I often bristle at early proclamations about who should win the various awards the NFL hands at at year's end. After all, the NFL is a fickle league where early season play can be an aberration and the injury bug can strike at any time. So, I write this somewhat begrudgingly but do so simply because after two games the level of dominance this player has shown needs to be pointed out.

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Normally, I don't like NFL press conferences.  I used to love them when Parcells was the coach, but that was mainly because he would give the media the sarcasm it deserved while sprinkling in some of those old-shool football lessons that shed more light on this great game.  I couldn't get enough of the Tuna giving the press hell with his incredulous responses and bulged out eyes.  I always got a kick out of those.  But normally I just change the channel or look at the TV and try to guess what's going to be said by the players and coaches that are answering the same questions every week.  I mean, it's alwasy just a bunch of cliches. 

"We really played as a team out there", "We played the entire 60 minutes", "We never gave up", "I knew that we needed a big play, so I just went out there and tried to execute", "We just wanted to take it one play at a time", blah, blah, blah.  Cracker Jack answers, all of them.  Players are so trained on giving canned answers from their team's  PR reps that every interview and post game presser becomes a repeated version of what was said the week before and what is likely being said by another player who just got done playing in Seattle or Green Bay or Indianapolis or...you get the point.  All these players are just walking cliches.

But yesterday, I took comfort in the cliches that our QB was spitting out.  This quote in particular stood out to me:

 I think there’s a lot of resiliency out here and there’s a lot of competitive individuals and games like these. ... There are going to be a few of them this year, but if we can continue to do this, I like our chances the rest of the way.

They often say cliches become cliches because they are rooted in truth.  And in the case of Romo's quotes, they are cliche, but there is a lot of truth.  Look at Dallas' 5 games this season.  Blowout at Tampa Bay, close defeat to the Giants that came down to the final drive, close win over the Panthers, close defeat to the Broncos that came down to the final play, and a close win over the Chiefs in overtime that came down to the final play.  See a theme here?

The Cowboys have been involved in 4 nail biters and so far they are 2-2 in those games.  Yes the could/should have won both of those games we lost.  Yes us fans can see where the team messed up and what players/units needed to play better.  But the fact is, Dallas was right there in all of those games and exhibited a lot of resiliency in every single one of them.  Remember, the Cowboys traded scores with the Giants the entire game and took the lead with only a few minutes remaining.  They were down to Carolina at half time and easily could have folded as our QB was getting hit and nothing seemed to work on offense.  And in Denver, the team fought hard in a defensive battle and had the game in their hands to win or lose.   And it's that type of resiliency that is going to be needed in the other close games the Cowboys play this season. 

These are the types of games that build character and I think the team is going to be better off for it.  Maybe I'm wrong, but I don't expect to see a blowout loss like the one the team had against Philly last season.  In fact, I expect this team to continue to play close games against almost every opponent and show a lot of heart in the process.  Will they win them all?  I doubt it.  But I do think they'll be right there, fighting hard the entire time.

I've been a critic of Wade's before.  I think there are plenty of obvious examples where the team is not ready to play or makes the type of mental mistakes that are directly attributable to coaching.  But, I do see fight in his guys.  So I do give him credit for that.  How far that fight takes this team will be dependent on many other factors, but I take comfort in the fact that this team will play hard for 60 minutes.  Cliche or not.