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Another so-so performance from the offense as far as points go, but a win is a win. This is not the type of performances we should be having this late in the season, and its definitely a concern. Romo looked to be back on track and the thumb did not seem to be a big factor, Marion Barber was back in form, and Witten continues to be clutch. The defense was shaky in the beginning, but they were able to ratchet down and shutdown the Panthers.

So, the Cowboys win and improve to 13-2, but they are still in a dogfight for homefield advantage with the surging Packers. The Cowboys will be on the road to close out the regular season against the much hated Redskins, who could also be battling for a wild card game, so this is going to be a huge game for both teams.

Historically, the Redskins have played the Cowboys tough, and this game will be no different. The Cowboys could be missing T.O. and this will be a big blow, I don’t care how other people may try to be optimistic, but get real. Without T.O. on the road, at Washington, a slowing offense…I don’t like those odds at all. I’m hoping for an upset from the Bears tomorrow so we can rest everyone against the Redskins and get that monkey off our back.

Players of the game (offense): Romo, Barber, and Witten

Players of the game (defense): Ware and Canty

The Cowboys did not maul the Lions, in fact it was nearly the other way around. The Cowboys looked sluggish on both sides of the ball, and never led the game until the game winning strike to Jason Witten. What a game.

The Cowboys were stiffled most ofthe game, but made some key plays to make up for some keyfoul-ups. In the end, the Cowboys won the game with seconds left on the clock. Jason Witten redeemed himself in a major game winning TD strike from Romo. The legend continues, Romomentum keeps on rolling. The Cowboys have now clinched the NFC East. Phillips take the Cowboys to 12-1. The Cowboys host the Eagles next.

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We already knew the Cowboys would win this game, but penalties made this game closer than what it should have been. Penalties have been our crux ALL year long, and against better teams we won’t have a chance. So, fix the penalties or call it in. 8-1 or not, penalties like the ones we had last night will not hold up against real teams like the Colts, Patriots, Steelers or Packers.

I like the win last night, but man, we have alot of concentration issues, and I’m not sure these will get resolved. We’re past the half way mark and the same story over and over again, stupid penalties. There’s not a team out there that has been us this year, we are the real deal, the Patriots did not beat us either, we beat ourselves into the ground with poor decisions and horrible penalties. There isn’t a team out there that we cant beat, we have to overcome the penalties

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In a must win game for the Eagles the Cowboys came into the Linc and crushed them from the first play of the game until the end. The Quadruplets, Romo, Witten, Barber, and Owens delivered the knockout punch and never looked back. Fresh off his newly signed contract Romo threw 3 TDs/1INT for 324 yards. Jason Witten is money all day long, tough as nails, and when Romo is in doubt he’ll throw it to Witten. Marion Barber continues to show his skills, and has now entrenched himself as an elite back in this league, MB3=Production. Owens had a breakout game, and had his way with the Eagles secondary all game long.

Besides the Quads, The Defense continued to be disruptive, and they were all over McNabb all night long. Forced fumbles, sacks, and INTs all led to the Eagles further spiral down into the NFC East cellar. Good bye Eagles.

The Cowboys will have their hands full against the much improved Giants next week, but we should be able to set them in their place. The East is going through Dallas, we know it, they know it, and the rest of the East knows it. Tank Johnson will make his debut as well, so that’ll be a welcome addition to the NT rotation. We will show up and take care of business in our own division. Should be a good game.

BOXSCORE 

Rest of the East: Redskins defeat Jets, improve to 5-3. Giants on Bye Week.

We’re whipping ass. We’re off to a good start. Penalties have been minimal this first half. A few miscues, and Romo’s INT, other than that, both units look good, especially the defense. Isaiah Stanback made his debut at KR, looks like the Tyson Thompson reign is over.

The 2nd half usually means putting teams away, let’s continue the onslaught as usual in the 2nd half.

Barber is an elite running back. Its official. What else needs to be seen from Barber. Jerry, Barber extension is the next one above the rest that should be rewarded. He’s doing a great job. More in the 2nd half for the closer!

The postgame for this game will be all about Romo, let’s put that out there right now. If we win the game, he gets headlines praising his new contract extension; however, if the Cowboys lose against the Eagles fresh off his new contract the media will turn it into some stupid blabber. Ignore it. We have our man, besides that, we are going to win this game against the Eagles. Jason Garrett has had two weeks to prepare the offense against the Eagles and it’s going to be a show, with Romo, Witten, Barber, and T.O as the featured headliners.

Keys to Victory

Penalties have plagued the Cowboys this season, and if the Cowboys plan on winning against the Eagles then the penalties must be minimal. Game management and opening drive defense needs to improve, I’m hoping to see Jason Hatcher in the opening drives.

Slow Down Westbrook and the Screen

The Eagles have a bad receiving corp, and knowing this, the Eagles will try to open up the receiving game by feeding the ball to Westbrook. They will try to execute some draw plays and the screen pass. The Eagles are one of the best teams when it comes to the screen pass. So, if we slow down Westbrook, we shutdown their entire offense, he’s their main cog in their talent depleted offense.

Beat Up McNabb

McNabb has not been the same since his last two major injuries, but he’s still effective. He’s definitely not as mobile, so if we get some pressure on him we should see some errant throws and if Ware should have a field day going against Winston Justice. We need to apply ample pressure on McNabb, if we do, we win this game for sure.

Cowboys @ Eagles
Lincoln Financial Field - Grass
NBC 7:15 PM CST
Analysts: John Madden and Al Michaels
NFL.com Gamecenter

The Rest of the NFC East:
Redskins @ Jets 12:00 CST
Giants on Bye Week

Browns Watch:
Seahawks @ Browns 3:05 CST
Join us for LIVE GAMEDAY discussion on the message boards!

Madden Forecast: Cowboys 13 Eagles 34
My Prediction: Cowboys 44 Eagles 27

Let me preface this by apologizing to my avid fans, its been busy at work and home, so the blog has not been updated as much as I had hoped this past week. We’ll back to the normal article load this week. Now, back to the state of Cowboys Nation… The fans showed up against the Vikings this week, so that’s a positive. The Cowboys defeated the Vikings, but it was not a very convincing or dominating win, and this brings me to the big controversial question:

Are We Overrated?

Yes, I’m asking it, I did not studder. I’m posing the question. If you want to throw down your two cents post your response in our fanpacked message board. For now, I will take a look at our recent “body of works” and you can be the judge.

Personally, I would not say we’re overrated per se; however, I don’t think we’re as good as our record (6-1) would indicate. This version of the Cowboys has a supercharged offensive scheme with Garrett at the controls, and the defense has improved somewhat since week 1. If you look at ALL of our games, we have faced some sort of adversity, mainly penalties. Penalties have throttled down our scoring potential immensely, and its going to catch up to us sooner or later.

We have been a 2nd half team all year long and we’ve kept teams in the game up all year. The Patriots played well, but we clearly beat ourselves, so this is somewhat encouraging. Meaning, if we didn’t commit so many dumb penalties, we could have won this game, it didn’t happen, and the end result was a large helping of rancid Clam Chowder.

The Buffalo game, was just a miraculous game, but we played horrible. A mix bag of penalties and tons of turnovers. With some luck, and bad defense by the Bills, we pulled out the win, but we looked bad.

Same thing with the Rams. We did not win the game until the second half. For a brief time, I thought we were going to get upset. I felt it, you felt it too, but we won the game.

The game at Chicago and at Miami was close until the 3rd Quarter.

Point is, we’re not the completely dominating team that our record indicates. When you think 6-1 you think we’re just kicking people’s ass all game long, you think we have a dominating defense and dominating offense. We have a really good offense, but the defense is still catching up.

Then this game against the Vikings was good, but not dominating. Yes, I know we cannot dominate every team and I know we cannot win all the games; however, when you think about our Super Bowl teams in the past, we won in dominating fashion. The Colts and Patriots are winning in dominating fashion. We’re winning right now, but its not very convincing to me. Call me spoiled, call me a pessimist, but I’m being honest. We roll into these games, and let all these teams in the game. The Bills exploited both sides of the ball, the Patriots did the same thing, the Vikings stayed in the game despite having a crap passing game. The Rams, Dolphins, Buffalo, and Vikings are bad teams, these are teams we should have destroyed early in the first half. We failed to do that. Fix that stuff!

Penalties and lack of discipline are keeping this team from being a completely dominating team. Right now, we’re the cream of the crop in the NFC, but the rest of the East is hot on our tails. There is no room for error, and no room for floundering down the stretch. We have a stretch of games that will test our innerself. Two straight games on the road with divisional rivals - the Giants and Eagles. But we do have some help with three straight home games as we host the Redskins, who always play us hard. Then we host the Jets in a “trap game” Then a possible preview to the NFC Championship game against the Packers. The rest of the season is not any easier: @Detroit, Philly, @Carolina, @Washington which could have major playoff positioning implications.

We are very capable of winning all these games. I don’t see any of these teams slowing down our offense, but the penalties need to be cut down if we’re going to get to the big game. If we keep playing the way we’re playing, teams will use our slow, sloppy starts and beat us up. Championship teams get into the postseason with convincing fashion and they peak when the time is right. Will we be that team? The second half of the Cowboys season is coming, get ready!
Enjoy the bye week, we have ALOT of work ahead.

The Cowboys must make a statement at home, and they must attend to some unfinished business on the field - slow starts. The marquee matchup will be Peterson versus our defense. The Vikings passing game is a joke, they have really bad receivers that can’t catch. We should be able to destroy the Vikings at ease.

Keys to Victory

Penalties have plagued the Cowboys this season, and if the Cowboys plan on winning against the Vikings and beyond, then the penalties must disappear. Concentrate and keep the drives going

Slow Down Peterson

Slowing down Adrian Peterson should be a deal sealer, and give the Cowboys a win; however, if Peterson runs all over the defense, then the Vikings will be in the game. Stop Peterson, Win the game

Concentration

The Cowboys need to do a better job on the offensive side of the ball. There’s been way too many stupid penalties from every position on that side of the ball. Illegal shifts, illegal motion, false starts from the line and receivers. Concentrate, please.

Vikings @ Cowboys
Texas Stadium - Artificial Grass
FOX 3:15 PM CST
Analysts: Kenny Albert, Troy Aikman, and Pam Oliver
NFL.com Gamecenter

The Rest of the NFC East:
Cardinals @ Redskins 12:00 CST
49ers @ Giants 12:00 CST
Bears @ Eagles 3:15 CST

Browns Watch:
On Bye

Join us for LIVE GAMEDAY discussion on the message boards!

Madden Forecast: Cowboys 24 Vikings 28
My Prediction: Cowboys 34 Vikings 20

Do you really want to know why Jerry Jones decided to build the new Cowboys Stadium in Arlington? The reason is simple…Dallas/Irving fans are lame, and the lack of support for the Cowboys on gameday is a complete embarrassment. Anyone who saw the game against the Patriots saw and heard the lack of crowd noise from a supposedly sold out game.

The fans at Texas Stadium are pathetic. You could hear the play calls from home, and there was not enough people pumped up and getting rowdy in the stands. Several times in the game the camera would pan over to some lousy sap just sitting there, and next to him, hundreds, thousands more of the same figures. Get up and make some f’ing noise Dallas!!

The real reason Jerry is building the new Cowboys stadium is partly for this reason. We do not have home field advantage, local fans are lame, and the current capacity of 65,812 at Texas Stadium is not getting it done. Jerry is hoping the new stadium which will hold at least 80,000 will help the team just because of the shear numbers of fans. The stadium can be configured upto 100,000 as well. If I were Jerry, I would configure the stadium to the maximum size. At least with more “fans” in the seats, the noise would have to increase. What a very sad state of affairs. Its pathetic. You look at similar/smaller stadiums like Lambeau and Soldier Field and those fans get very loud and disruptive. Even in Buffalo, the noise factor was apparently alot for our team to handle on the road. What the hell is wrong with this picture, when you have two undefeated teams squaring off, in a playoff type atmosphere and the fans at the stadium barely register a few decibels above a whisper.

Jerry needs to import the real True Blue fans from outside cities, like San Antonio, Houston, Austin, El Paso, the Rio Grande Valley and get them in the seats. These are where the majority of the real fans reside anyway.

The new stadium completion cannot come any sooner. Dallas fans should be ashamed. Will you guys show up for the Vikings game? I’m willing to bet not, so prove me wrong.

The Patriots are who we thought they were and we let them off the hook. We beat ourselves with the penalties, plain and simple. We fall to 5-1, but remain atop the NFC. Let’s regroup and look forward to the Vikings.

Barber looked good, the defense was ok, but just gave up at the end. Sloppy tackling reared its ugly head, and with a team like the Patriots, you will lose that battle everytime.

We need Terry Glenn back to give us the deep threat. That would have helped out in this game. Terry, help us!!

Overall, I’m very disappointed in our lack of concentration. We should have won this game, but we can’t win them all, can we?

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