SB Nation User Blog: scottmaui

Coach Joe D, Special Teams and the Toughness of these Dallas Cowboys

scottmaui — Sun, 08 Nov 2009 08:08:15 -0000

The mental toughness of this team has been questioned, and not without reason.

There's a lot of talk about a team taking on it's coaches personality. I'd say in the Cowboys case it's true. Except lately, it's not Wade Philips...

Rather, I say we're seeing that Special Teams Coach Joe DeCamillis is the heart of this team, and it is taking on his tough character.

Critics and fans talk about the team's identity or lack thereof, and in general I think that whole idea is overrated. The identity of the offense, for example, is really a chameleon, unpredictable, able to take whatever the defense gives and adapt, not be stuck in winning games with only a certain template. Which is good.

But when you think about this team's identity, you have to think about the story of this season, and the facility collapse is a very unusual event for a team to go through. It was a nearly tragic but actually heroic event they all went through together that imposed by crisis the necessity of working together as team, literally to save each other's lives. a very profound event that must have deepened their bonds with each other and their commitment to the team.

And coach joe d is the personification of the character and toughness they showed that day, and the daily reminder of a tough mental attitude fighting through adversity as a team.

before that happened, the team had already made special teams a priority.

and the tough attitude is inherent in special teams itself. special teams is the most hard hitting, chaotic and dangerous phase of the game. it takes a very tough attitude to be good special teams player.

then with the team having stated a priority focus on special teams, you add coach joe d being areally good special teams coach, and you even draft with special teams as a priority.

then after all that they go thru the collapse together, and then have coach joe d standing out there in his neck brace kicking their arses first thing every day in special teams practice as a reminder of what they went through together and the level of responding to adversity with teamwork and determination.

and the results we've seen on the field, where st has been the most consistent phase overall, in all aspects, and is one of the best in the league. i mean, they've been really good. not many miscues, and lots of guys making lots of great plays, giving the team a consistent advantage. a pleasure to watch. and you can see it in how coach joe d responds when his teams make a play, like Crayton TD returns, and how his players respond to him.

and now the tough, hard hitting confident attitude of special teams is showing up in the other phases. DeCamillis' personality and leadership by example have infused out through the special teams into the team as a whole. These attributes seem to be getting stronger and stronger with each game. We can really see the fire in their attitudes, the hard hitting, flying to the ball, talking trash, etc. evident in the Atlanta and Seattle games.

coach joe d and the special teams would have been good anyway, but beyond all the specific technique and tactical teaching he's doing with the special teams which is evident in itself, with the experience of the facility collapse and what he went thru I think joe d really is the heart and inspiration of this team, and from him and the special teams coaching and playing, the tough character of the team is maturing and becoming more evident with every game.

Here's to special teams play and the coach joe d toughness throughout the team tipping the balance sunday night!

Photos from the Cowboys' week 8 victory over the Seahawks

scottmaui — Tue, 03 Nov 2009 00:17:27 -0000

Photos from the Cowboys' week 8 victory over the Seahawks

Some great photos in here capturing some key moments in the game...

NFL Network: Romo's new BFF

scottmaui — Sat, 31 Oct 2009 03:01:40 -0000

NFL Network: Romo's new BFF

Published: Oct. 29, 2009 at 08:09 p.m. | Tags: Miles Austin
02:46 – Stacey Dales reports on Miles Austin's emergence as the Cowboys' top receiver.

NFL Network: WK 7 Anatomy - Romo to Austin 59-yard Touchdown

scottmaui — Sat, 31 Oct 2009 02:57:41 -0000

NFL Network: WK 7 Anatomy - Romo to Austin 59-yard Touchdown

Published: Oct. 29, 2009 at 06:39 p.m. | Tags: Miles Austin, Tony Romo
04:20 – Greg Cosell diagrams how the Cowboys beat the Falcons' blitz with a TD pass to Miles Austin.

NFL Network: Week 8 Playbook - Cowboys are Back

scottmaui — Sat, 31 Oct 2009 02:46:52 -0000

NFL Network: Week 8 Playbook - Cowboys are Back

Published: Oct. 30, 2009 at 05:53 p.m.
04:47 – The Playbook crew dissects the emergence of Miles Austin and the Cowboys' offensive attack.

6.8 Yards Per Carry... Our running game so far

scottmaui — Wed, 30 Sep 2009 10:08:06 -0000

Aaron notes that after 3 games, the Cowboys lead the league in rushing with an average of 193.7 yards a game..

But not only do we lead in rushing yards, but we lead by a huge margin in yards per carry at 6.8. The Titans are next at 5.7.

So it isn't just like we've run a whole lot more than other teams.

We're getting at least a full yard more on each carry than every other team. That is a huge discrepancy.

To put it in perspective, the Highest Average Gain, Rushing, Season was 5.74 by Cleveland in 1963.

We also have more rushing first downs than any other team, with 31.

We have 7 runs over 20 yards. Jaguars and Titans are next with 5. And we're one of 3 teams with 2 runs over 40 yards.

We're one of only 5 teams with no fumbles.

Our running game is working very, very well.

Now it's only 3 games, and strength of schedule may play into it, but one of our games was against the Giants, considered a top 5 defense, and we actually gashed them even worse than the other 2 games, for 29 for 251, or a monstrous 8.7 ypc.

So we'll see as the season unfolds, but early indications are that our running game is everything we hoped it would be.

The plays called are working. Our oline is opening huge holes. The 12 formation is working. And Cricket is playing very well (and I think proving some doubters wrong, and earning a continued role for the FB spot in spite of the move toward 12/13 formations). RW may be somewhat disappointing as a #1 receiver, and blocking isn't why we're paying him the big bucks, but he is doing a great job blocking downfield.

And the RBs obviously are living up to their billing as the top stable in the league, and while a lot rides on their health, we've been able to keep up the run game even with our #1 out. May both Barber and Felix come back fully healthy soon and stay that way!

What this does is force teams to respond. They will have to focus on stopping our run. The problem (for them) is that Romo is quite capable of taking shots down the field, he just has to pick his time, when our run game dictates the right coverage and matchups.

And BTW, seems to me the draw play, that we are running with great success, is basically the mirror of the play-action pass. It's the pass-action run. Especially the way Tony runs it, uses the quick throw fake to freeze the LBs and Ss, which is exactly what he did with the Choice TD run where he wasn't touched until he was 2 yards in the end zone. But then having such a potent ground attack will open up the play-action pass.

So having the top rushing game in the league, with a huge yards per carry, is a great way to start the season so far.

Danny Amendola signs with Rams

scottmaui — Tue, 22 Sep 2009 17:21:59 -0000

Danny Amendola signs with Rams

The annual training camp stud is going to get a look with the Rams in the slot. He was never going to be active with the Eagles because of their depth at receiver, but he could find himself competing for snaps in St. Louis' thin receiving corps.

Week2 Giants @ Cowboys - Full Video

scottmaui — Tue, 22 Sep 2009 08:54:33 -0000

Not that we really want to watch it again so soon, but CowboysConnection.org has the NFLN Replay version of the week 2 Giants game available via OneSwarm.

Update: Full version of the game is available now too.

OneSwarm is a peer-to-peer network file sharing client that depends on those who download to stay online and seed the file to others, so don't be a leech! Please keep your connection active after you download the file and help everyone get faster download speeds.

And while you're at it check out the forums and introduce yourself to the other Cowboys fans there...

Instructions for OneSwarm posted below the jump.

You can also check out tenyardtorrents.com for other torrent files of the game (which may be easier anyway).

OneSwarm Instructions

This is a somewhat modified version of the instructions posted in the tutorial thread at cowboysconnection.

If you don't already have an account there or don't have OneSwarm set up, first sign up for an account.

Step 1: Download the OneSwarm application

Step 2: Install and launch the application, which will open a browser window... this is your interface to the application and the network (on a PC, use Firefox as your browser, Internet Explorer won't support many OneSwarm functions)

Step 3: Create your One Swarm user identity, making it the same id you use at Cowboys Connection.

Step 4: Click "Add friends" on the left in the One Swarm window. Then click "Add friends manually using public keys" and click "Next" then copy your Public Key from the "Step 2" box

Step 5: Paste your key in the "Public Key Exchange Master List" thread at Cowboys Connection.

Step 6: Copy the moderator Star Gazer's public key and add it as a friend, he's the first one on the Public Key Exchange (Master List).

Step 7: Once he receives your Public Key, he will add you to the circle of friends.

Step 8: Add all the public keys in the master "Public Key" thread. Star Gazer has now separated the list into batches of 25 keys each, and has a video tutorial up showing exactly how to do this. Copy one batch of 25 names and keys, click "Add friends" on the left in the One Swarm window, then click "Add friends manually using public keys" and click "Next" then click the "Multiple friends" tab and paste in that whole list, or a whole page from the master list thread, then click "Scan" and it will scan through and you just type in the username for each key. This is a lot faster than cutting and pasting each username and key separately.

Step 9: Click on Videos on the left in the browser window, and you should see "2009 Regular Season," click there and then click on the thumbnail of the video you want to download. From the toolbar, which is above the thumbnail images, select the "Download" button (you can also browse to select the folder you want it to download into, for example if you have an external hard drive, because over the course of the season the files will take up a lot of space). If all of the above are done, you should be able to download the video.

Step 10: Once it is downloaded, stay online to help seed the file to others.

It's not the easiest thing to get working, with multiple steps as you can see, but once you have it set up it is a good way to distribute large files as the burden of providing the bandwidth is distributed over the network of users, with each user seeding the next, rather than relying on one central server with limited bandwidth that could get overloaded with everyone downloading.

The users also provide an extensive collection of older games and other Cowboys video features.

If you have questions about any of those steps let me know, or post it in the support thread.

Week1 @ Tampa Bay - Full Video

scottmaui — Thu, 17 Sep 2009 18:38:52 -0000

CowboysConnection.org has the full video of the week 1 game at Tampa Bay available via OneSwarm (3.52GB file).

After watching it live on a tiny, jerky Internet feed, It is so nice to be able to go back and enjoy the game in high quality video.

If you don't already have an account there or don't have OneSwarm set up, first sign up for an account. Then click on Forum -> Video Connection -> Tutorials on Media Applications -> Getting Started with One Swarm..... and follow the instructions there.

And remember, OneSwarm is a peer-to-peer network file sharing client that depends on those who download to stay online and seed the file to others. So don't be a leech! Keep your connection active after you download the file and help everyone get faster download speeds.

And while you're at it check out the forums and introduce yourself to the other Cowboys fans there!

Update: I had a couple requests for help, so I'm posting it here for those who are having trouble figuring this out (don't feel bad, it took me a while to figure it out as well). This is a somewhat modified version of the instructions posted in the tutorial thread at cowboysconnection.

Step 1: Download the OneSwarm application

Step 3: Create your One Swarm user identity, making it the same id you use at Cowboys Connection.

Step 4: Click "Add friends" on the left in the One Swarm window. Then click "Add friends manually using public keys" and click "Next" then copy your Public Key from the "Step 2" box

Step 5: Paste your key in the "Public Key Exchange Master List" thread at Cowboys Connection.

Step 6: Copy the moderator Star Gazer's public key and add it as a friend, he's the first one on the Public Key Exchange (Master List).

Step 7: Once he receives your Public Key, he will add you to the circle of friends.

Anyway, hope that helps. If you have questions about any of those steps let me know, or post it in the support thread.

Tony Romo mic'd up

scottmaui — Wed, 16 Sep 2009 21:10:34 -0000

Tony Romo mic'd up

Tony Romo is mic'd up during the Cowboys' Week 1 victory over the Bucs.

Leadership? lol

Very funny, Romo to Garrett: "I'll give you a kiss if you call X Fly Seam." Garrett says no. Then next thing is Romo making that call in the huddle which is the TD to Roy.