Friday, December 15, 2006

Last Day before Vacation

Well, it is the last official blog day until Christmas. I will be back December 26th on the blog, and back December 27th on the air after today. Otherwise, I will continue Cowboys duty (so expect some post game Cowboys notes Sunday here) and that will be all.

Handling the blog duties will be the capable Ty Walker. So expect more pictures, and perhaps some Christmas bikinis from him.

Will Romo bounce back?


the Cowboys will learn what Romo is made of Saturday at Atlanta.

The first six weeks of Romo's tenure were nothing short of spectacular. He was hyped for the Pro Bowl in leading the Cowboys to four straight wins. He tied a franchise record with five touchdown passes on Thanksgiving Day against Tampa Bay.

In the last two games, against the New York Giants and New Orleans, Romo has been intercepted four times and has thrown only one touchdown pass. His passer rating for the last two games was 58.1 and 58.8.

As opposing coaches see more of Romo, the more tendencies they will pick up – but Parcells, Romo and tight end Jason Witten don't believe the quarterback has been figured out.

"Different defensive coordinators see different things when they watch the film," Romo said. "It's not one play we run or one thing we do you're going to be able to take away."

On Monday, Parcells attempted to deflect attention away from Romo.

"I'm anxious to see how we respond," Parcells said about the team as a whole. "We are at a critical time of the season."


Trying to replace Greg Ellis has not worked


The Cowboys haven't come close to filling the pass-rushing void left by Greg Ellis' season-ending injury.

Ellis still ranks second on the team with 4.5 sacks. He tore his left Achilles' tendon Nov. 12 against Arizona.

Al Singleton and Bobby Carpenter haven't recorded a sack or quarterback pressure since replacing Ellis at outside linebacker four games ago. Jason Hatcher, who has assumed Ellis' role of third-down defensive end, has one sack and three pressures in that span.

"You lose one of your best pressure players, you're not just going to roll out there and replace him," Cowboys coach Bill Parcells said. "We haven't done that."
Said owner and general manager Jerry Jones: "It was quite a blow for our defense. But you would have thought that's where we had our depth, at linebackers."

Don't expect to see any personnel changes to address the problem. Parcells said he doesn't have any other options to replace Ellis. In their four games without Ellis, the Cowboys have only four sacks. Atlanta has allowed 35 sacks this season, ninth most in the league.

"It's on a lot of guys to get some pressure on the quarterback," linebacker Bradie James said. "But we said it when Greg went down: His presence would be missed."


Roy Williams says the pass coverage is fine …ok, dude.


Cowboys Pro Bowl safety Roy Williams said he doesn't hear the criticism about his coverage skills.

But Williams does remain hyper-sensitive to questions that he and the secondary have struggled in coverage. The Cowboys' secondary was picked apart Sunday by New Orleans quarterback Drew Brees, who threw for 384 yards and five touchdowns.
The Cowboys' pass defense fell to 19th in the league and is giving up 212 yards per game.

"I think we've done all right in coverage," said Williams, who has a team-high five interceptions. "Everybody is not going to have a perfect game. Stop making it seem like everybody is perfect. Just because it happened last week doesn't mean we've had horrible coverage the whole season. Get over it. Yeah, we didn't perform like we wanted to, and this week is another week and we can try to make up for last week."


In Atlanta, They are worried about Cowboys fans taking over the Georgia Dome


The Falcons have a big game with playoff implications.

The last thing they want is for the Georgia Dome to be converted into another Texas Stadium with a massive influx of Dallas Cowboys fans for Saturday night's game.
"We can't have that this weekend," Falcons linebacker Ike Reese said. "The Cowboys have a good following, just like Pittsburgh."

Against the Steelers on Oct. 22, a significant portion of the Georgia Dome was filled with Terrible Towel-waving Pittsburgh fans.

"We are calling on all of our fans to not sell their tickets to Cowboys visitors, coming here from out of town looking for tickets," Reese said. "We need all of the Falcon fans in the stadium that we can get because we need this thing rockin' Saturday night. We need that playoff atmosphere."


I got the Cowboys bouncing back 27-17...if you care.

Another frustrating game for the Dallas Stars, As the Rangers and Henrik Lundqvist won’t give in



Having decided at the beginning of the month that his goaltenders would split the first two games of this road trip, Tom Renney picked Dallas for Henrik Lundqvist because the Stars had never seen him before.

Pardon them if they never want to see him again.

The Rangers' again-sensational sophomore simply stole a game from the Stars last night at the American Airlines Center. Stopping a career-high 43 shots, Lundqvist got the Rangers a 5-2 victory that sends them to tomorrow night's trip closer in Toronto on a five-game winning streak.

Center Matt Cullen, who did everything but score for 17 straight games, now almost can't help but put the puck in the net. Cullen scored his second and third goals in two games - neither a highlight-reel candidate - to turn a 1-1game into a 3-1 Rangers lead early in the third.

And defenseman Karel Rachunek, who had another profoundly troubled game in his own end, scored his first two goals of the season - shorthanded and on a power play - as the Rangers overcame 11 minor penalties. Lundqvist was the reason.

"Oh my God! You know what, he kept us in the game," defenseman Darius Kasparaitis said.

"That was like Triple-A-plus," Rangers coach Tom Renney said when asked to grade Lundqvist's work. "That's All-Star goaltending. That's MVP goaltending. That's Stanley Cup goaltending. That's everything."

And on this night, it was even more special. Because, for the first time in their lives, Henrik and identical twin brother Joel opposed one another in an organized hockey game.

Just called up from the minors, Joel Lundqvist played just 5:44. But while he was fending off wave after wave of Dallas attacks, the normally oblivious-to-the-opposition Henrik monitored every second.

"Every time he was on the ice, I was extra nervous, actually," said Henrik, the elder by two periods (40 minutes). "It was a very special feeling - an amazing feeling to get this chance. Just thinking about it makes me very happy.

"It's funny, I never see players out there during the game. But always, my brother, I could see him. I mean, growing up we played together. I was concentrating on the puck, but every time he was on the ice, I'd just see him."


ESPN Radio, wondering why they aren’t winning decide to ban their people from appearing with the enemy ….what will we do with no Trey Wingo interviews???


ESPN sent down an internal directive this week that bans any of its on-air personnel from appearing as a guest on WFAN, The Post has learned.

As part of a larger memo that impacts its owned and operated stations in New York, Chicago, Los Angeles, Pittsburgh and Dallas, ESPN is preventing its analysts from appearing on non-ESPN radio stations in those markets.

This means that guests such as Peter Gammons or Kirk Herbstreit will have to go against company policy if they want to appear on FAN.

"It makes good business sense that ESPN should be the home of ESPN talent,'' ESPN spokesman Dan Quinn said.


Speaking of ESPN Radio, Here is this week’s Unintentional Comedy V-Cast …Amazing.

Liverpool draws Barcelona …yikes…


Three of the four English teams left in the tournament were today given handsome rewards for topping their groups in the last round when the Champions League draw pitted them against opposition they will expect to beat. The unlucky club were Liverpool, who will face reigning champions Barcelona.

Manchester United will take on rank outsiders Lille, Arsenal will face PSV Eindhoven, who finished behind Liverpool in the group stages, and Jose Mourinho will have another reunion with the club he sensationally guided to the title in 2004 as Chelsea were paired with Porto. Celtic's prize for reaching the last 16 of the competition in its current format for the first time was a mouthwatering tie with six-times winners AC Milan. Elsewhere, Roma will meet Lyon and Bayern Munich must overcome Real Madrid.


Christmas Vacation Lights




Michael Vick tribute




Make Gretzky’s head bleed – language warning

7 comments:

KeeperOfBooks34 said...

Obviously Lee Corso has carried the BAD Radio curse to the entire ESPN network.

CFB123 said...

Thank God that ESPN didn't have this policy in place a couple of years ago, or we wouldn't have that Lee Corso moment to savor. Geez, could ESPN suck any more than it already does???

BACM said...

All Hail the Powerdown. Can't wait for the blog next week maybe I can get fired for looking at it.

TPorter2 said...

Merry Christmas, Bob! And thanks for leaving us in the capable hands of one Ty Walker...

Gregn said...

I like how in the Vic vid, during the video game part, not once does Atlanta have a lead. I guess the guy can make Vic run, but can't play defense.

Phil K. said...

A lot of funny people here at The Ticket; Ty Walker is not one of them.

Gravypan said...

So when will those Cowboy game notes be coming down?

At 11:59 tonight?gr