It doesn't matter if you're talking about football, basketball, baseball … just about any team sport in the world needs good depth.
Yeah, superstars are great to have, but the more talent you can stack together on one team, usually the better shape you're going to be in.
Depth is key. If one guy struggles, or maybe two or three, you should have someone, anyone, capable of stepping up.
Sunday in Seattle, two of the Cowboys' top receiving threats managed to have arguably their worst games in a while, maybe ever. If Jason Witten and Dez Bryant both have performances like that together, Dallas doesn't really have much of a chance. Kind of like what happened against the Seahawks, the Cowboys just didn't have a shot, especially in the second half.
Now, up until the fourth quarter, and even later in the fourth at that, the game was never truly out of hand. It seemed like all of us figured the Cowboys' offense would snap out of this funk and put together not just a long drive, but a quick one. We've seen it too many times: Tony Romo for 18 to Dez, 15 to Witten, 28 to Miles and then 17 for a touchdown to whoever, maybe even Ogletree.
But it was nothing. Every time there seemed to be a little light, there was a big drop, or a big hit that forced an incompletion, sack or interception. You name it, something happened every time in that second half to stall a drive.
And, it's not like Austin or Ogletree were much better – really no one on offense played well. But the Cowboys simply need Bryant and Witten to step up better than that.
It's pretty uncharacteristic of them both, especially Witten. He had three drops for sure and there's a debate about a fourth. I could sit here and talk about the injury he's playing with, but he's the first one to dismiss it. He said two weeks ago it wasn't an issue. He said it yesterday: "That would be an excuse and that's not what I'm about."
So if he's going to stick by that, then we should as well. He's playing, he's out there and he needs to be that security blanket for Romo that he's been his whole career.
Will he get it back? Of course he will. I'd be completely shocked if he's not back to his normal self in a few weeks. But, Witten was clearly struggling in Seattle. The deep ball looked awkward, like he's never run that route before. And the drops are just something we haven't seen ever from him.
Then again, he came up with a couple of really nice grabs where he took monster licks. Still, Romo threw 10 passes to Witten and only had four receptions to show for it. There has to be more production.
With Bryant, it's like he was in a major funk all day. He dropped passes over the middle, he fumbled the ball after a short catch, he failed to catch a punt when he had plenty of room to run. And then before half, he bobbled a punt and barely recovered it, wasting a chance to score.
All day long Bryant looked like a nervous rookie who had never been in a loud environment before. And that's not his game. If there's anything about Dez, it's the fact that the stage has never appeared too big for him. I'm definitely not pointing blame at just Dez or Witten, but considering how big they are to this offense, they can't afford to have games like they did on Sunday. Especially on the same Sunday.
