FishTips: Cowboys Destroyed By Philly
ARLINGTON - They've come to be called "FishTips,'' and with the guidance of insiders at Valley Ranch, they help me "gameplan'' for this week's game so you, the Fan-Fan, can be an insider, too.
Here's my seven pregame FishTips for Eagles at Cowboys on Thanksgiving … how I fared based on how the Cowboys fared in their 33-10 embarrassment at the hands of visiting Philly.
FishTips 1) The Cowboys hold the ball for an average of 32:30 per game. That's fourth in the NFL. The fast-paced Eagles hold it for an average of 27:31.
That's 30th in the NFL. Are the Eagles so explosively innovative that for the first time in football history, time of possession is rendered immaterial?
RESULT: Nope. Not immaterial. Proof that time of possession matters, though, by the wrong team.
The Eagles built a 23-7 lead on the strength of owning the perimeter on the run and confounding Dallas in the air, and then just kept building. In the end, time-of-possession numbers read:
Dallas - 29:35.
Philly - 30:25.
"It was fast,'' Dallas end Jeremy Mincey said of the pace. "You have to give them credit. They did a good job go game-planning us. We were losing gaps, which we don't usually do.''
Losing gaps. Losing time of possession. Losing the game.
FishTips 2) This is "Romovember.'' This is Romo's time. In addition to his MVP-level numbers this year after the Week 1 loss to San Francisco (he's got 22 TDs and three picks and an 8-1 record), his all-time mark on Thanksgiving is 6-1, with a 18 TD/6 INT ratio.
HE also entered Thursday with three straight wins over the NFC East-rival Eagles.
Heck, even the "Blue-Jersey Curse'' is crushed by the QB, as Romo's lifetime record in non-whites is 10-4.
RESULT: I have NEVER been so wrong about a FishTip.
Romo was awful, and not just by the numbers, the 18-of-29 or the 199 yards or the two picks. He threw passes as if they were wet paper airplanes, protectively ducked to the floor as if he was biding his time for next Thursday in Chicago, overseeing an offense that needed to match Philly's but was overmatched within seconds of Lee Ann Womack's rendition of the National Anthem.
FishTips 3): Mark Sanchez has a blue-chip pedigree, but … in the NFL, on the road, against good teams … he's a dog.
Sanchez has a 16-17 record on the road. His road QB rating is 75.2 and his completion percentage is 56.1 while throwing for 34 touchdowns and 38 interceptions — oh, and throw 14 lost fumbles in there as well.
And on the road against winning teams? Sanchez is 4-9.
In other words, this ISN'T his time.
RESULT: OK, maybe I have been more wrong on FishTips. Right here. This Read-Option is McCoy-centric; when it works, it frees the QB to play without harassment. Sanchez did so, executing with precision on his way to 20-of-29 for 217 yards, most of that in the first half.
FishTips 4) Chip Kelly's offense has put up 40 or more points four times since 2013, tying them for third-most in the league. Only the Broncos (eight) and Patriots (seven) have had more 40-or-more games. In a game at Philly last year, Dallas' defense led the win by only allowing three points.
Isn't Dallas' defense substantially better this year?
Isn't 40 points almost absurd?
RESULT: Yes. Forty points would've been absurd … though 33 points was absurd enough, thank you.
FishTips 5) The Eagles' Read-Option requires lots of on-the-fly decisions, and the fast pace means more snaps … which can mean more mistakes, too. Indeed, the Eagles are minus-8 in turnover differential. They are the only team in the bottom-10 in that important category to nevertheless have a winning record.
RESULT: A first-half sack-and-fumble with Tyrone Crawford on Sanchez could've been a first-half turning point. If Dallas recovers the fumble, it's in business.
But, no, a Philly Phatty recovered.
Still, that meant second-and-crazy long, so a stop was coming.
But no, a confused secondary allowed Jeremy Macklin to catch-and-run for 58 yards.
The turnover wasn't a turnover. The tipping point didn't tip.
FishTips 6) Philadelphia's special teams have been consistently more productive that Dallas' sometimes-struggling group. In fact, Philly leads the NFL with creative ways of scoring: two kickoff returns for touchdowns, two punt returns for scores, two fumble recoveries for touchdowns, and are second in the league with two pick-sixes.
In total, 21 percent of the Eagles' touchdowns this season have come from defense and special teams. Can you defend that when you're not even really on defense?
The single time Dallas' special teams tried to make an impact, they were improperly flagged for doing so. Punt returner Dwayne Harris skipped on fielding the ball to instead put some poor Eagle on blast.
"That's a legal play, a clean play,'' Harris told me. But typical of this day, Harris got flagged for being naughty.
FishTips 7) The Cowboys swore they weren't inspired by disrespectful Philly words from veteran McCoy and rookie Logan
and whomever else. But when these teams played a year ago, in Week 17 for the get-in-the-playoffs decision, Dallas feels like it established that it belongs on the same level with the division champs. After all, the Cowboys lost by just two points with AWOL-to-be Kyle Orton at QB.
It is insulting for any one to think the gap between these two programs — in terms of coaching, talent and records — is much of a gap at all.
RESULT: The gap on Thanksgiving wasn't two points. It was 23 points.
Heck, maybe the Cowboys SHOULD'VE been offended, and therefore inspired.
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