Blinkscout Game 8 ... Cowboys.

ouch.

By some mercy, my YoutubeTV was malfunctioning and I missed most of the terrible splash plays of the first couple quarters. My brother was giving me play by play though, so I wasn't completely spared.

I generally wait a couple days before posting after a horrific loss ... so when I say "This can happen, and we can still make the playoffs" doesn't fall on clogged ears. The year we won the superbowl we had multiple bad losses. There are reaosns we won't be going to the superbowl this year, and I'll address those, but the playoffs and priceless experience for our young players is totally within reach for a number of reasons ... mostly that the 3rd wildcard spot has no team there. Cousins and the Vikings are toast.
So let's say the Seahawks and Cowboys are a lock. I am not sure about that, but let's say it.

The only other team now, with the Vikings out, is Washington. NFC south winner will likely have a losing record again.

So ... with Stafford still capable of holding a football, we have some winnable games coming up.


The Good

1) Run defense. I did not want to have to deal with Pollard having a big day.

2) I thought our safeties played pretty well.

3) We also got decent pressure on Dak. How many sacks has Byron Young had called back due to penalties downfield, is that 2 or 3 now?

4) Our O line did a decent job opening holes for our 3rd and 4th string RB.

5) Competent kicking so far.


The Bad

6) Higbee's hands. You good, bruh?


The Ugly

7) Watching Fassel dunk on us.

8) Rypien. This was a fixable problem.

9) Stetson Bennett. Absolute scouting failure.

10) We cannot cover top 10 WRs. We don't have the capacity. We'll need to fix that in the offseason, and this is the reason, beyond all others, that we are not super bowl bound.


Again, I missed a lot of the first half, and the second half was not really watchable.


College

11) Im looking at centers more ... I know we like Haynesworth on Tulane and Van Pran is obvious. Watching the Kansas/OK game got the feeling that both Raym and Novitsky are worth watching.

12) I spilled my QB stuff on recent threads so that's out for general consumption.

13) There are emerging RBs from the transfer portal that could be had late or UDFA. They may not even be starters on their team.

14) The entire TE class is flying under the radar. Given how many players are at the position and how few teams have needs here ... we should be able to grab top end talent late. I don't have a full list done up yet, but it should be noted that Bama's Dippre (who is a freak athlete) and Isaac Rex of BYU and not even top 200 guys. I don't think the position is being devalued the way that RB is ... but what I am seeing is a jump in quality of play from the TE position across the board.

15) WR is also flying under the radar. Same deal as TE. The quality of play is jumping.

16) OT is an issue. I like some guys ... but are they really going to be better than Alaric Jackson? The top 2, maybe.

17) LB and safety play is also up. Rozeboom needs replaced. Fuller is leaving. Guys near the 3rd round area could be plug and play. (I'm eyeballing Malachai Moore) Tyrone Hopper on Mizzou is an of the ball backer I could see sliding to the 5th and being a steal.

18) Any Interior line guys on offense or defense Im missing out on?


Questions and comments welcome.

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