I have been saying all year the details would be our undoing.
1) First and most important are penalties. 14 penalties in a playoff game is disgraceful. I still remember when MM praised L Collins for hitting the guy late that hit Dak. Many on here disagreed, but we were the most penalized team in the league at the time. There was never any repercussion for those penalties. He should have taken a hard stand with the players earlier in the year. It is unacceptable and should affect playing time. At least take them out of the game to a long stare. Do anything, but don't endorse them. But that was all he did and we saw how that works when you actually play a playoff team.
2) Game /Clock management. MM just doesn't have a good feel for the game. Most good coaches go to the hurry up when their offense needs a jump start. The Cowboys could of used that early in the game. Managing the clock in the second half with a major deficit is something he never seems interested in doing either. He was ok with calling a run play with 14 seconds left. The rule of thumb among coaches is 18 seconds and under is a pass unless you have timeouts.
3) Get the right guys the ball. They forgot about Amari until he went to the press. Zeke has a partially torn knee ligament and is averaging less than 3 ypc. Pollard leads the league in ypc and we keep giving the bulk of the touches to Zeke. This shouldn't be that hard.
4) The kicker. He has not been good. Should have been addressed sooner. Didn't hurt us today, but you can't have that many misses from an NFL kicker. Even with a win today, the Z-Man would of cost us before the SB.
5) The sun blinding players. Just stupid JJ has not fixed this yet.
Moving forward:
Need to fire MM. He should have been fired for hiring his buddy Mike Nolan to make our defense historically bad. I would be fine with Dan Quinn being promoted. KM can leave with MM.
Need to fix our interior OL. Need to draft the best C/G we can find this year early. Draft two of them. Connor Williams should be a back up or he can walk via FA. The kid from WI is not as good as the last one. Need to do an overhaul there. Good news is interior OL don't tend to go as high in the first rd.
Draft the best college kicker with our 6th or 7th rd pick.
Draft another LBer
Consider signing LVE if he is reasonable. He stayed healthy and played fairly well.
Watch Gallup leave and take the 3rd. We just don't have the cap room.
At the end, I will say JJ is a good family man and a terrific business man. I just wish he could hire a good Coach that is a difference maker. I also wish he didn't get so close to the players. His personal relationships cost our cap big when he negotiates. That is why we have 55 million committed next year to our QB and RB that are not even pro bowlers. Terrible.
