Panic in Dallas and other NFL thoughts

(1) It is lucky that the Dallas Metroplex is huge, which presumably means that there are lots of mental health professionals, because the Dallas Cowboys and their fans are officially on suicide watch. In a season where there was so much talk about the Cowboys becoming the first team to make a Super Bowl in their home stadium, it appears that their once promising season is coming unraveled. After losing to the Chicago Bears 27-20 on Sunday, the Cowboys have started 0-2 for the first time since 2001. Unlike 2001, when Dallas was making the transition from Troy Aikman to Quincy Carter, this year’s Cowboys have an established, Pro Bowl quarterback and several other established playmakers. This group of Cowboys seems to have oodles of talent, but they lack the intangible qualities that championship teams possess and they always seem to be at a coaching disadvantage.

The first problem that seems to plague Dallas is their general lack of discipline. They committed six penalties on Sunday and have been flagged 18 times total in two games. Last week against the Washington, several obvious holding calls against right tackle Alex Barron killed their offensive momentum and this week two bone-headed roughing-the-passer penalties helped keep the Bears’ offense on the field. In addition to their problems on the field, it appears that their off the field discipline is coming apart at the seams as well. In the week leading up to this week’s game, there were a couple of incidents in the Cowboys’ locker room that demonstrated a lack of professionalism and a general disrespect for coaches. Also, Terence Newman intimated that the Dallas players are not taking care of the little things in practice and may not be preparing with the necessary level of intensity. Newman was careful to not blame the coaching staff, but I think that the Cowboys have huge problems with their coaches.

As I have said on numerous occasions, I believe that Wade Phillips is better suited to be someone’s grandfather than to be a head football coach in the National Football League. He has had one too many senior moments on the sidelines, which probably explains why the Cowboys pee all over themselves in big moments. Last week, he failed to call off the Hail Mary play at the end of the first half because he was probably too occupied thinking about whether or not to order the early bird special at dinner. As a result, the Cowboys ran one of the most ill-conceived plays in the history of professional football, which turned out to be the difference in the game. The Cowboys will never win anything of significance with Phillips as their head coach. Unfortunately, I don’t think he is the biggest issue on the coaching staff. I believe that high priced offensive coordinator Jason Garrett is the major reason why the Cowboys have failed to live up to their talent level. I honestly believe that he is in way over his head. At one point in time, Garrett was the hottest assistant coach that money could buy until he interviewed for his first head coaching position. Once got his chance to talk with other owners and general managers, it became clear that his lofty reputation had been manufactured out of thin air and no one wanted him as their head coach any longer. Of course, Jerry Jones is way too egotistical to admit a mistake, so he paid Garrett big bucks to serve as his offensive coordinator/head coach-in-waiting/resident genius. The problem, as many front office people had recently learned, is that Garrett wouldn’t know a quality game plan if it fell in his lap. He has no concept of balance despite the fact that he has a solid trio of running backs. He too often abandons the running game like he did against the Bears in favor of allowing Tony Romo to throw the ball down after down. Despite the return of Marc Colombo and Kyle Kosier, the Cowboys ran the ball only 20 times the entire game and gave the ball to Marion Barber only four times in the last three quarters. Instead, Romo threw the ball 51 times and the Cowboys only scored one offensive touchdown. Garrett called passing plays like his team was down two scores for most of the game. In reality, the Cowboys had a four point lead midway through the second quarter and never trailed by more than six points until late in the fourth quarter.

In the end, the Cowboys are in big trouble with a road trip to Houston staring them in the face. Since 1990, only 13 percent of NFL teams that have started 0-2 have made the playoffs. In the past two years, 19 teams have started 0-2 and only three made the playoffs: Miami, Minnesota and San Diego. Fans in search of a silver lining might point to the 1993 club that started 0-2 and finished as Super Bowl champs, but that team was coming off a title and played the first two games without Emmitt Smith. This team has to dig themselves out of a hole the size of Texas while also solving their discipline woes and improving their game plans.

(2) Another fan base that is probably wringing their hands today is the fans of the Minnesota Vikings. The Vikings were a couple of plays from making the Super Bowl last season and their 2010 title aspirations received a huge boost when Brett Favre decided to return for his 20th season. After two disappointing losses to start the year, it appears that the Good Ship Brett Favre has lost a significant amount of its magic and is probably going to drag down a once promising campaign. Favre just looks old and tired. I saw some video of him entering the Metrodome prior to yesterday’s game and he could barely walk into the locker room. It looked like it was consuming all of his energy just to make it down the tunnel. Frankly, he looked like he was in pain, which is not a good sign when the second game of the season had not even started yet. I believe we are finally seeing the wheels come off for Favre. His short training camp is catching up with him. The beating that he took at the hands of the New Orleans Saints is catching up to him. The lack of rhythm that has developed between him and his primary receivers is catching up to him. For God’s sake, Father Time is catching up with him.

He didn’t play particularly well last week against the Saints, but he saved his worst performance as a Viking for the game against the Dolphins. Favre turned the ball over four times, including three back-breaking interceptions, and posted 44.3 QB rating, which was his lowest as a Viking. Last season, Favre fell into the perfect situation and he made the absolute best of it. He threw 33 touchdowns and only seven interceptions while enjoying the benefits of having the best running back he had ever played with and a stable of pass catchers that were pushed to new heights using Favre’s infectious style of play as inspiration. Sidney Rice became a Pro Bowl receiver, Visanthe Shiancoe developed into an elite tight end and Percy Harvin won the Rookie of the Year award. It was all gum drops, lollipops and bubble gum. This year has felt more like the entire team swallowing a bag full of Sour Patch Kids. The rhythm just isn’t there. The enthusiasm just isn’t there. The execution just isn’t there. The Vikings failed to convert on a fourth-and-one at the goal line and Favre threw two red zone interceptions, which effectively sealed the deal. The Dolphins made so many big plays that I feared the Metrodome roof would cave in due to all the air being sucked out of the building. The only things that can save Minnesota, in my opinion, are to focus even more on Adrian Peterson and simplify the passing attack to limit Favre’s mistakes. We might all be witnessing Favre hit the wall that all great athletes hit, so the Vikings need to mitigate their risk and try to win games on the strength of their running game and defense.

(3) I think that folks are definitely panicking in Dallas and Minnesota, but what is the feeling like in towns like Baltimore and Phoenix, where the home team is 1-1 after two weeks of the NFL season. Frankly, I would be feeling a lot better if I was a fan of the Ravens as opposed to the Cardinals. True the Ravens offense is sputtering to put it mildly, but their defense has served notice that they should not be left out of the discussion regarding the best units in the game. After throttling the New York Jets last week, the Ravens limited the Bengals to only 253 total yards and forced Carson Palmer to complete less than 50% of his attempts. The Ravens have been dominating despite the fact that they are missing Ed Reed and they have had other injury issues in the defensive backfield. The problem with the Ravens right now is the severe lack of productivity coming from their offense. They have scored 10 points in back-to-back weeks and it appears that their attempts to energize the offense have failed miserably so far. In his third year, Joe Flacco was supposed to take his game to new levels with the help of offseason additions Anquan Boldin and Donte Stallworth and preseason addition T.J. Houshmandzadeh. Instead, it looks like Flacco has taken a Paul Bunyon-size step backwards. Last week, Flacco completed just a shade over 50% of his attempts and posted a 62.2 QB rating against the tough Jets’ defense. Overall, the Ravens punted the ball six times and only produced two solid drives the entire game. Flash forward to this week and things only got worse for Joltin Joe Flacco. He completed less than 50% of his attempts and posted a horrific 23.8 QB rating, which is probably a good number for the number two scoring option on an NBA team but is terrible for an NFL starting quarterback. The worst part is that Flacco killed four possessions with interceptions. The only reason that I’m encouraged about Baltimore is that they nearly won two games on the strength of the defense alone. Flacco is going to play better because he can’t play much worse than he did against Cincinnati. I still think they are a playoff team and they are certainly built to survive the rigors of the rough and tumble AFC North.

I can’t say that I’m quite as encouraged about the Arizona Cardinals. The Cardinals sleep-walked through last week’s game against the St. Louis Rams and then got absolutely waxed by the Atlanta Falcons this week. This game was a rude awakening for the Cardinals, further proof that we didn’t learn anything about them from their opening day victory over the Rams. The Arizona defense did a pretty good job of confounding a rookie quarterback, but they were far from dominating versus St. Louis. There also remained a ton of questions about Derek Anderson after his week one performance. On the positive side, Anderson threw for nearly 300 yards. On the negative side, he barely completed 50% of his attempts and the Cardinals offense went long stretches where they were unable to move the ball consistently. Overall, their effort could be best described as disjointed as they put the ball on the ground seven times, losing four fumbles, and they punted six times. The only thing that saved them last week was that they were facing an inexperienced signal-caller. This week, there wasn’t much of anything that could be considered positive. First of all, Anderson took a step back with a largely inefficient performance that featured two interceptions and only 161 yards passing. I’m not sure whether they had anything with Matt Leinart, but it is a huge indictment on his ability to play if Anderson was truly their best option. The more that I see of Anderson, the more that I believe his big season in Cleveland was just an aberration. Secondly, their defense got absolutely steamrolled by the Falcons. The Cardinals allowed touchdown drives of 70 yards, 72 yards, 78 yards and 80 yards. The Falcons had five drives of eight or more plays and held the ball nearly 40 minutes. Atlanta ran a mind-blowing 30 more plays than the Cardinals thanks in large part to their 64% conversion rate on third down. Finally, the Cardinals made way too many mistakes to win the game. In addition to their three turnovers, Arizona committed 10 penalties, which repeatedly killed any momentum. Their inability to get out of their own way even wiped out a 98-yard kickoff return by LaRod Stephens-Howling, when Darnell Dockett was whistled for a holding penalty. I think it is pretty clear that the Cardinals are not a good team and their brief stay at the top of the NFC West is over.