Cowboys Defeat Redskins in Tony Romo’s Finest Hour

Posted on September 27, 2011 by Gene Strother

Dateline: Cowboys Stadium, Arlington, TX, September 26, 2011

It is true that the Dallas Cowboys’ offense was out of sync all night long against the Washington Redskins. It is true that the offense failed to score a single touchdown in the game. It is true that Tony Romo threw an untimely interception that could have cost his team the game.

It is also true that the low-scoring Monday night game may well have been Romo’s finest hour.

With his center mysteriously snapping the ball any time he felt the urge (which never seemed to be a good time), with the running game bogging down for nearly three quarters, with his neophyte receivers lining up in all the wrong places and then running all the wrong routes, and with his own cracked ribs being jerked and jolted by the abusive treatment of Redskins defenders, Romo managed to fight through adversity the whole night long, escape enough bloodthirsty pass rushers and complete enough timely passes to position Cowboys’ rookie kicker Dan Bailey for no less than six field goals.

The oft-debated, much-maligned Cowboys’ QB also managed to escape an all-out blitz to convert a crucial third-and-21 late in the fourth quarter. Romo sprinted to his right to buy time and then hit wide receiver Dez Bryant in stride for a 30-yard gain. That was the longest third down conversion of Romo’s career.

On a night when the offense spat and sputtered, faltered and failed to score a single touchdown… on a night when Rob Ryan’s defense took center stage, mostly keeping the hated Redskins out of the end zone and the Cowboys in striking distance… on a night when Romo’s numbers— 22 for 36, 255 yards, no TDs, one pick— were pedestrian at best…

The star of the team with the Star on its helmet was Tony Romo.

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Jet-Setting Jerry Jones Contributes to Dallas Cowboys Heart-Breaking Loss

Posted on September 12, 2011 by Gene Strother

Now that the tenth anniversary of 9/11 is done and we are no longer “all New Yorkers,” the good Texans can get back to being bitter about their team losing a game they were supposed to lose, but never should have lost.

Your Dallas Cowboys once again began an NFL season with a near-miss.

According to Tony Dungy, Rodney Harrison and Tyrannosaurus Rex Ryan, the Cowboys were supposed to lose to the New York Jets and lose big. None of them saw what was coming, because what was coming was a better team than Team Green. A better offense. A better coaching staff. A better game plan. A better quarterback…

Well, wait. Check that. The quarterback thing: Let me retract that. More talented? Yes. Better? Not so much.

So, who to blame?

Tony Romo is an obvious choice. First, he fumbles on the goal line, trying to make more out of a play than was there. This at a time when a field goal would have done just fine. Then, after the defense made a valiant stand to get him the ball and an opportunity to win the game in the waning minutes, he hit a wide open Darelle Revis right between the numbers.

This will have many saying, “Same ol’ same ol’.”

Or, “See? Romo sucks!”

We could blame the punt team. Or its coach: Joe DeCamillis. NFL teams are not supposed to give up a blocked punt to someone charging right up the gut.

A militant few will blame Jason Garrett just because he is redheaded or something like that. Those people I pay no attention to because they obviously do not know great coaching material when they see it.

I am going to go ahead and let my favorite punching bag share some of the blame. You know him as the man with the common name and the uncommon ability to turn the simplest communication into utter nonsense.

I am talking about the man whose commitment to winning has nothing to do with anything but his own ego. I am talking about the man that punked Tom Landry. I am talking about the only man in the history of the world to run off a coach immediately after his team won back-to-back championships.

I am talking about the man who found a way to stroke his ego and keep himself in the national spotlight without winning anything but the vote of the citizens of Arlington, Texas.

This man allowed his team’s archenemy, the Philadelphia Eagles, to swoop in and steal the free agent cornerback his team so desperately needed. This man pinches pennies on personnel from his magnificent billion-dollar edifice. This man was content to enter the 2011 NFL season dangerously thin at cornerback.

This man has a mortgage to pay.

This man had us all watching a kid named McCann do his dead-level best to cover Plaxico Burress.

Blame whomever you like. I say Jerry Jones is as much to blame as Tony Romo and the punt team.

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Posted in Dallas Cowboys, Defeat, Game Analysis - Recap, In(Gene)ious Insights, Jerry Jones | Tagged , , | 4 Comments

Drew Pearson Finally Takes His Rightful Place in the Cowboys’ Ring of Honor

Posted on August 19, 2011 by Gene Strother

On a day when I would like to give Jerry Jones credit for making a good call by placing Drew Pearson in Dallas Cowboys Ring of Honor, I find myself instead a little miffed that it took him so long. As the sole Keeper of the Keys to this highest honor bestowed by the team on any of its players and coaches, Jones has contributed to the NFL Hall of Fame committee’s oversight of Pearson by not bestowing upon the man the credit he deserved years and years ago.

By today’s standards, Drew Pearson’s numbers were not flashy. But by 70’s standards – the era in which he played – they were outstanding. So much so that he was named to the NFL’s All-Decade team for the 1970s. Pearson had 489 receptions in his career, which is enough to rank him second all-time in Cowboys’ history. He also scored 48 touchdowns, good for third in team history and amassed 7,822 yards, also good for third in franchise history.

Pearson perfected the sideline catch. Few have ever caught passes while dragging that second foot as well as he did. He was the recipient of Staubach’s famed Hail Mary pass in the 1975 playoff game against the Minnesota Vikings.

Back in January, during Super Bowl week, Drew’s quarterback, Roger Staubach, the greatest Cowboy of them all, was quoted as saying, “Drew Pearson is a Ring of Honor player if there ever was a Ring of Honor player and Jerry has told me that too. I’m hoping whenever we continue the Ring of Honor … that Drew will be right there. I would be surprised if he wasn’t.”

Tim McMahon of ESPNDallas.com offers the theory that it was pressure from Roger Staubach that finally prompted Jerry Jones to pull the trigger and place Pearson into the Ring of Honor. He mentions hat Jerry owes Staubach a huge debt of gratitude for heading up the effort to land the 2011 Super Bowl inArlington.

MacMahon writes, “Pearson has butted heads with Jerry throughout the years, whether it’s been because of business disagreements or the blunt criticism of the Cowboys that makes the Original 88 such a great fit on ESPN 103.3’s postgame coverage. If it takes Jerry scratching the back of a business partner to finally put Pearson in the Hall of Fame, so be it.”

Amen, Tim. Amen.

Now, let’s get to work on Darren Woodson. He is my next choice for the Ring of Honor.

Who is yours?

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Dallas Cowboys GM Jerry Jones Listens to Rob Ryan, Signs FA Safety Abram Elam

Posted on August 6, 2011 by Gene Strother

 

Filling the Void

It is hard for an old-timer (and hard to believe a fan of the early ’90s Cowboys actually qualifies as such, but I guess so) to get his mind around celebrating the presence of a member of Buddy Ryan’s family on the Dallas Cowboys’ coaching staff.

Hard. But not impossible.

Thanks to the influence of Rob Ryan, Jerry Jones and company set out to nab Abram Elam in the 2011 NFL free agency gold rush. Abram was one of four top-level safeties on the 2011 NFL free agent market. The other three were Michael Huff, Eric Weddle and Dawan Landry.

Huff and Weddle are more athletic, free safety types. It had been my hope that Jones would make a run at bringing Huff, the University of Texas product, “home” to Dallas. If not Huff, I wanted Weddle.

If not Huff or Weddle, somebody…anybody!

Turns out Jones and Ryan got their man, the one they wanted, the one whose skills and football savvy Rob Ryan knows better than anyone, the one that has already proven he can achieve— excel even— in the Ryan Helter Skelter, Kamikaze defensive scheme.

Last season, Elam recorded 79 tackles, two sacks, two interceptions, 10 passes defensed and two forced fumbles. Solid numbers. Not splashy or sexy. But solid.

More importantly, Elam brings experience and familiarity with the Ryan philosophy of defense. He is touted as an intelligent player that should be able to help his new teammates with the learning curve.

Together, Elam and Gerald Sensabaugh should comprise a solid last line of defense. Not spectacular. Just solid. If you have watched many Cowboys games over the past few seasons, you know that, where the safety position is concerned, solid is good. Solid is an upgrade.

So, it says here that Jerry Jones did the Cowboys fans a solid by signing Abram Elam. Mingle a solid signing at a position of dire need with an effective scheme, and the Cowboys defense could go from good to great in 2012.

Old Cowboys fans have to love that, even if the credit will go directly to the progeny of the arrogant little irritant, Buddy Ryan. Besides, in the world of NFL football, the only thing needed to change one’s loyalty is a change of laundry.

Rob Ryan and Abram Elam together again, this time in silver and blue laundry, ought to bring a little more lustre to that star in 2012.

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Posted in Dallas Cowboys, defense, Free Agents, Jerry Jones, Players, Rivalry | Tagged , , , , | 1 Comment

Dallas Cowboys Owner Jerry Jones Out-Maneuvered by Andy Reid…Again

Posted on July 30, 2011 by Gene Strother
Jerry Jones dancing

Jerry celebrating

We are given two reasons Cowboys fans should love having Jerry Jones for their team’s owner: His commitment to winning at any cost and his slick, wheeler-dealer, deal-making skills.

Well, that whole commitment to winning at any cost thing has hardly been provable since Jerry took on the mortgage for the new stadium. He has sometimes rivaled Ebenezer Scrooge for his penny-pinching, passing on free agents in positions of need.

Besides, just how much winning have the Cowboys done since the best move Jerry Jones ever made was run out of town after winning consecutive Super Bowls? Jerry won the pissing contest with Jimmy Johnson by pretty much whizzing all over Cowboys fans. That began a long and storied run of the arrogant Napoleonic dictator trying to prove his manhood and his ludicrous statement that “any of five hundred coaches could have won the Super Bowl” with that talent. Cowboys suffered through regimes headed by the Dave Campos and Wade Phillipses of the world.

Brilliant!

So, let’s chill on that “win at any cost” compliment. It ain’t so. He won’t win at the cost of his own ridiculous ego and he isn’t near the free-spender you think, either.

Now, to the second point: The one about his deal-making skills.

Someone please explain to me how someone with the girth of Philadelphia Eagles’ coach Andy Reid managed to sneak into the bargaining room undetected and snag Nnamdi Asomugha right from under Jerry’s smug nose?

Concerning the Eagles’ Apache-like scalping of the Cowboys and Jets– the two teams supposed to be frontrunners for Nnamdi’s services– Jason Cole of Yahoo Sports wrote, “The move to snag Asomugha from underneath the likes of the New York Jets and Dallas Cowboys was cold-blooded. Eagles team president Joe Banner might intimidate Suge Knight right now (and anybody who has ever seen Banner knows what a long shot that is). The Eagles didn’t just send a shot across the bow at the rest of the NFL, they sent 31 blasts at each opponent.”

The insufferable rah-rah cheerleaders masquerading as a news outlet at Philly.com crowed, “The moves back up the team’s promise to be aggressive in free agency. They are also a clear sign of coach Andy Reid’s commitment to win big and win now as he enters his 13th season in Philadelphia.”

I know. I know. This is the time to be optimistic and upbeat. After all, the strike is ended. Football is back. And we are fans of the Dallas Cowboys, dammit!

I’m trying. I just can’t shake this feeling that Jerry Jones is really the Devil incarnate. And I, for one, am a little weary of giving the Devil his due.

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