NFL 2015

There was a study that showed kickers actually hit a higher percentage after a timeout. It makes sense. They have more time to get their barrings and position themselves on the field. Furthermore, a professional kicker isn't gonna pscyhe himself out at the end of the first half. There's no advantage to calling the timeout.
 
I agree, the anxiety is way higher when you're rushed out there immediately after a play. When you call a TO you allow the kicker to manage all the factors on the field

What I don't understand is why teams don't try different strategies and alignments to block the kick or at least move around frantically to distract him
 
That was probably the most horribly officiated game I've ever watched. The refs just handed the game to Tampa all game long, even though they tried to hand it back.
 
That Eagles game is the sort of ineptitude that makes me wonder why I bother to care. Losing by one point with a missed 32 yard field goal and Sanchez doing typical Sanchez things and throwing a horrible interception in the redzone when we're down by 1. Of course, right when Bradford looks good for several games in a row, he gets hurt. Hopefully it's not too serious. I'll take the averageness of Bradford over Sanchez brainfarts any day.

The Cowboys are probably better off. At least they'll get a good pick. All the Eagles will get is an 8-8 record and either will miss out on the playoffs by a game, or lose to the Cards/Seahawks in round one. Can't wait.
 
Dallas really needs to sit Romo but they won't. Dallas will go 7-9 and get a middling pick.

Talking about the not caring thing: It's the officiating to me. Absolutely no consistency in interpretation or implementation. Don't know what a catch is anymore, won't call absolutely blatant holding, will call minimal contact DPI/DH and then not flag a mugging. Won't call obvious pick plays on teams that run them constantly, but will then flag incidental contact as OPI. More and more late flags. It's getting really hard to not suspect rigging in the NFL.
 
You think the Cowboys are going 5-2 down the stretch? Even with Romo, that's highly unlikely. It's not like the offense was on a tear in weeks 1 and 2 and now most the players have probably given up.
 
You think the Cowboys are going 5-2 down the stretch? Even with Romo, that's highly unlikely. It's not like the offense was on a tear in weeks 1 and 2 and now most the players have probably given up.

Dallas has barely lost every one of those games except for the Patriots game, and Weeden and Cassel are the primary reason for the losses in pretty much every game but the Atlanta game. Even in midseason form offenses can look bad against division rivals, I wouldn't put much stock in Week 1 and 2 other than to point out they won those close games instead of lost them with much more competent QBing for 6 of the 8 quarters.
 
They still have the Panthers, Packers, Jets, and Bills left, plus the Racists twice and Giants. Nobody worse than 4-5 left on the schedule. Only the biggest homer would think they're gonna go 5-2 in that stretch. That said, I hope you're right. 7-9 would be the perfect record.
 
They still have the Panthers, Packers, Jets, and Bills left, plus the Racists twice and Giants. Nobody worse than 4-5 left on the schedule. Only the biggest homer would think they're gonna go 5-2 in that stretch. That said, I hope you're right. 7-9 would be the perfect record.

They don't play the Giants again, and you don't know what you're going to get vs the Pack/Jets/Bills from week to week right now. Figure to split with Washington. The defense has played really well overall with no offensive help and getting screwed by the refereeing week in and week out. They have had issues late in games but that happens when your offense keeps going 3 and out or 6 and out.
 
They don't play the Giants again, and you don't know what you're going to get vs the Pack/Jets/Bills from week to week right now. Figure to split with Washington. The defense has played really well overall with no offensive help and getting screwed by the refereeing week in and week out. They have had issues late in games but that happens when your offense keeps going 3 and out or 6 and out.

:rolleyes: I'm so tired of hearing you make excuses for the Cowboys. It's always the refs or injuries. Like you're the only team to ever lose a key player or have a call go the other way. Heck, the Cowboys got numerous generous calls in the Eagles game and still lost. I'm sure you didn't notice those calls though, due to selection bias.

And yeah the Bills, Jets and Pack are inconsistent, but banking on catching them all on a bad day is being very optimistic.
 
:rolleyes: I'm so tired of hearing you make excuses for the Cowboys. It's always the refs or injuries. Like you're the only team to ever lose a key player or have a call go the other way. Heck, the Cowboys got numerous generous calls in the Eagles game and still lost. I'm sure you didn't notice those calls though, due to selection bias.

Dallas did get some questionable DPI/DH calls on the Eagles secondary, but it makes up for all the blatant holding the Eagles front 7/oline were engaging in that even an idiot like Collinsworth was commenting on (of course, only to gush over it). How about the play on the end of the game where the defender covering Jason Witten just tackled him at the snap?

It's not like Dallas has played well consistently on either side of the ball the entire season, but losing the league leader in passing from the previous year, and league leader in rec TDs for the previous few seasons, etc plays a part.

I didn't say anything only happens to Dallas, but I'm not going to get into the details on bad officiating in other games (which is there) because I'm not microanalyzing other teams/games. Poor officiating is a league wide phenomena, but Dallas is one of the most penalized teams in the last decade at least, while the Patriots are one of the least. Guess who wins more games. You can say that's just a correlation of playing better/worse football, but the Jaguars, Dolphins, and Bills are also some of the least penalized teams.

There's a lot of talk of a Northeast bias in officiating and Eagles excluded, there's some support for it when you look at the numbers. Jaguars are a struggling market team, so throw that in there.
 
Dallas did get some questionable DPI/DH calls on the Eagles secondary, but it makes up for all the blatant holding the Eagles front 7/oline were engaging in that even an idiot like Collinsworth was commenting on (of course, only to gush over it). How about the play on the end of the game where the defender covering Jason Witten just tackled him at the snap?

That was definitely a penalty, and it was called as such.

It's not like Dallas has played well consistently on either side of the ball the entire season, but losing the league leader in passing from the previous year, and league leader in rec TDs for the previous few seasons, etc plays a part.

That's the boom/bust structure Jones has chosen in his team design. When you have a few players making a ton of money, you have less depth. So, if those players go down, you're more vunerable.

I didn't say anything only happens to Dallas, but I'm not going to get into the details on bad officiating in other games (which is there) because I'm not microanalyzing other teams/games. Poor officiating is a league wide phenomena, but Dallas is one of the most penalized teams in the last decade at least, while the Patriots are one of the least. Guess who wins more games. You can say that's just a correlation of playing better/worse football, but the Jaguars, Dolphins, and Bills are also some of the least penalized teams.

Maybe it has to do with Bill Belichick being one of the greatest coaches of all time, while Jason Garrett is a middle of the road coach. If you're suggesting that the league intentionally sabotages thier most lucrative team... well I think that idea speaks for itself.
 
That was definitely a penalty, and it was called as such.

But why even do that unless you think you might get away with it? It's not even remotely a "smart penalty".

That's the boom/bust structure Jones has chosen in his team design. When you have a few players making a ton of money, you have less depth. So, if those players go down, you're more vunerable.

Maybe it has to do with Bill Belichick being one of the greatest coaches of all time, while Jason Garrett is a middle of the road coach. If you're suggesting that the league intentionally sabotages thier most lucrative team... well I think that idea speaks for itself.

The league and Jerry Jones have been at odds almost since he became an owner. The league does not like that the Cowboys are the most lucrative team, especially since a lot of that money is outside the hands of the NFL.

Jerry should have hired a GM a long time ago (eg, Year 1), but overpaying players hasn't been a problem since Garrett became head coach (Miles Austin contract excluded). Dallas is actually in the best cap position they have been in probably since the cap era began, and is signing FAs to economical 1-2 year deals. Of course, that's all Stephen Jones' doing. If there's anything Jerry loves close to as much as making money, it's spending it.

I'll agree with you that BB is head and shoulders over the other coaches of his era, and that Garrett has quite a ways to go.