Back when the Cowboys released TO (which I believe was the right move) I said that they had to replace him with a legitimate downfield threat for this offense to work.  Yesterday, we saw the beginning of how teams will defense the Cowboys for the rest of the year.

To be a team that has a ground control offense and relies on the running game and defense to win, you have to be disciplined and you can't make mistakes.  This team is not designed to be able to consistently do that.

More importantly, with no down field threat, you will see teams man up our three receivers and put the safety help on Witten to take him out of the game.  Being close to the line will help against the run as well.

This team lacks speed at the wide receiver position so everything underneath is clogged.  it was insane to believe that Miles Austin was going to go from basically doing nothing in three years to terrorizing defenses deep consistently.  If he could do it, he would have already done it.

The Cowboys should have tried to pry away Boldin or Brandon Marshall or at the very least spent their second round pick to try to pick up a reciever/punt returner.

Until the Cowboys get some kind of speedy downfield threat you will see this offense have fits and starts.

Secondly, the fact that this team still doesn't know what it's doing is a direct indictment of the coaching staff.  To have the Coach say that the defense doesn't know what it's doing outside of being in the base defense if laughable.  Anyone else notice that every time the Cowboys come to the line of scrimmage Tony has to tell everyone where to line up and when to go in motion?

IT WAS THE FOURTH WEEK OF THE SEASON.  Why doesn't anyone know what they are doing?  Why should anyone be confused by the playbook?

Actually we already know the answer.  When you treat training camp as a two month pep rally and backyard barbecue, you have to try to learn everything on the fly while going against teams that actually got things figured out in the preseason.  The only person that can fix this is Jerry, he needs to:

1. Never, ever, ever again waste a draft on drafting "backups and special teams players."

2. Get a credible deep ball threat for this team (anyone else still chuckling that people honestly were afraid the Jets would sign Austin and give us their second round pick?  I was PRAYING they would sign him...)

2. Hire someone that will instill discipline and have his team ready to play.

3. Get out of that person's way.

During the night game, I loved the fact that Tomlin sent a message to his young running back and his team by benching him for a game.  And look how his RB responded.  We would be so afraid of hurting some guy's feelings that our coaching staff would never do that.

It's time for change Jerry.  Just do it.