Football Musings …

After the Cowboys/Cards game was over last night, I went to gather up a couple of game stats and/or something interesting about the game to use as commentary for the upcoming Football Friday.  One thing I noticed was that the official attendance figure for that game was 92,211.  That made me go and check to see the seating capacity of Jerry-World and according to both Wikipedia and Google/AI mode the place seats 80,000.  Before anyone jumps down my throat, I know about the concept of “standing room only” and I am sure that the Dallas Cowboys do significant business in the “standing room marketplace”.

And yet …  I remember seeing lots – – and I do mean lots – – of empty blue seats in that facility early on in last night’s game.  I am not talking about late in the 4^th quarter when the outcome was no longer in doubt and the Cowboys’ faithful had kissed goodbye their bets handing the Cards an additional 3 points.  I am talking about the first half when the Cowboys trailed but were still very much “in the game”.  Then I realized what had happened.

• It was only three days after Halloween and all those folks in Texas who dressed up as Claude Rains for that holiday decided to wear their costumes one more time for the Cardinals’ game on Monday Night Football.
• Yeah, that’s it …

One other snarky comment about last night’s telecast …  When Marvin Harrison caught his short TD pass in the first half, the Cowboys’ DB got his feet tangled up and fell down making the play a trivial completion for NFL caliber players.  Troy Aikman referred to that incident as a “blown coverage”.  Yes, it gave up a TD, but that is not the worst occurrence of a “blown coverage”; the worst occurrence would be a burst condom.

Moving on …  Injuries are part of football; someone said that football is not a contact sport; it is a collision sport.  Every team has to deal with injuries but the kind of injuries that are significantly more difficult to deal with are the ones that hit a certain position on a team with multiple players going down in that position.  That situation seems to obtain in the Los Angeles Chargers’ locker room.

• Rashawn Slater was named to the Pro Bowl twice in his career as an offensive tackle for the Chargers.  He ruptured his patellar tendon back in training camp and is out for the season.
• Joe Alt moved from RT to LT to replace Slater in training camp; he was playing well in that new position.  Alt suffered an ankle injury last weekend that will require surgery and will render hm hors du combat for the rest of the year.
• Trey Pipkins assumed the RT position that Alt vacated back in August.  He is now hurt.
• Bobby Hart was signed to back up Pipkins; he got hurt last weekend with a “groin injury”.

So, who is left on the Chargers’ depth chart to play offensive tackle?

• Austin Deculus is a rookie sixth-round pick from LSU.
• Jamaree Salyer was a sixth-round pick from Georgia in 2022.  He is also listed as the back-up right guard at the moment.
• Foster Sarrell was an undrafted free agent from Stanford in 2021.  He is also listed as the back-up left guard at the moment.

The NFL trade deadline is later this afternoon.  I suspect the Chargers are in the market for an offensive lineman or maybe even two.

And speaking of the NFL trade deadline …  The Dallas Cowboys’ defense is awful it ranks 31^st in a 32-team league.  That defense does not play the run very well, the DBs are suspect at best, and the entire unit misses a lot of tackles.   Yesterday, owner Jerry Jones let it be known that he had a trade in the works but that he could not yet reveal it because he had not pulled the trigger on the deal.  Jones loves the limelight and that sort of “mysterious” foreshadowing is right in his wheelhouse.  Well, today there are reports that indeed he will make a deal that will add a player to his defensive unit.  Except …

• He has acquired a linebacker from the Bengals – – the only defense in the league worse than the Cowboys.
• That linebacker had been demoted by the Bengals from “defensive starter” to “special teams’ player”.

Moreover, even if Jerry Jones found a way to reincarnate a 27-year-old Reggie White, the Cowboys’ defense is incapable of achieving mediocrity with the addition of one player.

Finally, here is an entry from The Official Dictionary of Sarcasm:

“Injury:  A trauma or wound inflicted upon one’s body or one’s psyche.  While the former can lead to some debilitating medical expenses, there is unfortunately no coverage in place for the damage done by somebody calling you a worthless sack of crap.”

But don’t get me wrong, I love sports………