Monday, October 24, 2005

Dear Bill Parcells -

I know you're kind of stubborn, but I thought when you took my advice previously, we had figured out what the strengths and weaknesses of your team were, and decided that you should play agressively and try to win games before they get to the final minutes. You have now lost two games to teams that were dominated by your defense for around 55 minutes. If you expect to be able to win these kind of games by now, then you're just fooling yourself. The defense also gave up a late game tying touchdown last week that could have lost the game. But I guess since you squeaked out of that one with the win, you didn't learn anything. Anyway, to play the kind of game you want to play, you need a few things. First, you need a defense that will play the same way in the final minutes as they play in the rest of the game. You clearly don't have that. Second, you need a good kicking game. But your punter is mediocre, and the long snapper and kicker suck so bad that if I were coaching yesterday, I would have told them to find their own way home. Finally, you need a running game that can run effectively even when everyone knows they're going to run. And despite the fact that you piled up a lot of yards on the ground yesterday, when it came to the drives late in the 3rd and early in the fourth when you almost exclusively ran the ball, they couldn't get a first down. So, since we know all these things, maybe you could take the handcuffs off the offense and throw it down the field a little more often, especially since almost everytime you do, it works out pretty well. A four point lead is nowhere near big enough to sit on. I know you tried to do it late yesterday, but by then it was too late, and the fumble on the flea flicker really cost you, but if you try some of those plays earlier, maybe one little mistake wouldn't be so magnified. Anyway, you fell from first place to last place with that loss, so maybe you will wake up a little bit now and start using the weapons that you have before your team throws in the towel.

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2 comments:

Blogger said...

Julius Jones was out this week. With him back in, the Cowboys have a much more effective running game. (the fact that he is on my fantasy team has nothing to do my opinions. Ok, I'm lying.)

John Howard said...

I love Julius Jones, but they ran the ball very well without him on Sunday. Both Marion Barber and Tyson Thompson ran effectively, at least until the offense got shut down when they were sitting on that insurmountable 4 point lead. Anyway, I think they probably would have won with Jones in there, but they should have won anyway.