Sunday, January 13, 2008
The day we've been waiting for has dawned
It's been a long time coming. The Cowboys have been gearing up for two weeks to play the Giants a third time this year. Tony Romo is going after his first playoff win that eluded him a year ago up in Seattle. Last week Eli Manning won his first playoff game ever at Tampa Bay. Now it's Romo's turn. The Cowboys were due to bust out this season in a big way, which they did. They went 13-3, won the NFC East without much of a challenge, for the first time since 1998, and secured the top conference seed for the first time since 1995. The biggest question of all is will the Cowboys be there today? Frankely, the Giants, in their two losses to Dallas this year, couldn't have played any better on offense then they did, and it wasn't enough. ANd they will miss TE Jeremy SHockey today. The Giants defense, who only sacked Romo a COMBINED two times in those two games, are VULNERABLE in the secondary, especially if CB Sam Madison (doubtful today because of a pulled stomach muscle) can't give it a go. I just don't see how they can win if they don't get to Romo. He will,as he did previously, pick that secondary to pieces, maybe even more so with Madison out and the addition of Terry Glenn. T.O. hasn't played since he suffering the high ankle sprain in the Dec. 22 win over Carolina, but he'll be out there today. He looks radiant, confident. That's bad news for the Giants, who in the second game, chose to key in on TE Jason Witten. So T.O. tore it up, along with Patrick Crayton, and now Terry Glenn is in the mix. The Giants can't win unless they somehow get to Romo and the Cowboys help them out some. The Giants can't afford ANY turnovers and if they get behind, well......they aren't playing the Bucs, or the Bills, or the Bears this time. If the Cowboys don't help them out, the Giants won't win. Period. People make such a big deal out of the G-Men losing only one road game all year while they were a woeful 3-5 at home. One important fact left out. WHO WAS THAT ONE ROAD LOSS TO?
Dallas in week one. The Giants began the 2007 season with a loss to Dallas. They will end the season in the same place. As long as Dallas shows up, their best will beat New York's best.
Prediction: Cowboys 34, Giants 20
Dallas in week one. The Giants began the 2007 season with a loss to Dallas. They will end the season in the same place. As long as Dallas shows up, their best will beat New York's best.
Prediction: Cowboys 34, Giants 20
Tuesday, January 8, 2008
Just win
The only thing that matters is to win the game. Style points are not at the top of the list. Will Cowboy Nation more gratified with a one point win than twenty-one? No. But if Cowboy Nation were to be offered beforehand a one point win if you do this that and the other, we'll readily accept it. Win by a point, we move on. Lose by even a point, we're just plain sick. And much sicker than last year's one point loss at Seattle. While that was dissapointing, what was really the most dissapointing to me, was how our team botched the stranglehold that we had on the NFC East division crown and backed into that playoff game. Let's go back to December of 2006. We have just done the Giants 23-20 in New York on a Martin Gramactica field goal as time expired, to win our fourth in a row and move to 8-4, two games up on the reeling 6-6 Giants. And it's set up as a "Can't Lose" for Dallas. Four games left, three of them at home, and the one remaining road game(we'd weathered the early season underachieving tag when we played so many road games early on) was against the struggling Atlanta Falcons. Two games up on the Giants. We crash and burn starting the next week, losing badly at home to the resurgent New Orleans Saints. Well, the Giants werent' the ones who would run us back down. The Eagles, left for dead at 5-6, a full two games behind Dallas, had lost McNabb for the season to the torn knee cartilage. They came back to beat Carolina to go to 6-6. tied with the Giants. The Giants would succumb to 8-8, somehow grabbing the last playoff spot still. Dallas would beat Atlanta after the Saints debacle, but noone knew at the time that would be the Cowboys last win of the 2006 season. The Eagles, now a game back of Dallas, beat the Giants that same week to set up the Christmas day showdown in Big D. If Dallas wins they've clinched the division, and the Eagles are forced to win on the final day to get a wildcard. The Eagles and Jeff Garcia come in and the Cowboys don't even show. 23-7. Eagles (who had beaten the Drew Bledsoe led Cowboys backn in October in Philly) complete an unlikely sweep of the Cowboys, who had been preseason favorites to win the division highlighted by their signing of T.O.
T.O. had had a solid year though playing most of it with a dislocated finger suffered in week two. The Cowboys limped into the regular season finale with a chance to still win the NFC East with a win against the lowly 2-13 Detroit Lions at home and then watch a later game to see if Philly could still lose to Atlanta in their season finale. Only Dallas made mistake after mistake in every phase. The Lions scored over thirty for the first time since, not sure when, and left Texas stadium posturing after embarassing the still playoff bound Cowboys 39-31. And the defense was a huge issue all of a sudden.
And then against Seattle, the Seahawks were decimated in the secondary and the Cowboys could not take enough advantage. That and other factors allowed the Seahawks to stick around in the game. The key sequence of events in this game was when it was 17-13 Dallas early in the fourth quarter, and Safety Roy Williams intercepted a pass. With the lead, the Cowboys mounted a drive that would take them all the way to first and goal. A touchdown more than likely seals the deal. The Seahawks were worn down and all but beaten. Only the Cowboys commit a costly penalty to keep them out of the end zone, have to settle for a field goal, and still only lead 20-13. And then the Seahawks were stopped on fourth down at about the Dallas 2, the Cowboys, still up by seven, have a Terry Glenn fumble in his own end zone resulting in a safety for Seattle. Seattle takes the good field position following the free kick and turn it into a big play touchdown. So now the Seahawks are up by one but hold on........Back comes Dallas, with a clock eating drive with crisp passing and running mixed. A pass to Jason Witten on third down with just over a minute left in the game appears to give Dallas a first down at the Seattle four. It was ruled a first down at first but then there was a booth review. It was determined that Witten was about six inches short of the first down, making it fourth down. The Cowboys elect to kick the chip shot field goal, to give them the lead rather risk losing on a possible failed fourth down attempt. Then the Romo botched hold and well you know............You know what though, it's not for certain whether the defense would have held with still a minute to play. Seattle has one of the game's best kickers in Josh Brown. But after the Romo botched hold, where he picked up the ball and ALMOST made it in. ALMOST. The Cowboys STILL got the ball back with seconds left but no timeouts, and no time to set up a long field goal with a completion and therefore reduced to a hail mary pass to the end zone. At any rate, game lost season over. A decade now since their last playoff win, over Minnesota in 1996. Wait till next year.
Well, Next year is here. The Cowboys roared out of the gate this year and never looked back in the division, beating the hated Giants twice along the way, along with a 13-3 record and the number one seed in the NFC. Romo is second in the NFL with 36 Touchdown passes and the fourth rated passer in the NFL. T.O. and Witten have big seasons. Solid season from receiver Patrick Crayton in place of the injured Terry Glenn. Solid productivity out of the running tandem of Barber and Jones. And even Terry Glenn is back. And it's all going to go out the window with a loss whether it's by one lousy point or seventeen. I'm sure that even a one point win on Sunday, to make it three for three against the Giants, will still qualify. Just win. We'll take it.
T.O. had had a solid year though playing most of it with a dislocated finger suffered in week two. The Cowboys limped into the regular season finale with a chance to still win the NFC East with a win against the lowly 2-13 Detroit Lions at home and then watch a later game to see if Philly could still lose to Atlanta in their season finale. Only Dallas made mistake after mistake in every phase. The Lions scored over thirty for the first time since, not sure when, and left Texas stadium posturing after embarassing the still playoff bound Cowboys 39-31. And the defense was a huge issue all of a sudden.
And then against Seattle, the Seahawks were decimated in the secondary and the Cowboys could not take enough advantage. That and other factors allowed the Seahawks to stick around in the game. The key sequence of events in this game was when it was 17-13 Dallas early in the fourth quarter, and Safety Roy Williams intercepted a pass. With the lead, the Cowboys mounted a drive that would take them all the way to first and goal. A touchdown more than likely seals the deal. The Seahawks were worn down and all but beaten. Only the Cowboys commit a costly penalty to keep them out of the end zone, have to settle for a field goal, and still only lead 20-13. And then the Seahawks were stopped on fourth down at about the Dallas 2, the Cowboys, still up by seven, have a Terry Glenn fumble in his own end zone resulting in a safety for Seattle. Seattle takes the good field position following the free kick and turn it into a big play touchdown. So now the Seahawks are up by one but hold on........Back comes Dallas, with a clock eating drive with crisp passing and running mixed. A pass to Jason Witten on third down with just over a minute left in the game appears to give Dallas a first down at the Seattle four. It was ruled a first down at first but then there was a booth review. It was determined that Witten was about six inches short of the first down, making it fourth down. The Cowboys elect to kick the chip shot field goal, to give them the lead rather risk losing on a possible failed fourth down attempt. Then the Romo botched hold and well you know............You know what though, it's not for certain whether the defense would have held with still a minute to play. Seattle has one of the game's best kickers in Josh Brown. But after the Romo botched hold, where he picked up the ball and ALMOST made it in. ALMOST. The Cowboys STILL got the ball back with seconds left but no timeouts, and no time to set up a long field goal with a completion and therefore reduced to a hail mary pass to the end zone. At any rate, game lost season over. A decade now since their last playoff win, over Minnesota in 1996. Wait till next year.
Well, Next year is here. The Cowboys roared out of the gate this year and never looked back in the division, beating the hated Giants twice along the way, along with a 13-3 record and the number one seed in the NFC. Romo is second in the NFL with 36 Touchdown passes and the fourth rated passer in the NFL. T.O. and Witten have big seasons. Solid season from receiver Patrick Crayton in place of the injured Terry Glenn. Solid productivity out of the running tandem of Barber and Jones. And even Terry Glenn is back. And it's all going to go out the window with a loss whether it's by one lousy point or seventeen. I'm sure that even a one point win on Sunday, to make it three for three against the Giants, will still qualify. Just win. We'll take it.
Tuesday, January 1, 2008
Regular Season Complete
Lost in this 13-3 season, is the fact that the Dallas Cowboys have lost EIGHT consecutive regular season finales. This last one, a 27-6 drubbing at the hands of the hated Washington Redskins, allowed the Cowboy's most bitter rivals to clinch the final seed in the NFC. Dallas clearly wasn't into this final game, having long since wrapped up the NFC East, for the first time since 1998, and having also wrapped up the NFC's top seed for the first time since 1995, the previous week. Romo played half of the game, missing four starters to begin with and the only thing more lethargic than the conditions were the Cowboys themselves. Looked like an uninspired exhibition. And as has often been the case in the great Cowboys-Redskins rivalry, 2007 saw the two teams split the two annual regular season meetings. Dallas defeated Washington at home in November. The Cowboys don't play again until Sunday January 13. If Washington wins at Seattle, not an easy task for the Redskins but it should be a good game, then there will be a rubber match on the 13th in Dallas. If Seattle eliminates Washington this saturday, then Seattle will go to Green Bay, the NFC's #2 seed while Dallas will take on the Giants/Tampa Bay winner. It's very probable that Terrell Owens will take the field for the Cowboys on the 13th. Good thing. And Terry Glenn can only be that much more in game shape by then. He was on the field for the first time all year against Washington, though only for a few series' and didn't have a reception. Will we see the Redskins a third time? Or the Giants a third time? It would be classic to win a rubber match against the Redskins. That would taste mighty sweet. But it would be equally sweet to make it a hat trick against the Giants. Then there is Tampa Bay, a team that Dallas walloped 38-10 last year on Thanksgiving Day, which saw Romo in only his fifth career start at the time, throw for five touchdowns in the rout. Yes, the Buccanneers are significantly better this time around, but the Cowboys are better than then as well, at least on paper. If Tampa Bay comes to Dallas: 34-17 Cowboys.
If the New York Giants come in : let's call it 31-21 Cowboys.
If Washington beats Seattle, and comes to Dallas I see it a little closer: 27-20 Cowboys.
I don't really care who we play, only that we win. And I don't care "how" its done, but that it's done. The Dallas Cowboys are the best team in the NFC(provided we show up)and should be in the Super Bowl. Technically, it's our's to lose
If the New York Giants come in : let's call it 31-21 Cowboys.
If Washington beats Seattle, and comes to Dallas I see it a little closer: 27-20 Cowboys.
I don't really care who we play, only that we win. And I don't care "how" its done, but that it's done. The Dallas Cowboys are the best team in the NFC(provided we show up)and should be in the Super Bowl. Technically, it's our's to lose
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