The Landry Hat » travis bright

Thoughts on Raiders v. Cowboys

Fri, 13 Aug 2010 22:12:55 +0000

1. Doug Free lost the leverage battle on an early run. Stay low coming out of your stance and dig the defender out. At least that’s what my high school coach told me, though I was pretty mediocre in high school. Must have been the mediocre coaching and not my lack of talent, speed and size.

2. The early sack against Romo was incredibly smart (as Romo was avoiding a needless hit) and incredibly frustrating. How is it that he is in his 8th season in the NFL, and he doesn’t simply throw the ball away, but near one of his receivers. No penalty, no loss of yardage. Maybe that can be what he works on in next year’s offseason.

3. Roy Williams should play both sides of the ball. Heck of a defensive play Roy.

4. Why is Romo scrambling in an exhibition game?

5. Doesn’t Scandrick know that the Raiders love the deep ball? They love it so much because the decision to strike deep actually comes from Al Davis himself (according to Warren Sapp).

6. Butler looked good on defense, not so much on special teams.

7. The sack on Kitna in the second quarter where Matt Shaughnessy “beat” free was the fault of Kitna and the interior o-line. Tackles are supposed to push the defender outside the pocket. Free did just that, but Kitna backed up and gave Shaughnessy a gift. Kitna couldn’t step up, however, because there was inside pressure from Desmond Bryant bull rushing Leonard Davis.

8. I want a McBriar jersey. He’s the best around… nothing’s ever gonna keep him down.

9. The Gaylord Texan is just asking for immature Skins’, Gints, and Iggles fans to make fun of the Cowboys. I’m not homophobic, but I wouldn’t name my kid Gay Focker either.

10. I agree Campbell needs all the playing time in the Raider’s system he can get.

11. Great job shedding the block Hatcher. The Raiders will be improved, much improved.

12. Keith Brooking has a ton left in the tank. Lee and Williams may be waiting their turn for a while

13. Robert Brewster at tackle is a mistake. He’s not quick enough to get into position. His feet are just miserable. He needs to maintain a good base and move like he’s on ice. He’s constantly out of position and doesn’t have balance. You can also add that Brewster isn’t doing a good enough job of keeping the defenders hands away. The defender gets into Brewster’s body and there are too many moves that can be made when you have that positioning. He did win some battles, but he’s too green to play if we needed him to do so.

14. The holding penalty on Anderson was ticky-tack. The holding penalty on Hurd was nearly impossible to not call.

15. Leon Williams may be overlooked, but he is playing some solid football. It’s not flashy, but he’s doing the dirty work at linebacker to seal up the holes.

16. McCann’s 2nd quarter punt return did have some dancing… but he danced forward rather than side to side.

17. Travis Bright played a decent game. And by decent, there were few opportunities to curse him.

18. On the fourth down play, if Deon Anderson did run the appropriate depth on the play, what the heck kind of play is that to call for Jason Garrett. I liked the concept. But Anderson isn’t much of a runner with the ball in his hands. he needs to be passed the marker on his route when he does catch it.

19. End of the first half. Our starters and 2nd team were slightly better than your starters.

20. Why did I marry my wife when there are single Dallas Cowboys Cheerleaders in the world? Wait, don’t answer that…

21. How is DeLeon Farr on the team for 10 minutes and he is already more beloved than Martellus Bennett?

22. Is Ogletree having a sophomore slump? It’s only the pre-season, but he seems to have regressed.

23. When Stephen McGee was drafted, Jerry Jones said that McGee may see playing time with some wild-hog (cat) formations. We have now seen McGee for two pre-seasons. Can we all agree that McGee is not nearly as fast as Mike Vick, and consequently I have some serious concerns regarding Jone’s ability to discern talent.

24. Beuhler is 3/3 in the game, and 6/7 in the pre-season. He may be a question mark at the end of a close game, but he is settling some nerves.

25. The Cowboys announcers mentioned Lucy from the Peanuts comic strip. My question is why didn’t Charlie Brown ever ask Linus to hold the ball? Or at the very least, kick the snot out of Lucy when she moved the ball.

26. Kudos to Josh Price-Brent for running Rock Cartwright down from behind. That’s the kind of effort which will win you a roster spot.

27. I don’t begrudge the Raiders their touchdown in the game, but I do wonder if the replay is indisputable visual evidence. I think the referees are making decisions with replay that are not justifiable.

28. It’s not a huge deal that Leon Williams dropped a game clinching interception, but it certainly is a reminder that one player on one play can make all the difference in the world in one game. It reminds me of Asante Samuel dropping the interception that would have clinched the Super Bowl and 18-0 for the Patriots. One play. An entire season can come down to one play. It’s miserable to think about… no, it’s miserable to dwell over.

Age v. Depth

Fri, 13 Aug 2010 14:53:39 +0000

The Dallas Cowboys are the oldest young team in the NFL. The multitude of stars and offensive linemen on the team seem to have been around forever. That is partly due to the Cowboys receiving an overabundance of publicity. Some stars maturing earlier in their career (e.g., Ware and Witten) also give the appearance of age. There are some older players on the roster, but there appears to be a succession plan in place for many of them. The elder statesmen on the team considering this year as a year of experience are (and their backups):

Jon Kitna – 14 years experience

Keith Brooking - 13 years experience (Sean Lee, rookie, Jason Williams, 2nd year)

Leonard Davis - 10 years experience (Holland, 8th year, Robert Brewster, 2nd year, Phil Costa, rookie, Travis Bright, 2nd year)

Marc Colombo – 9 years experience (Alex Barron, 6th year, Robert Brewster, 2nd year, Pat McQuistan, 5th year, Sam Young, rookie)

Andrew Gurode – 9 years experience (Kyle Kosier, 9th year)

Kyle Kosier – 9 years experience (Holland, 8th year, Robert Brewster, 2nd year, Phil Costa, rookie, Travis Bright, 2nd year)

Montrae Holland – 8 years experience

Bradie James – 8 years experience (Sean Lee, rookie, Jason Williams, 2nd year)

Terrence Newman – 8 years experience (Orlando Scandrick, 3rd year)

Tony Romo – 8 years experience (Jon Kitna, Stephen McGee)

Jason Witten – 8 years experience (Martellus Bennett, 3rd year)

On a roster of nearly 80 players, there are 11 players with 8 years of experience or greater, of which 9 are starters. 11 more players have 6 or 7 years experience. In essence, going into 2010, 20 out of the entire 53 man roster will have more than 5 years experience. This is undeniably a young team.

Injury is a part of the NFL. Weathering injury will often determine success. In 2008, the Cowboys suffered a spate of injuries at key positions. At quarterback, Romo was replaced by an ineffective Brad Johnson and Brooks Bollinger. Unfortunately the Cowboys had their answer at backup quarterback on their pre-season roster in 2007. Matt Moore was waived in the final cut before the regular season. He was claimed by the Carolina Panthers. Moore is not a dynamic player, but he has proven to be an effective quarterback and is the expected starter for the Panthers for the 2010 season. He has won six of his eight starts, including 4 of 5 in 2009.

Additionally in 2008, the Cowboys suffered injuries at Running Back, Left Guard, Punter, and Safety. The Cowboys answered these problems by giving Marion Barber more carries (not the best decision and it only caused him to later suffer an injury), inserting Pat McQuistan (who simply wasn’t good enough), signing Sam Palescu at punter (and there was a severe drop off between him and McBriar), and playing a variety of young safeties who ironically weren’t that much worse than Roy Williams, but they weren’t better.

In 2009, Marc Colombo suffered a broken leg and was replaced by Doug Free. The was no noticeable drop off in the quality of play at the position. The moral of the two stories is that having aged veterans on your team isn’t automatically a liability if you have talented backups who can play at an acceptable level. If there is a foreseeable problem, it would be at guard or center. The backup offensive linemen presently on the rosters are young, unproven, and have not been overly impressive in practice or pre-season exhibitions.

Injuries can derail a season as it did in 2008. Effectively managing injuries can lead to a Super Bowl. I’d love to see a veteran offensive lineman who can play both guard and center become available. Several teams can claim to be one player away from being a contender. The Cowboys are one backup player away from Super Bowl aspirations.

Our Depth is Better Than Your Depth: Cowboys 16 – Bengals 7

Mon, 09 Aug 2010 04:26:34 +0000

Here are a few observations from the first of five pre-season games.

1. Doug Free was impressive in both pass and run blocking. Barron missed the pass block where John Kitna fumbled. Kudos to Travis Bright (C) who recovered the football.

2. Reports indicate that Romo worked on his back shoulder throws and it showed early in the game.

3. Woes in redzone are still a concern, though in the pre-season you don’t want to tip your hand. Early in the pre-season, I believe we want to see Buehler make all the kicks, short or long and he hit the short ones.

4. Normally special teams are dreadful early in the regular season, to include the pre-season. Save for the missed kick by Buehler under HEAVY pressure from up the middle, the game was pretty clean for the Cowboys.

5. Penalties against the Cowboys were substantially lower. Maybe the team has matured, or maybe the fringe players were too scared to make a penalty so they focused extra hard.

6. Jesse Holley was not built to play special teams. His holding penalty was as egregious as you can have. He did make a tackle late on punt coverage. The reality TV star’s days are numbered on the team. On the other hand, Manuel Johnson made an exceptional play batting the punt back into the field of play to handcuff the Bengals.

7. John Phillips makes Bennett expendable. Phillips makes the plays that we expect Martellus Bennett to make. He was impressive against the Bengals. That used to raise the question, “Who isn’t impressive against the Bengals?”

8. Kitna looks rusty, but tony took every snap last year, so it shouldn’t be a surprise.

9. McBriar is our best under-appreciated player.

10. There seems to be a pervasive assumption that Roy Williams was traded for more than he was. The trade was a 1st, 3rd, and a 6th for Roy and a 7th round pick. Per Chris Collinsworth he said, “… cause he was traded for all the number one picks and got all the money…”. This isn’t the first time I have heard multiple one’s in relation to Williams. It may just be a misstatment, but the legend of the trade is growing exponentially. Soon the perception will be the reverse of the Herchel Walker trade.

11. I’m not going to disparage most young players looking to make the team, but Herb Donaldson has to do a better job of holding onto the ball.

12. Should anyone be offened by the DirecTv commercial with the dog, the old man and the hot blonde. Any old guy who can have a trophy wife must have done something right. The dog, Troy Barkman, is well trained, and the only thing I have against the blonde is that she is wearing too many clothes for a football commercial.

13. Steve Octavien had a great jump off the snap of the ball. He blew up one play and shed a block well. Nice game Octavien, nice game.

14. Stephen Bowen had two nice plays looping to the outside to attack the QB.

15. McGee stood in the pocket and took the hit. He’s still raw, but he looks to be capable of playing a conservative game plan with limited passing options. Think about the offense Jason Campbell ran early in his career. If both Romo and Kitna go down with an injury, McGee can be more effective than Brad Johnson and Brooks Bollinger. McGee had a very nice accurate ball thrown while on the run. In the middle of the 3rd quarter, McGee’s pass was batted up in the air and he had the presence of mind to bat the ball down for an incompletion. Kudos to McGee for having good instincts.

16. Buehler was 2/3, but the 2nd one snuck inside the left upright. The third kick which was missed from 49 yards was kicked under heavy pressure. Viewing the kick on super slow motion, it came very close to being blocked and tipped to the left, but it wasn’t hit. If the ball was kicked perfectly where it would split the uprights, it would have been blocked. That’s some consolation.

17. On the punt return Teddy Williams may have given a slight push to Brandon Ghee in his back, but Ghee barely felt it and he was determined to hit McCann. That was disgusting.

18. Injury update: John Phillips injured with an ankle, Kevin Brock injured with a knee.

19. Brandon Sharpe’s interception was a more athletic play than Brandon Williams.