Sunday, September 27, 2009

What needs to change for a better end result

First off, on my picks, I am 10-5 with tomorrow nights Cowboys game hosting Carolina pending. I was 11-5 in my first week and 8-8 last week. Tomorrow night, a win by the Cowboys puts my overall record at 30-18. Okay, now that's out of the way. That said, I know that the Cowboys have yet to play tomorrow night with everyone else in the NFL having week 3 in the books. But the alarming stat lines after two weeks have to change or else it's 2008 all over again. This team is more together and more focused in lots of areas. But if 2009 trend continues, it's just a continuation of last year. And last year, 2008, we led the NFL in sacks. What caught up to us was being minus whatever the whole year on turnovers. Just a few games that our team even WON the turnover battle or at least didn't lose it. From that standpoint it's amazing that the team was 9-7 with three or four blown games. There were a couple of really bad games where the team didn't even take the field so to speak. But then there were the ones that got away (the first mtg with Washington, Arizona, Pittsburgh, Baltimore) Anyways, after two games, we are minus 4 in turnovers, at the very least that has to stop on our offensive part. And NO sacks. How that is, is baffling. I DO expect to start getting to the QB, and our offense won't turn it over usually more than once a game. We can live with that. But imagine if our defense also starts forcing turnovers. It seems as though all of those things have been happening lately for the Giants for example. The Giants are plus a bunch already in turnovers but only won by six over the Redskins at home, and beat our Cowboys by 2 despite being PLUS 4 in turnovers. So a couple of games that the GMEN could've lost without them benefitting from turnovers. I guess for the Cowboys, the bottom line is, that it's THERE FOR THE TAKING. They take care of the Football first and foremost, they usually win. But if actually winning the turnover battle were to start happening, you can only imagine. This team needs to win. But in order for that to happen, the pass rush needs to start sacking, because without any sacks, the secondary will get lit up. Anytime there isn't enough pressure on a QB, or at least if he isn't taken down for a loss once in a while, the more vulnerable a secondary becomes. And it leaves our offense that much less margin for error. Hopefully things start to change on all of that tomorrow.

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