After a couple of high-profile drops on extra-points and FG's at the end of the season, the K-ball is coming under some scrutiny. In case you don't know, the K-ball is a special ball that is substituted in for the game ball on kicking plays. There's a whole set of rules and procedures for the K-ball, which you can read in the article. For the most part, kickers aren't big fans of the K-ball. I bet Romo is no fan, either, although he won't blame the ball.
"Kicking balls are very, very slick," Akers said. "They have a lot of wax on them because they are brand new. You don't get to work them in very much, and you see a lot of that happening."
"The K-Balls are not good balls for performing football duties _ catching, holding, kicking, punting," New Orleans Saints kicker John Carney said. "Nobody really likes the K-Balls. The kickers somehow, the punters somehow, were punished when they came up with this K-Ball rule."
I missed this quote from Terence Newman the first time I read this article.
"He played in the league, and I think he has an understanding of different things," Newman said. "Instead of running the same thing every week, he knows teams will figure that out and understands you have to change things up."
That sounds like a pretty harsh indictment of the coaching on defense this year. You can debate whether it was Parcells or Zimmer who made the decisions on the defense, but the fact remains that our defense went stale, and other teams took advantage down the stretch.