5 Thoughts on Dallas Cowboys Preseason Game 1

It didn't take long to recall that I was watching a game between 6-10 and 4-12 teams. Particularly considering that neither team made any significant personnel upgrades in the off-season.

1) The first thing I noticed is that there are not 53 guys on the current roster that should make this team. Even if you accept this is a bad team they are going to have to pick up some guys off the waiver wire to fill out a 53-man roster.

2) Rob Ryan's defense has a lot of work to do. There was a lot of talk about guys not knowing the system and still learning how to communicate, but this defense only has 2 new guys and for the most part the Broncos were running right up the middle so not sure how that relates to poor communication. Looked like guys were just getting pushed back to me!

3) Time to go young. At WR there is no one that has claimed the 3-5 spots. The way I see it Dwayne Harris becomes the slot guy, Ogletree is not a slot guy so he cant be the #3, make him the #4 so he can play on the outside. For the last spot they should pick the best special teams players or bring in a veteran that could potentially be the #3 guy. At LB there are a lot of young guys. Its time to give significant playing time to the players like Sean Lee and Victor Butler. Plus take a shot on a guy like Orie Lemon and Kerwin Cummings and hope Bruce Carter is ready to play after he joins the team from injury. If Garrett is going to hold true his mantra of putting the best players on the field it's time to lessen the role of Bradie James and Keith Brooking.

4) The Cowboys are going to be playing in a lot of close games. This just seems to be the nature of Jason Garrett as a coach. He can develop competitive game plans, but seems to be unable to make key adjustments for his team to close out games. Not making any predictions yet, but I just feel games this season against good and bad teams will be close.

5) Finally, lack of depth is going to be a big issue this season almost across every position except LB, TE, and QB. None will be a bigger concern than at RB. I actually feel good about the talent at RB with Felix Jones, Tashard Choice, and Demarco Murray, but I just wonder if they will be healthy. They all have history of injuries and even if they are on the field if they are battling injuries they will be ineffective. It would be great if they could package all 3 and go get a guy like Chris Johnson who the Titans refuse to pay!

I know you have to be thinking how can I not make any comments on the OL? I didn't see enough in this game to weigh in on that yet. I will look forward to the next few preseason games to get a better idea of how this team will shape up for 2011.

Read more!

President Obama has a Midwest Problem

After the 2010 Midterm elections the pundits had just about predicted all Democrats would be out of office by 2012. Some acknowledged that these trends followed typical midterm election results and not any specific referendum, but I think the most telling referendum in today's electorate is that they will vote out the incumbent no matter who it is.

After careful analysis of the election results it became very apparent to me that in spite of the 2010 election results, President Obama's 2012 electability is still quite strong and that is without even taking into consideration the weak field of GOP Presidential candidates.

The biggest shake-up was in the House with the Democrats losing a whopping 63 seats, but electoral votes are allocated statewide not in House Districts so one would be hard-pressed to extrapolate those results to statewide election results in 2012. The better barometer would be the statewide races for the Senate and for Governor. Which on the surface considering the Democrats lost 6 seats in each race you would think would reflect a similar result as the outcome of the House races, but there are a few things to consider.

When you examine the states that flipped from Democrats to GOP you will see a trend. In the Senate race it was ND, AR, WI, IL, IN, PA, and AR. In the Gubernatorial race it was WY, NM, KS, OK, TN, OH, PA, ME, IA, WI, and MI.

So the first thing you notice is...that is a lot of losses!!! Then you look state by state and you will quickly realize many of these are states that President Obama didn't win in the landslide victory in 2008. So if you consider what is really at risk in 2012 are the states that he won that flipped from the Democrats to GOP which leaves NM, IA, WI, MI, OH, PA, and ME.

If you look at this collection of states and you stayed awake in Geography class you will now understand the title of my blog post. Democrats had big losses in the traditionally Democratic Midwest. This will be the key battleground for President Obama in the 2012 election campaign. Democrats need to get laser focused on the issues that are concerning the Midwest and make sure it is clear that the GOP candidates are not campaigning to fix these issues, but rather to usher in a political ideology of failed policies. We have seen the results of this in states like WI, so voters are already seeing the error of their ways... I notice the Presidential Bus Tour is focused on the Midwest so this concern has not been lost by the Campaign. Read more!