facelift. 

My theory has been that the players just didn’t take their jobs seriously.  They didn’t get themselves ready to play, study enough film or work on the little things that make the difference between winners and losers.

There is also the thought that the ball just didn’t bounce the right way this year for the Heroes of the Blue Star.  Balls bounced off our guys hands, and even the feet of our guys this year.  Starting QB’s got hurt when rookie fullbacks missed blocks, kickers missed kicks that usually are thought of as chip shots.  One of those years.

Players got older.  Knees that have been rebuilt don’t work forever and our O-line suffered for it.  (for that matter so did Romo).

Self indulgent players celebrated and got penalized even when something good did happen and all of a sudden fans, coaches and players all seemed to know that no matter what happened or how good a play went this years team would find a way to snatch defeat from the jaws of victory.  The other shoe dropped so many times it sounded like troops marching.

So I guess all of the above is the correct answer for this year. 

Changes have been made and more are coming.  Jason Garrett is the new coach.  I wouldn’t have made that choice even though he was the plan all along.  He has to bear some of the blame for the horrible start this year but he also gets some of the credit for the nice showing for the last 8 games.  I am okay with him being the coach next year.  I liked him when he played here and he definitely has a plan for what he wants from a team.  The team seems to respond well to his direction.  We will see.

So there you go, move ahead, don’t look back (something may be gaining on you).

later, Poke