Top ten moments of 2007: #5

by Brandon Worley on Jul 7, 2008 10:57 AM CDT Comment 13 comments

#5: Terence Newman puts himself on the map

Week 11; Washington Redskins versus Dallas Cowboys

Week 12; New York Jets versus Dallas Cowboys

Anyone who is a Dallas Cowboys fan knows how great Terence Newman is. He is exceptionally fast, strong, smart, a sure tackler and most importantly a shut down corner. Maybe once a year does a team complete a touchdown pass to a receiver covered by him. Unfortunately, outside of the Dallas media he is not put in the same echelon of top cornerbacks from around the league. He doesn't have the sexy interception numbers and he rarely has a highlight on ESPN. He plays the game safe, takes few chances and focuses on shutting down the receiver he is assigned to cover. For some reason, that always seemed to be a huge drawback in his game. You would hear "experts" say things like, "..well he's good, but he just doesn't put up the interception totals you would like from a #1 cornerback." They just ignore the fact that it is pretty tough to put up big numbers when the ball is rarely thrown in your direction, if at all.

As the 2007 season began it was unclear how effective Newman would be. Late in training camp it came out that he was battling plantar fascitis, a slight tear in the muscle in the arch of your foot. This type of injury typically requires months of limited to no movement at all in order for the tear to heal. Newman was inactive for the first two weeks, and played in a limited reserve role in weeks 3 and 4. He started every game for the rest of the season, playing through an injury that at time was obviously affecting his play. It seemed unlikely that this would finally be the year the league and fans acknowledged his ability and named him to his first Pro Bowl.

Newman played exceptional all year, despite his injury. In his first game as a starter against Buffalo, he made a key red zone interception that kept the Cowboys alive.

In week 11 against the Redskins, Newman stepped up and made a game saving interception.

It seemed as if the Cowboys had put the Redskins away for good as the Tony Romo and Terrell Owens show had put two fourth quarter touchdowns on the board, putting Dallas ahead 28-16 with eight minutes to play. After a long scoring drive by Washington and a three and out by Dallas, the Redskins had the ball on the Dallas 40, down 28-23, with just under three minutes remaining. The way that Jason Campbell had been tearing apart the Cowboys on third down all day long, it seemed inevitable that the Redskins would score the go ahead touchdown. When Campbell struck for two quick first downs, Washington was inside the 20 at the two minute warning. Two incompletions later, the Redskins faced a critical third down from the 19 yard line. Campbell went back to pass, gets flushed from the pockets and rolls to his right. He sees Antwan Randle El momentarily open as he crosses in front of him and tries to zing a tight pass across his body to the receiver. Terence Newman casually slides in front of Randle El and intercepts the pass, ending any hope of a Redskins comeback.

The next week against the Jets when Kellen Clemens looked like he might be starting to find a rhythm, Newman dashed in front of a quick out pass and returns the interception 50 yards for a touchdown. Those two back to back games against the Jets and Redskins were the crowning achievement for a remarkable year for Newman. Playing through a painful injury, he did his best to hold together an injury-plagued group of cornerbacks. He made game saving plays all year. He was then named to his first ever Pro Bowl. After years of being thought of as good but just not great enough, Newman had been recognized by the fans and his peers as one of the best cornerbacks in the league.

Watch highlights from the Washington game here.

Watch highlights from the Jets game here.

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Terry Newman

Last year really got him noticed, I think people outside of Dallas are starting to recognize how great he really is.

"You can't win until you're not afraid to lose"

by Wmillion on Jul 7, 2008 12:27 PM CDT reply actions 0 recs

great to see Newman is finally getting

the props he so rightfully deserves. Could never understand why CBs are judged so much on getting INTs instead of whether how well they blanket their receiver and defend a pass.

INTs are such an overrated stat for CBs.

In Romo we Trust

by Terry on Jul 7, 2008 1:33 PM CDT reply actions 0 recs

YPA - T-New #2 over last 4 years

Sorry for pointing to a competing blog here, but Vela at B&S Report has an interesting post on the CB position using stats from K.C. Joyner that have yet to be released elsewhere, and looking at Joyner’s YPA or Yards-per-attempt ranking.

[Joyner’s] CB YPA will shortly become, in my opinion, shorthand for measuring a corner’s skills, in the same way that OPS has become the one stat that can best convey a baseball hitter’s skills. It’s easy to calculate and easy to understand. It shows how many yards a corner surrendered on average every time a pass was thrown to his man.

He compiled the YPA stats over the last four years and then ranked them, and T-New comes in #2 (behind Shawn Springs).

One factor this doesn’t take into consideration which he notes is “gambling” or playing less cautiously, which may result in a higher YPA average but also more interceptions.

Another factor I thought of which is also noted in the comments, which applies to Newman, is when someone is a shutdown corner and just doesn’t get thrown to that much.

Seems like to get a really accurate assessment of a CB’s level of play, we would have to factor total times thrown at along with YPA, and also consider interceptions.

But at any rate, fwiw, over the last four years, T-New has the second lowest YPA in the league. That shows not only skill but consistency, and is especially remarkable considering that he was playing injured for much of last year.

by scottmaui on Jul 7, 2008 2:13 PM CDT reply actions 0 recs

Great stat to measure CB's

It doesn’t surprise me at all that TNew is ranked so high. He’s remarkably consistent.

Favorite Newman game was vs Carolina when Steve Smith was having an unbelievable season. Parcells puts TNew on Smith the entire game, and he shut him out. Smith got so frustrated that he got ejected in the 3rd Q for shoving someone way out of bounds. Awesome display of his coverage skills.

T-New, shutting down WR's for Dallas since 2003

by APerfectStar on Jul 7, 2008 2:27 PM CDT up reply actions 0 recs

Terence Newman

T-New is simply my favorite player on the Cowboys roster. He is incredibly good at what he does and further, he carries himself in such a professional manner. With his talent and the level of his play since he entered the league, he’s the guy that I encourage my kids to emulate.

by lonpatel on Jul 7, 2008 3:28 PM CDT reply actions 0 recs

I love that picture.

I had it as my cell phone wallpaper for a while as a matter of fact.

My popcorn's ready!

by CowboyBawler4 on Jul 7, 2008 6:16 PM CDT reply actions 0 recs

T-New is a beast

I was glad to see him finally do some of the things that the shallow fans associate with being a top flight corner. I’ve always thought the world of him other than that strange second season he had. Straight up beast.

And it’s only gonna get better with basically the entire front seven returning and all the new help in the secondary. I mean damn, a first round pick as the fourth corner, that is a serious luxury.

by Carl Shelton (GloryDayz88) on Jul 7, 2008 6:49 PM CDT reply actions 0 recs

Second season

I thought the reason he struggled during his second season was because they implemented the tighter enforcing of the illegal contact rule. When he came into the league, he played a very physical press style, but when they started to call the hand checking more, he took a lot of penalties that year and got beat a lot trying to adjust. The next season, I think he learned how to use his speed and good hips to stay in a good position where he didn’t need to use his hands to cover as much.

by Mandmeisterx on Jul 7, 2008 9:18 PM CDT up reply actions 0 recs

What makes me sick about this countdown,

is that I’m watching the highlights of all of these games, and I’m not exaggerating when I say that every pass I saw was caught on Roy or Reeves. Cooley and Shockey make their living on Roy. They’d probably have half as many yards and TD’s for their career if they didn’t play Roy twice a year. Reeves, well don’t get me started on him. I was MUCH more excited about him leaving than I was us resigning anyone. What a waste of space.

by Mandmeisterx on Jul 7, 2008 9:23 PM CDT reply actions 1 recs

couple of things

I think we see why Brady James and Roy Williams aren’t allowed to play zone coverage together anymore.

You can talk bad about Roy, but Washington has one of the great young safeties in the league and TO went for TD’s on them. Everyone knew the ball was going to TO and he still caught 4 TD’s.

"You can't win until you're not afraid to lose"

by Wmillion on Jul 8, 2008 12:14 AM CDT up reply actions 0 recs