Dallas Cowboys: The Brandon Weeden Trickle Down Effect

I have a short term memory when it comes to Dallas Cowboys losses. I try not to look back at defeats, but my blood is still boiling after the Atlanta Falcons game. The outcome was disgusting and I can’t believe that offensive coordinator Scott Linehan based his entire gameplan off the success of three yard crossing routes and half-back dump offs.

The fact that the Cowboys scored 28 points without Tony Romo or Dez Bryant was a small victory. The way our defense played against the New York Giants and Philadelphia Eagles, 28 points should’ve been good enough for a victory. Now Cowboy Nation has to wonder if our defense is great or were the Giants and Eagles just bad offensively? It’s like trying to determine if Georgia Tech is going to be dominant because they beat Alcorn State by 63 points in Week One.

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This defense has potential and I am not putting this loss on them. It’s hard to play defense when they offense is losing the time of possession battle and going 1 for 6 on third down. Sean Lee was the lone bright spot. Not only is our secondary missing stars, it lacks playmakers. I could easily point at Tyler Patmon. I want Patmon to be great, but he wasn’t drafted. Praise is heaped upon our offensive line with three first rounders, but our secondary has two first round draft picks.

I need to see something from Byron Jones. He was the fourth cornerback selected in the first round of the 2015 NFL draft. I’ve managed to see the Kansas City Chiefs play twice. The Chiefs’ first round cornerback – Marcus Peters – was containing Denver’s Demaryius Thomas. Peters is on the field as a rookie in zone and man coverage and playing lights out. I’m not seeing any of this from Jones.

Our other first round selection is the infamous Morris Claiborne. I think Jerry Jones owes Julio Jones some gas money for taking Claiborne and Patmon to school. Will someone close to Claiborne remind him that he’s in a contract year. It’s time to get double digit interceptions.

As for our offensive woes – I’m sure someone will disagree, but Weeden’s worst throw wasn’t the interception. His worst pass was overthrowing Jason Witten and causing our future Hall of Fame tight end to expose his midsection. You build trust by throwing your receivers open and leading them away from big hits. Maybe it was hard to be accurate 12 yards downfield after spending 55 minutes tossing the ball three yards to crossing running backs.

By the third quarter, Weeden couldn’t have thrown downfield if he wanted to because Terrance Williams had mentally clocked out. I was at the game and watched him jog downfield on their routes and then exit the field. On a few plays, Williams didn’t even turn his head to see if the ball was coming his way. Not that I would’ve expected him to catch it. I’m disgusted by his attempts to catch the ball with his body and flopping in an attempt to get a pass interference penalty. Good receivers catch the ball with their hands and great receivers catch the ball while they’re being interfered with.

Back to Weeden – I’m not giving up on him. The mystery is – Who was paid to kill the offense? The plays were called as if Weeden only knew two pages of the playbook. We’ve seen Weeden sling the rock in college at Oklahoma State and with the Cleveland Browns. He’s been in multiple preseason games and started last season. Don’t tell me that Kellen Moore and Matt Cassel are better options when they’ve been with the team less than a month. That’s like asking Mike Rowe to build your dream home because he did an episode of Dirty Jobs with a construction crew. I’m not buying.

What makes the Weeden’s performance unbearable is watching less experienced quarterbacks: Marcus Mariota, Jameis Winston, Johnny Manziel, Tyrod Taylor and Blake Bortles – throw the football downfield all willy-nilly. In my opinion, Weeden is prepared and gives us the best chance to win. He’s our guy for the next 7 – 8 weeks, but they have to let the young man play football. I heard, from reliable sources, that the moon has craters because Brandon Weeden threw rocks at it. Neutering Weeden had a trickle down effect that killed the Dallas Cowboys’ running game and defense. We will only see the true potential of our squad when they unleash the beast.

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