Hello my friends,
Well there is no way around it, we got our butts handed to us. I hate that we lost like this. There is so much that enraged me about this game from a positive and negative point of view. To be honest there wasn't even that much to be positive about, it all pretty much got erased and we lost at home during prime time, heard one "Griese" chant, and had to endure John Madden's ridiculous commentary on the game. I can't see many positives so lets hash out the issues.
First off, our offense is in shambles.
Grossman started out great putting up a 70 something yard drive on the way to a field goal and then put up another impressive drive that looked dead until he scrambled for 10 yards and set up our only touchdown. All in all he looked good throughout the game and obviously forced two of his picks (I believe that one was Muhammad's fault and I will get to that later). The fact remains that we saw Rex engineer two GREAT drives, and then on others he tried to force when we were behind. Some of you will be calling for his head, and I will not be counted among them. I still believe that he is our starter and I don't believe that Griese is the answer. I don't think Rex is off the hook either, he has to do a better job. He has to stop forcing passes.
However, in light of that wouldn't it be great if we had receivers who could catch the ball when it is thrown at their numbers! Seriously, I know Berrian had a decent game with 6 catches for 73 yards, but would it be too much to ask for him to catch some more balls that were thrown right at him. I know that on one play he had the ball but couldn't hang on after a hit. Another time, he had the ball, but caught it in front of his body and didn't pull it in, and again, couldn't hang on after the hit. Finally, I really wanted to pull my hair out when he dropped a perfect pass from Grossman when he was wide open along the sideline. Furthermore, where is Muhammad? Has someone abducted him and replaced him with a clone? Where was the guy who always was in the right place at the right time last year? He always caught his passes, and his shtick is supposed to be as a possession receiver! Recently he hasn't caught balls, has been falling asleep on his routes, and generally been a non-factor. He is supposed to be a leader on this team, and unfortunately because he is a vet they are trying to feed him the ball when he is strictly not preforming. Before the game started and during the first half I was excited because I thought our team had a perfect chance to take advantage of a bad Dallas secondary, but no, instead we made them look like kings.
The line was pathetic in picking up the blitz and couldn't even handle a simple stunt play.
As for our running game, it has to be better. Benson ran alright tonight, but again couldn't hang on to the ball. Unfortunately, that "fumble" was called a fumble when I really didn't think it was, but it dosen't matter because Benson needs to hold on to the ball. We need him to hold on to the ball.
On to the defense. They deserve some slack, but not too much. First off, lets observe that we lost Vasher and Briggs before Dallas went on a scoring binge. When we lost Mike Brown it wasn't horrible because we had a proven starter in Manning waiting in the wings. When we lost Dusty Dvoracek it wasn't that bad as we had a proven veteran starter in Darwin Walker waiting to sack people. However, we have a bunch of rookies behind Briggs who aren't bad but are unproven, and apparently Ricky Manning Jr. couldn't hang with Owens and company. It hurts to lose people like that and to top it all off we saw Tommie Harris on a training table at the end of the game. We can only pray and hope that he is fine. Injuries are ravaging our Defense. The thing that really got me about that situation is Madden and his goofy partner practically licking the butts of every offensive Cowboy player. I know Romo and Owens had a good game, but would it be too much to ask to mention that the Bears were missing two Pro-bowl players during their second half scoring binge? Seriously, would it? They were acting like Romo was the greatest thing in the world and that he was taking out the Bears defense without having the decency to mention that we were missing two Pro-bowl starters. That is the real thing that made me upset. I can only hope that Briggs, Vasher, and Harris are fine. If not it is going to be a very, very, very long season.
As for special teams, lets give props where props are due. Blocking three out of five field goals in three games is a pretty lofty accomplishment! They really have impressed me with their play and also kudos to Adam Archuleta for picking up the ball and bringing it back. Aside from that Hester has to stop trying so hard. I know he is excited to do what he does, and I know he loves it. I can respect that, but he has to hold on to the ball. He muffed two balls and lost another. He will be explosive for us in many a situation, but he has to know his limits and hold on to the ball.
Long story short, we need to stop turning over the ball, we have to start catching the ball, and we have to stop our defensive players from pulling their groins away from the play.
We have to rebound from this. Losing to the Chargers by 11 in San Diego is one thing, but losing to a conference rival by 24, at home on prime time is unacceptable. We have to go into Detroit and kick some Lion butt. We are starting our divisional swing against a surprisingly good Lions offense, a revived Green Bay Packers squad, and against a Vikings team that shouldn't be taken lightly. We need to take all three of these games. Anything short of that will be unacceptable. Oh, and pray that nobody murders Rex Grossman this week.
Here's hoping that we can turn things around.