While losing in maddening fashion all season, you can't help but notice that the 'Boys keep hanging in there with good teams. I think the best teams we've faced so far have been New York, San Fran, Detroit, and New England. We are 1-3 against them, but in every single game we've been in it until the end, which is both encouraging and frustrating. This tells me that the Cowboys can be an elite team if they learn to close. With that in mind, here's what I want to see against the 0-5 Rams this Sunday:

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Get ready Cowboys fans.

The Dallas Cowboys will be embarrassed by the Green Bay Packers this upcoming Sunday night. That's how I see it. Flat-out massacred. Honestly, I don't think a score of 50-0 is completely out of the question. With our receivers finding creative ways to screw over Jon Kitna and our defense playing like clones of Liz Lemon, I wonder if this has the potential to be the biggest shellacking the Cowboys will ever get.

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I've never had a problem with the Cowboys not tackling in training camps or practice. While I find the tackling is usually a little sloppy early in the season, the September/October records that Wade Philips has coached are fine enough for me to not care about it.

Now, however, I'm wondering if the Cowboys should tackle in practice until the offense gets better. Romo recently spoke about how sharp and crisp the Cowboys have been in practice, which is odd considering how awful the offense has been in preseason.

My thought? Football is a different game without tackling. I've never seen them practice, nor have I ever visited one of their training camps, so I don't know how they do it without tackling, but that's just my thought. Maybe the Cowboys are looking crisp in practice because they don't hit each other, and maybe the offense can get more done if the defense really gets after them.

It's come to this. After listening to talking heads on sports media including, but not limited to BSPN, go on and on about how great Aaron Rodgers is, I have to let off some steam, because it seems like no one notices that he's not God incarnate. I mean, don't get me wrong; Aaron Rodgers is a good quarterback. Any team should be glad to have him as their QB. Really what gets me, as an openly biased Cowboys fan, is the way he's constantly regarded higher than Tony Romo. Personally, I'd say they're about even. In fact (and this isn't really Rodgers' fault), Romo's never led a 6-win team. I'm just sayin'...

Take this clown on CBS (Dave Richard). He's a fantasy-ranker guy who names Aaron Rodgers the number 1 quarterback to draft and puts Romo at 6. He puts Matt Schaub ahead of Romo, which is ridiculous, but I digress. But really, Aaron Rodgers over Drew Brees/Peyton Manning/Tom Brady? Please. I think people need to tap the breaks on this guy.

Statistics? Here are some very basic stats from the 2008 and 2009 seasons.

2008 (TD-INT-QBRat)

• Aaron Rodgers: 28-13-93.8 (Playoff Wins: Zero)
  
• Tony Romo: 26-14-91.4 (Playoff Wins: Zero)
  

2009 (TD-INT-QBRat)

• Aaron Rodgers: 30-7-103.2 (Playoff Wins: Zero)
  
• Tony Romo: 26-9-97.6 (Playoff Wins: One)
  

As you can see, Aaron Rodgers has indeed been the statistically-superior quarterback over Tony Romo. But not by a whole lot. Romo leads Rodgers one-nil in playoff victories.

Does it really matter? No. But I'm mainly curious if there's anyone who feels like I do.

Moral of the story: Aaron Rodgers isn't all that unless Tony Romo also is.

I'm very happy with Tony Romo as the quarterback of our team and would gladly and confidently pick him over Aaron Rodgers in any situation.

GO COWBOYS 2010!

Say wha? From the DMN:

" In a blog post by Richie Whitt of the Dallas Observer , Dallas Cowboys vice president of merchandising Bill Priakos said his team is considering updating its uniform for today's high-definition televisions and demanding fans.

"When fans go to our home games in person the No. 1 grief we hear about is the green pants," Priakos said. "Now we're hearing it from fans watching on TV because of HD. It's too realistic."

The pants are a color Tex Schramm created that looked blue-gray-silver on TV. But with today's improvements in video, they just look green.

"Nothing's set in stone," Priakos says. "But we want the pants to look silver, to be consistent to every fan no matter if they're at the game or watching on TV, whether we're home or on the road. Of course, we'll never change the home white jerseys or the helmets, but we're experimenting with some different shades in the pants." "

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Gerry Fraley of the DMN: "Washington cornerback DeAngelo Hall told the Washington Post newspaper that the arrival of quarterback Donovan McNabb will allow the Redskins to 'dominate our division, off of bringing Donovan McNabb in here, a guy who's dominated the division in the past.'"

"It's based on the talent we feel like we've got," he said. "It's based on the improvements I feel like we've made. It's based on the scheme. The scheme alone is gonna give us four or five more wins. The games we lost by two, three points, we'll win those games, easy."

I don't think Hall knows what "domination" means. If you win 4 games one year, and if you think you'll win 4-5 more games the next, that just means you end up with an 8-8 to 9-7 record. Sheer domination!

Anyway, McNabb has never dominated the division: 11-9 vs. the 'Boys, 11-7 vs. the Giants, and 13-7 vs. the 'Skins. Winning records against all, but hardly "domination."

Can I say "domination" again?

So with the draft in the books, I thought I'd look deep into my crystal ball and reveal what it shows about the upcoming 2010 season. Some of these predictions are logical, some are possible, some are reaches, some are vague, and some are bullsh*t. All are in the spirit of fun.

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So with the draft in the books, I thought I'd look deep into my crystal ball and reveal what it shows about the upcoming 2010 season. Some of these predictions are logical, some are possible, some are reaches, some are vague, and some are bullsh*t. All are in the spirit of fun.

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I posted this fanpost entitled "Lack of Points: a Concern?" on August 31st, 2009:

"I've absolutely loved the way the Cowboys have been moving the ball downfield while taking large chunks of time off the clock during the preseason. I think during the Niners game we moved down something like 94 yards in 8 1/2 minutes. Outstanding. That's the way to do things. Spread the ball around and be unpredictable. Everything that didn't happen last season. However, it's only logical that the more time devoted to a single drive, the less points there may be to score Frankly, I think it's sometimes been a bit discouraging as to how few returns the team has gotten as a result.

The Cowboys managed to move the ball and drain the clock numerous times during the Tennessee game and yet at one point the Titans were up 10-7, despite putting out a significantly less amount of yards and possession time. The Titans were just more efficient.

It's not a concern yet, as we have yet to see the starters play a full game. But while I like the Cowboys controlling the clock and moving the ball down the field, they may not be doing it as efficiently as possible. It might not be a good idea for the team to run every drive like that.

Something to think about."

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WOW! EMBARASSED!

Congratulations to Unique AND Squishmytomato, whose pick my eyes just glided over. Sorry about that.

Unique and Squishmytomato finished with an impressive 8-3 record throughout the playoffs!!!

Thank you all for taking part in my contest. I want to do this for the regular season, so please give me suggestions for what I can do to improve it.

1. Unique (8-3), Squishmytomato (8-3)

2. doomsday D (7-4), xailin (7-4)

3. what_the_crap (6-5), oldboysfan (6-5), Sean N (6-5), Benthere (6-5), Dare2Dream (6-5), thebigham (6-5), jdiamjr (6-5)

4. Terry (5-6), Joon (5-6), Grady90 (5-6)

5. wittenfan (3-8)

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Here it is! One of the biggest events of the year! Peyton Manning vs. Drew Brees! With only 4 days to go before the Super Bowl, there are only 5 comments in the leaderboard thread, only a few of which are Super Bowl picks! Contestants, put your official Colts/Saints pick here! I'm still deciding on mine.

I highly encourage the latest contestants to come back this week. The group is a lot smaller than when this contest began and it would be nice if it stays the same size by Sunday.

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Ten down, one to go. Unique stays atop the heap, newly joined by doomsday D and Squishmytomato at 7-3. First win-loss is overall, second is for the conference matchups.

I'm not going to include the Pro Bowl in this contest.

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New format for the conference games that's simpler and more legible. The chart isn't necessary when there's only two teams I don't think. Be sure to have your picks in by 3 PM ET tomorrow; listed contestants' picks are FINAL.

The consensus: 16 users predict the Saints, while 13 pick the Vikings. 23 users pick the Colts while only 6 pick the Jets.

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Sorry this is late; I've been travelling.

Congrats are in order to FireSpark and Unique, who exculsively hold the top two spots. Also, after going 0-4 last week, gee-roj went 3-1 this week.

I was a very pedestrian 1-3 this week. Ouch. The first win-loss is throughout the playoffs. The second is for this week only.

Last place this week? Damnsammit with a disappointing 1-7 record, going 0-4 this week.

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Here it is! The divisional round! About 24 hours before the first game, I've posted the chart! I've taken greater care this week to ensure your picks are correct, but let me know if they're not still.

Still some contestants missing. As long as you guys let me know (preferably in this thread, since you may read this one first) before the first Saturday game you'll be good to go.

Storylines of the Week: Will anyone become the clear leader? Can gee-roj climb out of his 0-4 hole?

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So people suggested using the Simple Playoff Prediction leaderboard thread as the official thread to give out next picks. I was ok with that but with only a few days to go I feel there should be more picks then there already are. So, since it's going slowly, I'm opening this to be the official pick thread for the divisional round. Remember, if you don't pick this round by the first game on Saturday, you're out of the contest.

Also, just a reminder saying if you didn't participate in this from the beginning, it's fine to put your picks down, but you won't be part of the contest.

My picks:

Dallas

Arizona

Indianapolis

San Diego

No 4-0's (someone mentioned Impatient had one, but not according to the chart), a lot of 3-1's, 2-2's, and 1-3's. Only 1 0-4.

Same as before, let me know if I made a mistake. I've found the chart can be a little convoluted, so I should find a clearer way to write the picks.

Players with the same record are tied. .FRoST.USAF is not THE leader.

Update: Wins-losses up for the Saturday games. Correct picks bolded. First leaderboard coming up after the Sunday games. I've reviewed the chart but again, I'm only human so please check and let me know if I made a mistake with your pick/result/record. All those "Wins" get jumbled up sometimes.

Rules

There aren't any cuts; keep picking throughout the playoffs and the winners will be the users with the best record in the end.

You are eliminated if you fail to give your pick by game time. You can't predict the wild card, skip the divisional round, and predict the conference championship games. To continue, you must pick every round of the playoffs, including the Super Bowl.

You can't skip a game; you must pick every single one. Having only three picks when there are four matches will get you eliminated.

You can't change your mind about a pick after I post them.

Enjoy and GO COWBOYS!

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It's nothing like life or death, but it's still a bitch.

I'm currently in the Middle East, nine hours ahead of Eastern Time. The channel ESPN North America is showing the Cowboys playoff game live at 5:00 am. I wanted to record it and watch it tomorrow, BUT of all the motherloving times it had to do this, ESPN has vanished from my cable!! Of course in this part of the world tech support pulls random dates out of nowhere. They told me four days ago it would be back "tomorrow." Two days ago they said it would be back today. Today they said "hopefully tomorrow." I'm thinking there's some kind of contract dispute they're not letting us in on.

Ok, that sucks. But hey, I can still get NFL Game Pass online.

Wrong.

It doesn't effing work. I gave Roger Goodell 25 bucks for a week pass to watch two playoff games and when I click on the button to start watching it takes me right back to the same page. Game Pass allows you to watch games dating back to the beginning of the 2008 season, so something should be there even if I'm not watching a game live. NFL.com doesn't list ANY phone number to call, the only way you can contact them is through email (which I've sent them to no reply yet) and chat, which I waited 20 minutes for an operator to come by only to be directed to a page that says their offices have just closed.

My alternative is to go to bed now, get four hours of sleep, wake up and hit up justin.tv for a live feed of the game but hell, does the NFL let playoff games slip through the cracks illegally?

Of course, seeing as I've spent 25 dollars I'd rather get my money's worth and watch it online, y'know? I mean I know it's not the end of the world if I don't see the Cowboys play but crap I dedicate 16 Sundays more or less to this team and I just want to see it through. I know you all understand and I apologize for making this a fanpost rather than a fanshot but fanposts get more replies and I need HELP from anyone, especially if that anyone has experienced this bullcrap from NFL.com and worked their way through it.