Addition by Subtraction
by TCBinNYC on May 20, 2009 11:15 AM CDT
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PrintThe idea of addition by subtraction (meaning, Dallas has gotten better by parting ways with some divisive forces in the locker room) seems to be prevalent around here lately. I thought it was worth some evaluation.
It’s true that we’ve seen some examples of this lately, most notably with the Giants. After losing in the first round of the playoffs the previous two years, the 2007 Giants won the Super Bowl after losing two of their premier offensive weapons – Tiki Barber to retirement and Jeremy Shockey to injury. Barber wasn’t the negative influence some perceive Owens and Shockey to be, but the notion that the team improved in the wake of a significant loss of talent is the same.
Call it “making the team more Romo-friendly” if you prefer, but someone will have to fill the momentous void in talent left by Terrell Owens, Pacman Jones, and to a lesser extent, Tank Johnson.
Terry (he didn’t play like a “Tank” last season) Johnson seemed like a nice back-up option for Jay Ratliff the last year and a half. He had a few moments where he looked good, but most of the time he was a non-factor getting eaten up by 300 lb. Centers and Guards. Now, we have a huge hole at NT. Ok, maybe the problem there isn’t losing Johnson as much as it is finding an adequate back-up. He wasn’t the answer and the question of who takes that spot is still looming.
Pacman didn’t live up to expectations either. He was average at best as a cornerback, and looked more like Mrs. Pacman on punt returns as he typically moved more backwards and side to side than he did up the field. A year of rust surely contributed to his lack of production. Review his 2006 season with Tennessee and you will see he was truly special. He has all the talent in the world to play CB in the NFL and play it at a top 5 level at his position. The issue with him is not talent, but desire … and an obvious lack of intelligence. Like him or not, it's a significant loss of talent in the Dallas secondary.
Now, let’s take a deeper look at TO Eldorado Owens. During his 13 year NFL career he’s been asked to leave (or something similar) an organization on three different occasions. It was the 49ers after the 2003 season, Philly in the middle of the 2005 campaign, and just recently Dallas released him. How did these teams fare with TO and then right after his departure? Maybe we can determine some conclusions regarding what the Cowboys can expect.
I’ve taken the team’s record in TO’s last two seasons with the team, and the same team’s record the following two seasons. Let’s see what we find:
San Francisco 2002 – 2003 with TO: 17 – 15 - Winning Pctg: .531
San Francisco 2003 – 2004 w/o TO: 6 - 26 - Winning Pctg: .188
Philadelphia 2004 – 2005* with TO: 17 – 6 - Winning Pctg: .739
Philadelphia 2005 – 2007* w/o TO: 20 – 21 - Winning Pctg: .488
(*Owens played the first 7 games of the 2005 season before he was suspended and subsequently deactivated by the Eagles for voicing his displeasure about his contract and making disparaging remarks about Donavan McNabb and Eagles Management.)
Dallas 2007 – 2008 with TO: 22 – 10 - Winning Pctg: .688
Dallas 2009 – 2010 w/o TO: ???
So, in total, TO’s teams were 34 – 21 with him. A winning pctg of .618.
Immediately following his departure, his teams went 26 – 47. A winning pctg of .356.
On average teams went from 10 – 6 to 6 – 10, or dropped .262 in winning percentage, approximately 4 games per year.
One could use these numbers to hypothesize the Cowboys will drop from an average of an 11-5 season (22 – 10 over the last two years) to two 7 – 9 seasons on average over the next two seasons due to the loss of Terrell Owens.
Locker room and on-field chemistry is something we cannot predict, and I’m not trying to do so in this post. Talent is a little more tangible. I think there is little doubt Dallas has less talent on their roster compared to this time last season. Let’s hope we can do more with less and get the most out the talent that is here.
Another user-created commentary provided by a BTB reader.
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Oh, someone that believes in scapegoats...
Are you one of those guys that believes that the collapse of a franchise depends on a single player?
I know a lot of Frisco and Eagle fans that do. They like to place all of the blame of their franchises collapses on Owens, they just failed to realize everything that was wrong with their teams, like:
- Poor Drafting.
- Poor FA acquisitions.
- Poor talent evaluations.
- Poor conditioning that was reflected on their IR lists.
- And poor coaching.
Dallas could also face the same scenarios after Owens was released, but it isn’t going to be related to Owens in any other way.
And is it really the truth that our team has less talent? Wow, the only true loss of talent that wasn’t adequately replaced is Owens, the other guys were replaced with the same kind of player or with higher ceiling guys and the team also added important depth and STs help.
Viva México! Go Cowboys!
A scapegoat?
No, not at all. I just find it interesting that no one around here is talking about the loss of TO and others as being a potential problem. The national media mentions it as an area of concern, but no one around here.
I believe my Philadelphia example is the most relevant. When they de-activated TO because of his mouth and attitude, they felt they would be just as good, if not better, without him. That certainly wasnt the case.
I’m wondering if Cowboys management and us as fans are being naive to the fact that we’ve lost our most dynamic (though not without his considerable flaws) offensive weapon. There was no effort to replace him, and I think the offense could be significanty (negatively) affected.
T.O. hurt us more than helped us
Sure he could run by CBs and score some TDs, but more often than not, press coverage and cover 2 could easily take him out of any game and he ran sloppy routes and dropped the ball.
T.O. won’t be missed that much, he’s definitely in the twilight of his career.
In Romo we Trust
RW
isn’t know for precise routes and great hands, so I’m not so sure we’ll have more productivity without TO.
I still think we needed to be rid of him (his cancer gets exponentially worse every year) though.
I'm not implying RW will equal or exceed T.O.s production
I’m saying T.O. wasn’t the player who made this offense go. It won’t be quite as explosive without T.O. but IMO it will be much more efficient.
In Romo we Trust
Roy
IS actually known for great hands. That doesn’t make him better than TO overall (or even better), but it is true. And I tend to agree with Terry on this one… he was talented enough to dominate when he wasn’t schemed out, but he had lost the ability to dominate when he was schemed out. I wish our coaching staff had the backbone to just throw it to other players when that happened, but it seems that everyone was afraid for his ego, and we ended up throwing it to him even when he wasn’t effective—which is where the drops come into the picture. Now, we’re throwing the ball to him in situations where it isn’t that easy to catch it, and the drops start to become significant. He does still have a lot of talent, but his talent isn’t transcendent anymore, and he wouldn’t admit it. This sorta hamstrung the offense (except for the few times when the opposing DC treated him like any other WR, in which situation he was great). The problem wasn’t a lack of talent… it was a lack of awareness of his own limitations combined with the coaches’/Romo’s inability to ignore him when he wanted the ball.
That's why I mentioned the scapegoat part
I believe my Philadelphia example is the most relevant. When they de-activated TO because of his mouth and attitude, they felt they would be just as good, if not better, without him. That certainly wasnt the case.
That’s exactly the comment that I’ve heard from Eagle fans many times… A single player crippling a franchise… Sound unbelievable and that’s because it isn’t true.
Look at the Eagles Draft from 2002 to 2005, we’re talking about a success rate of 34% (and I’m counting Michael Lewis, LJ Smith, JR Reed, Reggie Brown and Sean Considine as successful acquisitions, and many Eagle fans would argue about them being successful, they cost their team a lot of games or just weren’t a factor).
Look at their injuries.
Look at their coaching (Reid asking McNabb to throw the ball 70% of the time, or more).
Yeah, I can see that all this was related to how the Eagles didn’t wanted to keep paying Owens.
Viva México! Go Cowboys!
That was covered in detail by Cowboyrnumba1 (aka my2cents) and Carl (glorydays88)
they talked a lot about this right after he was cut.
Ignore the Mainstream Media, EMBRACE THE HATE!!!!
Higher ceilings?
No one we picked up has a higher ceiling than Pacman did
by aussie_cowboy on May 20, 2009 9:32 PM CDT up reply actions
So that means we should go ahead and pick Pacman up again?
Dude wasn’t cut because he lacked potential or talent(he did, however, look like an idiot for roughly 90% of his stay in Big D) . He was cut because he wasn’t worth the drama.
Guy’s got talent. Maybe if he actually displayed that adequately he’d still be here. Instead he was a huge risk, a detriment and distraction to the team that didn’t even produce enough to make it worth the headache. Guy defended a handful of passes, gets a fumble recovery, and refuses to call for a fair catch(while looking mentally disabled returning a punt) and all of a sudden he’s worth compromising the integrity of the franchise…
Most of our draft picks should contribute more positively and significantly than Pacman ever did for us.
Epic Fail since 1985
by the red scare on May 22, 2009 5:00 AM CDT up reply actions
No, thats not what I said
i just questioned your statement that “other guys were replaced with the same kind of player or with higher ceiling guys”. Higher ceilings= more potential, which in Pacman’s case isnt true.
by aussie_cowboy on May 22, 2009 5:31 AM CDT up reply actions
49ers also lost Garcia in 04
and the team was was taken over and head coach was fired and to many other things to take to credit to say it was because of T.O,,, Shockey is your best example.
Interesting info
You can only have addition by subtraction if other players step up and fill the productivity void left by the departing player.
If RW and Crayton can pick up the slack, then we will have addition by subtraction. Otherwise, we won’t.
Tiki Barber
Was a major negative influence on his team.
He didn’t like and he criticized the two most important members of the team, the HC & QB.
He upset team leader Michael Strahan so much (with comments about Strahan’s contract) that Strahan said that if he caught Tiki alone, that he would kick his Ass.
Tiki retiring was definitely addition by subtraction.
I think Shuckey being injured down the stretch......
…..Was probably even a better case of addition by subtraction than Tiki. He was the one turning mental lightweight Eli into a ball of nerves.
you have to take that with a grain of salt
SF was on the down side when TO left. TO started to complian because the team wasn’t winning, he wasn’t getting his touches. and the whole team was in shambles. SF went on a long run of underachieving, sucking in general and change of ownership. not directly attributed to TO.
philly has bounced back nicely. although they made it to the superbowl without TO, perhaps he helped secure homefield advantage for them.
in this case you have to take each and examine in vaccum and not in general.
by CowboysFanatic on May 21, 2009 12:13 PM CDT reply actions
I'm sure this has been mentioned already
but the eagles didn’t collapse because of the TO situation. They collapsed because they suffered an awful rash of injuries that year.
Losing T.O. hurts a bit
but the potential for the locker room to cohesive was worth it. We have the luxury. Still an obscene amount of talent on the offensive side of the ball. And it’s already been mentioned, but it bears repeating, T.O. did struggle to get off the line frequently last season. He was clearly on the decline. Sure his numbers looked great, but when you watch what he did this season, a vast majority of it came because Romo refused to stop forcing balls his way.
Epic Fail since 1985
+1
The problem with that is that Romo buckled to the pressure of T.O.
An emotionally secure leader would smile and throw only to the open man. Period.
"Well, we didn't block real good but we made up for it by not tackling."
- John McKay, the first coach of the Tampa Bay Buccaneers
not true
Romo did the intelligent thing because if he smiled and threw the ball to the open guy, T.O. would have imploded the likes we never saw before.
Romo was like the parent who appeases his 5 year old so they won’t throw a fit. Romo smartly decided we didn’t need all that drama in addition to the drama that was already there because of #81.
In Romo we Trust
Sure...Romo is flawless, I guess...
Forcing the ball to a petulant receiver for the sake of keeping him happy worked to the detriment of the team…nothing remotely intelligent about it.
Epic Fail since 1985
by the red scare on May 22, 2009 10:41 PM CDT up reply actions
You manipulate the records to create a false premise
Dallas 2007 – 2008 with TO: 22 – 10 – Winning Pctg: .688
Dallas 2009 – 2010 w/o TO: ???
The way I see it, the Cowboys can come in third place in the east and miss the playoffs without TO just as well as with him (that’s the reality of the 2008 season).
"Confidence doesn't come out of nowhere. It's a result of something... hours and days and weeks and years of constant work and dedication." --Roger Staubach
Instead of averaging seasons, I think his point is last year.
We had TO and missed the playoffs. What good has he done for all the $ and attention given him?
by Realist Larry on May 23, 2009 5:34 PM CDT up reply actions
True statement
But that’s not really the point I was trying to get across. Actually, if you take into account the playoffs in these stats, they just strengthen the argument that teams have crumbled after he left.
This is just one analysis of the data related to the teams of Terrell Owens. I’m not trying to state anything here other than its interesting to note what’s happened to teams he’s recently departed.
The whole post is irrelevant because the TOwens of today is not the TO that left the 49ers or Eagles anyways.
He’s old now and his “skills” are decreasing rapidly.
He is not the stud receiver they lost.
So are you saying
that teams will not double cover T.O. this year because of these skills that are decreasing?
The whole point of this post
Is that its interesting no one seems to talk about all the talent we lost from last year’s team and that most assume we will be better. Hence, the title “Addition by Subtraction.”
Jean-Jacques Taylor (whom I would not normall endorse) wrote a similar article over the weekend. For those interested:
http://www.dallasnews.com/sharedcontent/dws/spt/football/cowboys/stories/052409dnspotaylor.43ac6a7.html
we didn't lose that much talent
To me, Igor and Brooking equal Canty and Thomas, it’s a wash.
Pacrat and Tank Johnson weren’t as good as advertised and really contributed very little last year.
T.O. is the only real loss of talent and to me, the loss is in the form of big plays. His route running was poor and sloppy and he dropped too many balls. Teams found a way to negate his play so the loss there isn’t as great as some fans would have you believe.
In Romo we Trust
+1
His on-field presence will be missed as he was still, for all of his faults, Dallas’ most explosive player. At the same time, I am overjoyed that he is gone, since I think Romo is too emotionally immature to have overcome T.O.’s locker room and media personna.
The real question for 2009 is whether Jason Garrett can utilize other weapons more effectively than in the past and morph this offense into one that is more run-oriented, complemented by a controlled passing attack.
I dunno.
The problem is that Dallas doesn’t have a top 5 defense and cannot hope to win a bunch of 13-10 and 17-14 contests. The offenses in the NFC East are opening up wider and wider. Dallas will have to manufacture points in new ways in 2009. Short fields from increased turnovers, improved Special Teams kick returns and plays that take advantage of the unique skills of Bash, Flash and Tash will all be critical success factors.
Redball has his hands full.
"Well, we didn't block real good but we made up for it by not tackling."
- John McKay, the first coach of the Tampa Bay Buccaneers
has nothing to do with emotions or immaturity
T.O. has clashed with any QB he has played with and no qb can overcome his locker room or media persona, not even the great Brady or Manning.
I agree Garrett has to step up his game this year and find a way to utilize his many talented weapons.
In Romo we Trust
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