From: floydg@oakhill.sps.mot.com (Floyd Goodrich)
Subject: Re: Dallas was beaten by bad luck, not the eagles!
Organization: Motorola Inc., Austin Tx.
Date: Wed, 7 Oct 1992 16:27:08 GMT

jpglori@srv.PacBell.COM (John P. Gloria) writes:

>Do I hearing "moooing" here. Come on 'Boyz, you were beat. It wasn't
>like the score was 31-30, Eagles favor. This was a stomp you, spit in
>your face, call your sister a SL*T, and embarrass you nation wide
>telecast. I guess the lights were too bright and the crowd was too
>loud and biased. 'Boyz want a lollypop?

Dallas played well on Monday night against Washington in a game that had
all the hype that this one did.  Why do you think it was the spotlights
that caused this loss instead of just the Eagles beating Dallas?  Do you
think Dallas was really better and just choked under the lights?  I don't.
Or were you just baiting Dallas fans?

>Please don't start with your IF's and lucky breaks, or whatever. A
>good team will convert TOs into points. That is what separates 
>Men from the 'Boyz. If Cunningham is just *so, so*, what is 
>Troy "Can't get no satisfaction" Aikman.

Well, while I disagree with a lot of what the original poster said, I 
do think that Dallas held their own for 2-3 quarters against the best 
team in the NFL.   While the Eagles forced a lot of breaks, you
can't always count on the bounces to go either for you or against you.
Now I'm not going to start with IFs about this game, but I do think
you have to look at why Dallas lost.  In spite of the 31-7 score, Philly
had to fight to earn the victory.  Dallas can look at this game in order
to focus on what they can do to beat Philly next time....

Was there nothing positive for the Dallas team to think about the Philly 
game?  Bottom line was they lost.  How can they do better in the future?
Simple, they have to focus on what they did well in this game and eliminate
the mistakes they made.  (I can't remember the last time Dallas turned the
ball over 4 times and won.)

OK, what would you say to your team if you were the Dallas coaching staff?
You have to reinforce the positives, eliminate the negatives, and try to
do better next time. (Was there nothing good to say about SF's loss to Buffalo?)
I might start by saying that we got our butts kicked, primarily because
of turnovers and not being able to keep the ball long enough for the 
defense to get any rest.  On the positive side, Dallas moved the ball well
at times, only to piss away good scoring opportunities.

And I would look at the turnovers:
 1) interception - Aikman underthrows the ball by a couple of yards.  The
    coverage was good, there wasn't heavy pressure.  Don't do that again
    Troy, improve your execution, that was your fault.  Bad execution.
 2) interception in end zone- Troy, what did you think you could accomplish 
    with that?  OK, it was a lucky bounce into the arms of the Eagles, but
    you can't take that chance.  Bad decision (mostly) and a little bad luck.
 3) wounded duck interception - OK, Troy, your arm got hit when you threw
    the ball.  You really couldn't have done anything about that.  Granted,
    90% of the time, this ball falls to the ground for an incomplete pass,
    but this is the Eagles.  They have a nasty habit of coming up with big
    defensive plays.  Good Eagles execution but a weird play.
 4) fumble by offensive lineman - that he ended up with the ball was sheer
    inanity.  That he tried to run and fumbled was more of the same.

Summary:  1 bad decision (plus a fortunate bounce), 1 bad execution, 
          2 weird ones.  

Result:  21 Eagles points and lost a chance at a FG for Dallas.

Three of these turnovers came when Dallas was moving the ball fairly well.
They killed the present drive and the momentum of the Cowboys' offense.
Now the Eagle defense caused these turnovers.  Take nothing away from them.
IMO, this is why the Eagles have such a good defense:  they don't make the
big play constantly, they do what they did against Dallas.  They give up 
a few yards, Dallas seems to be driving, then BOOM a turnover off a freak
play.  BOOM a turnover off a bad decision by the QB.  The drive is over
and the Eagles have the ball 50 yards away from the end zone.

The Eagles converted a high percentage of third downs on their (short) TD
drives, but they never drove the ball at will (until the game was already
out of hand) and they never went on long, sustained drives to score.  Philly
made their breaks in the first half (or else they could have been down 14-3)
and continued to do so in the second half to build their lead.  By 24-7, the
game was over and the Eagles D knew Dallas had to pass.

The Dallas D got to Cunningham.  He fumbled twice, but Dallas couldn't 
recover.  They sacked him 3-4 times I think and pressured him on other
occasions.  They intercepted him for the first time this year.  But they
got worn down when they couldn't stay off the field in the second half.
Walker ran wild.

I think IF Aikman can overcome the mental block about playing vs. Philly,
the second game will be much closer.  A couple of breaks go Dallas' way and
they could win the next game.  But IF Aikman makes the decisions he made 
in this game, the score will be about the same.  As poorly as they played,
there were still positives for Dallas to focus on:  Dallas still moved the 
ball on O; Philly never sustained a long drive on O (on the few occasions
they had the opportunity to); Dallas return teams played fairly well.  
And all this against what looks for now to be the best team in the league.


Floyd Goodrich
floydg@oakhill.sps.mot.com
Newsgroups: rec.sport.football.pro