He's fine. Bailey is exactly as he was advertised before the season started. Accurate, but doesn't have a particularly strong leg and lacks a very good range. Notice that his longest attempt was 51 yards this season before yesterday. So, knowing that, him missing from 53 and 49 isn't a huge shock. The NFL average success rate at those ranges works out to about 50% and 56% and he figures to be lower than that. And by the way all 3 of of his misses are on grass fields where he's only 6-for-9. Still perfect on turf.

Same deal with that Forbath kid we have stashed on the NFI list, at least as far as accuracy/leg strength goes. Probably why Buehler still has a job.

I wouldn't sweat Bailey though, here are his stats on the season with yesterday:

0-29 yards: 9/10 (missed 21 yarder vs SF, 2nd kick ever)
30-39 yards: 10/10
40-49 yards: 8/9
50+: 2/3

That's pretty good for anybody, esp a rookie. I'll take that all day even if it means I'm punting instead of trying to kick a 52 yarder in close spots.

le gonso,

no you're right i reacted to your post as you said, i took what you said as it doesn't matter at all when what you said was it doesn't change much. still, with a fan base that's use to hearing wade phillips talk about, "well yeah we lost, but we won the first 3 quarters. i don't hear anybody talking about that." putting a positive spin on things after a demoralizing loss isn't exactly uplifting even if it is logical.

to answer your question, no i didn't see them as a nfc powerhouse, but i did give them credit for not being a team that gives games away. if they win on sunday then i'll view it as lucky because nyg didn't put them in a position where they could of given the game away because this damn team tries to do that nearly every week.

also, i think you're underestimating the value of being up a game on those other teams competing for a wild card spot. in that sense, the loss in arizona did changes things.


edit: let me clarify one thing. i said they try to give games away every week, and in the same breathe i said i gave them credit for not doing that until last week. that is because, until last week i was under the delusion that they were the "good team that finds a way to win games" myth/crap.

and why do you think the 6-6 giants are elite? We're at home against a .500 team and we have Miles, and Fiametta coming back. Should win this game.

when did i call the giants elite? but since you brought it up, do you think the cowboys' def could look respectable in the same way the giants' def did against a-rod & company on sunday? i mean, you're picking a pretty bad week to pick on the giants imo, they nearly upset the green & gold machine.

I don't think they're giving games away, they're just getting beat sometimes because they're really not all that good. I can count on one hand the Dallas players having a really exceptional season and you have to have more people step up than that.

Maybe if a few more Spencer/Jenkins/Sensabaugh/Bryant/Spears/Free starter types were banging out a career year (instead of just being ok-pretty good) we'd be doing something. A few new guys like Murray, Robinson, Lee have shown up and brought some WIM with them at least.

It's one game. I thought they played well on offense but they still have issues which is why they're .500 and just dropped four straight.

Yup, the Giants haven't won a game in over a month. Them almost beating Green Bay might actually be the highlight of their season so far.

You seem to be forgetting the 49ers, both Skins games, and just recently Miami. We're a slightly above average team, what do you want? Luckily our division is aids so we have a solid shot of winning it.

I have a bad feeling about the Giants game. Last time I had this feeling was the eagles game, and we all know what happened.

Lets hope I'm wrong! still have bad memories in my head, like eli shredding our secondary last year, and also beating us in the inaugural death star game

Giants have an elite passing game no doubt but are legit horrible at everything else.

They rush the passer well. Arizona absolutely raped our OL, the Giants could kill Romo.

Not with Osi and Tuck playing hurt. Pierre Paul gives me nightmares though.

Cowboys are currently 13:1 to win the superbowl. I'm not seeing it.

Have to win Sunday first

did anybody hear the "don't ice, ice bailey" parody song set to the vanilla ice "ice, ice baby" beat on the ticket this week?

Sensabaugh extended. 5 years, $22m w/ $8m guaranteed.

Doesn't excite me but he's doing okay enough this year, and even mediocre safeties have cost a lot in free agency recently.

At the same time it bothers me a little that JJ seems so reluctant to ever let any players walk. This year they already overpaid Scandrick, resigned Spears who is now a backup, and then Ratliff got a deal that will have him here past his 36th birthday. Hatcher got a 3-year deal. Sensabaugh is probably the best deal of the bunch but you'd think we have the #1 defense the way we're sticking with the same crew. Wouldn't be surprised to see them shoot for Spencer & Elam too before it's all done.

Read somewhere that Sensabaugh has graded out as a top 10 safety this year, also think the contract is pretty backloaded so its unlikely he sticks through all of it anyway. i like it. would like to see some secondary players really pan out in the draft though. jenkins is the only one of recent memory thats doing much and hes had 1 good season 1 bad season and most of a decent season

Sensi is grading out as the #10 safety this year on PFF, and he ended last year as the #10. IIRC that was out of 50 players with qualifying number of plays, some others were lost to injury and not counted. So it's okay, he's a bottom of the top quartile type and a good solider. I think it's a reasonable deal with relatively little risk and we definitely needed to keep one of our safeties.

It's going to be interesting to see how they're going to manage the cap next year and beyond. You can roll over unused space from this year into next year's cap, and there are a couple deals like Free and Scandrick's that can be restructured and pushed it off into future years, but we're already tapping that well.

Even after all these deals there are still several starters and useful contributors we will need to either re-sign or replace:

Laurent Robinson
Anthony Spencer
Terence Newman
Abram Elam
Mat McBriar
Dockery, Holland

Then of course we'll probably want a better center, a tight end (lol Bennett), a new #2 or #3 QB to replace Kitna, one of the fullbacks, ILB depth to replace Brooking and probably James also, a number #4 and #5 corner to replace Ball & Walker (I like Walker here btw), a new swing tackle. Have to pay the rookie pool after that. Next up you'll need some free agents and replacements for injuries as the season goes on. Even after all of that you need still more if there are players if you want to extend, maybe Jenkins or McGee or somebody who comes in out of nowhere and tears it up.

I know some people don't look like looking ahead, but the deals they're signing now affect things. Last I looked next year's cap situation was gross and that's before several of these deals were made, and yes I'm already factoring in the players we're expected to cut or let retire + the rollover money.

but it's Sunday y'allllllllllllllllllll

We're getting the W boys.

we're so ****ed now. i'm not even happy that it benefits my fantasy football team with felix jones on my bench. i'd rather just have meaningful football to watch in january, and i don't consider hosting the falcons with no demarco murray meaningful football; especially, when the winner of that contest's big reward is a date with green bay at lambeau field the next week.

i really thought he had a legit shot with murray. this sucks so much.

Is there anything worse than being a cowboys fan this decade

icing the kicker is so (a term you're not allowed to use on this website)! seriously, coughlin is sitting there waiting to call the timeout past the point of no return on the ball being snapped. that shouldn't be allowed, and i'm not just saying that because it effected my team. i'd say the same thing if jason garrett was doing that chicken-S.

This is the kind of game I'm talking about when I wonder why JJ wants to resign the entire damn defense. This crew is just terrible in the 4th quarter.

I read this at first as the other pronunciation of "resign", and thought to myself "Damn, that's a pretty good idea."

le gonso,

to be fair i think ware and jenkins aren't playing anywhere close to 100%, probably not much above 80%, if that. i agree with you though. jerry jones is the nut low. i'd much rather rob ryan just keep & cut whoever he wanted and jerry jones stay the hell out of it. unfortunately, that'll never happen. what we need is for jones to basically run his course the way al davis did, and then maybe we can be good again.