22 returning starters includes nine Pro Bowlers from last year and when five players are considered to be among the top 100 in the league and...
You start the season 0-2.
Oh ... my ... gosh.
Fire the head coach.
Fire the offensive coordinator.
Fire the kicker.
Run the ball more.
Trash the idea of running back by committee.
Blitz more.
Scream at the players more.
Throw to the tight end more.
Punish the players for committing penalties.
Have a players-only meeting.
Question team leadership.
Question practice habits.
Question the practicality of practicing last Friday at Cowboys Stadium in front of the touring public.
Did I leave anything out?
"When you lose two games," rationalized Cowboys defensive end Marcus Spears, "everything is the problem.
"People feel like the mountain is falling, so they run and duck for cover. But sometimes you got to stand there and take the heat until you can dig your way out."
Well, the Cowboys better be digging come noon Sunday in Houston at Reliant Stadium when they face not only the 2-0 Texans, but also after two weeks, the NFL's No. 1-ranked offense, the NFL's No. 1-ranked passing offense, the NFL's leading rusher and on top of that, the NFL's No. 1-ranked scoring offense.
Maybe the Cowboys better take one of those backhoes with them to Houston to help with all this projected digging.
Hey, even the understated Wade Phillips kicked off his daily media briefing the other day with "Time to call 9-1-1, an emergency, that's where things are pointed."
Wade, out of character? Yet another ramification of starting off this promising 2010 season with a 0-2 record.
What to do, what to do?
Well, and this might sound counterproductive, opposite of what most are insisting, wanting a lot of yelling and screaming, ripping and cutting, threatening and tightening of the screws, but here is what the Cowboys really need to do:
Lighten up. That's right, this game of football is supposed to be fun, and I can tell you right now, no one in this organization is having much fun right now. Most seem to be walking on egg shells, and indigestion seems to be reaching epidemic proportions.
Almost as if this team has grown stale, the insidious disease sometimes born out of minimal change from one year to the next.
To me, this team needs to be reminded of how good it can be, and just go out and play football. Quit playing this connect-the-dots game of football. Robotic offense and defense leads to mistake. Tense muscles because brain malfunctions.
And for goodness sakes and I don't think they have been belaboring this point, but forget what you are supposed to do this season or what people think you're supposed to be. Forget knowing you need to win at least 10 games, which to do so now means winning 10 of the next 14. Such thoughts will overwhelm. The pressure will be debilitating.
No, just win one game. Because in this game, as I've been saying all Cowboys jersey
week long, you can't get to two wins, let alone 10, before you win one. The big picture needs to be reduced to a mere snapshot, starting Sunday in Houston. Yeah, I know the Texans are 2-0. Yeah, I know they are averaging 32 points a game. Yeah, I know Arian Foster has rushed for 300 yards, like 161 more than the Cowboys entire team. And yeah, I know the Texans fans think this is Homecoming on Sunday, all fired up to put the Cowboys in their place and maybe in a 2010 coffin.
But come on, the favored Texans own the league's 31st-ranked defense. They have given up 51 points in two games. And they had to go into overtime, giving up 27 points in four quarters, to beat a Redskins team whose offense managed but two field goals against the Cowboys.
This is not exactly mission impossible.
"If this team shows up and shows who we are," Spears philosophized, "we'll be all right on Sunday."
Darn tooting'.
But to be all right, the Cowboys need to score touchdowns. An offense producing one touchdown in each of the first two games just isn’t going to cut it, and certainly not against this high-powered bunch. No matter how good your defense might be, it's not going to hold these NFL offenses without a touchdown every week as it had for three straight regular-season games before this past Sunday.
And to me, to score the necessary number of touchdowns the Cowboys have to run the ball more effectively. And I didn't say more times, I said more effectively, because when you finish a game rushing for 36 yards on 20 carries as the Cowboys did in the 27-20 loss to Chicago, why the heck would you want to run more? Please. And to put further perspective on just how poorly the Cowboys ran the ball against the Bears, consider on four straight running plays in the first quarter the Cowboys gained 7, 7, 8 and three yards. That's 25 yards, meaning on the Cowboys' other 16 carries in the game they totaled 11 yards. Eleven!
Who in their right mind would have run the ball more that day?
"We're not running the ball well, and that's part of it," Cowboys owner Jerry Jones said when addressing the run-pass disparity.
Says quarterback Tony Room, "I think when you run the ball and run successfully it makes everything a lot easier - everything - whether it's your red zone offense, or whether it's staying on the field, or minimizing mistakes or minimizing what the defense can do defensively. But if you're not getting the production out of it, then you are banging your head against the wall, too, to just keep doing it."
Come on, the Cowboys have run the ball 42 times so far, and the longest run is 12 yards. This past game, they had five carries for negative yards and three more for one yard each. That came to eight carries for minus-8. Huh, run this.
And the biggest problem seems to be running the ball between the guards, their erstwhile bread and butter real estate. Why, the Cowboys have run the ball 23 times essentially up the middle for a grand total of 54 yards. That's 2.3 yards a carry. Not good, and one of the main reasons why the NFL's No. 4 total offense (395 a game) is now tied for 26th in scoring, and only thanks to Dees Bryant's 62-yard punt return for a touchdown. Otherwise, this offense is producing 10 points a game, or tied for 29th.
One other thing about this run-more stuff: The Cowboys were second-and-4 at the Chicago five, if you remember, and three straight Barber runs netted four yards, leaving them at second-and-goal at the one when Room hit rookie Chris Gronkowski for a touchdown. They ran it, but couldn't run it, and after two games is one of just nine teams without a rushing touchdown.
Oh, by the way, for those who worry about run-pass disparity, I see where last Sunday the undefeated Texans ran the ball 24 times and threw the ball 52 times. You know why? Because they could gain only 58 yards rushing but were able to pass for 468, and since they won, then it's like, what disparity?
Only in a loss does offensive disparity exist.
"We need to get more out of what we're trying to do," Room said.
I'll say. How about like a 20-yard touchdown run? That's allowed. How about a 39-yard touchdown pass? Think I saw one of those this past Sunday. How about that first takeaway or maybe that third sack ... at least?
Outside of Bryant's 62-yard punt return for a touchdown, and I thought this Pittsburgh Steelers jersey
would be the jolt they badly needed, the Cowboys haven't produced any juice, as if they have been operating under this suffocating cloud of despair. Come on, go get you something - anything to get excited about and cut out all this grinding, grinding, grinding.
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