(Insert deep breath and count backwards from 10 to 0)

 

 

I have to remind myself as I cool off from this past Sunday’s calamity that I predicted a few weeks ago that the Giants would win. My thought at the time was that the Giants, would sweep Dallas, the Eagles would sweep NY and the Cowboys would sweep Philly. I further speculated that whichever one of those three teams dropped one to the Redskins would be the odd man out. It's already too late for that team to be the Eagles as they have swept Washington but the Redskins still have two, very interesting, back to back home games against the Giants and Cowboys. Let us hope that it's the Giants that lose at FedEx field and not the boys (though I can tell you that the Cowboys will be the team they are more up for). 

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In week 2 the Cowboys blew an extraordinary opportunity to beat a divisional foe despite multiple turnovers.  Had they won that game the Cowboys would be sitting on a 9-2 record (3-0 in the division) and not facing as desperate a situation as they are this Sunday.  A loss to the Giants this time around drops them to 8-4 overall (most likely a tie with Philly for first) and (2-2) in the division; worst of all they will have been swept by the Giants.   I HATE BEING SWEPT BY ANYONE.  (Insert deep breath here)  It also makes the rest of their games that much more critical; if a loss to the Giants is followed up by loses to either the Chargers or Saints or both, the Cowboys may no longer be in charge of their own destiny.   

 

The Giants come into this game much like Green Bay did a few weeks back; they exhibit a similarly discouraging list of injuries, have more or less been dismissed from most playoff discussions and  find their season on the line…. this weekend….  against the Cowboys!   And like the Packers a few weeks back, the Giants’ talent level is better than their record and it doesn’t hurt that they get to be home for this one

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Conventional wisdom would seem to favor the Cowboys, Eagles and Giants all splitting their season series with each other; this would make all three of them 2-2 in the division when removing the Redskin games. I personally believe that these match-ups are going to work a little differently this year in that the Eagles are going to sweep the Giants; the Giants will sweep Dallas, and the Cowboys will sweep the Eagles, but the end result is the same; 2-2 for each of those 3 in the division minus the Redskins games.

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I just hope the Cowboys’ team isn't feeling as satisfied with the Philly win as the Cowboys’ fans are.  They’re starting to get some accolades in the media now and they may lose that chip they’ve had on their shoulder.   This is the time when paying extra attention in the film room and at practice becomes harder to do.   You have to stay focused throughout the week in this league; almost pissed.   Are the Cowboys about to take their next opponent too lightly?  The Cowboys have really owned the Packers for the past couple of decades (just look at Favre’s lifetime record of 0-10 at Texas Stadium), and last year the Cowboys won at Lambeau for the first time ever; are the Packers overdue? 

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Is this the week the Eagles unleash (no pun intended) Michael Vick? I certainly hope not because I think it will catch the Cowboys’ D “off-guard.”  I fear that Andy just might have 4 or 5 choice plays he’s been developing (for Vick) and has been waiting for both the chemistry to come to together in practice and the right game to unpackaged them in.  Could that be this Sunday?

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We are reaching that point in the week where last weekend’s game fades into the background as next weekend’s game takes center stage and as happy as am with the Falcons win, I’m beginning to worry that the Cowboys are heading into a classic, “trap” game. 

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Was I the only one wondering why he continued to give the bulk of the carries to Barber yesterday when it was clear, early on, that Choice was having the better day?  Garrett just seems to lock into an idea of what this team is supposed to do and it takes him a long time to break out of it and change things up; even after that evidence is there that a different direction would be more effective. 

 

Going forward I’d love to see him go with the hot hand; meaning that if Choice is clearly having the better game than let him get the bulk of carries for that game and then let the other guys spell relief.  The next week it might be Felix, and the week after that Barber.   If someone is on a roll let them stay on a roll, much in the same way that a basketball coach will often give more minutes to a bench player in a particular game if he gets hot. 

 

Same thing goes for the wide outs.  Against Atlanta I expect to see Austin in the starting lineup, (not Crayton).  I think he’s earned that after yesterday’s performance.  But why do I have this foreboding feeling that Mr. “no-separation” Crayton will start.

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 Answer is, they’re not but you sure would think so if your opinion were based solely on the expert analysis of sports shows like the ones that air on ESPN (BSPN).  This morning for example, on Mike and Mike, they each predicted an 8-8 and 7-9 season respectively for the Cowboys (and in all fairness Golic did have them in Super Bowl last year).  Both of them harped on the poor December showings and lack of playoff victories over the past 12 seasons (which is truly unacceptable for the Cowboys franchise).   We should all expect this to be the new albatross for the Cowboys, in the media, until they silence them on the field with December AND January victories.  Golic reasoned that the Cowboys play in way too tough a division to have late season breakdowns and survive (a fair point but it assumes that the Cowboys will once again fail in December).  Gone is T.O. as the big “story” and “in” is the late season collapse as a way to further blaspheme the Cowboys, (especially for BSPN).  

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The 2009 campaign, as it approaches, has got to be one of, if not the hardest season I’ve ever seen in terms of what to expect.  At this point results ranging from a 6-10 disaster to 16-3 Super Bowl Champion would not be surprise me.  We’ve seen flashes of brilliance at almost of every position while additionally seeing stretches of horrific play from the same players.   We’ve seen game plans that seem to catch the opponent completely off guard and other strategies that were so predicable you would have thought the opposing coordinators had been allowed to read over the Cowboy’s playbook the night before the game.   We’ve seen brilliant Novembers and disastrous Decembers.  The up and down nature of this team has resulted in 9-7 finishes in three of the past four seasons.  

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Mr. Fisher or fish, I’d like to officially apologize to you.  Why? Well let’s just say that if you were to go back in time to about 4 weeks ago, to the Houston series, you’d find that I like many other Laker fans, were calling for your head (figuratively speaking of course). 

 

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