Mick's Mail

Thursday, October 8, 2009

David Madrid, Pico Rivera, CA: Everyone is looking for someone to blame there. No one to blame. Tony Romo is not to blame. Injuries are, and the biggest injury to one player is Felix Jones. Look at our record when he is not able to play.

Mickey: You have a good point there. Before the season began I declared Felix Jones as the team’s Mr. Indispensible, the guy the Cowboys just could not do without since they didn’t have anyone else on the team who could replace his unique qualities (see speed). And you are right, if you think back to last season, the Cowboys were 4-1 before Jones tore his hamstring early in the second half of a tie game with Arizona. And you certainly can see what’s happened to the offense since he pulled up lame there at halftime of the Carolina game. To me, he’s a blitz buster, because with Jones on the field, teams must think twice about calling all-out blitzes, not knowing if they are going to run right by a outside pitch to Felix.

Ronni, Dallas, TX: I have to ask you, after reading your responses I see Tony Romo never shoulders much of the blame. It is very difficult to win in the NFL when you only score 10 points. And that 10 points was scored early in the game. I for one refuse to give the defense blame on this one. Romo had a very off day and the play calling did not help.

Mickey: And you shouldn’t blame the defense. That unit really gave up only 10 points in the game, the Cowboys offense handing the Broncos that easy seven with the fumble recovery at the Cowboys nine. Was Romo perfect? No, he certainly wasn’t because he should have accounted for Renaldo Hill on that blitz causing the fumble. But he wasn’t as bad as most assume. Too many negative plays, and that includes for negative yards – especially in the second half – penalties and poor pass protection. In the past two games, 25 percent of the offensive snaps have resulted in negative plays. That puts far too much pressure on your quarterback to overcome second-and-long and third-and-long if you are facing loss of yards, and think about this, one out of every four plays. Also, remember, this, Romo can’t throw the ball and get open, too.

Kevin Ferguson, Chesapeake, VA: It is not a secret that I am an avid Tony Romo fan. With that being said, is Jason Garrett calling these crazy plays at critical times or is it Tony changing the play at the line? It just seems like to me we pass when we should run and run when we should pass. I have watched this last game now three times and I am still puzzled with the plays that were called in key situations. In defense of the "D", the offense must sustain a drive or two to give the defense a rest. I noticed several players very winded in the fourth quarter.

Mickey: You need to hook up with Ronni. Yes, the offense is at fault. You can not win in this league consistently scoring just one touchdown a game as the Cowboys have in the past two. You guys, does execution ever come into play here, or is it just the play calling? I wish you would have documented the plays you had in question against Denver. Because all I know, in the second half the Cowboys ran the ball seven times for 19 yards. My University of Missouri math skills tell he that’s not even averaging three yards a carry. Hard to keep calling running plays when you aren’t getting anywhere, and worse, losing yards on three of those seven runs. If you look closely, before the Cowboys’ final drive of the game, they had thrown 32 passes and run the ball 25 times, not an out-of-whack pass-to-run ratio. And if you are wondering about the final two calls, the Cowboys got exactly what they were looking for and anticipating – man coverage on the three receivers and effectively picking up the Broncos blitz. Now it’s up to Romo to decide when he gets to the line of scrimmage where he thinks he has the best chance to throw the ball by how the defensive backs line up. Oh, and by the way, I found out that on that final play everyone was screaming for Romo to throw to Miles Austin after they saw the replay – which he didn’t get that chance during the play – Austin actually ran the wrong route, so would have been something Romo wouldn’t have been looking for in the first place. Whooo…kind of got winded there, didn’t I?

Michele, Albuquerque, NM: We are going to be in town for the Thanksgiving game. We are arriving Tuesday and leaving Saturday. Are you going to be doing any shows during that time? We are huge fans!

Mickey: We sure will be. There should be two shows on Wednesday night, our usual DallasCowboys.com Radio Road Show at the team hotel, thanks to Maximum Sports, and for details on that you can go to Cowboysportstours.com. Also on Wednesday night at the Hooter’s in Grapevine, Texas, we have a Cowboys Legends Show, where we bring back a former player for an hour, live radio show carried on the Dallas Cowboys Radio Network, although that could get switched to another night (Tuesday?) since I am the host for both shows.