As the upcoming NFL season fast approaches

WOW! It's amazing how fast the time has gone by since January 13, doomsday in Cowboy nation. I figured it would be a LONG offseason especially considering how such a great season went up in smoke like it did. The Cowboys went a LONG ways towards beating themselves in that loss and I know that not a single day has passed since then that I haven't said something along those lines to someone or to myself. And I'm just a fan! Imagine how the players feel. Imagine how Tony Romo feels, or T.O. How about Patrick Crayton, who might STILL be running with that thing had he not started to run before first remembering to CATCH the ball. On that play, Romo did his thing just like when he victimized the Giants and the others during the season. He scrambled around, improvised, bought time, kept the play alive, and rifled a pass over the middle to a cutting Patrick Crayton, who has proven to be sure handed and is and will be an adequate replacement to Terry Glenn if the latter doesn't return. Even if he doesn't score on the play(there was nothing but green ahead of him) the team has momentum AND the lead and has the Giants defense ONCE AGAIN back on their heels. But ofcourse instead, he dropped it and it was fourth down deep in their own territory and hampered with bad field position. But that one play didn't beat the team and it's over and done with and time to move forward. They appear to be on paper, better than in 2007. And hungrier. Perhaps they can take a page out of the story book of the 2004-2005 Steelers. The 2004 Steelers went 15-1 but stumbled in the playoffs, almost losing the divisional to the Jets(they tried to give that one away it looked like) and then getting worked by the Patriots at home in the AFC Championship game. But in 2005, they came back, didn't have as gaudy of a record as the year before but they were peaking late, caught a few breaks, and some lightening in the bottle(just like the Giants of this past yr) and won it.

But in my mind, the two teams I was expecting to be in the Super Bowl, crashed and burned on the SAME day. The Colts really, in my mind, were the best team in the AFC. They would have had to go to Foxboro, yes, but the Patriots were already looking vulnerable over the final two months of the year after they just looked too good to be true over the first ten weeks or so. How many point spreads did the Patriots NOT cover starting with that close game against the Donavan McNabb less Eagles? I mean they just blew the lid off of the competition and the record books on offense over that first half of the season, first 10 wks and then they looked ordinary. So in my mind I was expecting the Colts to make it to the Super Bowl to face ofcourse, the Cowboys, who were by FAR and away the best in the NFC. And both teams choked on the same day. The Colts really no showed against San Diego. No way they should have lost that game. It's hard really to determine which was a bigger shock on the day, the Colts losing at Home to the banged up Chargers(their two best players no less) or the Cowboys losing to a Giant team that they'd soundly beaten twice during the regular season.