Wednesday, November 17, 2010

Targets - Game 9 - New York

As amazingly poor as the passing game was in Game #8, Game #9 was amazingly perfect. Hard to say anything but nice things about Jon Kitna - a guy who might have been a few games from giving way to Stephen McGee if he didn't put up a performance like that very soon. But, with plenty of help from Dez Bryant, Kitna engineered a very precise performance from the offense and the results of hitting on a number of big throws was arguably the best performance of the offense in 2010.

The development of Dez Bryant is off the charts. For a guy to miss every single preseason game and then to be the #1 threat on your offense as a rookie by mid-November is a testament to his talent level, hard work, and development. We are starting to see the Cowboys actively look for him in many situations, and it sure looks like Jon Kitna would rather throw it to him than anyone else on the offense - including Miles Austin.

Here are the numbers for Game 9:

Target Distribution: - Game 9 at New York
NameTargetsCatchesYardsFD/TD/INTQB Rating
Austin32681/1/0149.3
Bryant531042/1/1104.1
Witten2170/0/058.3
Williams22331/0/0118.7
Jones33851/1/0158.3
Barber0000/0/00
Choice0000/0/00
Bennett21321/0/095.8
Gronkowski2000/0/039.5
Ogletree0000/0/00
Hurd0000/0/00
Totals22133276/3/1124.1


Maybe the story of the game on offense was the Cowboys hitting on 2 very long 3rd down situations. 3rd and 10 to Feliz Jones for 71 yards and then the real back breaker was a 3rd and 22 conversion to Roy Williams on a superb throw down the sideline for 27 yards. A few conversions like that and everything looks better.

3RD/4TH Down Targets - Week 9 at New York
NameTargetsCatchesYardsFD/TD/INTQB Rating
Austin0000/0/00
Bryant1000/0/10
Jones21710/1/0135.4
Williams11271/0/0118.7
Witten2170/0/058.3
Totals631051/1/1135.4


And now your season numbers, where we see that Dez Bryant is closing in on the team lead in all categories that he already doesn't lead in. I suppose we could be really happy with his pace, or we could point out that Miles Austin has slowed to a trickle without Tony Romo and that Roy Williams has also dropped his pace to a typical Patrick Crayton season.

Target Distribution - Season To Date
NameTargetsCatchesYardsFD/TD/INTQB Rating
Austin754772530/3/485.7
Witten694651318/3/384.9
Bryant594153819/5/1119.1
Williams432537412/5/3118.7
Jones30272436/1/197.6
Barber107280/0/072.9
Choice97322/0/081.4
Bennett27181557/0/250.6
Ogletree1000/0/039.5
Hurd74333/0/069.3
Gronkowski6290/0/042.3
Totals347230267099/18/1489.8


3RD/4TH Down Targets - Season To Date
NameTargetsCatchesYardsFD/TD/INTQB Rating
Austin211727711/1/0134.6
Bryant21151978/3/1120.4
Williams1061105/1/0131.2
Witten2091154/0/323.9
Bennett2270/0/081.3
Choice43191/0/084.4
Jones44810/1/0158.3
Barber33220/0/097.2
Hurd32192/0/084.0
Totals865880130/6/4100.9


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Bob Sturm is host of BaD Radio on The Ticket 1310 AM Mondays through Fridays at 12-3 p.m. He also hosts The Ticket's Cowboys pregame show. Follow Bob on Twitter at www.twitter.com/bobanddan Bob offers his exclusive analysis after games on SportsDayDFW.com

Read all of Bob's posts at this link:
http://cowboysblog.dallasnews.com/archives/bob-sturm

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