Mustangs vs. Cowboys

[Corso]

The Cowboys got slapped last night by an expansion team that was without three of its five projected starting offensive line. Somewhere, Jerry Jones is still fuming. And that makes me laugh. A lot.

A breakdown:

Coaching: The improvement SMU has shown, both between the first two games and from the first half to the second of the Navy game was considerable. Phil Bennett and his staff don't yet have their first win, but they're clearly heading the Ponies in the right direction. Dave Campo and the Dallas "coaches" (I use that term loosely when Jerry's roaming the sideline, pulling all the strings) were idiots. They didn't run Emmitt nearly enough. The offensive line coach couldn't get protection for Quincy or lanes open for Emmitt. What's with (defensive coordinator) Mike Zimmer's scheme? You're facing a patchwork (at best) offensive line protecting a rookie quarterback .... and you DON'T blitz? The Dallas defense should have been coming in waves, running after the rookie until they passed out. And Dallas made no adjustments during the game. If Jerry Jones had half a brain, he'd can Campo and try to hire Bennett. It would be a risky hire, but Coach Bennett is a lot better than Campo. Then again, Peruna and Crazy Ray would be better coaches than Campo.
Edge: PONIES

Quarterbacks: Tate Wallis is never going to make anyone forget Troy Aikman. Neither is Quincy Carter. The difference this weekend is that Tate stayed within the realm of what he can do. Quincy was heaving ugly balls all over the field. Does he even know how to throw a spiral? And Tate improved more between the first two games than Quincy has learned in more than a year.
Edge: PONIES

Running backs: Keylon Kincade is off to a sensational start, and ShanDerrick Charles is a terrific backup. But it's hard to argue with Emmitt, even though he should have retired a year ago and is going to break Walter Payton's record only as a result of having played in a great system (during the Jimmy Johnson years) and having been surrounded by great talent, whereas Payton was Chicago's entire offense .... but I digress.
Edge: Cowboys

Receivers: Joey Galloway is very talented, but the Cowboys don't know how to use him. Rocket Ismail and Chris Cunningham cancel each other out -- each is talented and greatly missed by his team. Cody Cardwell appears to have re-emerged as a viable threat, and there's some promise among Jay Taylor and the freshmen, like Daniel Francis, Cedric Vinson, etc. John Hampton and Billy Ford, who are better than any tight end the Cowboys have, tip the scales in SMU's favor.
Edge: PONIES

Offensive line: The Dallas offensive line is supposed to be among the best in the NFL; Houston's defense made it look like Tulsa's offensive line last night. SMU's offensive line is supposed to be bad this year; in two games, the group has worked hard to open holes for Keylon Kincade and to keep Tate Wallis alive. Nevertheless, it's hard to choose a college offensive line over a line with Larry Allen, Flozell Adams and Solomon Page.
Edge: Cowboys .... barely

Defensive line: Neither team's defensive ends have done much. LaRoi Glover had a nice debut for the Cowboys, but Lute Croy and Allen Adami have been sensational.
Edge: PONIES

Linebackers: Very average performance by Dallas's linebackers, although Kevin Hardy made his presence felt. Vic Viloria has been great, and Brian Bischoff had a strong showing against Texas Tech, and Jarrian James and D.D. Lee were much better than in the Navy game.
Edge: PONIES

Secondary: Bryant Westbrook was abused on the first play of the game last night and drew a pass interference penalty. The Dallas secondary couldn't stay with Jermaine Lewis all night. David Carr's second touchdown (the long one to Corey Bradford) was completed through double coverage. Darren Woodson was solid, except on Bradford's touchdown. SMU's Kevin Garrett and Jonas Rutledge are better than any corners Dallas has.
Edge: PONIES

Special teams: Jonas Rutledge, when he hangs on to the ball, is the best return man on either team. Neither kicker has kicked well, and the punting has been average on both teams.
Edge: MUSTANGS

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Aren't you glad we're all PonyFans?

[BornRed&Blue]

This has little to do with your post, but it was humerous, sent to me by an SMU alum, who like myself has a freshman at Tech, and this was on the Techtalk site:

Former Red Raider

We'll follow up with all the home opener stuff later in the week. We'll
leave you with a quote from a former Red Raider now starting for the new
Houston Texans (hopefully, the Dallas Cowboy fans have a sense of humor).
Said Marcus Coleman after his team opened the year with a victory:
"Somebody go tell Roy Williams (present Dallas safety who starred at
Oklahoma) he just got beat by Baylor."

[DallasDiehard]

If Jerry Jones was our athletic director, he'd still be pulling Cavan's strings on the sideline.

Love the Williams/Baylor High reference, BR&B.

[Red+BlueDude]

Who would have thought that Danny Snyder would learn to step back and let his coaches do their job before Jery could figure it out? Snyder's obnoxious, but Jerry is still the punchline of all NFL owners. I'd say he's football's answer to George Steinbrenner, but at least George's team wins.

[ProudPonyPa]

Coslet ran Emmmit too much. They didn't run Wiley, enough.

[Eddie P]

I think the o'line not performing well and Quincy Carter's poor performance may have had more to do with it. After all, we never proved we could consistently pass the ball; no running back will do well if the defense spends the entire game keying on the running game. Unfortunately, this may be a problem all season. Isn't it ironic how the Cowboys and Mustangs problems seem to mirror each other?

[ClassOf81]

Quincy was horrible - he had zero accuracy and his runnng was no more effective than that of the great Dan Freiburger.

And PPP, I'm going to have to disagree with you -- they should have run Emmitt more, not less. Wiley broke that nice long one, but he's not an every-down guy.