Bob, it's not that we Cowboys fans have to have something to complain about (or maybe others do but I don't). It's this. After the Green Bay debacle, I swore I would not be "pulled in" by these guys until they win 2 playoff games. Now after watching that defense destroy Cleveland, here I am reading your upbeat article and I can feel the "Cowboys are gonna do it this year!" virus already invading my sports psyche. Nooooo! I don't want to care! But I can't help it. Can't wait for the 1st of the whatever you're calling the Zim analysis articles to come out!
You must find the happy balance between caring enough to enjoy your favorite football team playing good football and not caring so much that you’re distraught in January if we’re 1 of 31 teams who don’t win it all :)
We probably won’t win the Super Bowl because that’s very hard to do and the head guy likes to reveal our game plans and drop media bombs in radio interviews every week. And he likes to imply publicly he might fire the head coach in the week of a playoff game causing that guy to coach conservatively.
But I want to at least enjoy football and have fun watching my team and not wake up the day after sad, avoiding podcasts and articles and radio.
I’ve been highly critical of how the Jones boys have handled this offseason, but they accomplished their two most important goals by locking up Dak and CeeDee, and I’d say, even upgraded the defensive coordinator by bringing in Zim. It was far from perfect and took so much longer than necessary, but I’ll give them the credit for doing the obvious because it sure looked bleak for a while there.
With the Dak extension followed by a dominating road victory over a playoff level team, yesterday may have been the best day in Cowboyland in a long long time
I would say that what appears to be an outstanding draft class is also part of the offseason. Just as in 2022, it looks like we shouldn’t judge the product until we see it on the field. Long way to go, to be sure, but I liked what I saw yesterday.
I agree that the draft class looks very promising, but I tend to give the credit for that more to McClay than Jerry and Stephen. Maybe that’s not fair, but I just have a hard time seeing those two grinding all-22 tape late at night to find the next diamond in the rough.
Fair or not, anything money or coaching related is where I tend to give the Jones boys the credit/blame
This game is why I will never gamble. I thought Dak would be distracted by the contract noise and play accordingly. Wrong. I thought the running game would be non-existent. Wrong. I thought Watson would be servicable. Wrong. I thought the cornerbacks would be vulnerable, one a rookie and the other recovering from an ACL. Wrong. Don't get me wrong (couldn't help it), I'm very glad to see how wrong I was.
This defensive looks different, and by different, I mean better. The linebackers are much improved and how much better the DTs are, if at all, time will tell. The DTs certainly didn't get manhandled like last year. Overshown nailing Watson for a sack at speed as he rolled out right was something a Dallas LB hasn't done in years. The tackling by the DBs was also much better than last year. Will it last, that is the question. If the Defense plays a similar style of physical football on Sunday, the Boys may actually be good.
I live in the DC area and fans here are dismayed that DQ has not fixed their putrid D. I have reminded my Skins buddies about the Dallas D 'performance' in the Green Bay game and the Buffalo game and multiple 49ers games and they are rueful now. They also saw how in the first game at least, Dallas's D didn't seem to have missed DQ at all. You have to have talent of course, but as I recall DQ didn't make any adjustments to speak of in the playoff game. I think we upgraded at Defensive Coordinator.
The NFL off-season sucks the oxygen from the room. It's a sport that demands year-round attention and discussion.
The Jones Family Circus is adept at providing an entertaining clown show. After the playoff loss to the Packers, the fans and the media (rightfully) demanded answers. "DO SOMETHING!!!!" They did very little. (The Dak Deal could have been done at any point, but Jerrah - do we dare say he was clever? - waited until Sunday morning. Was that so it would be the talk of the pre-game shows? If so, damn the Tyreek Hill news.)
I know this: We never know what we don't know. And in sports, all we know is what HAS happened. We can only guess, yak, opine and whine about we think is GOING to happen. And if this is the team that ends the 10,000 Days Of Darkness and reaches at least the NFC title game, are we gonna remember the off-season of doubt?
What a great road win to the start the season and I will absolutely admit, I didnt see that performance coming. I felt good about the game going in, but never did I suspect a domination. Hats off the McCarthy for having this team ready to go. I will also add that having Zeke back was a blast and he looked good. It just seemed right to have the star back on his helmet. I liked they used him and Dawdle.
I just want to say that Overshown looked amazing. His closing speed was ridiculous. He and Kendricks will be such an upgrade over LY. Exciting stuff for sure!
I'm with Bob: that was a quality win, on the road, against a talented team.
I thought Brady made a good point that McCarthy had answers for avoiding Myles Garrett. Yes, the anemic 2H output left room for improvement. But when you're up 20+ points in the 2H your primary goal is to not screw up and they met that goal. It's not hard to imagine a Jason Garrett coached team deciding to get cute and somehow throw the ball 80% of the time in the 2H (https://www.pro-football-reference.com/boxscores/201312150dal.htm for reference) of such a game.
McCarthy's team looked ready to play, had a great gameplan and then adjusted to the scoreboard in a sound, coherent manner. Now, if he could only figure out that when the clock is running down and you're about to kick a last-second FG and you have time-outs in hand, go ahead and call the TO. That's was disturbingly inept and unfortunately exactly the kind of thing we've seen McCarthy do too often. (I guess I'm being "we can't be happy" now).
Defense was fantastic. It was nice to see them feast on the road. During the Quinn era it seemed the Cowboys defense at home was dynamic, making plays, stifling offenses, wreaking havoc. On the road they often seemed pedestrian. So good sign there.
Diggs looking like he's fully back from the ACL is a great sign; I'm astounded how most folks think everyone just automatically comes back at previous abilities and it's often not that way. Caelen Carson held up well. And WOW did Overshown and Kendricks make a difference in the middle.
Road wins are never easy in the NFL so we celebrate. Very good start to the year. I know many say "playoffs are only thing that matters" and, okay. But I also enjoy watching a quality team play quality football on a Sunday afternoon. And we got that yesterday.
- Was this the most snaps Tank has played in the second half of a non-competitive game in quite some time? It sure felt like it and I don’t know if that’s a Zimmer thing (your starters are going to play all 4 quarters no matter what) or a lack of playable depth behind him. In either case, I still think this team is one edge rusher short. As well as Kneeland played, particularly and surprisingly as a pass rusher, I don’t think you can expect that same level of play from these guys in November and December. Which really highlights what a huge blow losing Williams for the year was. He probably would have had a couple of sacks of his own yesterday.
- Unbelievable if Ferg escaped major injury in what looked like an ACL tear. Thought for sure he was done for the rest of the season and we were going to have to find out if Schoonmaker was worthy of a 2nd round pick last year. Hopefully he’s only out for a few weeks and Stephens can rebound from his own leg injury.
- Man would it be nice to see this defense stay healthy for the entire season. I know Bland will be back soon but seeing the same characters making plays yesterday without the freelancing from the DQ-led units of the past few years was great to watch. Carson took his lumps but he was also aggressive and not afraid which was nice to see. It didn’t seem like there were many busts or mental lapses and honestly, I think they could have had even more splash plays had they held onto Watson or the ball.
- I thought the offense did what it had to do. Cleveland’s defense is no joke and starting two rookies on the O-line along with having a below average RB room, to not turn the ball over while also putting together a couple of long drives was impressive. Zeke was exactly who we thought he is at this point, albeit with a little more juice that may not be there come November and December. And Dak was great in the first half and less so in the 2nd. But he also didn’t have many indiscriminate throws as Parcells would say, and was probably happy to just count his money and his blessings that he’s not the QB that was on the other sideline.
- Now it’s onto the Saints, who also looked like world beaters against an overmatched QB. It will be interesting to see what this Cowboys team does with a noon local time start playing an opponent they probably feel superior to. Derek Carr was last seen in Dallas carving up the secondary on Thanksgiving so that should be taken into consideration.
But something tells me this Zimmer led defense is not going to be quite as accommodating.
One thing I really like about McCarthy is that he coaches the game to win and not get caught up in Fantasy football coaching. He clearly was choking the life out of the Browns the fastest way possible. Keep the ball, run the clock, don't take chances. He gave the Browns no chance to create a rally. I've seen him do this on other occasions. It's no fun to watch, sort of like a snake eating a bunny, but it gets the job done.
A road win against an 11 win team the year before to start the season is something to feel good about. Let’s tap the brakes on how good the defense is because we’ve seen this in theaters already. Remember, that team was on its 5th tackle and had no Nick Chubb, who was last seen leaving trad marks on Dallas’s back in 2020.
It’s a win on the road, but time to reset.
The Saints winning by a margin of victory greater than every other team even scored yesterday is a great thing. It’s possible that, had that not happened, Dallas would have overlooked that team (remember Arizona last year, anyone?), being sandwiched between two of last year’s AFC Heavyweights.
As we’ve learned so many times in the past, Dallas needs to build character in season, to prepare for the playoffs. Going into next week’s game is a challenge of their character: can they focus on what’s in front of them today and not tomorrow?
The story is our offense looking pretty unbothered by the #1 defense from last year. The excitement over the Dallas defense is because this is the first game in a new scheme, with both new faces and inexperienced faces. Mazi, Overshown and Carson are essentially rookies. Plus it was Diggs first game back after major surgery. That's kind of crazy. To handle an NFL team like that any time is impressive, but the context is why there is cause for excitement.
Agreed. Very much enjoyed the win against a playoff contender at their home, but I can't put too much stock into the one game. Yes, our D looked good (special callouts to Kendricks, Overshown, Diggs and even Carson who popped at times), but with the Browns featuring backups at both OTs and our greatest strength being Demarcus and Micah, this all set up for the Browns to have trouble as they had no answers for the edges when passing or running, making them much more limited in play calls. Watson consistently tried to get the ball out quickly and, rightfully, got spooked/started hearing footsteps while taking a beating.
On O, I agree that our play calling was solid and helped our OL rookies get their feet under them. It would have been nice to see them run more successfully in the 2nd half in particular, as that will be needed against better offenses.
Overall, a good start to the season and one that was hard to imagine after the awful first series the O came out with to start the game (3 and out with two penalties, SMH).
I, for one, saw this coming, but it always feels nice to be validated. ;)
It seemed like two really good defenses going up against two offenses that were likely going to struggle for OL-related reasons (injury for CLE, inexperienced rookies for DAL), but only one of those two offenses had a top 10 QB. And that was pretty much the story of the game.
That said, I really enjoyed this iteration of the Zim D. They flew to the ball like the DQ defenses mostly did, but they were, for at least one week, much more disciplined in their gaps. And of course, having actual LBs playing LB was a breath of fresh air against a team that really wanted to be able to run the ball to help out Watson, and simply were unable to do so. I also suspect that they were far more tricksy with their coverages on the back end, but that's hard to pick up on when watching the TV feed.
All in all, great win against a quality opponent on the road. CLE will win many ugly games like that this year by virtue of their D, and yet after the first quarter they were never really in this game.
Bob: Actually, I do "enjoy things around here", even before whatever happens in the playoffs; and I really appreciate your ability to point out the good things that happen. It's never all bad; but some are never satisfied with anything unless we succeed at everything (the playoffs). They probably have the same difficulties with other areas in their lives; but that's not your problem. Fortunately, the games are won/lost on the field & not in the minds or opinions of any of us spectators. Your writing makes this spectator's enjoyment of the Cowboys much more real & immediate. Thanks!
I tend to be an optimist, but I also try not to jump to conclusions in the first month of the NFL season. Sometimes it seems that September is the new preseason. That said, the wins in September count just as much as those in December and Dallas got off to as good as start as one could imagine. Great to see.
Bob, it's not that we Cowboys fans have to have something to complain about (or maybe others do but I don't). It's this. After the Green Bay debacle, I swore I would not be "pulled in" by these guys until they win 2 playoff games. Now after watching that defense destroy Cleveland, here I am reading your upbeat article and I can feel the "Cowboys are gonna do it this year!" virus already invading my sports psyche. Nooooo! I don't want to care! But I can't help it. Can't wait for the 1st of the whatever you're calling the Zim analysis articles to come out!
“Every time I think I’m out, they pull me back in!”
You must find the happy balance between caring enough to enjoy your favorite football team playing good football and not caring so much that you’re distraught in January if we’re 1 of 31 teams who don’t win it all :)
Yeah that’s really what it comes down to for me.
We probably won’t win the Super Bowl because that’s very hard to do and the head guy likes to reveal our game plans and drop media bombs in radio interviews every week. And he likes to imply publicly he might fire the head coach in the week of a playoff game causing that guy to coach conservatively.
But I want to at least enjoy football and have fun watching my team and not wake up the day after sad, avoiding podcasts and articles and radio.
Welcome to sports. :)
Admittedly I’m one of the negative Nellie’s who didn’t see this result coming. Need to listen to Bob more 👍
Ditto.
I’ve been highly critical of how the Jones boys have handled this offseason, but they accomplished their two most important goals by locking up Dak and CeeDee, and I’d say, even upgraded the defensive coordinator by bringing in Zim. It was far from perfect and took so much longer than necessary, but I’ll give them the credit for doing the obvious because it sure looked bleak for a while there.
With the Dak extension followed by a dominating road victory over a playoff level team, yesterday may have been the best day in Cowboyland in a long long time
I would say that what appears to be an outstanding draft class is also part of the offseason. Just as in 2022, it looks like we shouldn’t judge the product until we see it on the field. Long way to go, to be sure, but I liked what I saw yesterday.
I agree that the draft class looks very promising, but I tend to give the credit for that more to McClay than Jerry and Stephen. Maybe that’s not fair, but I just have a hard time seeing those two grinding all-22 tape late at night to find the next diamond in the rough.
Fair or not, anything money or coaching related is where I tend to give the Jones boys the credit/blame
This game is why I will never gamble. I thought Dak would be distracted by the contract noise and play accordingly. Wrong. I thought the running game would be non-existent. Wrong. I thought Watson would be servicable. Wrong. I thought the cornerbacks would be vulnerable, one a rookie and the other recovering from an ACL. Wrong. Don't get me wrong (couldn't help it), I'm very glad to see how wrong I was.
This defensive looks different, and by different, I mean better. The linebackers are much improved and how much better the DTs are, if at all, time will tell. The DTs certainly didn't get manhandled like last year. Overshown nailing Watson for a sack at speed as he rolled out right was something a Dallas LB hasn't done in years. The tackling by the DBs was also much better than last year. Will it last, that is the question. If the Defense plays a similar style of physical football on Sunday, the Boys may actually be good.
I live in the DC area and fans here are dismayed that DQ has not fixed their putrid D. I have reminded my Skins buddies about the Dallas D 'performance' in the Green Bay game and the Buffalo game and multiple 49ers games and they are rueful now. They also saw how in the first game at least, Dallas's D didn't seem to have missed DQ at all. You have to have talent of course, but as I recall DQ didn't make any adjustments to speak of in the playoff game. I think we upgraded at Defensive Coordinator.
The NFL off-season sucks the oxygen from the room. It's a sport that demands year-round attention and discussion.
The Jones Family Circus is adept at providing an entertaining clown show. After the playoff loss to the Packers, the fans and the media (rightfully) demanded answers. "DO SOMETHING!!!!" They did very little. (The Dak Deal could have been done at any point, but Jerrah - do we dare say he was clever? - waited until Sunday morning. Was that so it would be the talk of the pre-game shows? If so, damn the Tyreek Hill news.)
I know this: We never know what we don't know. And in sports, all we know is what HAS happened. We can only guess, yak, opine and whine about we think is GOING to happen. And if this is the team that ends the 10,000 Days Of Darkness and reaches at least the NFC title game, are we gonna remember the off-season of doubt?
Hell. No.
What a great road win to the start the season and I will absolutely admit, I didnt see that performance coming. I felt good about the game going in, but never did I suspect a domination. Hats off the McCarthy for having this team ready to go. I will also add that having Zeke back was a blast and he looked good. It just seemed right to have the star back on his helmet. I liked they used him and Dawdle.
I just want to say that Overshown looked amazing. His closing speed was ridiculous. He and Kendricks will be such an upgrade over LY. Exciting stuff for sure!
I'm with Bob: that was a quality win, on the road, against a talented team.
I thought Brady made a good point that McCarthy had answers for avoiding Myles Garrett. Yes, the anemic 2H output left room for improvement. But when you're up 20+ points in the 2H your primary goal is to not screw up and they met that goal. It's not hard to imagine a Jason Garrett coached team deciding to get cute and somehow throw the ball 80% of the time in the 2H (https://www.pro-football-reference.com/boxscores/201312150dal.htm for reference) of such a game.
McCarthy's team looked ready to play, had a great gameplan and then adjusted to the scoreboard in a sound, coherent manner. Now, if he could only figure out that when the clock is running down and you're about to kick a last-second FG and you have time-outs in hand, go ahead and call the TO. That's was disturbingly inept and unfortunately exactly the kind of thing we've seen McCarthy do too often. (I guess I'm being "we can't be happy" now).
Defense was fantastic. It was nice to see them feast on the road. During the Quinn era it seemed the Cowboys defense at home was dynamic, making plays, stifling offenses, wreaking havoc. On the road they often seemed pedestrian. So good sign there.
Diggs looking like he's fully back from the ACL is a great sign; I'm astounded how most folks think everyone just automatically comes back at previous abilities and it's often not that way. Caelen Carson held up well. And WOW did Overshown and Kendricks make a difference in the middle.
Road wins are never easy in the NFL so we celebrate. Very good start to the year. I know many say "playoffs are only thing that matters" and, okay. But I also enjoy watching a quality team play quality football on a Sunday afternoon. And we got that yesterday.
Imagine being a Giants fan.
Just some thoughts about the game:
- Was this the most snaps Tank has played in the second half of a non-competitive game in quite some time? It sure felt like it and I don’t know if that’s a Zimmer thing (your starters are going to play all 4 quarters no matter what) or a lack of playable depth behind him. In either case, I still think this team is one edge rusher short. As well as Kneeland played, particularly and surprisingly as a pass rusher, I don’t think you can expect that same level of play from these guys in November and December. Which really highlights what a huge blow losing Williams for the year was. He probably would have had a couple of sacks of his own yesterday.
- Unbelievable if Ferg escaped major injury in what looked like an ACL tear. Thought for sure he was done for the rest of the season and we were going to have to find out if Schoonmaker was worthy of a 2nd round pick last year. Hopefully he’s only out for a few weeks and Stephens can rebound from his own leg injury.
- Man would it be nice to see this defense stay healthy for the entire season. I know Bland will be back soon but seeing the same characters making plays yesterday without the freelancing from the DQ-led units of the past few years was great to watch. Carson took his lumps but he was also aggressive and not afraid which was nice to see. It didn’t seem like there were many busts or mental lapses and honestly, I think they could have had even more splash plays had they held onto Watson or the ball.
- I thought the offense did what it had to do. Cleveland’s defense is no joke and starting two rookies on the O-line along with having a below average RB room, to not turn the ball over while also putting together a couple of long drives was impressive. Zeke was exactly who we thought he is at this point, albeit with a little more juice that may not be there come November and December. And Dak was great in the first half and less so in the 2nd. But he also didn’t have many indiscriminate throws as Parcells would say, and was probably happy to just count his money and his blessings that he’s not the QB that was on the other sideline.
- Now it’s onto the Saints, who also looked like world beaters against an overmatched QB. It will be interesting to see what this Cowboys team does with a noon local time start playing an opponent they probably feel superior to. Derek Carr was last seen in Dallas carving up the secondary on Thanksgiving so that should be taken into consideration.
But something tells me this Zimmer led defense is not going to be quite as accommodating.
Thanks Bob!
This defense is a blast to watch! Kendricks + Overshown additions could end up being massive....
I'm trying to think if we have ever had a guy in the middle of the defense like Overshown
Overshown had a couple of plays where he looked like he was shot out of a cannon to track down Watson and lay the wood to boot!
His closing speed is crazy. It reminds me of Micah... which has to be scary as hell for opposing offenses.
Rick Gosselin said that Mike Zimmer is the best off season acquisition Dallas could have made (player or coach) and he was spot on.
One thing I really like about McCarthy is that he coaches the game to win and not get caught up in Fantasy football coaching. He clearly was choking the life out of the Browns the fastest way possible. Keep the ball, run the clock, don't take chances. He gave the Browns no chance to create a rally. I've seen him do this on other occasions. It's no fun to watch, sort of like a snake eating a bunny, but it gets the job done.
A road win against an 11 win team the year before to start the season is something to feel good about. Let’s tap the brakes on how good the defense is because we’ve seen this in theaters already. Remember, that team was on its 5th tackle and had no Nick Chubb, who was last seen leaving trad marks on Dallas’s back in 2020.
It’s a win on the road, but time to reset.
The Saints winning by a margin of victory greater than every other team even scored yesterday is a great thing. It’s possible that, had that not happened, Dallas would have overlooked that team (remember Arizona last year, anyone?), being sandwiched between two of last year’s AFC Heavyweights.
As we’ve learned so many times in the past, Dallas needs to build character in season, to prepare for the playoffs. Going into next week’s game is a challenge of their character: can they focus on what’s in front of them today and not tomorrow?
The story is our offense looking pretty unbothered by the #1 defense from last year. The excitement over the Dallas defense is because this is the first game in a new scheme, with both new faces and inexperienced faces. Mazi, Overshown and Carson are essentially rookies. Plus it was Diggs first game back after major surgery. That's kind of crazy. To handle an NFL team like that any time is impressive, but the context is why there is cause for excitement.
Agreed. Very much enjoyed the win against a playoff contender at their home, but I can't put too much stock into the one game. Yes, our D looked good (special callouts to Kendricks, Overshown, Diggs and even Carson who popped at times), but with the Browns featuring backups at both OTs and our greatest strength being Demarcus and Micah, this all set up for the Browns to have trouble as they had no answers for the edges when passing or running, making them much more limited in play calls. Watson consistently tried to get the ball out quickly and, rightfully, got spooked/started hearing footsteps while taking a beating.
On O, I agree that our play calling was solid and helped our OL rookies get their feet under them. It would have been nice to see them run more successfully in the 2nd half in particular, as that will be needed against better offenses.
Overall, a good start to the season and one that was hard to imagine after the awful first series the O came out with to start the game (3 and out with two penalties, SMH).
I, for one, saw this coming, but it always feels nice to be validated. ;)
It seemed like two really good defenses going up against two offenses that were likely going to struggle for OL-related reasons (injury for CLE, inexperienced rookies for DAL), but only one of those two offenses had a top 10 QB. And that was pretty much the story of the game.
That said, I really enjoyed this iteration of the Zim D. They flew to the ball like the DQ defenses mostly did, but they were, for at least one week, much more disciplined in their gaps. And of course, having actual LBs playing LB was a breath of fresh air against a team that really wanted to be able to run the ball to help out Watson, and simply were unable to do so. I also suspect that they were far more tricksy with their coverages on the back end, but that's hard to pick up on when watching the TV feed.
All in all, great win against a quality opponent on the road. CLE will win many ugly games like that this year by virtue of their D, and yet after the first quarter they were never really in this game.
Bob: Actually, I do "enjoy things around here", even before whatever happens in the playoffs; and I really appreciate your ability to point out the good things that happen. It's never all bad; but some are never satisfied with anything unless we succeed at everything (the playoffs). They probably have the same difficulties with other areas in their lives; but that's not your problem. Fortunately, the games are won/lost on the field & not in the minds or opinions of any of us spectators. Your writing makes this spectator's enjoyment of the Cowboys much more real & immediate. Thanks!
I tend to be an optimist, but I also try not to jump to conclusions in the first month of the NFL season. Sometimes it seems that September is the new preseason. That said, the wins in September count just as much as those in December and Dallas got off to as good as start as one could imagine. Great to see.