HH: Tony Romo is gaining a reputation for not being able to win the big games from college, with Dallas, and now golf. Is anyone internally to the Cowboys in panic mode yet?

How many college games did you watch from Eastern Illinois? I have watched zero and while you can look at a box score, it doesn’t tell you if he was under severe pressure when he threw that incompletion/interception.

And in Dallas, sure the Seattle playoff game hurt. But there was a ton of questions in that game. We were playing against CB’s off the street and our WR’s (Owens, Glenn, Crayton) couldn’t shake free. Glenn fumbled and the ball went into the endzone for a safety (easily could have been a TD), and what was the margin of victory for Seattle?

I previously wrote this in response to the Giant playoff game:

Giants v. Cowboys 2008: Romo gets too much blame. In the game, he held the ball once too long and that lead to a sack when he could have easily have thrown the ball out of bounds, and then he threw the ball away while in the pocket and Barber wasn’t close enough to the overthrown ball for it not to be called grounding. That’s it, 2 mistakes. Technically 1 since Barber should have been in a different location.

The defense giving up a 70 yard drive in 47 second to include Jaque Reeves playing 10 yards off the ball, to the 15 yard penalty on a face mask during that drive, and piss pot poor tackling of Amani Toomer for a TD, and again on a punt return by 2 special teamers to set up the Giants in great field position, to Leonard davis hitting strahan while he was on the ground for a 15 yard penalty, to crayton dropping a first down ball at minimum and possible TD, to crayton easing up on a 3rd down play in the endzone at the end of the game, to an illlegle formation play that negated a first down, to ineffective blocking that constantly had Tony Romo running away from 3 blockers when the defense sends 6 and there are 6 blockers.

The Cowboys didn’t deserve to win because they played poorly, but it wasn’t Romo’s fault. For anyone to say it was, is just completely assinine.

As for the decline in December… it is a bit disheartening, but the entire team has relaxed and gotten worse. I’m more concerned that it has more to do with coaching than it does with Romo. The Coaching staff needs to stoke their fire so they are hitting on all cylinders at the end of the season. It doesn’t seem like that is happening.

HH: Wade Phillips is a defensive-minded coach, yet the defense seemed to really under-achieve last year given the considerable talent. What do you anticipate his impact on your defense will be this year, and how will you be better than last year?

Defensively we were much improved. If I were to have a complaint, it’s that the defense isn’t very nasty. When Ware gets a sack, it feels like he is giving a hug to his child. Sure it goes down as a sack, but I don’t think the QB’s have fear of the big hit.

I can’t say there are any upgrades on the defensive side of the ball, but they are younger at CB, and have more experience (with the scheme) with Igor at DT and Brooking at LB.

HH: Was anyone unhappy with Roy Williams’ departure? Who will step up to provide coverage skills from the safety position?

Not really, Roy was a shell of himself the last few years. He was still getting the horse collar tackle penalties, he wasn’t wrapping up with his tackles and just lunging his body at people hoping to knock them down. He was a liability in pass defense, and even 2 years ago was only a 2 down player. We all liked Roy, but he was on the decline for quite a while. Very disheartening.

HH: How are ticket sales going for the new stadium? Would we expect to see a lot of empty seats like at Yankees games because of such high prices and the terrible economy?

No idea. But I think the really expensive tickets are behind closed doors, and so it won’t be so ridiculously obvious as when you watch Yankee games.

HH: With the loss of Chris Canty, who will be filling his shoes and is their a drop-off at that position?

Ditto on what was said earlier. Igor is a solid run stopper, and Canty wasn’t a force in the pass rush. There are no memorable plays by him where he swat and swam the first blocker, did a spin move on the 2nd and then made a crushing sack on the QB. He was quite unmemorable.

HH: Are there any names from the 2009 draft that will make a big splash for your team this year?

Nope. It doesn’t mean that 3 or 4 of the people drafted could become starters, and another 3 or 4 become very valuable contributors, but right now, there is very little excitement regarding the draft class. I do like Beuhler. I’m hoping he will play special teams, and become the iconic special teams player that Bill Bates was. I’m intrigued by Mickens, CB, that we drafted in the 7th round, but the question is, why did he make it all the way down the the 7th? And Jason Williams… I hear the Patriots were interested in him and they are a smart organization so maybe he will be good, maybe.

But 12 picks and no excitement… I guess that’s better than what Redskins fans have to go through every year where they have 3 picks and only some excitement.

It’s like in Madden when you already have a Billion dollars in the bank and you decide to build a new stadium and you put every damn available option on it, to include the spinners on the goal post. I’m very grateful it’s Jerry’s money and not mine. Sure Arlington is having to pay some extra taxes, and some luxury boxes are ridiculously expensive, and maybe jerseys will be sold for 3 bucks more per… I probably lost my point 1/2 way through that. Oh well, I suppose I just may buy my next sars infested jersey from China.

jdramirez, your comments are so long ha
I would write a reply so some of it but I’m just feeling a little bit lazy today