Jean-Jacques Taylor: Return game needs Newman
07:14 PM CST on Tuesday, December 6, 2005
The time has come to let cornerback Terence Newman become a full-time
punt returner.
The offense is stagnant and Tyson Thompson hasn’t been a factor on
kickoff returns in more than a month. The way to improve field position
and help the offense is to let Newman be a punt returner. After all, he
was one of the best in the nation as a senior at Kansas State, and he
has shown the ability to do it well on this level in limited
opportunities.
You can’t criticize coach Bill Parcells for being reluctant to use
Newman because he has been a superb player this season, and if he were
to be injured, it would be a significant loss. He also lacks the thick
body style that Parcells prefers his returners to have.
Newman is a taller, slender player, which makes him less likely to run
through arm tackles, and a little more prone to injury if he’s caught
with a powerful shot.
But he had a 26-yard return against the Giants, taking the kick near the
left sideline and outrunning the pursuit until he being pushed out of
bounds on the right sideline. Against Detroit, he had a 25-yard return
called back because of an illegal block in the back that would have set
Dallas up inside the Lions’ 20.
Patrick Crayton is a solid punt returner. He’s going to always catch the
ball, which is the most important thing, but he doesn’t really give
Dallas a big-play threat because he lacks the speed to go the distance,
though he has enough moves to make a defender miss.
Newman doesn’t have shifty moves, but his speed is special. He runs
north and south, and he wants an opportunity to do it.
Dallas needs 10 wins to virtually guarantee a playoff berth. That makes
Sunday’s home game against Kansas City a must-win.
There’s no need to save Newman. The Cowboys are running out of games.
Q: What happened to Peerless Price? He’s fast and seems to run
good routes, or does he not fit the Cowboys’ offensive scheme?
Carl Bellgrave
TAYLOR: Parcells never really wanted him. It was a matter of
Jerry Jones and Drew Bledsoe convincing Parcells to add him to the
roster. Parcells never gave him even a small part of the offense, and
then ditched him as soon as Patrick Crayton recovered from his ankle
sprain that kept him out for five weeks. The Cowboys say they didn’t see
any spark from Price and ultimately decided they would rather go with
one of their young players.
• • •
Q: Dallas really needs some playmakers on offense, especially at
receiver. I think Michael Irvin was right: Dallas just has a bunch of
No. 2 receivers. What do you think?
Bob Morikuni, Honolulu
TAYLOR: I think you’re being a little harsh. Keyshawn Johnson and
Terry Glenn have played well much of the year, but the offensive line
has to play well for Bledsoe to have time to throw the ball – and when
he gets it, Bledsoe must deliver the ball. This offense is predicated on
running the ball and setting up play-action passes. When this offense
can’t run, it’s going to have problems.
• • •
Q: I was at the Giants-Cowboys game, and you can see some things
that you can’t easily see on TV. First, Keyshawn was covered most of the
time by a guy a foot shorter than him. Why didn’t Drew Bledsoe throw to
him all day long since he was open most of the time? Speaking of
throwing, why didn’t they throw more against a weak Giants secondary?
Why not in the middle of the field or some deep balls?
George Helmstetter, Trenton, N.J.
TAYLOR: George, Bledsoe was sacked four times and pressured
relentlessly. He had time early in the game to make a couple of throws
but didn’t. Later in the game, he had no chance because the Cowboys
couldn’t block the Giants. It’s a lot easier to sit back and say they
should’ve done this or that, but the entire offense was bad Sunday.
• • •
Q: How far do you think the team can go with Torrin Tucker and
Rob Petitti at the tackle positions?
Jim Lincoln
TAYLOR: I don’t think they can get to the Super Bowl, which is
the ultimate goal. Neither one is good enough to consistently block
elite players one-on-one, which means the Cowboys have to give one or
both help on a regular basis. It’s hard to get the passing game going
when you have seven or eight guys blocking. Tucker and Petitti are
average players. You need good players to get to the Super Bowl.
• • •
Q: What is Sean Payton, the offensive coordinator, doing? He
calls the most predictable game plan that I have ever seen. First down:
run. Second down: run. Third down: pass.
Curtis Shaheed
TAYLOR: What you have to understand is that some of the things
he’s doing is to minimize the weak points of this offense. The Cowboys
are struggling at tackle, so you don’t want them exposed to pass rushers
on a regular basis. The best way for Dallas to win games is to pass when
it wants to pass and run when it wants to run. Like most teams, Dallas
is not good offensively when it’s one-dimensional. Payton is trying to
protect the tackles by running the ball. That said, Dallas still has
close to a 1:1 run-pass ratio.
• • •
Q: I don’t understand why there has been no comment by reporters
about Parcells’ decision to not play the two backup quarterbacks. You
can say that they have all been close games, and we needed our best
quarterback in the game. But now the team is 7-5. Tony Romo can do more
than hold the ball for field goals and extra points. Why not give him a
chance?
John R. O’Brien
TAYLOR: So you want to play a quarterback who has never taken an
NFL snap with four games left in the season and a good chance to make
the playoffs. I don’t think that’s too smart. Dallas beat Philadelphia
by 23 points and Arizona by 21. The other games have been decided by a
touchdown or less. Buffalo blew a 20-point fourth-quarter lead in the
last 10 minutes on Sunday. You can criticize Parcells for a lot of
things this season, but not playing Romo isn’t one of them.
• • •
Q: I know losing Flozell Adams hurts big time, but the center is
a problem and so is Marco Rivera. Rivera has to be the biggest waste of
money the Joneses have spent in a long time. What do you think?
Earl Robertson, Dalhart, Texas
TAYLOR: I think Rivera has struggled quite a bit. Some of it
might be because of his back and the time he had to miss in training
camp. The reality is that he hasn’t been the Pro Bowl-caliber player the
Cowboys thought they were getting. He’s getting pushed back in the
middle and leads the team with five procedure penalties.
• • •
Q: The defense played well and the offense didn’t even show up
for the Giants game. How does that happen after 10 days off, with a
playoff atmosphere and the chance to lock up first place in the NFC East?
Kevin Hawkey, Portage, Mich.
TAYLOR: There is a difference between coming out flat and getting
beat by the other team. When a unit makes few mental mistakes and still
can’t generate any offense, then it’s an indication the players are
losing one-on-one battles. That’s what happened against the Giants. It
had nothing to do with not being ready to play. It had to do with the
Giants’ defensive line dominating the Cowboys’ offensive line and making
life uncomfortable for Drew Bledsoe.
• • •
Q: Are you concerned at all about the performance of the running
game in the last few games? Do you think it’s too early to put the
“bust” label on Julius Jones?
Tim Moran, Odessa, Texas
TAYLOR: It’s way too early to put a label like that on Jones. He
suffered a serious ankle injury, and it’s pretty clear that he’s not
going to be 100 percent until next season. Jones has been dropped for no
gain or a loss on nearly 25 percent of his carries. Do you really think
that’s his fault? Nope. That’s a leaky offensive line.
• • •
Q: Dallas has invested three second-round draft choices (Al
Johnson, Andre Gurode, Jacob Rogers) and a third-round choice (Stephen
Peterman) in recent years to upgrade the offensive line. Did the
previous scouting staff flat-out miss on every one of these players?
Timothy Stearns
TAYLOR: It looks like it, although Johnson has been a solid
player for the most part. The NFL has always been about the draft. When
you miss on players in the first, second or third round, it really
handicaps a team. If the Cowboys had hit on Rogers, then they’d have a
quality player with pedigree in the lineup instead of a sixth-round pick
and an undrafted free agent. Peterman was active for the first time in
his career on Sunday, and Gurode has been up and down throughout his
career.
E-mail jjtaylor@dallasnews.com
