Self-Destructive Mistakes Cost Dallas Cowboys Big In 27-7 Loss

  by Ryan Bush

The self-destructive impulses of the Dallas Cowboys were out in full force Sunday afternoon at Seattle’s sunny sea of green and blue.  As has been the case of late, Felix Jones was the leader of a pack of clowns that contained more than just the usual suspects.

It was Jones’ fumble of the opening kickoff that set the tone for Jason Garrett’s squad, from which started a 27-7 west coast avalanche that promised no cover for any Cowboys player or coach this week.

There are no scapegoats from this debacle. From Jerry the Wipemaster himself, to Garrett the head coach, all the way down to the team laundry boy.  They’re all guilty…excepting quarterback Tony Romo.

The Cowboys had an unusual eleven-day gap between their season-opening victory at the Meadowlands and Sunday’s game against the Seahawks.  And all they could show for the extra time was a rotten egg that smelled far worse than Seattle’s latest chicken-fried version of a home jersey.

There were an inordinate amount of dropped passes, too many special teams gaffes, and an over-abundance of alligator-arm tackles of Seattle running back Marshawn Lynch in the second-half.  All in all, it was just the kind of performance that the officials union so desperately needed.  Not even the questionable calls of the replacement referees could affect the outcome of this one.

From the very outset, the Cowboys were bound and determined to go down the toilet, and just as anxious to prove they needed no help from the second-team zebras sharing the field.  In that vein, an otherwise forgettable afternoon in balmy Seattle can be considered a success.  Better hang that on the wall, because that’s the only trophy of achievement Dallas walked away with from this showing.

Any advantage Seattle held in the defense and special teams departments were supposed to be nullified by Dallas’ edge at the quarterback position.  Even on the road in a loud stadium, the Cowboys were the logical favorites to take this one. 

Nothing nullifies a home-field advantage quite like a rookie quarterback.  They miss blitz assignments, throw into coverage, or anything that gives the defense an opportunity to turn the tide of the game.

As it turns out, both quarterbacks had little to do with the outcome.  The rookie Russell Wilson admittedly played composed for only his second NFL start, completing 15 of 20 passes for 151 yards.  It also should be noted that Rob Ryan’s defense applied minimal pressure on him.

Rookie QB Russell Wilson was Steady

On the other sideline, Romo did have one blemish on his stat-sheet, a first-quarter interception deep in Seattle territory.  But a failing support system around him rendered his mistake inconsequential.  Romo was good when his teammates allowed him to be, which, unfortunately, wasn’t very often.

Kevin Ogletree makes the tackle after a Romo Interception

 Felix Jones’ fumble on the opening kickoff set up a quick Seattle field goal of 21 yards.  That was followed by a Chris Jones blocked punt that was returned for a touchdown, giving the home team a 10-0 advantage with less than five minutes gone.

Felix Jones Fumble

 When Romo connected with Miles Austin for a 26-yard scoring play in the second quarter to draw within three, it appeared the Cowboys were about to seize control of the game.  But a gutless defense and a myriad of drops from an unlikely source helped stall the comeback.

Miles Austin TD

 Perennial Pro Bowl tight end Jason Witten is still not one-hundred percent recovered from a preseason spleen injury, as his career-worst four drops attest to.  Two of his drops were especially costly.  One came on third-down that set up a punting situation and another occurred after he got behind the defense in the first-half and had a good chance of scoring.

Jason Witten - 4 dropped passes

 Equally as mind-boggling was the performance of a new-look no-gut defense.  A week after manning-up against a notoriously tough Giants team, the Dallas defense laid down like a beaten dog in the second-half, allowing Wilson to control the game with handoffs and short, underneath passes.  Two consecutive second-half drives by the Seattle offense spanned 20 plays, totaling 178 yards, and turned a 13-7 score into a 27-7 rout.

Any hopes of a miracle comeback were then thwarted by personal foul and substitution penalties on the same drive, which allowed the Seahawks to virtually run the clock out.

It will be a long week at Valley Ranch, as players long to get the taste of this tail-whipping out of their swollen and bloodied mouths.

Upset Victory Over New York Giants Carried Extra Meaning For Dallas Cowboys Owner Jerry Jones

 by Ryan Bush

Cowboys Owner Jerry Jones - Happy once again!

Forgive Jerry Jones for being his usual gushing self in a victorious Dallas Cowboys locker room the other night.  Because nearly seventeen years after his last Super Bowl championship, he may have actually had a legitimate reason to wave his indomitable silver and blue pom-pom like a schoolgirl in front of her graduating class.

You see, Wednesday’s 24-17 victory over the defending champion Giants was more than about just the upset and the glory of winning a division game on the road, a recent novelty around the Ranch.  For Jones, it was a definitive in-your-face gesture toward the New York front-office.  Exactly the kind of moment that Jones enjoys best.

Jones’ off-season was marred when the NFL came down hard on the Cowboys for overreaching their financial bounds in doling out huge payments to Miles Austin, Demarcus Ware, and a handful of others, during the uncapped 2010 season.  The league docked the team according to how much they calculated Dallas went over the “cap,” which was determined to be $10 million.  So Dallas was operating with $10 million less in their 2012 salary pool than they expected.  Now, compare that number to Washington’s $36 million reduction, and things don’t look quite so bad.  But $10 million is still a good chunk of change to play with in free-agency.

Jones vowed to appeal the ruling, claiming that NFL commissioner Roger Goodell was delving into a legally compromising position of semantics and double-talk.  Jones wanted to know how a team could be penalized for violating an unwritten gentleman’s agreement by signing contracts that the league office had stamped their approval upon.

Giants Owner - John Mara

It was then that Giants owner John Mara smugly acknowledged that the Cowboys had gotten off lightly, and should be grateful for this reprieve from Goodell’s cabinet.  It could have been much worse for those poor little extravagant ‘Boys from Dallas, Mara assured the world.

Mara, it was later reported, was the leading figure who brought the infractions before the league office, and patiently waited for its results to swamp the coasts of his division rivals.  Now that the verdict had been officially declared, Mara was simply basking in the moment of personal triumph and smearing it in the face of Jones.

For undisclosed reasons, Jones eventually decided to drop the appeal and play the season shorthanded, though it greatly upset his off-season plans.  $10 million out of pocket, Jones and the Cowboys were unable to re-sign wide receiver Laurent Robinson, who tallied eleven touchdown receptions last season, forcing them to enter the 2012 campaign with a group of unknowns behind Miles Austin and Dez Bryant on the depth chart.

It was especially satisfying for Jones to witness not only his Cowboys take it to the Giants on the scoreboard, but little-known Kevin Ogletree step into Robinson’s former position and fill up the stat sheet with two scoring grabs of his own.  Realizing that the Giants had fallen from champs to division cellar-dwellers I’m sure didn’t cause him to lose any sleep, either.

Kevin Ogletree’s Sudden Emergence For Dallas Cowboys A Matter Of Opportunity

by Ryan Bush

The uneducated perception holds that a receiver who doesn’t catch a prescribed amount of passes is underachieving, or simply isn’t very good.  The common concurrence being that those who do are totally worthwhile.

Which is completely ludicrous.

Consider:  Roy Williams had 25+ catch seasons in each of his last two years with the Cowboys.  It didn’t mean he was a good player.  Tony Romo didn’t trust him.  Never did.  Romo couldn’t even get on the same page with Williams.

The knock on Kevin Ogletree has always been about his lack of productivity.  After catching only 14 passes last season, his third in the league, his spot on the team entering training camp was tenuous at best.

Which might be slightly unfair when taking all things into consideration.

Let’s remember the teams that Ogletree has been a part of and the talent surrounding him.  Dez Bryant.  Jason Witten.  Laurent Robinson.  Miles Austin.  Even Felix Jones. Ogletree didn’t catch many passes because there weren’t that many for him to catch.  Bottom-line.

Without dismissing the potential for vast improvement, last season wasn’t any indication of a lack of talent on Ogletree’s part, or the final straw for head coach Jason Garrett.  In fact, the reality of the situation was that the Cowboys were waiting on him to fill the void left when Laurent Robinson signed with Jacksonville this past off-season. So Ogletree hit the weights to improve his upper-body strength and trained harder to improve his physical conditioning.

A few months later, on the first Wednesday night game in the NFL’s modern era, Ogletree and the Dallas Cowboys reaped the benefits of it, as Ogletree tallied 114 yards receiving and two touchdowns on eight receptions – more than half of the previous year’s total – in an upset win at the New York Giants.

       

 

Some players are overrated, while others are overhyped.  And some, like Ogletree, simply need a chance to stick their foot in the door.

Kevin Ogletree’s Breakout Performance Vaults Dallas Cowboys Past New York Giants 24-17

by Ryan Bush

Happy Days Are Here Again for Jerry Jones?

Yes, there may be a small sense of vindication in Camp Cowboy over last season’s winter meltdown at the hands of the eventual champion Giants.  The Dallas Cowboys did what no one thought possible, wrecking a New York-style Super Bowl party on their way to a 24-17 season-opening road victory over their hated division rival.

But, at the bottom of the emotional bucket has to lay an overwhelming feeling of relief for Jerry Jones, Jason Garrett, and even Rob Ryan.  Rather than just a wad of cash and a draft day trade, the proof that the Cowboys are a better team than last year’s 8-8 squad was in the pudding for all to see.

$50 million man Brandon Carr was better than advertised, if that’s possible with the rock-star treatment you receive around the Ranch, and rookie Morris Claiborne played like anything but one.  Barry Church proved he belonged as a starter in the secondary, and second-round draft pick from a year ago Bruce Carter looked a good fit alongside Sean Lee at inside linebacker.

And then there was haven’t-heard-from-you-ever Kevin Ogletree.  Everybody counted him out, just like everybody was counting the Cowboys out of Wednesday night’s game.  An Ogletree of all things was the tree the Cowboys picked their fruit from on this night.

Dez Bryant received his fair share of catches, and Miles Austin even got in on the act late, hauling in a fourth-quarter scoring pass.  But at the end of the day, Ogletree was the one player that the Giants had no answer for.  Not early.  And definitely not late.

Three seasons spent sifting around the ashes of the Cowboys depth chart caused many to lose their faith in Ogletree.  One player who never did, though, was Tony Romo. Romo personally lobbied for Ogletree to be on this team, and if his voice wasn’t enough, Ogletree’s stellar performance throughout the latter half of camp and preseason was enough to convince head coach Jason Garrett to do just that.  You see, Romo plays a fickle , though popular, position that is based completely on trust.  And for all of the grumbling about Ogletree’s historic lack of statistical significance, Romo trusted him.

At one point last season, Romo observed that, though Ogletree wasn’t catching many passes, he was always in the right spot.  Any quarterback will tell you that’s an invaluable asset to have on offense, especially when the play breaks down and the passer is harried.

And there were plenty of those situations Wednesday night, and Romo was quick to look in Ogletree’s direction.  First, came a 10-yard scoring hookup when Ogletree broke off his route and raced to the middle of the field, making himself available for the scrambling Romo in the back of the end zone.  

Kevin Ogletree's First Career Touchdown

The touchdown, the first of Ogletree’s career, gave the Cowboys a 7-3 lead with just under a minute to play in the second quarter. The duo connected again to begin the second half, this time a 40-yard play down the right sideline in which Ogletree simply got behind the coverage.

Ogletree's Second Touchdown