kskonn
12-20-2006, 04:40 PM
http://www.dallascowboys.com/news.cfm?editorialAuthor=1&id=9D42239F-E54A-F60E-E322515D2D72CDF4
IRVING, Texas - This happens every year, sure. Someone deserving gets left off the Pro Bowl team. Nothing new.
So maybe this should be more about the four Cowboys voted to this year's NFC Pro Bowl team, about how Tony Romo's dream season rolls on, or about how DeMarcus Ware has come of age as a linebacker in the NFL, or about how Aussie punter Mat McBriar is heading back to his collegiate stomping grounds.
Maybe it's all of our faults this has happened. Yeah, all, because you know, you guys get to vote. Says right here in this release you can even text message your votes in, so no excuses. What else do you have to do when you're driving?
And as for myself, maybe this story should have been written last week. Or the week before that. Or even the week before that. Who knows, someone on another team with an actual player vote might have read it. Might have been enlightened if he didn't actually get to see this guy on the field face to face.
But today, well, it's too late, and makes this look like sour grapes.
Well, sorry, but pucker up.
Terence Newman got shafted. Again.
He's the best cornerback I've seen play this year. Best in the NFC, and a case could be made for one of the top two in the NFL. Can you make the All-Pro team without making the Pro Bowl team?
Could. He should.
This is when someone out there starts screaming, this Spagnola guy has flipped his lid. Newman in the Pro Bowl? Ludicrous.
Yeah, I know, Newman has only one interception, and that he has broken up only seven passes.
But you can't pick off what they don't throw your way. You can't bat down what's not there.
Sometimes you got to judge a guy's performance by what you see. This is not a mere connect-the-numbers game. And it shouldn't be a popularity contest.
Just because Roy Williams has five interceptions doesn't mean he's one of the top two strong safeties this year. Good thing they don't keep track of TB's. Times burned.
And this shouldn't be an unpopularity contest either. OK, say what you want about Owens, but come on, he leads the NFL with 11 touchdown receptions. Only two receivers (Donald Driver and Torry Holt) have more receptions than his 77, and only by three. Only two receivers have more third-down receptions than he does (22), and one by only one.
Sorry, I digressed.
I mean, you kidding me, the punk DeAngelo Hall is going to the Pro Bowl? Again?
Hey, OK, I know Owens has burned a lot of corners in his day. A lot. But was that a Pro Bowl performance you saw Saturday night in Atlanta? Come on.
Now of course even Pro Bowl corners are going to get beat, granted. And Owens' 7-yard touchdown grab was as much about a great catch as it was a great throw by Romo.
But to me, Pro Bowl corners don't get lit up on a go-route for a 51-yard touchdown grab without getting more than a lame diving hand on the receiver at the goal line, even if that receiver is Owens, who, by the way, has now gone two consecutive seasons without being named to the Pro Bowl team.
Now I'll not take too much exception with the other two NFC Pro Bowl corners, Tampa Bay's Ronde Barber and Philadelphia's Lito Sheppard. Although . . . Barber plays on the league's 23rd-ranked pass defense and I'm guessing Sheppard earned a trip to Hawaii based mainly on that 102-yard interception gift returned for a touchdown to seal Philly's win over the Cowboys the first time around. He should take Brew Bledsoe along for the ride.
Now I'm not going to blame this all on the fan voting, because those votes weigh in at a third of the decision. But please, DeAngelo Hall finishes in the top 10 of fan voting? And I'm not talking top 10 in the NFC. I'm talking top 10 in the NFL, with 285,931 votes. That's more votes than either of the Bears' Pro Bowl defenders, Tommie Harris or Lance Briggs.
That's more votes than Ed Reed or Shawne Merriman.
Ridiculous.
Here's what I want to know. I want to know how wide receivers in the NFC voted. Make 'em fess up. They are now making the college football writers fess up on how they vote in the polls. They are making the college football coaches fess up on how they vote in their final poll.
Come on receivers, let's see it. Obviously, coaches must know a thing or two about Newman. They are the ones who game plan, right? And if they think he's just another corner, why aren't they torching him with pass attempts? Why aren't they throwing to his side of the field?
And it's not just about blanketing his side, either. Newman is so versatile the Cowboys move him into the slot when they go to their nickel defense. That's one of the toughest positions to play in the NFL. Probably right up there after quarterback.
The receiver gets an either-or release. And if that is not enough to worry about, offenses like to spread defenses out with three wide, get them in their nickel and then run right at the guy in the slot because he normally is 30 to 40 pounds lighter than the linebacker he replaces. In the Cowboys' case, he's 55 pounds lighter.
Newman does that. He does that really well. Evidently, too well.
Now this is not to say Newman has been perfect this season. He hasn't been. He gave up a couple of big throws in the season-opening Jacksonville game. He dropped one sure interception that likely he would have taken to the house. But there hasn't been much more.
Oh yeah, this past Saturday, put down unable to cover Ashley Lelie for 10 seconds, missing by a hair of making a great diving breakup in the end zone after the Falcons wideout had time to run a post, which he stuffed, and then come all the way back across half the field for the catch on the sideline.
But other than that, there hasn't been much to bash.
So here's the deal for next year. I got this idea. T-New, you just got to quit covering guys so well early in the season, and then these offensive coordinators might start attacking your side of the field. Then you can jump 'em.
Or maybe this. Start baiting quarterbacks. See, if you're covering guys so well, you are discouraging quarterbacks from throwing that way. So what you got to do is, only kind of cover guys, make it look like they're open and then use your track-recovery speed to pick the ball off.
Yeah, that's it, play some opossum. Then you'll get some numbers.
Also, quit being so darn nice and polite. Start jabbering out there. Start getting in guys' faces. Start yanking some jerseys after guys catch balls in front of you. Tussle with them. And for goodness sakes, start waving your hands "incomplete" after breaking up a pass.
Sometimes it doesn't pay to just go about your business doing your job.
Oh yeah, and while we're remaking your image, let's intercept some spit now and then, too.
IRVING, Texas - This happens every year, sure. Someone deserving gets left off the Pro Bowl team. Nothing new.
So maybe this should be more about the four Cowboys voted to this year's NFC Pro Bowl team, about how Tony Romo's dream season rolls on, or about how DeMarcus Ware has come of age as a linebacker in the NFL, or about how Aussie punter Mat McBriar is heading back to his collegiate stomping grounds.
Maybe it's all of our faults this has happened. Yeah, all, because you know, you guys get to vote. Says right here in this release you can even text message your votes in, so no excuses. What else do you have to do when you're driving?
And as for myself, maybe this story should have been written last week. Or the week before that. Or even the week before that. Who knows, someone on another team with an actual player vote might have read it. Might have been enlightened if he didn't actually get to see this guy on the field face to face.
But today, well, it's too late, and makes this look like sour grapes.
Well, sorry, but pucker up.
Terence Newman got shafted. Again.
He's the best cornerback I've seen play this year. Best in the NFC, and a case could be made for one of the top two in the NFL. Can you make the All-Pro team without making the Pro Bowl team?
Could. He should.
This is when someone out there starts screaming, this Spagnola guy has flipped his lid. Newman in the Pro Bowl? Ludicrous.
Yeah, I know, Newman has only one interception, and that he has broken up only seven passes.
But you can't pick off what they don't throw your way. You can't bat down what's not there.
Sometimes you got to judge a guy's performance by what you see. This is not a mere connect-the-numbers game. And it shouldn't be a popularity contest.
Just because Roy Williams has five interceptions doesn't mean he's one of the top two strong safeties this year. Good thing they don't keep track of TB's. Times burned.
And this shouldn't be an unpopularity contest either. OK, say what you want about Owens, but come on, he leads the NFL with 11 touchdown receptions. Only two receivers (Donald Driver and Torry Holt) have more receptions than his 77, and only by three. Only two receivers have more third-down receptions than he does (22), and one by only one.
Sorry, I digressed.
I mean, you kidding me, the punk DeAngelo Hall is going to the Pro Bowl? Again?
Hey, OK, I know Owens has burned a lot of corners in his day. A lot. But was that a Pro Bowl performance you saw Saturday night in Atlanta? Come on.
Now of course even Pro Bowl corners are going to get beat, granted. And Owens' 7-yard touchdown grab was as much about a great catch as it was a great throw by Romo.
But to me, Pro Bowl corners don't get lit up on a go-route for a 51-yard touchdown grab without getting more than a lame diving hand on the receiver at the goal line, even if that receiver is Owens, who, by the way, has now gone two consecutive seasons without being named to the Pro Bowl team.
Now I'll not take too much exception with the other two NFC Pro Bowl corners, Tampa Bay's Ronde Barber and Philadelphia's Lito Sheppard. Although . . . Barber plays on the league's 23rd-ranked pass defense and I'm guessing Sheppard earned a trip to Hawaii based mainly on that 102-yard interception gift returned for a touchdown to seal Philly's win over the Cowboys the first time around. He should take Brew Bledsoe along for the ride.
Now I'm not going to blame this all on the fan voting, because those votes weigh in at a third of the decision. But please, DeAngelo Hall finishes in the top 10 of fan voting? And I'm not talking top 10 in the NFC. I'm talking top 10 in the NFL, with 285,931 votes. That's more votes than either of the Bears' Pro Bowl defenders, Tommie Harris or Lance Briggs.
That's more votes than Ed Reed or Shawne Merriman.
Ridiculous.
Here's what I want to know. I want to know how wide receivers in the NFC voted. Make 'em fess up. They are now making the college football writers fess up on how they vote in the polls. They are making the college football coaches fess up on how they vote in their final poll.
Come on receivers, let's see it. Obviously, coaches must know a thing or two about Newman. They are the ones who game plan, right? And if they think he's just another corner, why aren't they torching him with pass attempts? Why aren't they throwing to his side of the field?
And it's not just about blanketing his side, either. Newman is so versatile the Cowboys move him into the slot when they go to their nickel defense. That's one of the toughest positions to play in the NFL. Probably right up there after quarterback.
The receiver gets an either-or release. And if that is not enough to worry about, offenses like to spread defenses out with three wide, get them in their nickel and then run right at the guy in the slot because he normally is 30 to 40 pounds lighter than the linebacker he replaces. In the Cowboys' case, he's 55 pounds lighter.
Newman does that. He does that really well. Evidently, too well.
Now this is not to say Newman has been perfect this season. He hasn't been. He gave up a couple of big throws in the season-opening Jacksonville game. He dropped one sure interception that likely he would have taken to the house. But there hasn't been much more.
Oh yeah, this past Saturday, put down unable to cover Ashley Lelie for 10 seconds, missing by a hair of making a great diving breakup in the end zone after the Falcons wideout had time to run a post, which he stuffed, and then come all the way back across half the field for the catch on the sideline.
But other than that, there hasn't been much to bash.
So here's the deal for next year. I got this idea. T-New, you just got to quit covering guys so well early in the season, and then these offensive coordinators might start attacking your side of the field. Then you can jump 'em.
Or maybe this. Start baiting quarterbacks. See, if you're covering guys so well, you are discouraging quarterbacks from throwing that way. So what you got to do is, only kind of cover guys, make it look like they're open and then use your track-recovery speed to pick the ball off.
Yeah, that's it, play some opossum. Then you'll get some numbers.
Also, quit being so darn nice and polite. Start jabbering out there. Start getting in guys' faces. Start yanking some jerseys after guys catch balls in front of you. Tussle with them. And for goodness sakes, start waving your hands "incomplete" after breaking up a pass.
Sometimes it doesn't pay to just go about your business doing your job.
Oh yeah, and while we're remaking your image, let's intercept some spit now and then, too.