studcrackers wrote:Well I hope we don't play the Giants in the playoffs
Welp...
First off, any and all credit must go to the Giants. Steve Spagnuolo is one hell of a Defensive Coordinator and he had that defense ready to go last night. As Collinsworth said more than once - they were spectacular. He clearly had a plan to focus on slowing down Zeke, keep Dak in the pocket and make Dak beat the Giants defense from there. He couldn't.
It was obvious the coverages and blitz packages had Dak confused all night. One thing I've noticed with Dak when he struggles. His footwork goes to crap. And when it does, his passes are all over the place. Saw it in the first half against the Steelers, saw it again against the Ravens and I've seen it against both the Vikings and Giants. In most cases, he would figure out what was going on, settle down and play well in the 4th quarter. Not last night. Rarely did he leave the pocket and his footwork was all over the map. He was clearly uncomfortable. I've heard plenty of discussions that the play calling could have improved things (examples - more play action on 1st down and more "pound the rock" with Zeke). I don't know. While Zeke had 100 yards I never got the feeling the running game was doing a lot to control the game. The QB just wasn't good last night. He played like a rookie.
So - on to the elephant sitting in the corner of the room wearing a Romo jersey. Is it time to make the switch? Maybe. Garrett was grilled about it after the game (I got a chuckle out of one tweet where Garrett responded by saying "
01110111 01100101 00100000 01101100 01101111 01110011 01110100.") I think it depends on how Dak rebounds from last night. The NFL is hard. And for a rookie, I can't imagine how hard. But he's clearly not where he was a month ago. And if he looks as lost next Sunday night as he did last night, I wouldn't hesitate to put Romo in. I don't know that the Cowboys would have won last night with Romo - the Giants were just that damn good on defense. But going forward, it has to be a part of the plan. And I don't want to hear any "Dak looking over his shoulder" ****. I don't sense him being that mentally fragile. If he is, we all misjudged him.
Bottom line - the Cowboys are just fine. Everything we as fans want (Home field and the #1 seed) is right there in front of us. But if we have to face the Giants in the playoffs...
Then again - I don't see anyone wanting to face that defense in the playoffs. Not when they play that good.