For anyone that immediately turned on post-game coverage after the big victory in the city of brotherly love, this shouldn't come as a shock - but man, those media types are swallowing the Cowboys Kool-Aid now.  To me, that game was literally a battle of inches and could have gone either way.  In the end, we made one more big play than Philly and squeaked out a win.  The victory was a big one, and wins on the road never come easy.  

Now, this afternoon, Trent Dilfer and the rest of those ESPN idiots  actually predicted us to win the division on SportsCenter today!  We're hot, and people are falling for us like the prom queen.  

Win or lose, we have the same team today that we had yesterday - suppose we had lost that game... how much different would the reaction on BSPN be?  Can this team stay focused and keep rolling without playing the "nobody respects us" card, as Bradie James mentioned in his post game?  

It's not like this is the first time Tony has had the Boys in a great position to win the division in November.  

Playing Philadelphia the second time every year makes my stomach churn.  Maybe it's living so close to the city, and maybe it's because all my co-workers quote Howard Eskin the way bible-bangers quote Pat Robertson.  Either way, I wanted to take a look at the job Jim Johnson's unit does against us the second time around. 

It always seems to be that no matter how fantastic our first game is (2008) or what kind of streak we're on (2007), they manage to stall our offense. 

                  1st Down     Total Yd     Turnovers     Point Diff

1999              +3               +37                -2                    -3

2000              +6              +126                0                    -1

2001                0                -29                 -1                  -15

2002               -9               -158               -1                  -10

2003                -2                -67              +1                  -13

2004                0                -80                -1                   -14

2005               -15           -112                0                    -12

2006                -7             -119                -2                  -17

2007                -13           -194              +2                   -24

2008                -5               -82               +3                   -35

I know one of Garrett's big question marks is the ability to change things up - let's hope he manages to get us past Philly the first AND second time this year.  Certainly would have made a difference last season.

Gotta be honest here - just saw his little interview with Rich Eisen on NFL Network.  I'm sick of this guy man, he makes me furious.  He seems to be the one person that everyone wants to talk "cowboys" with, and he doesn't represent this team half as well as he should.  

This guy seems to get a kick out of trashing the team that's more or less creating enough of a buzz to pay his bills.  He hasn't had a positive article about our 'Boys for what seems like years, and i'm tired of him nay-saying everything they do.  I thought I was as pessimistic as they come, but boy was I wrong.

Bottom line - go work for Philly, Washington, or New York.  At least this kind of Cowboy-bashing is welcome there.  Get a new number JJT, your old one is wearing thin.

After last night, I finally understand how chick-flicks make women feel.  I'll get to that in a second, but first...

Watching another team become "the most storied team in Superbowl history" has made me sick.  Both Superbowl teams in fact, made key Coaching decisions in the last three years that helped stabilize their respective ships in key situations. 

• Wisenhunt was able to bring a team that lost BIG in new england back to be a playoff force to be reckoned with.  Where was that kind of leadership after any of the Cowboys losses?
• Tomlin led the Steelers through the NFL's hardest schedule, with its share of ups and downs all year.  Superior coaching in all 3 Baltimore games was the key x-factor.  Anyone out there confident we could have beat ANY of the teams in our division 3 times relying on Coaching to be the separating factor?

That Superbowl should have been ours, fellas.  If I had two x-chromosomes, this is probably how any of Hugh Grant's movies would influence me.  The Steelers just stole what should have been ours.  Thanks, Jerry.  You silly old moron.

Ed Werder and the like seem to be justifying getting rid of TO based on his production decrease, among other things.  Say what you will about his age and speculate all you want about the "down-turn" of a players career, but don't single him out because of a decrease.   Here's why:

• The Cowboys offense as a whole passed for 400 less yards this year.
• Offensive giveaways increased by 37%.
• First downs decreased by 21%.

Now that we've covered that the offense itself had a huge decrease, let's talk about the positions that actually saw a statistical increase in 2008 - our 2nd TE.  Bennett outperfomed Fasano in that role statistically.  That's it.  No other starters increased production.  Not our 2nd receiver, not our RBs, and certainly not our QB.

So why single this guy out? 

ESPN analysts are unanimous in their conclusion that we're going to lose in Pittsburgh.  That's right, every single one picked against us.  What does that actually mean?  Well, if you count the fact that:

• SETH WICKERSHAM picked DETROIT to beat MINNESOTA and
• ERIC ALLEN picked Cleveland over Tennessee..

then you get that there's a whole lot of love for Pittsburgh and none for our 'Boys.  Wonder if Ed Werder would have picked us?

How I wish we played Philly before Week 16 after reading this.  I picked up this morning's enquirer to find the following snippets about our latest addition:

"He's a good receiver with the potential to be great who was mostly another first-round disappointment for a Lions franchise..."

I wouldn't call him a bust... not in the most liberal of senses.  Without consistency at QB, every receiver suffers. 

But here's the thing about the Eagles: If you make an objective list as to why this team is off to a disappointing 3-3 start, it won't include problems at wide receiver.

Actually, they're leading the league in dropped balls.

The article will probably be placed online at some point today, take a look.  My point?  Living in Philly is hilarious - it's like being Jack Nicholson's character in "One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest". 

So reads the current headline on ESPN.com's mainpage after the Giants beat the Redskins last night.

Super statement?!  Granted, winning a divisional game is often ugly, but last night's game made no statement to me other than Eli Manning is still average at best and the Redskins offense is atrocious.  Frankly, if Carlos Rodgers didn't have hands like dinner plates, Eli would have been picked off 3 times instead of 1... which could have been a "Stupid Statement." 

Is the Giants bandwagon loading already?  The hottest thing lately has been writing them off because of Strahan and Umenyiora, but it seems like people are already getting back on.

This is the first year that I can remember that there are so many "established" running backs as free agents this late in the year.  We're talking about guys that were good contributors last year or the year before that can't even find jobs right now. 

1. Shaun Alexander (former MVP... c'mon...)
2. Kevin Jones (7 less yards than Julius last year, but had 6 more TDs)
3. LaMont Jordan (2 years removed from 1600 total yards and 11 TDs)
4. Ron Dayne (older, but had 770+ yards last year)
5. Samkon Gado (young guy who shouldered the load BRIEFLY in GB)
6. Michael Pittman (alright, i'm reaching a little on this one...)

And yet somehow Vinny Testaverde can play QB...  the nfl sure is strange.