As Fall officially descends here in the northeast and we take our sweaters out of mothballs, I can think of no better way to get warm than a helping of informative Cowboys-related FanPosts. Indeed, in the past week, there have been several FPs guaranteed to warm the cockles of your Cowboys-lovin' hearts. Wanna know what made me all warm and fuzzy last weekend? We had a perfect NFC East Sunday: the Cowboys won big and the rest of their division rivals all fell (and two of them, Philly and Washington, to mediocre squads). Gaining a full game on the rest of the field? Priceless.
I confess, I derive almost as much satisfaction from the Eagles losing as I do from a Cowboys victory (I must say that what kept me from the ledge at the end of the Lions debacle was watching Phlly spit the bit at home against the 49ers). Apparently, I'm not the only who experiences this emotion. In the past seven days, two FanPosters have shared similar feelings. The first of these, by EaglesSuck (by far the best nickname on the site), took no little delight in the fact that the Eagles broke the bank to buy a 3-6 squad, giving special attention to the $40 million guaranteed the mercurial Michael Vick. This was immediately followed by DavidH22's public declaration of shadenfreude (delight in the misfortune of others). David reserves the bulk of his vengeful mirth for the aforementioned Lions and their pugilistic coach, Jim Schwartz. A once 5-0 team is now looking like a .500 team, and our boy Dave does a funny little dance on their grave. You should definitely drop by and check it out.
More FanPost goodness after the jump...
Gloating aside, we were blessed this week with a slew of informative posts detailing football's "X"s and "O"s. In one of my favorites, the always insightful Chandus, who offers up a careful (and lengthy) analysis of several Dallas running plays--focusing on formation and individual execution. For each, Chandus describes the play and its various assignments in detail; what sold me was his inclusion of moving .gifs capable of tracking the various blockers through the play. Pretty cool stuff. His conclusion? Its twofold: DeMarco Murray has confidence in Tony Fiammetta as his lead blocker and the running game is improving but, as there are still inconsistencies in O-line play, isn't "there" yet. Here's hoping this improvement continues, such that it IS there by season's end. Great stuff, as always, Chandus!
This week's winner also took a deeper look at the Dallas offense. In a "Football 101" trifecta, CoachGary 1) astutely breaks down basic terminology; 2) looks at all the branches on the receiver route tree; and 3) situates Garrett's offensive scheme within a longer tradition, from Sid Gilman to Don Coryell to Norv Turner to the RHG himself. Its this final installment is what garners CoachG coveted weekly FPOTW honors, largely because its so packed with great info. Once that's set, he looks at Garrett's formations, use of the tight end, the series of pre- and post-snap reads a quarterback must make, and on, and on.
If football geeks were fat kids, Gary's stuff would be the equivalent of free cake. The icing? The back-and-forth between he and another of our most knowledgeable members, CotySaxman, in the comments section of Gary's winning post. Much like another comments thread cited in a recent FPOTW column, I thoroughly enjoyed "overhearing" these two dudes talk football--kind of like I was running the projector at a coaches' clinic. I encourage all of you, geek or otherwise, to stop by and take a look at ol' Gary's handywork (but don't tell his wife; she doesn't know he's spending all his time sharing his considerable football know-how with us--and we want him to be able to continue to do so!). His entire oeuvre can be found here.
Great stuff, Coach! Thanks and congrats to you and to all of this week's winners.
And to the rest of you: get a-postin' and win yourself a shiny new Rabbie!