CLOYCE STETSON
LUBBOCK, TX
It seemed that a bunch of Romo's passes on Sunday were lofted and lacked the zip of his past years. I noticed he was not setting his feet before these throws. I hope he really can make all the throws, because these lobs will never make it to the receivers before the "windows" close. Since I saw very little of training camp, I wonder if his mechanics are back yet.
Bryan: I believe the observation that you had of his game against the 49ers is the correct one. The best example of that to me was the third down throw across the middle to Cole Beasley late in the game. It's a throw that Romo has made a hundred times, but in this case his left foot was wide open, as were his hips. His momentum was all going to the left trying to make a throw that required him to be square to the target. He tried to throw the ball by flipping it and it was way too high. What was strange about his game is that if you look at the early throws to Williams and Bryant on the slants he was right where he needed to be.
David: Jerry Jones talked about this a bit on his weekly radio show on 105.3 The Fan on Tuesday. He pointed out that Romo's longest gain of the day, a 57-yarder to Dwayne Harris, came on a "duck" of a throw. This raises some pretty obvious questions about whether Romo is rusty after a limited preseason, or if he is still feeling the effects of his back injury. I saw him make enough good, accurate throws during training camp that I'm willing to chalk it up to rust. But it's something to keep an eye on.
NATE MATTHEWS
RIO GRANDE, NJ
Is it me, or our cornerbacks always out of position regardless if pass rush gets there or not? Too often there is too much of a cushion on 3rd and short given to wide receivers from these "man-to-man" corners, with zero anticipation as to where the first down marker is.
Bryan:That is a fair point. I will tell you what I worry about more and that is when Carr and Claiborne line up tight and don't get their hands on the receivers -- that drives me nuts. Garrett addressed the issues on third down in zone coverage by telling us that the underneath coverage to the flat was poor. There was a play where I know that Wilcox was out of shape but then later in the game, [embedded_ad] Kaepernick tried to throw the ball to the outside and Durant was underneath to make sure the ball was thrown wide so at least for one play the defense did what it was called to do.
David: I'm not a coach, but the cushions the cornerbacks were giving San Francisco and third downs seemed like entirely too much to me. There's something to be said for limiting big plays, but when you consider the defense was already in a two or three-possession hole, I'd have liked to see some tighter coverage. That's what Carr and Claiborne are best at.
