Cowboys Nation,

Who are you rooting for on Sunday and why?  I'll be rooting for the Aints.  Here's my pathetic rationale-

THE SAINTS

A bit of history on the fleur de lis -  in olden days, this was the symbol that harlots were branded with, in effect making it the original tramp stamp.  This in turn means the Saints are a bunch of... well, let's just say tramps.

Never liked them (the Saints I mean, not tramp stamps).  Don't feel that the whole Katrina thing means they should win it, any more than any other team.  Though I will admit it does make for a nice, uplifting story.

Don't really love any player on their team (the way I have "sports crushes" on other teams' players- Ed Reed, Brian Urlacher or Andre Johnson).  Nope, Drew Brees and Reggie Bush are just not all that compelling in my mind.  The photo below pretty much sums up my feelings about the Saints.

Sean Payton is a weird looking dude.

Don't care that they were gracious about losing to us earlier this week, though it was decidedly classier than all that garbage spewed by the Eagles.

All I know is that I will be rooting for the Aints to beat...

THE COLTS

Is it bad that I am a total Manning hater?

On one hand he seems like a pretty decent guy.  He has a good enough sense of humor to actually be funny on SNL (compare to appearances like Joe Montana).  And you have to respect his mad field-general abilities and leadership.

But on the other hand there just seems to be an arrogance or 'I'm-the-sh*t' thing going on underneath all the smiles and mild manners.  example "You know.... laser... rocket arm."

(Cut that Meat)

And he's the brother of She-li Manning.  Most of you know him as the overrated QB of the Giants.  But to me he's always been that kid-  the snotty rich kid down the street- who, the only reason anyone played with him was because he had the G.I. Joe Aircraft Carrier.  Smug little b-tard.  ‘My Dad's Archie Manning.  My brother's Peyton Manning.  My name's Eli.'  Peyton's blood relation to Eli is enough in and of itself to make me want to punch a flat screen.

Is Eli picking his nose here?  Is he doing his best "Arnie" from What's Eating Gilbert Grape?

I don't want to see Peyton hoisting another Lombardi.  I just fricken don't.

But... alas... I have a feeling that it is exactly what we will be seeing Sunday.

(What we should be seeing Sunday)

Aaron's post on being happy about Romo got me thinking about his 'achilles heel' in the red zone - The Fade pass.

Don't get me wrong.  Love me some Romo.  But it seems like this is missing from our arsenal down close.

Any thoughts?  Am I way off on this?

here's my comment on Aaron's post:

Romo “can make any throw.”

It seems to me that he does not do well with the fade.

Other than that one game this season- the back-to-back unsuccessful attempts to Roy, I can’t think of any other time they called the play.

The last time I remember the Cowboys hitting a successful fade…… last year against Tampa. Roy caught it.

Guess who threw it……. (drum roll)…… Brad Johnson.

Either way, I hope Romo/Garret/Roy/Bennet can figure this one out because it would sure help us in the red zone.

Greetings Everyone-

How good has this last month felt?

I realized today that I feel so good about our team that I don't care if we win another game.  And I wanted to write down why.

...Okay, I do care if we win.  It's time for that sixth Lombardi trophy.  But here are my Top Ten Reasons that we have already won it all. 

Continue reading this post »

Marc Colombo has been one of my favorites on the team for a couple years now.  I can't remember where I saw it- Hard Knocks maybe- where he told someone on the defense (SAID IN THICK BOSTON ACCENT)-- "if you keep that up, I'm gonna to rip ya f*%#in head off!"  From that moment, I kept an eye for him to get chirpy and chippy in games.  And he sure has.

When Doug free went in to back him up, I had suddenly had that nervous, not-so-fresh feeling (well at least mentally speaking, as I am male). 

It seems like good line play is kind of like good movie direction-  it is best when you don't notice it (i.e. if the QB isn't getting sacked twice a series or the run game is between decent or really good, then the line is doing its job).  Perhaps this is why it is such an underrated, thankless position.

But then all of a sudden we see this sick ass Felix Jones run on Sunday and say 'Wait, who's that blocking ahead of him??  Witten?  Phillips?  L.P. LaDouceur???"       No.  It's Doug Free.  The.  Right.  Tackle.

Pretty amazing play for a right tackle to be ahead of Felix Jones, 40 yards down, and on the left side of the field.  In my humble opinion, it's amazing on the level of when Demarcus Ware intercepted Michael Vick, five feet in front of him and ran it in for 6.

-for those of you who haven't enjoyed this one for a while....

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Couple notes on the video:

Listen to poor Dick Vermeil losing his voice.  I think this was the game when he had to stop at half time and they replaced him with Deon.  Can't remember why he lost his voice.  Probably from excessive emotion and a lot of crying that day.

Also, how thankful are you that Bryant Gumballs is not calling any games these days?  God, I know I am.

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So why am I writing all of this? 

I'm conflicted and I get the feeling that a lot of my fellow Cowboys fans are as well. 

Colombo is a mean, bad ass that adds a lot of fire and intensity to our line.

Doug Free has been somewhere between a very good back-up to awesome, depending on who you ask. 

From my vantage point, our run game has been a lot better over the past four weeks, but is this because Free is opening up holes on his side better than Colombo or have Garret and the gang simply improved our run game, (regardless of who is at RT)?

And I think I can speak for a number of us when I say that I fear the usual Phillips/Garret Seniority Policy' where they seem to put total playing hours over who is playing better in terms of starts and snaps (i.e. Barber over Jones/Choice; Williams over Hurd/Ogletree).

So what is going on here?  How do we reconcile this problem?  *Note- I'm not complaining and realize this is a good problem to have.

-Chim

via 2.bp.blogspot.com

(with no disrespect or ill will to Bryant per the whole lung cancer thing)

Greetings to everyone in the BTB community!

Long time reader, first time poster.  I wanted to say hi and thanks for the high standards of football research, discussion, community and humor by posting the Top Ten Reasons I love Blogging the Boys.

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Top Ten Reasons I love BTB

10.   One Cool Customer's ‘Trolling the other SB Nation Threads.'

9.   Montecito Tex. 

8.   The post-loss, soothing wisdom of Raf, Dave and Aaron.  No better medicine for Over-Reaction-Monday.  I've made "Don't panic until Raf panics" words to live by.  But it begs the question- Does he ever panic?!

7.   The fact that I have yet to see posts from this person- let's call her "Redheaded Librarian that Loves the Cowboys Girl."  You know the one.  Her avatar that betrays that she is either really hot or the cute girl next door.  She knows a surprising amount about sports, football and the Cowboys.  She's witty and actually has some pretty keen insights.  AND all the dudes on the board kind of suck up to her and make pathetic attempts to cyber-flirt.  BUT in actuality, she's probably a dude, vying in some sick way for internet attention. 

6.   Bobby Carpenter.

via img.fannation.com

5.   Quips like this gem from 5Blings:  Keith Brooking has "been like our Ray Lewis.... without all of the.... murder and stuff."

4.   Fish on Football.  He's like our Bill  Simmons.... without all of the WWF, G.I. Joe and cranky-Dad-who-loves-the-Celtics references.

3.   The refreshing lack of "we-just-lost-AND-I-HATE-Williams-Newman-Jerry-Wade-Jason-AND-we-should-fire-them," Posts.

2.   Trolling BGN and HH after handing them shutouts.... And BBV after they've been eliminated from the playoffs.

1.   Less 12-Year-Olds.   I used to comb the ESPN Dallas board daily for Cowboys camaraderie, intelligent discussion, or at least a coherent thought.  What I found gave me a grave concern for the future of humanity.  The scariest part?  When I woke up one day and realized I was using words like ‘troll,' ‘Pwned,' and ‘homer' with disturbing regularity.  That's when BTB found me and changed my life.  I'm doing much better now.

What's your top ten?

-Chim