MM old dog old tricks.
@SteveLuke posted:However, the Dallas defense has not suffered nearly as many injuries and is still giving up an incredible 30.7 points to offenses per game -- good for 32nd in the NFL by >1 point.
It's almost like a bad offense can make a defense even worse.
@packerboi posted:Honestly, WTF did he do in that basement/compound with his cronies for an entire year??
Pretty sure there was no cardio happening.
did he ever accidentally have a good defense?
@bvan posted:What are you doing up this late?
Ha, I was asleep within 20 minutes of posting that. If I didn't have something quick to get done for work I probably would have been out already.
@MichiganPacker2 posted:At the end of the regular season in 2011, MM had won 21 of 22 games. His teams scored more than 30 points in 14 of those games and over 40 points in 8 of those games. He was running one of the most productive offenses in NFL history with what turned out to be only one Hall of Fame player on that side of the ball. His best running back was James Starks, and not a single one of his assistant coaches ever ended up succeeding outside of Green Bay. He had seemingly reigned in Favre in 2007 to get him to not play rocketball (until he reverted by throwing a game losing interception in the title game just like he eventually did for the Vikings two years later). Rodgers had developed from a prospect that a lot of teams thought was going to be a Tedford bust into an MVP. How could you not look at all that and not think that MM was the main reason for all that.
MM is still better than many give him credit for, but in the end he was just a slightly above average coach who happened to have a QB that might even have been better than we thought he was. As I've said in other threads, if you could someone swap out Favre's 16 years and replace them with Rodgers from 1992-2007 how many titles do the Packers win? I'd say somewhere between 5 and 7. MFL is good, but Holmgren was still the best Packer play-caller in my time watching the team.
Even during that run he had a glaring weakness. Game management.
Its been refreshing watching MLF excel in this area and actually contribute on game day instead of having to overcome it.
The other weakness was being to loyal. A lot of us were calling for Slocum to be replaced 2 years before Seattle. It took that debacle to force his hand.
I think MM knew he was going into a less-than-ideal situation in DallAss, injuries compounded that, and losing Dak obliterated any hopes they had for this year.
It's likely to get worse before it gets better, too. Before they can even prepare for the draft, they're going to have to settle the deal with Dak. I doubt they can afford to pay him another tag (approx $37.7M), especially considering the salary cap shrinkage, assuming that happens.
It wouldn't take a lot of improvement to compete for the NFCE title for the next couple of years or so, but I don't know that he can weather the storm long enough to make that happen. The other teams are ahead with their defenses, but none have a dominant, or strong, really, offense.
I also think Holmgren was one of the best play-callers the Packers have ever had. MLF looks like he may be trending in that direction. And maybe it is just me, but it seems like there has slowly been less of the wasting of timeouts when the play clock is winding down? Could be another sign of Rodgers' getting comfortable in the new offense?
How bad are things going for Big Mike down in Big D? Taking a peek at the Dallas Morning News ...
You had almost two weeks to get ready for the Ravens’ one-dimensional offense, and instead your defense played like it was in one of those dreams where you walk into class and the professor is handing out final exams and you have no clue what’s going on or even what class this is. What’s more, you’re naked. You know that dream, Mike? You should be that embarrassed.
The NFL is so embarrassed for you, the league mercifully slid you out of primetime for the Dec. 20 game against the 49ers. Moved you up to noon on the undercard. Mark this date in history: Dec. 9, 2020. America finally has had enough of America’s Team. We used to think it was awful that it’s been a quarter-century since Dallas showed up for a conference title game. Now the Cowboys are so bad, even the legend won’t do.
By the way, Mike, do you know what game’s subbing for yours in prime time Dec. 20? Cleveland and the Giants. Pretty ironic, right? Kevin Stefanski and Joe Judge were, like you, two of the five new head coaches in the league this year. Ron Rivera and Matt Rhule debuted in Washington and Carolina, respectively. Not a good time for the five of you to break in new teams. Pandemic restrictions on training camp and all that.
The thing is, Mike, of those five teams, yours is the only one going the wrong way.Get this: The Giants, Panthers, Browns and Washington have each already won more games than they did last year. Stefanski’s won three more in Cleveland, with four games still to go. Rivera’s won two more in Washington with a set of quarterbacks a lot like yours.
Clearly, Mike, you don’t have enough talent on defense. By my count, you could use a defensive tackle, cornerback, safety and a linebacker in the draft. But that realization doesn’t let you or Mike Nolan off the hook, either.
Remember when you said after Tuesday’s fiasco that “we’re pretty far down the road to blame this on the scheme”? Basically, Mike, you’re saying it’s all on the players, and the thing is, even as bad as they’ve looked, it’s essentially the same guys who were here last year. Basically, if you got the same production out of your defense, you’d be leading the NFC Least.
Bottom line, Mike, is that even though a lot of stuff has happened this year that’s out of your control, it’s still on you. Sure, it’s Nolan’s defense and John Fassel’s special teams. But if the field goal unit is letting the time clock expire, it’s on you to call timeout. And if the defense still looks lost after 12 games, it’s on you to replace the guy running it.
I can't wait to see him lose his shit in a press conference.
I can't wait to see hypotheticals in their locker room.
Maybe different fruit will work. Or, perhaps, a vegetable. Large gourds are good.
I tested negative back to back for covid and I’m not excited about it
— Dez Bryant (@DezBryant) December 10, 2020
People on Twitter think Jerry Jones purposely had Dez test "positive" so he couldn't play against the CokeBoys
Jerry got unflexed.....Jerry gonna be pissed.....MM will get an earful.
you tell me jerruh is gonna stick with him? I swear MM took the job to help GB (and the universe as well) and get more money. how much of his contract is guaranteed I wonder? he's practically gotta win out or he's toast. but the writer writes the truth. 
never change jerruh! - I used to hate ya, but I have comes to love ya. hahaha
How long till Jerruh goes full on Al Davis?
Cowboys coach Mike McCarthy promises things will get better. Frankly, they can’t get much worse.
But for a trio of wins that easily could have become losses, the Cowboys would be jostling with the Jets for dibs on Trevor Lawrence. Relative to the team’s expectations entering the season, this has become one of the worst seasons the Cowboys ever have had, so bad that they lost a prime-time game to the Browns.
“We’re not where we need to be,” coach Mike McCarthy said Friday, via ESPN.com. “Clearly. Our record reflects it. We can improve on a number of things. It’s just not one area, one person. Everybody’s 3-9 right now, so we all need to do a better job. . . .
“It’s definitely a challenge. We’re all in this to win. Make no mistake about it. No one is happy. No one likes where we are today. But I think to a man everybody sees the opportunity to continue to build. We still have a number of opportunities in front of us. With that, my focus has always been about improving. We definitely need to improve.”
Indeed they do. It’s gotten so bad that some have wondered whether McCarthy, who has won only 14 of his last 40 games as a head coach, while be the one to preside over the effort to improve. McCarthy, for his part, wants to stay.
“I’m glad to be a Dallas Cowboy,” McCarthy said. “I love it here. This is a phenomenal opportunity. Make no mistake about it. This is not where we intended to be. This is not where we’re going to stay.”
So what can be done to change what’s gone on?
“There’s no doubt that you have to continue to look at everything and be honest about it,” McCarthy said. “I think it goes back to the preparation of a football team. How did you set your schematic schedule in the limited time that we had? Just the anticipation of the changes. Frankly, I don’t think any of us anticipated the amount of it. Are we handling it properly? Did we adjust in midstream as good as we can? So I think, like anything, times like this can confirm what I believe in.”
That may seem like excuse-making, but the reality is that the pandemic threw a wrench into everyone’s plans. Still, the other two new coaches in the division, Joe Judge of the Giants and Ron Rivera of Washington, have managed to cobble together five wins in 12 games, positioning them for a four-game race to the NFC East crown. And Browns coach Kevin Stefanski, who spent little more than a full season calling plays in Minnesota before getting the job, has taken the Browns to nine wins.
“I do believe that we will be much better from this experience and all this adversity is happening for a reason, and from adversity and negative experiences, obviously you have a great opportunity to learn and increase your instincts and your awareness,” McCarthy said. “And I feel that our program and our team will be better for this moving forward. It can’t happen quick enough.”
He’s right about that. The urgency is permanent in Dallas, where the Cowboys will now extend their absence from the NFC Championship game to 25 seasons. In the 25 seasons before that, the Cowboys appeared in 13 NFC Championship games, with seven Super Bowl appearances and five Lombardi Trophies.
They'll get that fixed.
From NFL Now: #Cowboys coach Mike McCarthy won't be one-and-done, per Stephen Jones. What it means 👇🏻 👇🏻 👇🏻 pic.twitter.com/anEwOqSimB
— Ian Rapoport (@RapSheet) December 14, 2020
MM appears safe; Mike Nolan, not so much.
He's waiting for Aaron Jones to hit free agency so he can underutilize him....
With MM the percentage of rushing plays was usually about 30-35%.
With MLF the percentage of rushing plays has been in the 42-50% range.
Says a lot about how MM leaned on AR. He doesn't have that guy now. And it says a lot about how MLF has used the running game to help AR. IMO anyway.
Yep, there was this line of thinking here a couple of years ago that it would be dumb to run the ball more when you have Rodgers because that's giving him less opportunities to do something great.
That line of thinking has been absolutely demolished this year. Packers are at about 55/45 pass/run and I think that's just about perfect. Throw Love into this offense somewhere down the road and it's probably closer to 50/50.
The Cowboys WITH ZEKE ELLIOT HEALTHY and Dak on the shelf are 60/40.
@Ghost of Lambeau posted:With MM the percentage of rushing plays was usually about 30-35%.
With MLF the percentage of rushing plays has been in the 42-50% range.
Says a lot about how MM leaned on AR. He doesn't have that guy now. And it says a lot about how MLF has used the running game to help AR. IMO anyway.
It would be interesting to go back and look at what the ratios were depending on how good a RB group they had.
It makes a lot more sense to go more run-heavy with peak Eddie Lacy vs. Ty Montgomery as your leading rusher. Aaron Jones with a better-than average backup (Williams) should increase your run-rate as well.
This goes back to 2011.
https://fftoday.com/stats/20_run_pass_ratios.html
His first couple of years were 44-45% running. Dropped off a little in 2015 then 2016 to 2018 were pretty low. No excuse for 2018. None at all. 34%. McCarthy lost his mind at that point.
I can do a study. What would you use as a measure of RB ability. Yards per carry?
I have all the run/pass ratios in my spreadsheet for each game and each season going back a while. Those statements I made above reflect the general MM era vs the almost 2 year old MLF era.
Also, how far back? beginning of the MM era?
Zeke has the fifth most carries in the NFL. So it's not like he isn't getting the ball.
The Cowboys have been down in most games, especially late, which often minimizes run opportunities. Zeke's O-line is a mess. He is averaging less than 4 yards/carry. And he has the most fumbles/lost of any RB in the league.
I get zebras don't often change their stripes ref the HC, but it's not like he isn't getting the ball. And Zeke hasn't been awesome this year. MM might have something to do with that. As would the QB, line, and overall season the Pokes are having.
Oh, and maybe that big, fat contract extension he signed might have a bit to do with it {cough, Eddie, cough}.
So then the OL injuries limiting Zekes effectiveness? I guess you can only have so many of those before they are taking guys off the street to play.
@DH13 posted:So...you know who the Zodiac killer was?
You mean Arthur Leigh Allen? That was just a guess.
@PackerHawk posted:The Cowboys WITH ZEKE ELLIOT HEALTHY and Dak on the shelf are 60/40.
The Red Rifle!!
Attachments
@Ghost of Lambeau posted:You mean Arthur Leigh Allen? That was just a guess.
Read a lot about that case including a book proposing that...
MIKE MCCARTHY with his FIRST WINNING STREAK IN DALLAS!!!!
