How do you want your team looking headed into the tournament? Sliding in butt first and unsure? Caught up in a bunch of off-field drama? Resting starters and expecting to flip on their playoff switch at will? Hell no. I want my team winning. I want them clicking and confident, focusing everything on the only thing. I want my team starving for more than just a divisional championship ball cap. I want my team poised and pissed off at the same time. Look here, I want my team walking into the tourney holding their junk, head tilted to the side, shades on, chests puffed with attitude ready to cold cock the first SOB that so much as looks at them the wrong way. And you know what? These last 3 games culminating in that 24-0 shutout for the division title gave me exactly what I wanted headed into the playoffs....Super-Sized Swagga.

The offense is doing just about everything you want for the last 3 weeks...averaging 21 points, scoring early, showing good balance and protecting the ball. Special teams is winning the field position battle giving our offense better starting position than our opposition's offense. Defensively...17 total points allowed for the last 3 games and for the last 2 weeks, teams have lined up in front of Wade's Warriors only to be told, "No points for you!". In 25 years, only 4 other teams have posted consecutive shutouts. You ready for this? Of those 4 teams, 2 of them went on to win the big one...the '85 Bears and the 2000 Ravens. Sit and let that marinate in your cranium for a bit.

The Skins and the Eagles had not been shut out since 2005 but that goose egg on Sunday couldn't have come at a better time. The Eagles brought their 6 game win streak, 31.2 ppg average and franchise scoring record to the hole for the rim-rocking slam dunk of a division title and 1st round bye and our defense swatted it into the upper deck. With the loss we handed them back in November and the shutout Sunday, I think that the Cowboys and their Swagga are now occupying some prime real estate in the Eagles' heads.

Tuna Helper had a most excellent post about wanting the Eagles...twice. One down, one to go Tuna. Beat this team 3 times and the Cowboys send a message to the division, the conference, the league and most importantly to themselves.

The Eagles will definitely use that 24-0 hurt come Saturday so I'll give them the advantage nod in the "we owe you" category. The Eagles also have more playoff experience over the last decade than we do. I'll give them that advantage nod too. Andy Reid has never lost a first round play off game and Wade has never won one...again, advantage Eagles.

But the Swagga advantage is all ours. As I listened to Philly sports talk radio Monday. Over and over I kept hearing comments that paraphrased said, 'If we'd of lost by 3 or 4 points I wouldn't feel so bad, but we got the %@$@# beat out of us. What are we going to change in 5 days to fix that?'

DeSean Jackson is trash talking on Twitter (thanks dubious) sounding like that kid you've already beat twice on Madden who wants another rematch because "you just got lucky."

We've played the Eagles twice since 44-6 so let's look at some cumulative numbers from those 2 games starting with this one...in 22 possessions over the last 2 games, Philly has only seen the end zone 1 time. Now I know that "past performance is not necessarily indicative of future results". I know about "any given Sunday" and about "beating a team 3 times". But you tell me which side of these numbers would you rather be on?

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Last night was magically special. In a city known for mystique, potions, spells and voodoo, it was the Cowboys for whom the stars aligned. Even us optimists were a little squeamish going in. We had no chance (said most). The Saints were 13-0, we were 0 for December, it was a road game game and it was a big game. Raf laid out the tarot cards and provided Six Simple Steps to knocking off an undefeated team saying it was "simple to identify, difficult to execute". Well we saw a "perfect storm" last night as our team checked off on all 6 steps on their way to a monumental win.

But there was something more, something intangible that won't show up on any stat sheet...Cowboy Voodoo. We all have our own superstitions and rituals on game day. Be they spells, chants, potions or magic shrouds, they're part of our game day routine that MUST be adhered to come hell or high water. After all, you don't want to be the one who causes a loss by sitting on the wrong end of the couch or putting on the wrong gear or consuming the wrong beverage, right? But this was a huge game, so we had to scout ourselves, we had to change it up and bring out the big guns. We needed to break the fire glass on the "magic jersey" and will this team on with some voodoo of our own.

So BTB nation? What was your special voodoo last night? Let's hear your story.

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The Cowboys have a good ol' fashion schoolyard bully and they need to take him down. The bully's name is "Blitz".

Through yesterday's games, Blitz has come after Romo 148 times, the most in the NFL. Almost 50% of the time Romo goes to pass, Blitz comes after him. The next closest percentage? 38%.

(Had a nice spreadsheet here with Blitz stats but OCC's blitz research is much better)

NFL Matchup also talked about the blitz against Romo this past weekend.

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A lot of you had a bad feeling about this game, Spidey Senses were tingling all over this blog and rightly so. Before yesterday, the Cowboys were 1-5 at Lambeau Field. Average margin of defeat? 21 points. Now make it 1-6. We’ve been getting our butts kicked there since 1967 and yesterday was no different. We ran into a Packers team that was playing for the life of its’ season and our boys got beat up, they got beat down, they got straight up Ramboed Lambeaued. Should we have won the game? Yes. Could we have won the game even with our miscues? Absolutely. But their guys get paid to play and coach too and they just did it better than we did.

Our team is still first in the East and like Grizz said yesterday,

"Every once in a while you get kicked in the teeth in this game, that just happened to the Cowboys. It's what you do after the beating that matters."

No Victory Monday for us. So take a day or two to be pissed, hung over, depressed or however you handle a loss. Shake it off, rub some dirt on it and debate (with class) in the comments. Swear off MSM for the week and BTB will get you though…it does me.

A few things bothered me yesterday though that I hope aren’t signs of developing trends. And then there’s one thing in particular just plain ticked me off. Read on and I’ll explain.

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Trust me, I was NOT saying that during the game last night. It was more like, "Throw the @$%$%$ ball!". But now that I look back, those were smart sacks and signs of a maturing Romo. At times it looked like the Eagles D had 12-13 men on the field because they were blitzing guys from everywhere. When your protection gets beat, 3 bad things can happen - sack, sack fumble or a bad decision throw. Romo did the smart thing last night...he took the sack, protected the ball, minimized the damage and came back for another play or series.

Philly got to Romo 4 times so let's look at those 4 sacks as well as the aftermath of those sacks to see just how smart they really were.

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I was just reading an an article on ESPN about Petrino quitting on the Falcons and came across this paragraph...

Blank said he has no reason to believe that Dallas owner Jerry Jones, an Arkansas alumnus, was involved in Petrino's sudden resignation, and McKay said NFL tampering rules don't apply to college jobs anyway. NFL spokesman Greg Aiello said the league didn't have enough information to comment.

Did I miss something during the Patrino-a-go-go? Who would make the leap to somehow tie Jerry to this and get the league office involved? Talk about instigation.

Injuries are the one single X-Factor that can change the outcome of a game. These injuries not only affect the current game but future games as well depending on the severity. Every since the first game of the season when Brandon Jacobs and a few other Giants were sent to the injury report, we've all watched the Cowboys punch, pound, beat and grind whoever was on the other side of the line of scrimmage...offense or defense. And while these injuries may not have immediately benefited us, I had a hunch that whoever played our opponent next would benefit. That hunch grew legs after I started looking at the injury reports...counting the bodies...and counting the loses. "The Body Bag Report" will chronicle the physical play of Da Boyz and the losses our opponents suffer of both personnel and games as as result. Now...on with the report.

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Miami will win on Sunday against the Pats. And after they do, they should send the Cowboys a gift basket filled with cupcakes and bandages, ointment, ice packs, body bags and the injury report for the Pats. The card should read "You hurt 'em, we beat 'em...Thanks!" In fact, every team that's played a Cowboys opponent the following week should send a gift. Why? Because, so far, they've all won.

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