Dallas Cowboys vs. NY Giants: Grades for All 3 Units
I re-watched the Dallas Cowboys beating the New York Giants with the aid of the All-22 when necessary and came up with grades using a very simple -1, 0, or +1 scale.
My Rating System:
Not all plays that are a “win” for any said player is a +1, it has to be a good to great play, ditto for “bad plays”. For defensive players this includes: beating a block and making a tackle for no more than a short gain, deflecting a pass, and pressuring the QB. For offensive players: forcing a missed tackle, successfully blocking a defensive linemen and having the RB run off you (this means no blockers were between the player and the RB), blocking a DE one on one for a long period of time, or making a difficult throw/catch. This system clearly does not accurately display how some players played, but to do that perfectly would be almost impossible. Thus I am going to leave it up to you to weigh individual plays how you want to, these grades are simply = good plays – bad plays, with all such plays weighted equally. It is more of an efficiency measure than anything. The actual excel file is far too big to include here, so here is a link to it, it includes what happened on every bad/good play.
Sep 5, 2012; East Rutherford, NJ, USA; Dallas Cowboys wide receiver Kevin Ogletree (85) runs in for touchdown against the New York Giants during the second half at MetLife Stadium. Dallas Cowboys defeat the New York Giants by a score of 24-17. Mandatory Credit: Jim O
EDITOR’S NOTE: Our apologies for the size of the following chart.
| Player | Good plays |
Bad plays
Grade
Ogletree
6
0
6
Spencer
7
2
5
Ware
6
1
5
Phillips
5
0
5
Smith
9
5
4
Hatcher
4
1
3
Bryant
3
0
3
Austin
3
0
3
Bernadeu
5
3
2
Jones
2
0
2
Carter
2
1
1
Brent
1
0
1
Lissemore
1
0
1
Hanna
1
0
1
Vickers
1
0
1
Coleman
1
0
1
Murray
2
2
0
Lee
2
2
0
Witten
3
4
-1
Livings
1
2
-1
Parnell
0
1
-1
Costa
0
1
-1
Church
0
1
-1
Sensabaugh
0
1
-1
Free
3
5
-2
Carr
1
3
-2
Scandrick
0
2
-2
Romo
4
8
-4
Claiborne
0
-6
-6
Quarterback
Sep 5, 2012; East Rutherford, NJ, USA; Dallas Cowboys quarterback Tony Romo (9) rolls out during the first half against the New York Giants at MetLife Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Jim O
Before you all go mad about Tony Romo’s grade, remember I have weighted all good and bad plays evenly, A breakdown of Romo’s graded plays : 5 innacurate/missed throws, a bad interception, a dropped interception, a delay of game (there was another delay of game that appeared to be on the center, so I graded no one for the play), two difficult throws, and two plays where he forced missed tackles. I would say he played well, but not great. If you disagree, please leave your comments.
Wide Receiver
Pick Kevin Ogletree in all your Fantasy Leagues! I’m actually serious. Last year Laurent Robinson put up gaudy numbers going up against 3rd and 4th corners because of the other threats on the Dallas Cowboys offense. There is no reason why Ogletree can’t do something similar. In terms of real life football, you could argue that his stats are extremely misleading. All he had to do was run slants that were defended terribly (seriously, after the first 2 or 3 times you’d think they’d adjust), and up and go that Webster completely bit on, leaving him wide open, and what was actually a really nice short TD catch. So out of all those ONE good play, and the rest easy catches. I will say this, he was reliable, which counts or something, but don’t go overboard thinking he’s the next great Cowboys WR.
Miles Austin looked healthy and Dez Bryant was solid, both made big plays at critical times.
Tight End
Aug 15, 2012; Oxnard, CA, USA; Dallas Cowboys tight end James Hanna (84) at training camp at the River Ridge Fields. Mandatory Credit: Kirby Lee/Image of Sport-US PRESSWIRE
John Phillips blocked like Martellus Bennett did last year. Jason Witten was a victim of gameplan, i.e. take what they will give you – which was Ogletree. Although he did have couple of penalties, I am in love with rookie James Hanna as a player. The way he runs routes and catches the ball reminds me of Jimmy Graham. He had a catch on a quick out where the linebacker wasn’t even close to keeping up with him.
Offensive Tackle
Tyron Smith played well in my mind. Jason Pierre-Paul is an absolute beast and I’d say he more than held his own. He gave up 3 pressures according to profootballfocus.com but I only had him for one. They do a great job so they may be right, but I was watching closely and if I did miss any, then they would be quite minor. Smith had NINE good plays, and was absolute beast run blocking.
Doug Free had his fair share of struggles, but there were also numerous occasions where he held Tuck and Osi at bay on seven step drops, overall he was not too bad.
Secondary
Sep 5, 2012; East Rutherford, NJ, USA; Dallas Cowboys defensive back Brandon Carr (39) stops the pass intended for New York Giants wide receiver Domenik Hixon (87) during the fourth quarter at MetLife Stadium. Dallas won 24-17. Mandatory Credit: Anthony Gruppuso-US PRESSWIRE
Note: obviously these grades will not favor cover players as I cannot give +1 for covering a player well and not getting targeted. The whole secondary played lights out, rookie first rounder Morris Claiborne was beaten quite a lot on underneath stuff but nothing big. Although he did look very suspect in run defense, hopefully that’s not a trend. Brandon Carr was Revis-like, the safety’s each had a missed tackle, but both were near the LOS and didn’t matter much. Slot corner Orlando Scandrick played ok, although he was beaten a couple times. Mana Silva got on the field for 22 (39%) snaps, as mentioned above, and wasn’t graded, a nice performance.
Linebacker
Sept 5, 2012; East Rutherford, NJ, USA; New York Giants quarterback Eli Manning (10) is sacked by Dallas Cowboys linebacker DeMarcus Ware (94) during the first half at MetLife Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Noah K. Murray/THE STAR-LEDGER via US PRESSWIRE
The linebacker’s were great, OLB’s DeMarcus Ware and Anthony Spencer dominated; Ware had two sacks and Spencer made 2 good plays after the Giants had 1st and goal inside the Cowboys’ 10 yardline. ILB’s Sean Lee and Bruce Carter looked good in the run game and didn’t get targeted much in the passing game, which is a win. Dan Connor only played 4 snaps, this shouldn’t change.
Defensive Line
Sept 5, 2012; East Rutherford, NJ, USA; New York Giants quarterback Eli Manning (10) is sacked by Dallas Cowboys defensive end Jason Hatcher (97) during the first half at MetLife Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Noah K. Murray/THE STAR-LEDGER via US PRESSWIRE
DE Jason Hatcher looked really good rushing the passer, and he made a couple plays against the run as well. Sean Lissemore’s one good play was beastly, he threw his man aside as if he was a toy. DE Kenyon Coleman went round Diehl on the speed rush one play as if he was Ware, which tells you all you need to know about Diehl. DT Josh Brent made a nice play against the run also. One caveat on the whole front seven’s performance: the Giants o-line gets terrible grades from PFF and they were the last ranked rushing team in the NFL last year – they are terrible folks.
Interior Offensive Line
Mandatory Credit: Matthew Emmons-US PRESSWIRE
The new backup center, Ryan Cook, was not graded as having any good or bad plays. Spend a whole game watching the center on every play, this is not an important position folks. I don’t know how hard the line calls and the protections are, but lets judge how important the NFL thinks centers are – going off of Wikipedia, there was one center taken in the first three rounds of the 2012 draft, in the second round. The Dallas Cowboys could be fine with David Arkin at center.
As for the guards, all of OG Nate Livings graded plays were barely gradeable, he mostly was unnoticeable. Mackenzy Bernadeu for the most part played really well, lots of good run blocks.
Special Teams
Aug.1, 2012; Oxnard, CA, USA; Dallas Cowboys punter Chris Jones (6) takes a kick during training camp drills. Mandatory Credit: Jayne Kamin-Oncea-US PRESSWIRE
Chris Jones quietly had a really nice day punting the ball, Dan Bailey made one out of one easy field goals, and there were no special teams coverage gaffes. Nothing to see here folks.
Overall, the Dallas Cowboys gave a great performance that shocked many, me not included. The most encouraging parts were the O-Line holding up against a good defensive front, the secondary, but also Bruce Carter. The one thing that was surprising was how dominant the defense was overall, and how well Carter played. Albeit in a small sample size, he was not good in the preseason, hopefully he can continue this fine form. Go Cowboys!
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