Now that we're halfway to the next season

That loss to the HATED, DESPISED, DAMNED Giants was a BITTER BITTER BITTER pill for me as a fan to swallow. But believe it or not, the players have got to feel worse. They owned these guys and they did not come through. Penalties, Dropped Passes, and hampered with some poor field position for critical parts of the game that allowed New York to stay in it and find away in what turned into sort of a chess match in the second half, is how Dallas would blow itself up. And all you have to do is look at the stats. 350 total yards for Dallas. 230 for the Giants. The Cowboys also had the time of possession edge by nearly TWO to ONE. Their TE Jeremy Shockey was out with broken leg, and may not even be back in a Giants uniform this coming season. Their Top wideout Plaxico Burress had ONE catch for FIVE yards. They rushed for only 55 yards. Dallas had somewhere close to 150 although they got away from that in the second half somewhat when Romo started feeling the pressure, perhaps remembering that he hadn't yet won his first playoff game. Eli Manning was only 12-18 for 160 yards. And on the defensive side, the vaunted secondary of the Giants, who was lit up for nearly 80 points in the two losses to Big D in the regular season, didn't even have their best defender in CB Sam Madison. T.O. wasn't nearly 100 percent recovered from his injury, probably would've still been slowed had the Cowboys survived this and perhaps made it all the way to the Super Bowl. But it's not a good enough excuse. This was Dallas's to lose. Period.

Meanwhile the freakin' Giants shocked everyone by upsetting Green Bay in the NFC Championship and then, against all odds, completed their unlikely playoff run by eeking out a 17-14 win in the Super Bowl against the undefeated Patriots. I wasn't pulling for my bitter rivals to win that, although I'm not a Patriots fan anymore than I'm a Spurs fan. I'm just hoping my hometown Utah Jazz can be the Giants of the NBA this year.

So now that the Giants will suffer a post Super Bowl slip, the Cowboys look to bounce back in 2008 with a healthy T.O., perhaps a 100 percent return of Terry Glenn opposite him and a rookie RB in Felix Jones, taking place of the departed Julius Jones(now with the Seahawks) They Boy's will have an improved secondary if Pacman Jones can behave himself along with a Rookie CB Jenkins from Univ SOuth Florida. Marion Barber should only be better. Romo should be better and wiser from this(I'd prefer he cut ties with Jessica Simpson, though I don't blame her for the playoff choke)

My final feeling of the playoff debacle was that it stands as the most dissappointing loss for me as a fan of the Dallas Cowboys. Yes, I remember losing to Joe Montana and Dwight Clark when I was in fourth grade via "THE CATCH" But I knew that San Francisco was Dallas' equal and it was at Candlestick to boot. It was dissappointing to lose the following year to the Hated Redskins(Washington hadn't beaten Dallas in four years at that time) but that was at RFK and I knew that the Skins were on a roll and would be tough to beat if the Cowboys didn't play well(too many turnovers). Losing to San Francisco at the end of the 1994 season, ending the Cowboys'quest for a THREEPEAT was hard but I think the 49ers were a little bit better that time around. I don't think that the loss to Seattle the previous year to this choke even dissappointed me that much, because I figured the Cowboys were still building back up. They should have won but it didn't destroy me or anything. I just shrugged. But in 2007, given the fact that the Cowboys were the NO 1 seed and rarely goofed when they were the Number one seed in the NFC playoffs(only other time they lost as a NO 1 seed was in 1979 against the Rams-Staubach's last game)It wasn't supposed to happen and it was totally unexpected. The Giants could not beat the Cowboys without help from the Cowboys. And they got it and were able to escape with the upset. This has got to be the most dissappointing loss that I can think of for me, personally, as a Cowboys fan given the circumstances. And anything less than taking it all this next year will be a dissappointment and I believe that's what the players are saying as well, maybe not publicly.