Here's a quick survey of what's being written about that pitiful performance that was just turned in by the Cowboys. Buck Harvey excoriates Bill Parcells, and in my opinion, rightly so. The Saints didn't do anything fancy, sure they used some players as playmakers that weren't household names - to say the least. But come on, a fullback running a pass into the flats is some kind of new trick play? Not really, but the Cowboys acted like they had never seen it before.
For Bill Parcells.
Parcells drew a penalty. Watched as his staff was caught napping by an onside kick. And was out-maneuvered and out-guessed by his former employee.
Sean Payton's schemes utilized Drew Brees' accuracy, as well as Reggie Bush, the second half of the Texans' draft-day botch. But his schemes also got the ball to faceless backups who were seemingly always running in open space.
Parcells naturally put this on his guys Sunday, saying this was about "execution."
But wasn't coaching the critical disparity?
I'd say it's 50-50, because the players weren't exactly making the plays when they were in position. But half the time, there was no one within 10 feet of the guy making the catch. There was so much open space I could've scored.
More Buck:
Indeed. Here's his bottom line.
We didn't make any adjustments until late in the 2nd-half and by then the Saints just ran the ball over a demoralized and embarrassed defense.
Speaking of the defense, they completely fell apart in this game. From the DMN:
Parcells disagreed. Sort of. He claimed the coaches designed a game plan capable of slowing the Saints. The players, he said, failed to execute the plan, leading to the Cowboys' 42-17 loss.
Whatever the case, these numbers are for the Hall of Shame.
Even Tony Romo, the magic man, was finally shown to be a mere mortal. Having his first real stinker of a game, he threw 2 INT's, his only TD throw should've been his third INT, and he completed less that 50% of his passes.
"We had been playing pretty well, so we definitely didn't see this coming," said Romo, who was 16 of 33 for 249 yards.
The Cowboys didn't give him any help by going away from the running game, even though it was pretty successful early. And the offensive line had some very spotty play throughout the game.
But for me, this DMN article highlights one of the biggest problems.
One of those resulted in a beautiful, 61-yard touchdown reception for the rookie back. He finished with six catches for 125 yards.
They threw passes into the flats to Karney and Bush over and over, and nobody was there to stop them. I'll know more when I do the film review, but the picture of Brees lobbing passes over the outstretched arms of a rushing DeMarcus Ware is seared into my brain. When the passes landed into the arms of Karney and Bush, there was no one within 5-yards to tackle them. It was embarrassing.