Skins come up short

The game was a tale of two halves. The first half was ridiculous but the second half looked very good.

Just a couple of notes:

1. Special teams in the first quarter/half was terrible. On the opening kickoff and our first 2 or 3 punts we gave up big yards to the Cowboys. We have had good coverage all year but yesterday it hurt us big time as the Cowboys had great field position the entire first half. Not sure if this was a result of putting in backups to see what they were capable of doing but whatever it was, it sucked.

2. Field position. Touched on it above but the entire first half the starting field positions for us sucked. We seemed to be pinned back deep in our territory while the Cowboys seemed to be starting on our side of the field. That definitely hurt us.

3. Defense sucked. The 3-4 has not worked this year. We went from a regularly top 10 defense to the worst in the league. I recognize we don't have the pieces yet but Haslett has got to get this thing fixed. He will have another offseason to bring in more pieces that fit his system but if we don't make dramatic improvement next year and at least get to be a middle of the pack defense, he has to go.

4. Offense. Was good...very good in the second half. The ball was being spread around. A pretty good mix of run and pass and for the first time in quite some time, we actually looked like a good offense where things were clicking...consistently. I will speak specifically on Rexy's performance in a separate post.

5. Good to see getting some of the young guys out there. Playoffs are out of the picture so it was nice to see guys like Riley, Barnes, Austin get into the game. There is no reason not to play them now and see what they can bring. Hopefully we will see more of them in the final two games.

In the end, it doesn't really matter that we lost. It's an evaluation period and you want to see guys work hard. There were positives yesterday but still areas for improvement. I do believe in the coaching staff and that these guys have a plan and are committed to sticking with their plan. We'll see what the rest of the year brings.

HAIL SKINS!!!