Mid-Course Correction Needed
by BishopWest on Sep 25, 2009 6:52 PM CDT
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Have you seen the movie Apollo 13? I have, and am inspired with American patriotism each time I watch it. You might remember that, in some ways, Apollo 13 was a failed mission; the three astronauts could not land on the moon after sustaining a crippling explosion. Thus pilot Jim Lovell (played by Tom Hanks) said, “Houston…we have a problem.” This idiom has since been used by many of us to say, “Something is wrong here.” That’s what I felt like saying after Sunday night’s debacle at JerryWorld.
Priority one, as Apollo 13 returned to Earth was to get the astronauts home safely, but the odds were against them. The challenge was to carefully execute an essential, mid-course correction so as not to enter the earth’s atmosphere at the wrong angle, incinerating the ship and crew.
An answer to the problem was found after some frenzied but brilliant brainstorming. An exercise in remarkable teamwork between the people at the Johnson Center in Houston and the astronauts, determined that a thirty-nine second “burn” of the thrusters was needed in order to get back on the correct course. It resulted in a safe splashdown in the Pacific Ocean. Mission accomplished.
I hope that Wade Phillips and Jason Garrett are doing some “brilliant brainstorming.” I do not feel that the Dallas Cowboy players have lost their “vital optimism” in spite of last week’s let-down. The team chemistry that was so desperately missing last year seems to be in place for the moment and is helping the disappointed team to focus on the upcoming challenge (the Carolina Panthers,) rather than sulk in the failures of last week.
History is on our side.
In 2007, Tony Romo’s passer rating for game 5 was an abysmal 49.9 but the following week improved to 91.0. Again in 2008, Romo’s quarterback rating for week 14 was 44.9, but he rebounded seven days later with a great game (113.7). Last week his rating was 29.6.
If Romo follows suit (as his history seems to suggest) he should have an outstanding game versus Carolina on Monday night. Perhaps the Panther defense falls victim to his resurgence.
Now Wade also has to make proper adjustments for his fledgling secondary, and unleash his defensive fury in the blitzkrieg style that he is known for. I’m hopeful that both units (offense and defense) pick up their game this week and we head into Denver on week 4 with a 2-1 record.
If not, it may take more than a “thirty-nine second burn of the thrusters” to get the Cowboys back on course.
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Nice post and cool analogy
I do think this week will tell something important about htis team. If they bounce back and play well – and the fan in me says they will – they will be a better team for it. If they struggle (even if they win) doubts will remain not only with fans but within the team. If this isn’t a “must-win”, it’s as close as you can get in September.
Never wrestle with a pig. You both get dirty and the pig loves it.
Every analyst I've heard this week
is predicting a Dallas win. But to think of John Fox’s team going 0-3 seems unrealistic. I’d think that our run game on offense should win the day, especially right up the gut.
If Dallas loses, can you imagine the plethora of criticism among the fans?!?
agreed
seems crazy to think Fox’s team wont play well especially staring at 0-3. But you gotta believe the better team will win. Lets not forget we technically dominated a very good Giants team
The 'desperate team' aspect for CAR really concerns me
DAL has enough of its own issues to overcome, and a motivated Panthers team only adds to the challenge
Note: No trees were killed in the sending of this message. However, a large number of electrons were terribly inconvenienced
Not to mention Steve Smith must be licking his chops
After seeing Newman get schooled by a 2nd year wideout
Fisher's Tennessee team should have had the same sense of urgency...
But the Jets took care of business; Tennessee is now 0-3.
There’s some pride (especially TNew) and urgency wearing the star this week too.
Doomsday returns... Wade Phillips style.
Maybe its the homer in me but I think we are close.
If you get past Romos bad night there are alot of things to be down right giddy about.
Our special teams look good and will get better.
Our double TE seems to be doing exactly what we envisioned. You dont give us the matchup we want on the outside we put them in motion down tight and over whelm you with the run. You sell out to stop the run and either Bennett, Witten, or RW has a serious mismatch.
Our D has looked bad but we havent come close to running like it was meant to be run. We arent blitzing nearly as much and our CBs have looked awful. I think there is too much talent there for that to continue. I also believe Wade hasnt turned it loose.(though I have no idea why) You just cant convince me this is our defense for the year.
By the way, 1 of my all time favorite movies.
KICK ASS every day!!!
Agree
You really have to ask yourself how many teams could have a -4 turnover ratio against one of the best teams in the league and have the lead with 3 minutes remaining.
I think that says a lot.
by cowboysfansince75 on Sep 26, 2009 9:44 AM CDT up reply actions
agreed but...
I’m a little more sceptical about the D. Yes, they’ll get better but can they really dominate or make a stand when we need them too. Last years Tampa Bay game comes to mind. We really needed that game and they delivered.
yea I know, the Homer thing is probably old but i couldnt resist
O-Ring-Theory and the Dallas Cowboys
first of all, welcome back Bishop. Your conspicuous absence from this blog from May-August has been noted, and I’m happy to see you back in good form.
I’d like to add to your Apollo 13 analogy with another Nasa mission that didn’t end so well. Harvard-Professor Michael Kremer developed the O-Ring-Theory in part based on the 1986 Challenger disaster. The O-Ring, worth a couple of bucks at most, was defective and caused the explosion of a multimillion dollar spacecraft and the loss of 7 lives.
The O-Ring Theory in essence postulates that in otherwise equal production processes, the worst input factor (or ‘weakest link’) will determine the overall quality level of the final product.
Henning Vöpel from the World Economic Institute in Hamburg, Germany reapplied the theory to team sports, arguing that the weakest player on a team ( the ‘weak link’) determined the overall quality of a team. Now I would argue that this is not rocket science, and that I’ve known this since I first picked teams in Kindergarten.
But he goes on to make an interesting point: to judge the true quality of a team, you can’t simply add up the quality of the individual players, you actually have to multiply it.
I’ll try to demonstrate the implications of this with our three running backs. For lack of better measure, I’ll take the Madden 10 ratings of our backs and compare these against the Vikings’ and Eagles’ RB trios.
Cowboys………..Eagles………………Vikings
Barber…0.88…..Westbrook…0.94…..Petersen…0.97
Jones….0.78…..McCoy………0.75…..Taylor…….0.78
Choice…0.76….Booker………0.66….Tahi……….0.61
The numbers add up as follows: Cowboys 2.42 (Index 100), Eagles 2.35 (Idx 97), Vikings 2.36 (Idx 98). Based on these numbers the quality of the Cowboys backs would be only 2 and 3 percent better than the Eagles and Vikings respectively. Insignificant.
If you multiply the numbers, the picture changes: Cowboys 0.52 (Index 100), Eagles 0.46 (Idx 89), Vikings 0.46 (Idx 88). Looking at it this way suddenly makes the Cowboy trio 11 and 12 percent better. A significant difference.
Now, please, nobody go off on me for using these numbers or even for comparing a three deep team against effectively two deep teams, it’s all just to prove a point:
The weakest link will over-proportionally affect overall team play, more than one stand-out player. Lats year we saw the secondary trying to make up for a declining Roy Williams, and we all know how that ended. This year, it may still be the ‘fledgling secondary’, the weak pass rush, or everybody’s favorite whipping boy, Romo.
At the end of the day, correcting this requires accountability from each player as well as the coaches. If this happens, the the New York game might jut prove to have been a blessing in disguise.
Man, I’ve been rambling, sorry all…
by One.Cool.Customer on Sep 26, 2009 11:02 AM CDT reply actions
**head nodding in agreement**
And in the case of ’86 Challenger, the problem was minor but when left unattended resulted in something major.
Romo’s issue may be minor – but left unattended……?
Wade’s defense may need some tweaking – but if not attended to……?
In Debbie Does Dallas they all just get down to business...
This team just needs to put on their hard-hats :)
Doomsday returns... Wade Phillips style.
(actually, I really like the analogies ... just couldn't resist :)
Doomsday returns... Wade Phillips style.
hmm, maybe this thread is over, but the bad news is there may be little help coming from Wade on this D.
The fact is that it is not really that talented, period.
Unless something ‘clicks’ w/one or both of the young CB’s, allowing the Pass D to improve and giving Phillips more freedom to blitz, there may be little improvement. w may have to outscore people like the Saints-not that that’s impossible, the OLine looks good.
1) A 3-4 D requires quality depth at OLB-we have none. There was no backup plan when Ellis was let go, and the rookies got hurt.
2) The secondary is suspect. We have two mid-level Free Agent castoffs at safety. Only because people here compare them to the terrible play of RW do they look good in comparison, but these guys were available for a reason. They are very average players.
The 2 young guys still look like rookies.
3) The guy we count on, Newman, for whatever reason, has been inconsistent, and even when he plays well is not a ’playmaker.
4) Which means WP is afraid to blitz too much, and that is the basis of this 3-4-Pressure. I’m not sure it’s a matter of schemes-what is Phillips supposed to do?
If he blitzes more, the secondary is exposed. When there’s no pressure the other teams seem to find huge gaps.
I’m not sure we have a top-20 defense. There are some good players, and no huge weaknesses anymore, but besides Ware it looks like a sea of mediocrity to me.
I think our secondary will play better
you’re looking at the first two weeks of the year, and against the giants we totally sold out to stop the run…considering we hardly got to eli, most secondaries will look bad against that.
The lack of depth at lb is a HUGE concern in a 3-4 D…this is imo by far the biggest issue. We need a rookie or the new olb to step up and play well very soon.
We do have talent. in our starters..our secondary is definitely above average…and Ware and Ratliff are two of the very best at their positions. The rest of our starters are more than serviceable.
How is our secondary worse than the 2008 version…How is it worse than 2007 with jacque reeves Despite the poor play early, I really don’t think this will be the problem with the defense.
I hope your optimism is rewarded!
I expected to see more from Jenkiins/Scandrick at this point.
And I think the secondary is better in the sense that our safeties won’t give up a bunch of long/easy TD’s—-but without pressure I’m worried we’ll see them slowly picked apart instead-torture!
But where will that pressure come from? And if they blitz more can the secondary hold up?
by Realist Larry on Sep 27, 2009 6:26 PM CDT up reply actions
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