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Get Dallas Cowboys news on your cellShould Jerry sue Sean Payton?
5:36 PM Fri, Jun 29, 2007 | Permalink
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June 29, 2007Frequent e-mailer Scott from Austin made an excellent point regarding Mavericks owner Mark Cuban's lawsuit against Don Nelson. If Cuban wins and Nellie has to cough up some cash, it seems like Jerry would have one heck of a case against Sean Payton, who used all kinds of inside info to help the Saints make the Cowboys look silly last season.  Comments (18) Leave comment
| E-mail entryThe entry "Should Jerry sue Sean Payton?" has no entry tags.
I spent way too much time going over play-by-play sheets from last season to provide ammo to battle the Julius Jones Fan Club, a surprisingly large group of supporters for an OK back who will bolt town after this season. Some JJFC members rambled on about how inflated backup Marion Barber's magnificent stats were because of all his big gains on third-and-long. Barber carried 11 times for 93 yards (8.5 per carry) on third-and-5 or longer. Ooooh! Those JJFC folks are probably pretty fired up about that! But don't start spraying each other with champagne quite yet. Barber also had 37 carries in short-yardage situations (any down with 1 yard to go, third-and-2 and all first-and-goal situations from the 3 in). He gained 89 yards on those carries, including nine touchdowns. Now, let's subtract Barber's third-and-long runs and his short-yardage runs from his totals. That leaves him with 87 carries for 472 yards and five TDs on "normal" downs. That's 5.4 yards per carry. Jones averaged 4.1 yards on 267 carries and scored four TDs. And he only averaged 4 yards per carry in one of the final eight regular-season games, an indication that an injury-prone back wore down after getting a lot of early-season work. Perhaps he'd be more productive as a change-of-pace back. Can someone please explain to me (again) why Barber shouldn't be given a shot to win the starting job? Comments (34) Leave comment
| E-mail entryThe entry "Breaking down Barber's carries" has no entry tags. So says CBS Sportsline's Pete Prisco in a column about active NFL players' chances to get to Canton. (Ex-Cowboy OL Larry Allen is a "shoo-in".) Prisco's take on T.O. being on the Hall of Fame bubble: Some might be surprised to see him here, but he's 17th all time in receptions with 801 and he's 16th in yards receiving with 11,715 yards. With a good season, he can move into the top-10 in both categories. Forget the attitude, he's had a heck of a career. Just for the fun of it, let's compare T.O.'s career stats to a receiver in this year's HOF induction class: T.O. -- 801 catches, 11,715 yards, 114 TDs, no rings Michael Irvin -- 750 catches, 11,904 yards, 65 TDs, three rings Deion Sanders joined Troy Aikman on USA Today's list of the top 25 players from the last 25 years. Prime Time popped up at No. 16. We should have to wait a while before Emmitt Smith makes his appearance in the list. I can't imagine that he wouldn't be top five, at least.
I read all the responses to my list of the top 25 Cowboys from the last 25 years and have two reactions: 1) Reading comprehension is not the strength of many Cowboys fans. 2) I was wrong not to put quarterback/punter Danny White on the list. Let the record reflect that White is right behind Everson Walls on the revised list, bumping off DT Russell Maryland. In an effort to completely right this wrong, I'll now praise White for a couple paragraphs. White, who had the unenviable task of replacing the legendary Roger Staubach, made his only Pro Bowl appearance in the strike-shortened 1982 season. But he set team passing records that still stand with 3,980 yards and 29 TDs the next season. White threw for 155 touchdowns in his career, more than any Cowboy other than Troy Aikman. He had a career QB rating of 81.7, the second-best in team history behind Roger Staubach. And White was also a good punter for the first decade of his career. North Texas alum Toby Gowin and Mike Saxon are the only Cowboys punters with more than 300 attempts that had better averages than White's 40.1. |
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