Cowboys One and Done

[RiverDog]

Well, if we can't win a divisional game, at least the Cowboys can't either. I can't stand that franchise and it's owner. They are truly the only team I despise, which includes teams like the Niners, Steelers, and Patriots. The wife had a good laugh when I yelled "take that and shove it up your ass!" when Crosby's FG snuck in the left corner of the uprights.

That was without a doubt the best game in the playoffs thus far. I know that there's a lot of Packer Bashers in this forum, but no one can deny that Aaron Rodgers is a very special quarterback, in my opinion the best in the league at this point. Managing the pocket, taking off on a naked bootleg on a 3rd down, catching teams trying to substitute, taking advantage of a DL jumping offside to take a deep shot on a free play. That last pass he threw, while running to his left and 30 yards downfield to get in FG range was insane.

Comments?

[Hawktawk]

I was impressed with Dallas frankly. To be down 18 with all that pressure and come all the way back was amazing. That said,yes Aaron Rodgers is playing at a level I've never seen any qb in history achieve over a stretch like this.

It's sickening in a way to realize seattle was a game away from being the 2 and hosting the game with a win last week against whoever. That said this Nfc title game is going to be a get your popcorn moment.

If Green Bay goes in there and knocks off Atlanta they would have bludgeoned us here.
I'm rooting for Danny Quinn and Atlanta but no money going down in Vegas.
It's a fascinating matchup. I can't wait to see the over under etc. This could be epic.

[RiverDog]

I was impressed with Dallas frankly. To be down 18 with all that pressure and come all the way back was amazing. That said,yes Aaron Rodgers is playing at a level I've never seen any qb in history achieve over a stretch like this.

It's sickening in a way to realize seattle was a game away from being the 2 and hosting the game with a win last week against whoever. That said this Nfc title game is going to be a get your popcorn moment.

If Green Bay goes in there and knocks off Atlanta they would have bludgeoned us here.
I'm rooting for Danny Quinn and Atlanta but no money going down in Vegas.
It's a fascinating matchup. I can't wait to see the over under etc. This could be epic.

The game was won in the first 1.5 quarters when Green Bay took their first 3 drives for touchdowns. It's pretty hard to come back on a team with a HOF quarterback like Rodgers. Dez Bryant had a monster game.

There are 3 teams in our conference that were better than us: Packers, Cowboys, and Falcons. Our offense wouldn't have been able to score enough points to keep up with them. Atlanta can score points. Suddenly, it's the offense that dominates the league after us, the Panthers, and the Broncos used a stout defense to win championships. There are no top 5 defensive teams left in the playoffs, and just one (New England) in the top 10.

[Hawktawk]

Seattle this season was in no mans land. Their formula of running the ball coupled with taking deep shots was unreliable and inconsistent and the defense finally came unhinged after an amazing 4 year run.
It was all on display Saturday.
Seattle will need to make a choice which unit to focus on. No team can did everything .

[c_hawkbob]

Not sure what thread it was in or who I was talking to but I said before this game that in my mind they don't lose the choker label until they earn their way off of it. I don't care how good they look in the regular season, they need to prove they can win in the playoffs.

[burrrton]

The only *real* unhinging of our defense came about with the loss of Thomas. Pre-Thomas-Injury, even with our vulnerabilities, we were still the best scoring D in the league.

We'll be back.

[Hawktawk]

I agree with Thomas impact and I was dead wrong about it at the time he got hurt. If anyone should be holding out its him.

It's reminiscent of Bob Sanders with Indy in the super bowl winning 2006 season. The defense sucked all year until sanders, a undersized rangy safety that hit like a freight train got healthy. They had the firepower to overcome it in the regular season but got stuffed and held to field goals vs Ravens in the divisional but with Sanders in back even harder on Baltimore eking out a win. They beat New England and Chicago to win mannings first Super Bowl despite him playing like crap the entire postseason .

Yes Earl makes a difference.huge. But this team needs some emotional healing and forgiveness too.

[obiken]

Dallas lost a 3 point tough game. They are still a great team.

[NorthHawk]

They might be like Carolina and descend back into mediocrity, or they may sustain their success.
I think a lot depends on their Defense and wonder if it's a one year wonder where they stayed relatively healthy or if it was the real deal.
Their Offense should remain good because of their OL, but Doug Free, La'El Collins, and Zack Martin are entering the last year of their current deals and Ron Leary is a UFA.
Romo's CAP hit is 24.7 million this year, so he will probably be gone and they should be able to use that space for the above players, but you never know how negotiations are going to go.

[mykc14]

They might be like Carolina and descend back into mediocrity, or they may sustain their success.
I think a lot depends on their Defense and wonder if it's a one year wonder where they stayed relatively healthy or if it was the real deal.
Their Offense should remain good because of their OL, but Doug Free, La'El Collins, and Zack Martin are entering the last year of their current deals and Ron Leary is a UFA.
Romo's CAP hit is 24.7 million this year, so he will probably be gone and they should be able to use that space for the above players, but you never know how negotiations are going to go.

They have lots of starters/contributors on D that are FA as well. Also they can't just dump Romo and save 24 mil. If they release him they will still have a 19 mil dollar cap hit in dead money (that can be about 9 or 10 mil for 2 years or the full 19 next year). Even a trade of some sort would stick the boys with a big cap hit next year. Also they are currently over next years current cap. The are in a very tough spot cap wise and are not going to be able to keep everyone.

[I-5]

Cowboys have a great future. However, it's tough to beat AR right now. As much as I hate the Patriots (I hate the Steelers only 1% less), I think a Brady-Rodgers SB duel would be pretty fun to watch. That said, the Falcons offense is pretty impressive.

[Socalhawk]

I've never liked the Boys my entire life. But the thing that allows them to be successful is they built an outstanding oline. IMO the Hawk oline is the real underlying problem. Without offensive consistency there is too much pressure on the D to win games.

Improve the oline so that the offense can stay balanced and control the flow of the game, and keep the D fresh is the key to returning to the Super Bowl. Rawls is a very good RB but like Wilson he lacks the oline help to be successful consistently.

I truly believe that the FO needs to sell out in this offseason, and grab one of the young free agent OGs. Then in the draft get an OT like Lamp in the first round and Dorian Johnson in the second. Move Fant to RT where he belongs.

[mykc14]

I've never liked the Boys my entire life. But the thing that allows them to be successful is they built an outstanding oline. IMO the Hawk oline is the real underlying problem. Without offensive consistency there is too much pressure on the D to win games.

Improve the oline so that the offense can stay balanced and control the flow of the game, and keep the D fresh is the key to returning to the Super Bowl. Rawls is a very good RB but like Wilson he lacks the oline help to be successful consistently.

I truly believe that the FO needs to sell out in this offseason, and grab one of the young free agent OGs. Then in the draft get an OT like Lamp in the first round and Dorian Johnson in the second. Move Fant to RT where he belongs.

I am not disagreeing with you about the need for improved oline play but why are we looking at the cowboys being so 'successful' with their oline? I'm mean they haven't won a play off game with that line and had one of worst records in the league last year. Shouldn't cowboys fans be looking at us and our success and trying to model their franchise around our model?

[Socalhawk]

Dallas was successful with a ROOKIE QB, only because of that oline. Elliott had an equally outstanding year because of that oline.

The Hawks lost because they didn't have a good enough oline to allow Rawls to give them a balanced attack. They became one dimensional and made it easy to defend them. Its the offense that can control the tempo of the game. Without a decent oline you can't do it.

[Hawktawk]

Virtually every time Seattle made a commitment to the run ie 20 carries or more, whether with Michael's(dumb move to release him when they did)CJ Prosise, or Rawls they generally had success. They ran all over Carolina with Rawls, the Rams too. They had success in Green Bay but abandoned it to watch Wilson crap the bed to the tune of 5 int's instead. At Tampa all they could do was run but instead they tried throwing all day in a 2 score game with absolutely no ability to stop the Bucs pass rush. After that game PC said"we needed to stop trying to figure out what was wrong with the passing game and do what we were having success with". Indeed. They crushed Detroit as Rawls set a Seahawks playoff game record breaking Beasts mark from 2013. Against Atlanta Rawls gashed them on a 90 yard flawless drive then was basically ignored as they continued throwing even with a backup guard who gave up a couple of sacks immediately and caused a safety.
Hard to evaluate a line when the OC is a flipping idiot, sorry.

[Socalhawk]

I'm not a big fan of stats but in the case of the the Hawks the oline grades out as one of the worst in the NFL. Russ and Rawls had success inspite of poor oline play. Its why they had to play that first game instead of having a bye.

Both Russ and Rawls will have shortened careers behind a subpar line. We aren't talking about a mediocre line but one of the worst. One good FA OG and a OT and OG in the first 3 rounds of the draft should resolve the problem. There are going to be some good linemen on the board in the draft from the low 1st thru the 3rd. Improving the oline is the best way to improve the entire team.

[Zorn76]

The Cowboys one and done had to be crushing to their fans.
But knowing they have young franchise caliber QB in place along with a solid RB, and they're looking pretty good moving forward.