Monday Morning Quarterbacking: Dallas Cowboys -- Didn't Even Get Past The Wildcard Game -- A Lot Of Folks Saw This Trainwreck Coming -- January 17, 2022

Jason's take on this. 

Dallas Cowboys. It came down to four things:

• The team. The Cowboys did not show up until the second half, maybe not until the fourth quarter; was there a team leader? Any enthusiasm on the sidelines? Home field advantage?
  
• Zeke: I didn't watch all of the game, but watched a lot of it and watched the highlights. One question: did Zeke Elliott play or was he out, injured? Is he being paid $90 million? I wonder if more bling in his nose would have helped?
  
• The coach: the team was undisciplined: not only a huge amount of penalties but they always came at the worst time possible time; coach reacted like a Cowboys fan, not like a coach
• The quarterback: most noticeable of the four "things": Dak Prescott couldn't pull the trigger; he waited way too long to throw; often didn't throw; compare to:
• that Buccaneers quarterback (I'm blanking on his name): he would throw regardless; he threw to where the receiver was going to be (based on the play called); not to where the player seemed to be heading; players kept their routes; disciplined.
  
• the Chiefs quarterback, Mahomes: his strength -- creative on almost every throw; sidearm; perfect spiral; shuffle pass; long pass; lob; throwing when he was falling; whatever it took
• five TD passes in eleven minutes; fastest any quarterback has ever done that;
• in comparison, Prescott looked like a straight-ahead runner when he didn't throw an incomplete pass;
• play management? Fourteen seconds left and he slides in the middle of the field with no timeouts left? What was he thinking? Had he run to the sideline, they would have had one more "hail Mary" pass; but at least now they can blame the referee (which no one does).

Tony Romo on the loss: link here. 

The good news: the team everyone is talking about on "sports talk" shows this morning: the Dallas Cowboys. 

Jerry Jones back in the limelight. Quick: name the owners of any six other NFL teams. Maybe Jerry Jones should sell the Cowboys and buy the Buccaneers or the Kansas Chiefs if he wants to go to the Super Bowl in his lifetime. 

Word associated with each quarterback:

• Brady: "quickrelease" (by the way, he has the NFL record at 2.17 seconds for "release time" when throwing
• Mahomes; creative
• Presdcott: chokes
• Allen: "anotherBrady?" 

Doofus: new word associated with Dak. Double-downed in voicing support for fans who threw trash at referees at end of game. 

*******************************
Other Playoff News

Buffalo Bills: first team in NFL history fo pitch a "perfect" offensive game. Link here. 

New England Patriots: the team on the other side of the Buffalo Bills story. Meanwhile, the former quarterback for the New England Patriots took his Tampa Bay Buccaneers to a huge (and seemingly easy win).