Dallas Cowboys football cards

The Dallas Cowboys 2012 NFL Draft started with a BANG!  They traded up in the 1st round to select LSU corner back Morris Claiborne. Claiborn was one of the best talents in the draft and easily the best defensive back in the entire draft. After their initial splash, the Cowboys simply prodded along. They filled some needs at tight end and safety, plus they got a defensive end and a couple of linebackers but nothing spectacular like Claiborne. Of course its hard to pick up gems like Claiborne in the later rounds plus you just never know what these late round picks will end up like.

Round 1: Pick 6 (6th overall). The Cowboys selected Morris Claiborne corner back from LSU. Claiborne graded out at a 91.5. Which projects him to be an immediate starter and impact player with the ability and intangibles to be a Pro Bowl Player. Surprisingly there were No football cards of Morris Claiborne available from the top 4 2012 Pre-Draft card releases of Sage Hit, Press Pass, Leaf Draft and Upper Deck. Certainly there will be plenty of Morris Claiborne cards from the upcoming Topps and Panini brands.. surely!

Round 2: The Cowboys gave this pick to the Rams in the trade that allowed them to move up and select Claiborne with the 6th overall pick. A small price to pay for a projected Pro Bowl starting CB. Knock on wood!

Round 3: Pick 18 (81st pick overall) The Cowboys selected Defensive End Tyrone Crawford from Boise State. Crawford is a typical 5-technique player that should fit in well in their base 3-4 defense. He will likely not start right away but will give the Cowboys much needed depth at the position. Crawford graded out at a 77.5 which means he is expected to eventually become a starter for the Cowboys.  Once again Cowboy card collectors struck out with Crawford as there are currently no football cards available from the current brands of Sage Hit, Press Pass, Leaf Draft and Upper Deck.

Round 4: Pick 18 (113th pick overall) The Cowboys selected Linebacker Kyle Wilber of Wake Forest. Wilber is a edge speed rusher that could help the Cowboys in the future playing on the opposite side of Demarcus Ware. He graded out at a 60.5 which means if he makes the team, it will likely be because of his special teams play. The Cowboys finally selected a player that was included in one of the current football card brands. Wilber is the only Dallas Cowboys draft pick that was included in any of the top 4 pre-draft football cards sets. Kyle Wilber shows up in the 2012 Upper Deck brand. The base card (#186) is listed as a short print and currently demanding a premium but will eventually fall back to a fair price in the dollar or less range once more brands hit the market and collectors forget about these early releases.

Round 4: Pick 40 (135th pick overall) This was a compensatory pick. The Cowboys selected safety Matt Johnson from Eastern Washington. Johnson’s grade was only 49.2 which made him a bit of a reach in the 4th round and likely could have been had as an undrafted free agent. I guess the Cowboys figured this was a FREE draft pick so why not take a flyer. If Johnson makes the team, expect it to be as a special teams player.

Round 5: Pick 17 (152nd pick overall) The Cowboys selected Wide Receiver Danny Coale from Virginia Tech. Coale is a big, physical receiver just like the Cowboys like but his grade of 58.2 means he will have to make quite an impression to make the Cowboys as a 3rd or 4th receiver. If so, expect him to make an immediate impact on special teams.

Round 6: Pick 16 (186th pick overall) The Cowboys selected Tight End James Hanna from the University of Oklahoma. The Cowboys needed to select a a tight end in the 2012 NFL Draft with the loss of Martellus Bennett to the New York Giants in free agency and Hanna seems to be a nice find in the 6th round. Hanna graded out at 65.0 which makes him a nice prospect but not likely to start anytime soon.  If he can improve as a blocker the Cowboys will surely find him a spot on the roster as the third tight end behind Jason Witten and John Phillips.

Round 7: Pick 15 (222nd pick overall) the Cowboys selected linebacker Caleb McSurdy from Montana. McSurdy’s grade of 52.7 projects him as a prospect that will likely have to compete hard to win a spot on the roster.

I was quite disappointed with the Cowboys 2012 draft. Not the players necessarily but the fact that only 1 player showed up in the current pre-draft football card sets. Typically there are at least 2 or more players from the pre-draft sets and almost always the 1st rounder. It’s very odd not seeing Claiborne in one of those sets.  A head scratcher for sure.

On a side note, the Cowboys signed 4 undrafted free agents that did appear in the 2012 Upper Deck brand:
Eddie Whitely safety from Virginia Tech is part of the 2012 Upper Deck brand card# 218. This card could be a short print, not sure yet.
Bryce Beall Running back from Houston is also part of the 2012 Upper Deck brand card#64.
Darrell Scott Running back from South Florida is also part of the 2012 Upper Deck brand card# 122
Tim Benford Wide Receiver from Tennessee Tech was part of the 2012 Leaf Draft Autographs set card# TB1 as well as the 2012 Upper Deck set card# 75.

I have not added these undrafted players to my database just yet. If they make the team or get cut and signed to the Cowboys practice squad, I will add them but if they don’t then I don’t think I will add them because they will likely end up on another team.

2012 Draft | Comments (0)

Panini released its latest High End brand (Limited) just before the new year. 2011 Limited is a high end brand that retails at $100 per pack. Each pack contains 7 cards. From those 7 cards you get 1 or 2 Autographed cards, 1 or 2 Game Used cards, 2 veterans, 1 Rookie card and 1 retired legend. Every card in the brand is serial numbered with the highest serial number coming from the base veterans, rookies and legends at 499.  There are 164 total Dallas Cowboy cards from the 2011 Limited brand. There are 12 Cowboys in the base set with 4 veterans (Felix, Austin, Witten, Romo), there are 5 retired legends (Novacek, Aikman, Hayes, Harris, Smith) and 3 Rookies (Harris, Smith, Murray) the Murray base rookie contains a relic and is serial numbered to 299 vs the 499.

The sheer number of Autographs and Relic cards will make this brand very popular among collectors but the Limited quantities will keep the cost higher than average collectors typically like to spend. There are plenty of 2011 Limited Cowboys available on ebay at this time and with the NFL season coming to a close, you will likely find the prices a bit more desirable.

2011 Cards | Comments (1)

As the 2011 NFL regular season wound down there appeared to be a shift in the NFL paradigm that a great Running game and a great Defense wins Championships.  This was backed up by the fact taht 4 of the 12 teams in the NFL Playoffs touted a much superior passing offense compared to their run offense and each had a very poor defense.  The Lions, Saints and Packers were among the top passing teams in the league and were labled as virtually unstoppable on offense and on the AFC side was the New England Patriots who threw the ball at will almost ignoring the run and had the 30th ranked defense in the league.  Now all these high powered offenses are going home minus one, the Patroits who in reality got a second week off or another bye week by having to playthe Broncos. In fairness though, the Broncos defense was suppose to be one of the leagues best so we have to give the Patriots some credit here… but still it was Tebow and the Broncos.  The reason the other 3 teams are heading home is because their defense couldn’t tackle or guard any one in a pass pattern. 

The Lions were taken out in an Arena League game vs the Saints at the dome. Then the Saints turned around and gave the 49ers the ball on 5 turnovers and yet still were able to take the lead with just over 2 minutes to play but the defense couldn’t stop Alex Smith and the 49ers from sending the Saints back home in the Divisional round for the second year in a row. Some where in Atlanta a Falcons fan is smiling, as are the Detroit Lions fans. Karma is a bitc$..

The Packers wasted arguably the greatest season in half a dozen years by not only forgetting how to tackle on defense but also how to knock down a hail mary pass.  Of course the 8 dropped passes on offense had something to do with the end result as did the 3 turnovers but yet I couldn’t help but wonder what the game would have been like had the Packers played a  little defense especially against the pass.  Where was the great Clay Mathews at when the Packers needed him to put pressure on Eli Manning?  I know, he was practicing for his newest upcoming commercial.  As the game ended, I couldn’t help but think back to Mark Rypien, who had a Super Bowl and League MVP in a short span only to flame out within a few years. Just sayin’

We are left with 2 great defenses in the NFC with the Giants and the 49ers. The Giants without question have the better offense which should give them the edge in the Championship game but the Giants have also been so inconsistant this year and I am still not sold that they are going to keep playing at a high level. On the other hand, the 49ers offense is putrid. They put together a great couple of series vs the Saints defense in the final minutes on Saturday but before the final few minutes, they were simply terrible on offense vs a terrible defense which does not bode well for them. 

 In the AFC, the Texans and Ravens were both touting solid defenses with questionable offenses.  The game played out as you might expect. A fairly good defensive struggled with the Texans Rookie QB finally cracking under the pressure throwing 3 picks. It was hard to really guage the Patriots vs Broncos. In fairness, Tebow played the same way he has played most of the year only the Broncos defense has kept the Broncos in every game giving Tebow and the offense a chance to win it in the end. This time, there was no Broncos defense that I could see. After 6 touchdown passes by Tom Brady, the Patroits simply called the dogs off mid way through the 3rd qtr or the score could have been 72-10.

The Patroits offense will have a bit more trouble this week vs Baltimore but they are at home. I suspect they can put up 24 points or more even against a great defense like Baltimore. The big question is, can the Ravens score more than 24 against the Patriots weak defense. I am not sold on that proposition so I give the edge to the Patriots.

I think we are headed to a Super Bowl XLII rematch Giants vs Patriots.

2011 Games | Comments (1)

The 2012 Dallas Cowboys were exactly what their final record says they were, average. An 8-8 middle of the road team. They beat the teams they were suppose to beat with the exception of the Cardinals game and they lost to the teams they were suppose to loose to with the exception of the 49ers game. Beating the teams you are suppose to beat is a sign of good coaching, if you ask me. Loosing to the teams your suppose to loose to simply means you need better players.

There are two glaring areas that need immediate upgrades if the Cowboys hope to get better and those 2 areas are offensive line and secondary. Tony Romo was sacked 6 times in the Cowboys final game vs the Giants which was the most they had given up all year by a long shot. They gave up 39 sacks for the season which is just over 2 a game but 29 of the sacks came in the 8 games they lost vs the better teams. It makes sense but also underscores one of the Cowboys biggest weakness’, their offense line especially pass protection.

You don’t have to be a football genius to recognize probably the Cowboys biggest weakness this year, the Defensive Secondary. The Cowboys had top 10 rushing defense but they were in the bottom 3rd against the Pass.  At 8-8, the Cowboys will be near the 15/16th pick in the draft. Hopefully they will be able to address their obvious weakness’ on the O line but a corner or safety would be better address’ via free agency. At least if they want to improve their secondary in 2012.

2011 Games | Comments (0)

I think everyone knew coming into this game that it would be hard fought.  The Dolpins are simply a tough out despite their record. Tony Sparano has them playing as hard as any team is playing right now. Excuses aside, I feel the Cowboys didn’t play that well.  The good news is, the Cowboys can play bad and still win. They didn’t play terribly as they did in Philly a month  ago but they simply were sloopy.  But just good enough to eek out a 20-19 win at home for their 4th straight win of the year.. i could get used to the wins, not the nail biters though!

2 early Tony Romo interceptions could have spelled disaster but the Cowboys defense responded and allowed only 3 points from those miscues.  This game was really a game of two halves. In the first half, the cowboys defense limited the Dolphins to 2 field goals on 3 attempts and created the Cowboys only TD by recovering a Matt Moore fumble inside their own 10 yard line.  The second half was an entirely different defense allowing the Dolphins to score on their first 3 possesions of the second half.  Albeit 2 of which were field goals. The story of the game was really the Dolphins ability to move the ball but their inability to score TDs vs field goals.  I watched the Cowboys defense, especially the secondary, play poorly. But the front 3 or 7 played well, forcing the Dolpins to settle for 4 field goals. 

Offensively the Cowboys moved the ball just enough to gain a 17-16 lead in the 4th quarter only to see it slip away midway through the 4th.  The Cowboys offense got the ball with only 3 plus minutes left trailing by 2 points 19-17.  I wasn’t sure which offense would show up when the Cowboys got the ball for seeming the last time. The one the struggled to move the ball for much of the game or the one that drove 77 yards in 9 plays in the 3rd quarter for their second TD.  Fortunately for Cowboy fans we got the latter.  After two early completions to Jason Witten to get the Cowboys on the edge of Dan Baileys range they went to their new found WELL, Demarco Murray. Murray did not disappoint giving Cowboy fans what they are starting to expect. 5 straght runs by Murray not only moved the Cowboys within chip shot range for Dan Bailey it also wound the clock down to ZERO by the time Dan Baileys game winning field goal went through the uprights. I am not sure you could have drawn up that game winning drive any better!

In the end the Cowboys added 1 to their win column which is starting to eek closer to that magical number of 10 or 11 that would certainly see them playing in January.  After a long weekend, the Cowboys will travel to Arizona to face a struggling Cardinals team.  Hopefully the long weekend will allow some of the Cowboys injured players to get healhier and allow them to suit up for the always dicey game in Arizona.

2011 Games | Comments (0)

It wasn’t easy nor was it always pretty but it never is in a game between the Dallas Cowboys and Washington Redskins.  But at the end of the day the Cowboys had won their 3rd straight game over the Redskins and their 3rd game in a row to improve their season record to 6-4 and a tie for first place in the NFC East with the New York Giants..

The Cowboys were missing 2 key players from their offense on Sunday (Miles Austin and Tony Fiametta) but still managed to put up 27 points. The absense of Fiametta clearly hampered the Cowboys run game as Demarco Murray and Felix Jones combined fur just under 100 yards.  Despite their struggles running, the Cowboys kept running the ball which enabled them to have an effective passing day. Tony Romo passed for just under 300 yards and 3 TDs but more importantly he had zero Interceptions. The Cowboys as a team had zero turnovers and got two turnovers from the Redskins.  Those two turnovers and two missed FGs by the Redskins were the difference in the game.

The Cowboys surged to a 10 point lead early in the second quarter with a nifty 23 yard TD pass from Tony Romo to Dez Bryant only to see the Redskins take a 14-10 lead after scoring a late second quarter TD.  The Cowboys scored their second TD early in the 4th quarter to tie the game at 17 and then Romo hit a streaking Jason Witten for a 59 yard TD on their next possession to go ahead 24-17.  The Redskins rallied late and drove the ball 89 yards on their final possession to tie the game at 24-24.  The Redskins won the coin toss in overtime and moved the ball into Cowboys territory but a 52 yard FG was wide right. The Cowboys quickly moved the ball into Redskins territory set up by a nice 20 yard gain on a 3rd and 15 pass from Tony Romo to Dez Bryant. Dan Bailey hit the game winning FG from 37 yards out to give the Cowboys their 6th win of the season! 

Next up for the Cowboys is their annual Thanksgiving Day game. The Cowboys will host the Miami Dolphins this Thursday in a game that looks a lot more dicey than it did just a few weeks ago.

With the Cowboys win on Sunday vs the Redskins, they have swept the season series vs the Redskins for the 16th time in their history compared to just 4 sweeps by the Redskins. The Cowboys have a commanding 62-40-2 all time record over the Redskins.

2011 Games | Comments (0)

The Dallas Cowboys are suddenly in unfamiliar territory. They are 1 games above .500. A place they have only been once in the past 2 seasons.  After the Cowboys trounced the Rams and reach .500 they laid an egg in Philly to drop 1 game below .500.  The Cowboys began a somewhat easier portion of their schedule with 2 home games vs the Seahawks and Bills. The Cowboys struggled early against the Seahawks but were able to pull away in the second half to secure a 23-13 win. Then the Cowboys faced a 5-3 Bills team and dominated them from opening kickoff to the final whistle.

The Cowboys had arguable thier best half of football in 15 years when they scored Touchdowns on every possession in the first half to take a commanding 28-7 lead into half time. Fears of a Detriot like collapse had to be on every fan and players mind. You could see in the play calling in the second half that the Cowboys were aware of the situation and simply slowed the game down to limit any mistakes and put the game on the defense. The defense responded on the first drive of the second half by the Bills when they stopped them on 4th down in the Red Zone.  After which the Cowboys used 4 Bills turnovers inlcuding a late pick 6 by Terrance Newman to secure a 44-7 victory.

Now the Cowboys are 1 game above .500 and have what seems to be 3 fairly easy games coming up.  They play the Redskins next Sunday and even though the skins have lost 5 straight, they still present problems for the Cowboys and of course its a division rivalry. The Cowboys face the Dolphins on Thanksgiving day at Cowboys Stadium and even though the Dolphins started out 0-6 they are playing much better over the last 2 weeks winning both games. The Cowboys final game in November will be in Arizona vs the Cardinals.  With any luck the Cowboys should be 8-4 by the time December arrives and they make their final push for the 2011 NFL Playoffs…

2011 Games | Comments (0)

In one game, Demarco Murray has become the Dallas Cowboys leading rushing for the season and chances are good he will be the leading rusher for the Cowboys when the season ends.  With a new Dallas Cowboys rushing record, Demarco Murray has launched himself into the NFL mainstream. You can bet that his rookie cards will start to explode, especially over the next few weeks as collector’s will start to speculate about his cards current values.  There are already 410 Cowboy cards of Demarco Murray.  410!?  Mind boggling to say the least but thats the new card collecting world we live in.  More savy collectors will hold out and make sure this is not just a one hit wonder.  Chances are good that Murray will get more shots to prove his value with injuries to both Felix Jones and Tashard Choice. Murray will become the Cowboys new starting running back and with more performances like Sunday, he may be hard to unseat!

2011 Cards | Comments (0)

Trend? probably not.

In the immortal words of Pacman Jones, “It’s the Rams, man!”
Still, it is the NFL and the Cowboys have a tendancy to play it close regardless of the opponent so a 27 point (34-7) win was just what the fans were hoping for. The largest margin of victory under a Jason Garrett coached team comes with a record rushing day for rookie Demarco Murray but before we get to Murray’s record setting performance there are a few others I would like to mention.

Montrea Holland was on his couch last Sunday and this Sunday he is starting for the Dallas Cowboys. Not only starting, he had a superb game. I don’t recall any penalties from him which is what you would expect from someone with a little rust on him. Dez Bryant shows up for the second half of the game. Great catch on  that final touchdown. Abram Elam, where have you been all year? I was worried that Demarcus Ware may not get a sack as the game started to count down, but he didn’t disappoint, he never does. Mike Jenkins gets an interception, his first in over a year. He’s been playing stellar this year but he has hands of stone or he would have a few more ints. Sean Lee and the entire defense was at its best for most of the game. I hope that they are just now beginning to peak and will only get better as the year progresses. I am sure glad the Cowboys did not cut Dan Bailey the moment I wanted them to, that kid has potential. Is Phillip Tanner the new backup running back because we all know who the new starting RB is!  Tanner ran hard the few carries he got and scored the games 1st touchdown in the second half.

Some of the not so good. Even in a 27 point win, there are players that didn’t look very good and one is Doug Free. He is still getting beat and he is still holding. ARGH!  I am pretty close to packing him back up and heading to the service counter for a REFUND! Tashard Choice, yes he hurt his shoulder, but it appears he hurt it trying to recover his own fumble!  I bet Jerry is rethinking that trade deadline decision now. If it were not evident before this game, it sure is now that Choice will not be back next year with the Cowboys.

Now on to the most impressive performance yesterday. Rookie Running back Demarco Murray sets a franchise record with 253 yards rushing on 25 carries! He broke Emmitt Smith old rushing mark of 237 yards set way back in 1993. That first quarter 91 yard touchdown run by Murray was explosive to say the least. The intial hole was a monster but he still had to make the safety miss, which he did and then it was cake walk into the endzone with Dez leading the way. I can remember thinking that he was sure to get 100 yards rushing on the day and good for him. Boy was I off the mark. You could see the coaches start to feed Murray the ball more and more. Choice was basically the forgotten man even before he got injured. The injury came in the 3rd quarter on his 2nd carry of the game.

Of course Murray didn’t stop there, he had 3 more runs of ~20 or more yards and ended up with a Cowboys record of 253 yards rushing. I think we all held our breath for a second when Murray went down early in 4th quater after a long run. That was kind of an odd play and I am anxious to read what might have happened to him because he simply sat down just before contact. Even the announcers thought he might have tweeked his hamstring but he was back in the game on the next series so what ever it was, it must have been nothing.

As a Cowboys fan, you can’t help but get excited when you see this type of performance by a player. It’s easy to start touting Demarco Murray as the next great running back but I remember a game in Seattle a few years back when another Rookie Running back named Julius Jones had an impressive 195 yards rushing and even though he was a nice RB for a while, he certainly didn’t live up to the hype he generated after that first big game! Here’s to hoping that Demarco Murray ends up being more like Emmitt Smith than he does Julius Jones.

2011 Games | Comments (0)

From a team and coach standpoint, there are no moral victories in the NFL. Close doesn’t count, at least not in the NFL. I knew when I saw the 2011 Dallas Cowboys schedule, the 5th game vs the Pats in Foxboro was likely a loss. I even felt that way all the way up until kickoff, but I still hoped for a close hard felt game. I got what I had hoped for but I was still was very disappointed at the end of the game. I knew all along that this was coming that at the end of the day the Cowboys were likely to be losers, so why the disappointment?

I certainly was not disappointed in the defense. I am not sure what the Cowboys could have done better on defense. They stymied the league’s best offense, holding them 15 points below their season average. They held the best QB in the game to below his average in every category and picked him off twice. The held the top WR in the league (Welker) to 100 yards below his season average. They got 3 QB sacks and forced 3 Turnovers and another on special teams. They forced a 3 and out with just over 3 minutes to play giving the Cowboys the ball with a 3 point lead. But in the end, the Patriots offense moved the ball 80 yards for the final game winning TD. Perhaps that’s all that counts. I was disappointed in that drive but I was not disappointed in the defense and especially the defensive effort.

Now on offense I was thoroughly disappointed in the effort. The Cowboys made 4 trips into the Redzone and settled for 3 field goals and only 1 touchdown. I knew that final redzone series needed to be a Touchdown. I really felt they needed 7 that trip and only got 3. I am not sure why they didn’t lob one up for Bryant in the corner?? geez.. I also knew that if they were not able to get a first down when they got the ball back with 3 minutes to play and leading be 3 points they were likely to lose. I didn’t like the play calling on that possession but that is par for the course when you lose the game. It’s easy to go back and say, that was a bad play call. If they throw the ball there and don’t get a first down, then your still open for criticism for the play calling. Like most fans, I only like plays to be called that actually work vs plays that result in little to no yards, go figure.

I thought Tony Romo played just an average game, nothing special which is probably what the Cowboys need him to be especially in a game like this. I thought that Miles Austin’s two dropped passes on that 4th quarter drive were huge and possible game changers. I don’t understand why they forget about Dez Bryant in the second half of every game and I don’t understand why the offensive line is so prone to holding. If there are two things that stick out in this loss it was the penalties (10) and the lack of a running game both of which can be attributed to the offensive line. At least half if not more of the penalties were on the offensive line and gaining ZERO yards on 3 rushing plays in the final minutes of the game with the chance to run out the clock is simply embarrassing.

I suppose that I will feel better about this game as the week progresses. I hate that the Cowboys were so close to a huge win yet so far away from the team they need to be to contend for a division crown. Next week’s game at home vs the St. Louis Rams has become a must win which is never good when you are playing a hapless team like the Rams who are playing for nothing more than pride.

2011 Games | Comments (0)