Dallas Cowboys "America's Team"

I predict that Dallas will remain undefeated after facing the Rams this weekend. 

The defense is getting better and the Rams are missing Jackson (out with a groin tear) and Bulger is playing with broken ribs (reportedly).  They are also without Orlando Pace (out for season) and I think at least one other O lineman is out.  So our pass rush should  be licking it's collective chops.  The Rams have an excellent group of receivers and that will provide a challenge for our DB's.  Can they continue their ball hawking ways this weekend?  Newman should play about as much as he did last weekend and if Henry continues to play at the level he has been the past few weeks, we should be OK.  Considering the fact Jackson is out, we can probably play Roy back in coverage rather than up in the box to defend the run.  This should help cover his weaknesses in coverage.  I look for D Ware and Spencer to put a ton of pressure on Bulger.

As for our Offense?  I would like to see it get off to a faster start this week.  Tho, if they put up 30+ points in the 2nd half like they did last week, I guess I can "live" with that.  LOL  I would like to see Julius Jones have a good week running the ball.  I have no doubt that Barber will continue terrorizing the opposing defense as that guy runs the ball with reckless abandon.  The Rams will have to "pick their poison" with regard to covering the wideouts and tight ends.  Witten and Owens are both causing problems for the opposing defenses.  Throw in Hurd and Crayton who have done an admirable job filling in for Glenn and Fasano / Curtis providing additional threats at the tight end position and we have too many weapons for them all to be eliminated. 

And Romo?  That guy seems to just get it done!  And the fact he looks like he is having a blast playing the game is nice to see.  It SHOULD be fun to play in the NFL.  Not everyone gets to do that. 

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How 'bout them Cowboys!  Just think if the offense could get untracked in the first quarter?  31 points in the 2nd half!  You gotta be kidding me.

Good for Anthony Henry and his leading the league in INT's.  We signed him for his ability to be a ball hawk as I remember a game against Cleveland the year before we signed him where he intercepted Vinnie twice and killed us. 

Our defense did pretty well and got some pressure against Grossman.  I almost feel sorry for the guy.  Taking your team to the SB and having to hear the home crowd chant for your backup must be a tough one to deal with.  Nice to see Ware get some sacks and for Spencer to get in on that action.

Barber is amazing!  The guy runs with reckless abandon at times and that just energizes the team.  Who cares if he starts or not.  He gets it done for us in the 4th Quarter and has provided the knockout blow in the last two games. 

TO - way to go with the nice day catching the ball.  I liked the new wrinkle of lining him in up in the backfield and sending him in motion.  Gives Romo a shot at seeing how the D intends to play him in pass coverage.  Dude averaged 18 yds a catch last night and the shortest catch was 11 yds.  No TD's but I don't think that was a big deal.  He and Romo seemed rather buddy buddy on the sidelines at the end of the game. 

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Our defense played better.  Putting pressure on Green a bit.  Our DB's played a better game for sure.  Kudos to Henry, Hamlin and Williams for getting INT's.  The passing yardage for Green was something like 275 but that is kind of deceiving as the Fins were behind from the middle of the 3rd to the end and had to throw the ball.  Troy only had big yardage games when we had to throw alot because we were behind. 

Curious that Dallas had those cooling things to hook up to their pads but the Dolphins didn't.  Their defense looked really gassed at times on their bench especially toward the end of the first half.  Dallas didn't seem to have issues with the heat and humidity.  Did they try the Eagles trick of pickle juice?

Romo had me worried a bit early on in this game.  He seemed to be forcing the ball at times into coverage.  Heck - at one point he threw a dart at Witten who had THREE guys surrounding him.  If he has 3 of the 11 guys on him...that means SOMEONE ELSE is open!  He made some great plays that have him being compared to his boyhood idol Favre.  He is relatively raw still so I will take it.  I have a buddy that was griping about our balance of running and passing (he wants us to run the ball way more) and I read today that on one play in particular that was nearly intercepted that the play was suppose to be a run but Tony audibled out to a slant.  So maybe not all the pass plays were called from the sidelines.

What is the over/under on number of times Barber's helmet comes off during the season?  I know that yesterday Porter pulled it off but he has a tendency to lose his helmet fairly easily.  Is it the braids, helmet not strapped down good enough or both?  LOL  That kid runs hard and tough.  But look at Earl Campbell and his interview with Bob Costas to see what that style of running will do to you.  To all those who want Barber to start and be THE MAN...that may not be in his best interest overall.  Splitting time with Julius is a good thing for both of them.  Congrats on the 40 yard TD run too as that was his longest TD run of his career.

Gimme a break with the penalty on Owens for excessive celebration.  Whatever!  How come Chad Johnson can run around and looking to jump into the dog pound for what seemed like 5 minutes and delay the game not excessive?  Or getting out a fake HOFjacket on the sidelines?  Yes I know that was done on the sidelines not in the endzone but it was the use of a prop to celebrate which the rules say is a NO-NO.

If someone would have said to me that Carson Palmer would throw for 6 TD's against Cleveland and the Bengals would still lose...I would have called the guys in the white coats to come get them!  Same for Carolina's Steve Smith scoring 3 TD's and losing to the Texans at home!

Looking forward to playing the Bears!

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Greg Ellis practiced for the first time this week.  Hmmm  Coincidence that his being on the team beyond week 1 results in guaranteed money where if he had gotten hurt prior to that whether in practice or during the game on Sunday, that he would not have that guarantee?  Good thing our O played so well and we didn't need him to play.  He has been griping about his contract all summer so I would not be surprised if that was in fact his motivation for not practicing or playing saying he was still rehabbing from the injury.

Then we have Terrence Newman, the most UNDERAPPRECIATED cornerback in the NFL.  Not undersappreciated by the boys or their fans but the rest of the NFL and fans!  This dude has played at a pro-bowl caliber level for the past couple years and he should have gone to the pro bowl last year.  Just look at how much he means to the team?  Hope he gets well soon, cuz we need him.  We all know that a certain safety who shall remain "blameless" cannot play the pass well and has gotten burned deep many times the past few years.  BUT will he admit that is a weakness and try to address it?  Heck no!  It is the coaches fault, it is his shoes fault, it is the receivers fault etc. It is everyone elses fault but his. 

Looks like we will be getting a pretty good pick with that Cleveland first round pick we got for letting them take Quinn.  They didn't take long to pull the plug on Frye...didn't even finish the first game of the season and then GETS TRADED to a team where he will be the 3rd QB.  What a fall for Frye.  I feel for the guy a bit.  So now it's Derek Anderson's turn to be the target of the fans ire until they throw Quinn into the deep end and let him sink or swim.  I am a Notre Dame fan and like Quinn so I wish him success but that team looks really bad and he'll get pummelled week in and week out in the division the Browns are in.  So Dallas needs to pay attention to the college game to see what we want to do with the early pick we seem destined to get!

The Dolphins played the Skins tough last weekend but that isn't saying much since the Skins are picked to finish last in the NFC East by most.  They have a good defense still but I don't think they have the ability to handle our multi-pronged attack.  Doubt Romo will have a game where he averages 23 yds per completion like last week but I bet he will get quite a few yards.  If we pass protect well, the passing game should be successful.  Too many weapons for it not to be.  Especially with Hurd and Crayton stepping up.  Interesting to see how the RB's Jones and Barber do this week.  Neither had that great of a game against the Giants tho each had a good run with Barber getting that nice 4th and 1 carry all the way into the endzone.

Don't know much about the offense of the Dolphins except they have Trent Green at QB having gotten rid of both Harrington and Culpepper.  I hope to see our D play much better this week and want to see some improvement in our pass rush and in our pass coverage.  NO MORE PLAYS OF 20+ YDS!!!

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So we got the answer to whether Tony Romo put the debacle at Seattle behind him.  WOW - what a performance passing the ball!  345 yds on 15 completions is pretty damn good.  The receivers and Witten played really well.  Tho I was a bit worried in the first half when TO and Romo did not seem to be on the same page on a few throws. 

Overall the Offense performed well tho our running game was not nearly as effective as I would like it to be.  We were in way too many 3rd and long (over 5 yds) tho we converted alot of them thanks to Tony and Witten. 

What has me worried and biting my nails is our defense and especially our pass rush and pass coverage.  Without Ellis and Newman...we look pretty vulnerable to the pass.  We again made Manning look like a future HOF player which we all know he is a long way from being.  We let him have one of those games last year too.  So don't know if he just plays well against the boys or what.  But again Roy Williams was exposed in the secondary as being inadequate defending the pass....even Madden brought up how he is poor defending the pass when the ball is in the air".  That last TD to Plaxico was on him more than Reeves as he had the inside zone coverage.  If he had played the ball better, he COULD have intercepted it.  Hamlin missed several tackles and that head slap right in front of the referee was absolutely stupid. 

Our defense again allowed too many yards and too many points.  The offense cannot be expected to put up 40+ points a game to cover their inadequate play.

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Here we go...starting another season with high hopes for the teams potential for success.  From what I saw in the meaningless preseason games was that our defense seems to be more aggressive rushing the passer (not exactly a big surprise with Wade coming in and installing HIS version of the 3-4). 

Been a fairly quiet offseason and preseason from Terrell.  I like that.  He has been focused on football.  Of course, there has never really been a question about his work ethic and desire to win.  Maybe the change of coaches had an effect and this is a good thing.  Stuff like last year that resulted in distractions for the team are better avoided this year.

So we get to see Romo as "THE MAN" from the get go this year.  He has enough weapons and mobility to have another PRO BOWL caliber year.  If our O line plays as well as is expected in both the running game and in pass protection...we should have a rather formidable offense for opposing defenses to have to handle.  Who do you double cover downfield?  With Glenn in the lineup we have speed and consistency at wide-out and physicality with Owens (who also has decent speed).  Then we have Fasano and Witten in the TE position to make the LB's and safeties play the middle honestly.  Both Barber and Jones can catch the ball out of the backfield so they too are options.  Keeping everyone happy about number of touches is going to be an issue maybe.

Looking forward to seeing if our pass defense will be better this year or not.  That collapse by the D last year cannot happen again.  Our offense did all it could but when the D is allowing the opponent to score at will pretty much, that puts a ton of pressure on the offense to produce points (which it did..just not always enough). 

Have class at 4pm this afternoon - hopefully they let us out a tad early so I can get home to watch the Colts-Saints game.  I chose my schedule this fall in order to NOT be in class on Mondays.  Last year I had a class that was on Monday nights - it was only offered then so I had no choice.  I have Tivo but that is not the same thing.

ARE YOU READY FOR SOME FOOTBALL????  Go COWBOYS!!

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I am thinking of changing my blog to my .mac site...I cannot seem to put an entry into this blog from my mac for whatever reason.  I tried unsuccessfully to put an entry in over the weekend after getting the email from George_Costanza about pigskin bloggers being reborn.

I missed it...especially the other teams bloggers and their take on things.  There were a ton of really good blogs and I missed that last year.

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The first game of the TO in Dallas era is now over.  I was happy with the play of TO and his attitude seemed exemplary on the sidelines as he attempted to keep his teammates from getting down about being behind. 

The offense made mistake after mistake yesterday.  We got called for offensive pass interference TWICE in critical situations that cost us dearly.  In fact our O line didn't play well in my opinion.  They didn't open enough running room for our backs (tho Julius had a few good runs including the opening drive TD).  Protecting Bledsoe seemed to be a huge problem.  He wasn't sacked much but he sure seemed UNCOMFORTABLE in the pocket like he expected to get hit every time he went back to pass.  His "happy feet" back there resulted in several poor decisions passing the ball.  Two INT's resulted in TWO TD's by the Jags.  Don't get me wrong....I like Drew as a QB.  Our O line has to give him better protection so he can feel confident to stand back there and deliver the football to our receivers!

The defense was not as fierce as they seemed to be in the preseason either.  Couldn't get off the field in critical situations yesterday which plagued the D last year as well.  Conditioning an issue?

The Tuna has plenty to bitch at the team about overall.  Everyone needs to PRAY for the quick healing of Vanderjagt because Suisham is NOT the answer at kicker.  Dude just can't MISS 36 yd field goals and remain a kicker in the NFL.  PERIOD! 

Some positives:  Julius Jones had several good runs yesterday and didn't get hurt.  Marion also had some good runs especially on that 4th down play.  TO had a good game overall and made a fantastic adjustment on the ball for the TD (and notice the fact he didn't celebrate? He knew we were still behind and you don't celebrate TD's in those situations late in the game).  McBriar punted well yesterday and that one kick from out of our endzone that pinned the return man against the sidelines at about the 25 yd line was awesome.

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Maybe ESPN should change its' name to the T.O. Network.  Getting so sick of the media's constant badgering about T.O.  They are trying to make news out of something that is happening in other training camps as well (Hines Ward comes to mind).  Is anyone badgering Bill Cowher about Hines' hammy?  No... 

I realize T.O. has a history.  Did they think Dallas didn't consider that?  Of course they did.  Don't be a moron.  Has he done anything to disrupt the team?  Not that I have heard. 

I am very excited by the team both offense and defense!  Our D looks to be an improved bunch.  As for our offense...I think as long as we have a healthy running game...the passing game will be available.  We have two tight ends that can catch the ball thus helping to free up the wideouts.  Terry Glenn looks like he may have a pro bowl caliber year.  And I am actually thinking Drew will as well. 

If the O line stays healthy and does it's job....the offense will generate some points and keep the D rested by having the ball alot.  Time of possession BABY!!

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TO was back on the practice field yesterday.  I really had no problem with him not practicing.  The dude keeps himself in excellent physical shape and doesn't seem to me to be a candy-ass.  Him not practicing makes sense to me.  Why risk seriously injuring the hamstring resulting in maybe missing games that COUNT.  Brings to mind the movie North Dallas Forty (loosely or not so loosely based on the Cowboys) and the guy who took a shot to numb his leg so he could play because the organization pressured him...then he got seriously hurt because he couldn't feel the pain.  Yes, that is a movie but....

Look at Clinton Portis and Chad Greenway (Rookie LB with Mn).  Both were injured in the 1st preseason game.  Clinton Portis should be back playing by the start of the season or shortly thereafter....but what if he misses alot of games... the skins may have a problem.  I feel bad for Greenway because this was his first NFL game...and he ends up having a season ending knee injury playing on special teams (reminds me of a certain player for the Giants...Sehorn)

I am not one tho to say that preseason doesn't matter.  The talent must be evaluated and the veterans need to get into a rythmn at full speed with contact.  That is just how football is.  Practice is NOT like a game no matter what anyone says.  Funny....in high school, I played basketball and I tried to practice as if it was a game so I would be prepared better and one of my teammates complained that I was playing too hard since it was "just practice". 

You cannot predict when an injury will occur, and getting the young guys evaluated is important not only to the team but to the young men themselves.  Getting a chance to show what they can do during a game could be the difference between having an NFL career or stocking shelves at the nearest grocery store.

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