wo teams -- no one was hit by a pitch -- the saga might not be over. The teams play six more times th from LAM's blog
One debate ended in St. Cheap Nuggets Jerseys Authentic . Louis on
Sunday night, while another debate shows no signs of slowing down in Texas.The
4-1 Cowboys are one of the most surprising teams in football, and at the center
of their success is rookie fourth-round pick Dak Prescott, who has surpassed
even the lofty expectations augured by his promising preseason. Given how
previous preseason sensations looked when the gloves came off, I was skeptical
that Prescott would be able to live up to his level of play from August. I was
wrong.Adam Schefter reported Sunday morning that the Bengals, Prescotts opponent
in Week 5, broke the rookie down on tape and did not believe he had thrown?a
single bad pass all season. I would argue that there is probably a pass or two
in there which might fit the description, but thats beside the point: Prescott
has been incredibly effective. Outside of some aggressive decisions in the red
zone, Prescott also didnt do much on Sunday to prove the Bengals wrong. He was
phenomenal during Dallas 28-14 win, going 18-of-24 for 227 yards with a passing
touchdown and a rushing score on a read-option keeper. Prescott fumbled in the
red zone and took an unnecessary shot from Vontaze Burfict late in the game when
he neglected to slide, but he finished with an 87.5 QBR, the fifth-best figure
of the week.Prescott is now second in the league in opponent-adjusted QBR at
84.1, behind league leader Matt Ryan, and he might be losing his job in a few
weeks. Even after this hot start, owner Jerry Jones has insisted that Tony Romo
is still the teams No. 1 quarterback. Romo is recovering from a broken back, and
while the Cowboys obviously dont need to rush him back into the lineup, the
preseason timeframe for Romo suggests that hell be back after Dallas Week 7 bye
for what now looms as a crucial divisional matchup against the Eagles on Oct.
30.Should the Cowboys insert Romo back into the lineup? Or should they keep
Prescott -- who is eight passes away from breaking?Tom Bradys record for most
pass attempts to start a career without an interception -- in the job for the
foreseeable future? I think you can make a case for each side, so lets do that
and see if one seems stronger than the other. Starting with the incumbent:The
case for starting Tony RomoRomo has been a better passer than Prescott. As good
as Prescott has been this year, when Romo has been healthy over the past couple
of seasons, he has actually been a tiny bit better. Heres a table comparing
their numbers since the beginning of 2014, when Romo was gifted with Zack Martin
to complete Dallas devastating offensive line:Prescotts QBR is better because he
has added significant value as a runner, which counts, but might not be
sustainable over the long haul. Prescott has three rushing touchdowns in five
games, for one. He also wont manage to go his entire career without throwing an
interception, and even while we give him credit for having done so up to this
point, Prescotts passing numbers are slightly worse than Romos?on a rate basis.
The biggest difference is that Romo throws downfield far more frequently than
Prescott, as noted in the air yards column; 11.2 percent of Romos passes
traveled 20 or more yards in the air, compared to just 5.2 percent of Prescotts
passes.There are pretty huge error bars on both sides of those numbers: Romo is
36 and missed most of the past year with injuries, while Prescott is five games
into his NFL career. Given what weve seen most recently, though, Romo has been
the slightly better passer. Given how Romo spreads the field more frequently, he
also seems to be the quarterback with the higher short-term upside for the
Cowboys.Romo is more experienced. If the Cowboys are trying to win now and value
experience as an asset, Romo obviously has that over Prescott in spades. The old
arguments that Romo would turn to dust in December were always foolish and
mysteriously never came up in 2014, when the Cowboys went 4-0 and Romo threw 12
touchdowns against one interception with a 133.7 passer rating. Romos playoff
record is an underwhelming 2-4, but he has been relatively effective within
those games, throwing eight touchdowns against two picks and posting a passer
rating of 93.0. His sack rate in those games is a staggering 10.6 percent,
nearly double his career rate of 5.4 percent, which might tell you what has gone
wrong in those contests.The argument against rushing Prescott into a key
postseason role before hes ready for the moment, ironically, is Tony Romo. It
was Romo who had critics bestowing him with the it factor during the red-hot
start to his own career before a pair of brutal postseason blows. Romo famously
fumbled the snap on a chip-shot field goal attempt which would have sealed a
playoff win over the Seahawks during his debut season in 2006, and he lost to
the Super Bowl-bound Giants at home the following year, which cemented his
unfair reputation as a passer who couldnt win when it really mattered.Prescott
may very well win those games when he gets the opportunity, or he might fail if
the Cowboys give him the shot two or three years down the line. It also helps
that Prescott looks about as cool and comfortable on the field as any young
quarterback in recent memory. If experience matters, though, Romo obviously has
that point in his favor.Romo is probably sticking around for 2017 either way. I
wrote about Romos contract situation before the season, and while the Cowboys
have locked up center Travis Frederick to a long-term deal, not much has
changed. Dallas already has nearly $173 million in salaries tied up on its 2017
cap, and thats without considering deals for Barry Church, J.J. Wilcox, Brandon
Carr, Terrance Williams?or even Morris Claiborne, who has shown flashes of
competence this year. (Even if the Cowboys dont want to re-sign any of those
guys, they still need somebody to start in the secondary.) Dallas will create
cap room by restructuring Tyron Smiths deal for another year, but theyre still
going to be working with limited salary-cap space for yet another season.After
restructuring Romos deal twice since re-signing their star quarterback in March
2013, the Cowboys couldnt make a clean break even if they were so inclined. His
cap hold on the roster next year is $24.7 million. If the Cowboys cut Romo, they
could designate him as a post-June 1 release and eat $12.7 million in dead money
in 2017 with $6.9 million in additional funds hitting their 2018 cap. More
plausibly, if the Cowboys trade Romo or encourage the oft-injured passer to
retire, Dallas would be responsible for $19.6 million in dead money for Romo on
its 2017 cap.Could the Cowboys afford that sort of cap hold? Its not out of the
question. The Cowboys have Prescott locked up for the next three seasons after
this one with cap hits between $635,848 and $815,849. If Dallas doesnt need to
find a starting quarterback, it could absorb the massive hit from a Romo trade
next year, use the $5.1 million in savings to sign a backup quarterback to
replace Romo, and then enjoy all the benefits of a bargain-basement quarterback
in 2018 before locking Prescott up to an extension in 2019.Given that Romo will
be 37 and coming off two injury-marred seasons, though, will there be an
enormous trade market for his services (and contract)? It wont help that the
Cowboys will have little leverage, since teams will know Dallas will be trying
to offload its star passer. Itll also be in a market where organizations could
be considering veteran options such as?Sam Bradford, Jay Cutler?and Colin
Kaepernick in trade or as cap casualties. Somebody will be interested in Romo,
but if all the Cowboys can get is a midround pick (a la the Brett Favre trade
from Green Bay to the Jets), wouldnt it be better to keep Romo on the roster and
have two viable quarterbacks on hand at all times?The case for starting Dak
PrescottPrescott hasnt done anything to lose his job. Theres no simple, concrete
answer to the question of whether a player such as Romo should lose his job if
he gets hurt and the replacement does well, as you can see from this article.
Some players who have been on the injured side of that situation and fearful for
their futures would surely tell you they deserve a crack at the gig once theyre
healthy, while athletes who lurked on the bench and desperately waited for their
opportunity would likely say the opposite. Its a matter of preference and
context.With that being said, theres a certain level of credibility a coach
gains -- with fans and inside the locker room -- by self-evaluating and putting
his best players on the field. Jason Garretts job isnt in danger, but he has
pulled all the right strings during Dallas 4-1 start. If you watched the Cowboys
blow out the Bengals on Sunday, you saw an unfamiliar scene among the guys
wearing blue and white: smiles all around. Even the injured players on the bench
like Romo and Dez Bryant were beaming. Im not saying the Cowboys will lose those
smiles or see their chemistry dissipate if they make the move back to Romo, but
if they do, and it turns out Prescott was the better option, it will cost
Garrett a serious chunk of credibility.Romos margin for error will be
razor-thin. I mention this a lot when we talk about teams promoting high-profile
rookie quarterbacks into the starting role, but it applies here. The Cowboys
dont need the fans on their side to win, but if Prescott plays at this level for
half a season and is dropped to the bench for Romo regardless, its going to
dramatically up the tension at Cowboys games. A not-insignificant percentage of
the Dallas fan base already holds some level of contempt for Romo. Everyone
loves Prescott.Lets say Prescott continues at this level of play for three more
games and then the Cowboys go back to Romo. The first time Romo screws up -- he
misses an open receiver, he throws an interception, even pieces together a few
consecutive scoreless drives -- what do you think will be the first thing Dallas
fans chant? We Want Dak, of course. Very few fans would insist on Romo if
Prescott plays at this level and suddenly has a bad start in Week 8. The one
thing the Cowboys cant afford to do is go back and forth and erode each
quarterbacks confidence. Once Garrett makes a switch, he has to stick with it
for a while. That alone may be enough of an argument to keep Prescott in the
lineup until he has proved he cant handle the job.Prescott is Dallas quarterback
of the future, and once you find that guy, you build everything around him. Even
if Romo might narrowly be the best option for the next season-plus -- and that
is very debatable -- Prescotts clearly the guy whom the Cowboys are about to
build their next 10 seasons around. He may not end up rising to that level, but
Prescott is the first passer to come around since Romo whom the Cowboys view as
a franchise-caliber asset.Given how important quarterbacks are, a properly
incentivized Cowboys team might find its most important short-term tasks after
winning a Super Bowl will be figuring out whether Prescotts the guy and giving
him as many reps as possible to improve. Obviously, Prescott is far more likely
to learn and improve in the starting lineup than he would be watching Romo while
holding a clipboard on the sidelines.Leaving Romo on the bench might actually
increase his trade value. If the Cowboys have decided that Prescotts their guy
and they dont want to threaten him with Romos presence on the roster, the
smartest thing to do is trade Romo for a draft pick and clear up his dead cap
holds as much as possible to free up space for 2018. And given that Romo may not
be the same player he was even two years ago, before these injuries, the Cowboys
might prefer that other teams most recent professional tape on Romo comes from
the 2014 and 15 seasons as opposed to the games featuring the man with the
fractured back. If Romo has slipped and the Cowboys see it in physical therapy
or practice, the presence of Prescott allows Dallas to retain plausible
deniability if it wants to deal Romo. Being able to hide Romo from view may be
the difference between getting a fourth-round pick as opposed to a conditional
seventh-round pick. Theres value in that.I can see bits and pieces of both sides
here. Each side has a case. The more I think about it, in fact, a third
possibility came to mind. (No, its not Mark Sanchez.) It might be the least
satisfying answer of all, but its also the most accurate one from my
perspective:The case for it not really mattering who the Cowboys start at
quarterbackTheyre both good. While there are still question marks around Romos
health and Prescotts relative lack of professional experience, everything we
know suggests that Romo and Prescott will continue to play at a high level when
in the Dallas lineup. The table I included in the Romo section says that he
might be the better passer, but the numbers are close enough and at a high
enough level that theres not really a wrong choice between the two. Its not as
if the Cowboys are picking between a hot young quarterback and a league-average
veteran, as the 49ers did when they chose Kaepernick over Alex Smith after the
latter missed a couple of games with a concussion and Kaepernick excelled in his
absence. These are two quarterbacks who can play in reasonably similar offensive
styles and produce passer ratings in excess of 100.This team is built around the
running game regardless of its quarterback. Dallas run-first identity isnt some
new game plan the team installed to make things easier for Prescott. Ever since
using high picks on Frederick and Martin, the Cowboys have gone with a run-heavy
offense and built their team around that dominant rushing attack. During Dallas
8-8 seasons from 2011 to 2013, Romo averaged 36.3 passes per start. In 2014,
when the Cowboys were defending more leads late and turning the ball over to
superstar DeMarco Murray, Romo averaged 29 pass attempts per game.This year,
with the Cowboys giving the ball to the phenomenal Ezekiel Elliott, Prescott has
averaged only 31 throws per start. After a slow beginning to his professional
career, Elliott has kicked into another gear. He has now produced three
consecutive games with 130 yards or more, and unlike Week 3, when the Cowboys
needlessly ran him into the ground for 30 carries in a blowout victory over the
Bears, Dallas gave Elliott only 15 carries on Sunday before letting Alfred
Morris carry the rest of the load. Im still not sure Elliott was worth the
fourth overall pick given how good this line looks -- you can imagine the
Cowboys might be very happy if they had chosen Jalen Ramsey with the fourth
overall pick and spent a fourth-round pick on Jordan Howard -- but with the
draft capital a sunk cost, Elliott looks great.If the defense doesnt hold up,
the quarterback wont matter. This Cowboys team is capable of winning a shootout
with just about anybody when its main assets are healthy, although its
perpetually trying to keep those stars active. Just as Tyron Smith was gone for
a couple of weeks before returning to the Cowboys this week, Dallas has lost
Bryant to a knee injury which could hold the Pro-Bowl wide receiver out until
the bye week just like Romo.What has really changed for the Cowboys this year,
in addition to improved quarterback play over the Matt Cassel-driven disaster of
2015, is the presence of a much-improved defense. The much-maligned Cowboys pass
rush doesnt have any stars, but Dallas is still managing to pressure opposing
quarterbacks 23.6 percent of the time, which is a respectable 22nd in the
league. Even more notable is that the Cowboys are finally creating takeaways
again. In 2014, the Cowboys ended 16.8 percent of opposing possessions with a
takeaway, the highest rate in the league. In 2015, that figure fell to 5.6
percent, the lowest in the league. This year, their takeaway rate is 10.4
percent, which is a respectable 18th.If this team can run the football and play
average defense, it can begin to approximate a winning football organization
without even being concerned about picking a passer. And if the Cowboys cant run
the ball or play defense, Prescott and Romo will each end up in a lot of
third-and-long situations with no help at all, which doesnt play to their
strengths whatsoever. This speaks to the value of building an infrastructure
around a quarterback to make everything else work. Passers such as Prescott and
Carson Wentz are off to remarkably quick starts, and the effectiveness of their
offenses has much to do with quality offensive lines and well-schemed game
plans. Jared Goff and Andrew Luck would kill for that sort of help.Knowing that
the Cowboys will need to make a choice one way or another, Im inclined to lean
toward keeping Prescott at quarterback for now, if only because its a lot easier
to go from Dak to Romo if the former struggles than it would be to go from Dak
to Romo and then back to Dak a few weeks later. As I suggested in writing about
Jimmy Garoppolo a few weeks ago, though, its a problem the Cowboys are blessed
to face. Michael Porter Jr. Jersey . Radwanska, making
her debut in the Seoul tournament, hit eight aces in a match that lasted 1 hour,
4 minutes at Olympic Park tennis stadium. "It was definitely a very good match
-- I was playing really good tennis," Radwanska said. Thomas Welsh Jersey . I cant pinpoint a date,
but I do remember a player from my youth. Brian Downing was with the Chicago
White Sox at a time when I listened to every game I possibly could on the radio.
That particular season the late great Harry Caray was calling the White Sox
games. http://www.cheapnuggetsjerseys.com/ . "Four
now," Carl Gunnarsson told the Leaf Report proudly following a 5-2 victory over
New York on Tuesday night, the clubs fifth straight at home.WASHINGTON -- Order
another round for Atlanta Braves manager Fredi Gonzalez, who has learned that a
winning streak can be tough to swallow. The Braves won their 13th straight
Wednesday night, summarily dismissing the Washington Nationals 6-3 to complete a
three-game sweep and take a staggering-for-early-August 15 1/2-game lead in the
NL East. Now Gonzalez will have to keep drinking up. It turns out that the
streak happened to begin on the day that bullpen coach Eddie Perez first gave
the manager some sort of protein drink. Gonzalez hates the taste, but he cant
stop drinking it with his team on such a roll; sure enough, he was sipping the
concoction from a cup in the dugout a couple of hours before Wednesdays game.
"They may be giving me poop. I dont even know what it is," Gonzalez said. "But
Ive been drinking them for 13 days in a row now. Were superstitious, you know."
Maybe there are some four-leafs clovers stashed in the clubhouse as well, the
way the Braves have been playing. While they have a ways to go before they can
mathematically clinch, this week has served as a psychological clincher that
only could be undone by a monumental collapse. "We came in here and we let em
know," first baseman Freddie Freeman said. "Were here to stay." Jason Heyward
singled and Justin Upton doubled in a three-run eighth inning, Upton also
homered, and Braves starter Kris Medlen (9-10) allowed three runs and three hits
over seven innings. Craig Kimbrel pitched the ninth for his 36th save, working
out of a bases loaded jam by getting Wilson Ramos to line out to right to end
the game. The eighth-inning runs came with two outs off relievers Ryan Mattheus
(0-1) and Ian Krol as the Nationals lost their fourth straight and sixth of
their last eight. The defending division champs scored only six runs in the
three games and are losing hope for an alternate path to the post-season as
well, falling nine games off the wild card pace. "Lot of ground to make up, but
you never know what can happen in this game," Nationals manager Davey Johnson
said. &"If nothing else, get our pride back by playing better. Jarred Vanderbilt Jersey. " The game was
played nicely by both sides one night after a fastball to Bryce Harpers thigh
cleared both benches and led to a public spat between the clubs official Twitter
feeds. Braves general manager Frank Wren said before the game that a tweet
directed at Harper was "an inappropriate attempt at humour." When asked about
any possible retaliation, Johnson said it would be "just baseball as usual"
before flashing a smile. As it turned out, the only confrontation involving
Harper was between the young slugger and his own manager, when the two bickered
in the dugout over whether Harper should come out of the game because of a
nagging knee injury. "Yeah, he was checking on my leg and asking how I felt,"
Harper said. "I just told him I felt fine and I dont want him to take me out."
While the game passed without incident between the two teams -- no one was hit
by a pitch -- the saga might not be over. The teams play six more times this
season, including a three-game series next week in Atlanta. Meanwhile, Gonzalez
has to stomach another protein shake. The good news: The Braves have Thursday
off before opening a homestand. "At least," Gonzalez said, "I get tomorrow off
with the shakes." Notes: Andrelton Simmons started the rally in the eighth with
a two-out double off Mattheus. After a walk to a pinch hitter, Heyward singled
in a run off Krol. Upton followed with a two-run double to the left-field
corner. ... Braves CF B.J. Upton has his first four-hit game of the season to
raise his average to a season-high .198. ... Nationals RHP Tanner Roark made his
major league debut with two scoreless innings. He also made a superb defensive
play, diving to catch Medlens sacrifice bunt attempt and throwing to first for a
double play. ... Heyward returned to the lineup after leaving Tuesdays game with
a strained neck muscle. "I felt a lot better when I woke up," he said. "Didnt
have any head weirdness or headache or anything like that." Cheap NFL Hoodies Cheap Nike NFL Jerseys Wholesale Nike NFL Jerseys Wholesale Jerseys Free
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