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Now that my anger with tears have let up, I’m going to take a look into the future - a bit more realistically. Right now, it looks like Jason Garrett will end up in Atlanta or Baltimore, he is interviewing with both clubs for the second time. Garrett as the HC for the Cowboys is not going to happen.

Here’s what IS going to happen though: Garrett will probably get a HC job elsewhere this season. Sparano is gone. Jerry will keep Wade Phillips around another year. I suspect the Cowboys will have a difficult year next year with the schedule they’ve earned this year. Its been said that “Player Coaches” have strong 1st years, but the subsequent years are less than stellar (Dungy is the exception) The Cowboys should have a winning record, but I feel that the Cowboys will not be 13-3 under Wade next year. After its all said and done, another one and done will be the last straw. Jerry Jones knows this team will need a return to discipline and this means Jerry will pull “The Chin” out of retirement. Bill Cowher will be the Cowboys coach in 2009.

The one position that is throttling down the defense is SS. Roy Williams cannot return in 2008. He MUST be traded for whatever you can get. As long as Roy is back there, it will not matter how many Ware’s are upfront, the pass to Roy is money for every team in the league. You know that problem with have with 3rd down stoppages? That’s Roy alot of time.

The Cowboys took care of business in a close game against the lowly Panthers, but the Packers got clobbered by the Bears on the road, and thus assuring the Cowboys homefield advantage through the playoffs.

The Super Bowl goes through Dallas! The Cowboys now have some much needed options in resting players against the Redskins. I don’t expect the Cowboys to player several key players much at all. This next game against the Redskins means nothing now. Terrell Owens will rest up as will the rest of our banged up players.

Great job, now we need to take care of business in the Divisional Playoffs!  Go Cowboys!!

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.

With this week being the dress rehearsal for most teams, we’re drawing closer to the regular season. Some teams have bolstered their rosters with free agents, while others have replenished via the draft. The NFL season is always unpredictable, but I’ll take my stab at the NFL season.

What’s everyone’s predictions for the upcoming NFL season? Do you agree or strongly disagree? Join the predictions at the message boards now and give your 2cents!

NFC East
Dallas Cowboys(2)
Philadelphia Eagles
NY Giants
Washington Redskins

NFC North
Chicago Bears(3)
Detroit Lions(6)
Minnesota Vikings
Green Bay Packers

NFC South
New Orleans Saints(1)
Carolina Panthers
Tampa Bay Buccaneers
Atlanta Falcons

NFC West
Seattle Seahawks(4)
San Fransisco 49ers(5)
Arizona Cardinals
St. Louis Rams

Wildcard Weekend
49ers(5) @ Seahawks(4)
Lions(6) @ Bears(3)

Divisional Playoffs
49ers(5) @ Saints(1)
Bears(3) @ Cowboys(2)

NFC Conference Championship
Cowboys(2) @ Saints(1)

AFC East
New England Patriots (2)
NY Jets (5)
Miami Dolphins
Buffalo Bills

AFC North
Baltimore Ravens (4)
Cincinnati Bengals
Pittsburgh Steelers
Cleveland Browns

AFC South
Indianapolis Colts (3)
Houston Texans
Tennessee Titans
Jacksonville Jaguars

AFC West
San Diego Chargers (1)
Denver Broncos (6)
Kansas City Chiefs
Oakland Raiders

Wildcard Weekend
Jets(5) @ Ravens(4)
Broncos(6) @ Colts(3)

Divisional Playoffs
Jets(5) @ Chargers(1)
Colts(3) @ Patriots (2)

AFC Conference Championship
Patriots(2) @ Chargers(1)

SUPERBOWL XLII
Cowboys vs. Chargers
Cowboys Win