Cowboys should start Kellen Moore, if things go south
The Dallas Cowboys have officially ended the Brandon Weeden experiment. I believe all of Cowboy Nation wanted him to succeed. Success for Weeden would have resulted in victories, so how could anyone be against that? Unfortunately, there were times when the Cowboys offense looked outright inept and impotent. I don’t think that it was entirely Weeden’s fault, after all it’s a team sport.
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Now the Cowboys hand the flagship’s keys to another statistically mediocre quarterback – Matt Cassel. Cassel will have to deal with the same issues that Weeden did. An offensive line that isn’t creating running lanes. A running game that fails to pick up first downs on short yardage situations. Wide receivers that mentally check out of the game, fail to get open and drop catchable passes.
There’s also very vanilla play calling and formations by offensive coordinator Scott Linehan to overcome. Plus, a coaching staff that chooses a field goal after reaching the opponents’ 7 yard line while losing by 17 points, instead of attempting to convert a 4th and 2 late in the 3rd quarter.
Should Cowboy Nation expect a spark from Cassel? I’ll remain optimistic, however another scenario was proposed to me by members of Cowboy Nation. Tony Romo‘s expected to return from injury in Week 11. At the very worst, the Cowboys lose every game that Romo misses and end up 2 – 7 after Week 10. When Romo returns, they win every game and finish 9 – 7. If the Cowboys miss the playoffs, the reward is another mid-round draft pick.
Career Quarterback Ratings | |||
| Player | Yards | TD / Int | QB Rating |
| Matt Cassel | 15,727 | 96 / 70 | 80.1 |
| Brandon Weeden | 6,158 | 28 / 30 | 74.6 |
| Tony Romo | 33,821 | 245 / 112 | 97.6 |
If the offense under Cassel proves to be ineffective, should the Cowboys use this Romo-less stretch to peek at the future? Currently, the second leading candidate for the Heisman Trophy is quarterback Trevone Boykin of TCU. The knock on the Cowboys is that they haven’t drafted a successor for Tony Romo. This could be the time to see if Kellen Moore is the future instead of waiting for the off-season. Personally, I feel Moore would provide more of a spark than Cassel and could use some valuable in-game experience.
We could go a step further and reduce Jason Witten‘s snap count. Let’s see Gavin Escobar, James Hanna and Geoff Swaim on the field together. I know football players want to play, but not playing every down this year won’t reduce Witten’s chances of entering the Hall of Fame. It’s not about throwing away the season for a top 3 pick in next year’s draft – that’s a side bonus. The goal is to evaluate the roster to get better pieces from the 2016 NFL draft for next year’s Super Bowl run.
Right now, that strategy is far down the road. Even with three losses, we are in 2nd place of our division and as a bonus, the New York Giants and Philadelphia Eagles play each other during our bye week. It’s possible they tie with records of 3 – 3 and Washington drops to 2 – 4. We’ll still be in the thick of it and having Dez Bryant back should make Cassel’s job a lot easier.
Our “once” high powered and explosive offense will be safe and reliable in the hands of Cassel, but part of me would like to see Moore drive it like he stole it – until Romo gets home.
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