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Here we are at 13-3, we’ve had a great deal of trouble moving the ball over the last 4 weeks or so. Right now, I feel as confident of winning a playoff game as I did last year, and by that I mean bleak… We’re not dominating ANYONE, the passing game is horrid, Romo doesn’t look confident,the defense has been suspect, the secondary is bad. We haven’t played well at home, crowd noise at big games has been a ZERO factor. We’re in trouble.
Sorry to sound so pessimistic, but if we show up like we have the last few weeks its going to be “One and Done” and this will be devastating, perhaps worse than last years loss.

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!!

The Cowboys have come a long way from the near debacle in Buffalo, and the drubbing at home by the Patriots; but, on the positive side the Cowboys have gained mounts of experience in the Phillips 34 and Garrett’s attacking offense. Each game in the bag means bad news for opposing teams.

All the offseason hardwork is culminating towards one goal, the Super Bowl and Romo is leading the way. Romo has bounced back from the Seattle game back in January and has be steadfast in his game management. The defense is beginning to click and looks to be swarming now, something this defense did not have last year, and most definitely did not have in December.

This game against the Lions is a bigger game than it appears. The defense knows what December did to the Cowboys, and there’s an arguement that could be made that our season slipped away because the defense crumbled. This year the defense wants to keep it going, and Bradie James is leading the way. Not only does James want to get after the Lions, he wants to lead the defense to a dominating December. It all starts against the Lions.

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.

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 latest NFL Power Rankings are out, and the Cowboys remain in the top five in most of the major media outlets. The Colts and Patriots are still the two top main teams atop these power rankings, and rightfully so, these teams are consistent season-to-season contenders, and nothing short of the Super Bowl is their goal. A few have the Steelers above us, which I don’t agree with. They have a good defense, but the offense is nothing spectacular. Here are the rankings from around the web:

FOX Sports: #4
Far and away the NFC’s most impressive team through three weeks of the season, the Cowboys rolled past the defending conference champion Bears 34-10 in Chicago on Sunday night. Tony Romo had his way with the highly touted Bears D, tossing for 329 yards and a touchdown in the win. More impressive than the offensive effort was the Dallas D. The Cowboys picked off Bears quarterback Rex Grossman three times and held the Bears to only 75 yards rushing. Wade Phillips has Dallas at 3-0 and in the driver’s seat in the NFC East. The Cowboys take on the winless Rams next week.

ESPN: #3
Who knew the Oct. 14 matchup against the Patriots might be the Super Bowl preview? Facing the Rams and Bills (a Monday nighter) the next two weeks, the Cowboys should be 5-0 going into the game against New England.

MSNBC: #4
Last week: Led by Anthony Henry’s two INTs, the Cowboys might have ended Rex Grossman’s starting career with a 34-10 win in Chicago.
Cold, Hard Football Facts: Marion Barber (40 carries) and Julius Jones (38) are splitting time, but not production — Barber has 256 yards and four touchdowns, Jones has 124 and no touchdowns. But Jones did save a bunch of money on his car insurance.

SI, Peter King: #4
The more I see Tony Romo, the more I say to Jerry Jones: Pay the man.

USAToday: #3
The win in Chicago announced that the Cowboys are the class of the NFC … for now. With the Rams and Bills on the schedule next, Dallas could be 5-0 when it welcomes New England on Oct. 14.

I have the Cowboys ranked at #3 Overall, and nothing drastic should change over the next two weeks; however, in week 6 the Cowboys will have a TRUE measuring stick against the highly vaunted Patriots squad. The Patriots are a complete team on both sides of the ball, they have a great defense, and a highly explosive offense. This will probably be billed as a preview to the Super Bowl, and ratings for this game will break records.

Number 82, Jason Witten, is Romo’s closest teammate. Last season, fans thought Witten would have a dominating season; but, this did not happen. Witten was used in a predictable conservative offense that did not allow Witten to showcase his catching and route running skills. Witten scored just one TD in 2006. During the preseason, Witten looked to be Novacek reincarnated; and, further support of this rejuvenation came last week against the Giants. Romo to Witten was money all night long, and the Novacek comparisons are back. Witten had 6 catches for 116 yards and a TD. Are we short changing Witten though? Witten has had solid receptions since he arrived in Dallas, but this year, I think Witten will officially break out from Novacek’s shadow. Statistically speaking, Witten is on schedule to shatter all Cowboys TE’s records. No more of this, “he is the next Novacek” business. Witten is Witten and better than Novacek at this point in his career. We just need to get some Super Bowl rings.

Romo and Witten will shatter records together and have become the closest of teammates, and Romo acknowledges this fact:

“I doubt if I’ll ever be as close to a teammate again in my career for sure,” quarterback Tony Romo told the Fort Worth Star-Telegram of Witten. “It’s a special relationship where I feel like I know where he’s going to be on the field. I feel like we’ve practiced and done it a million times, we’ve talked about it a million times.”

Witten signed a new contract in July of 2006, worth about $29 million, and it included about $12 million in guarantees, so, Romo to Witten will be a staple in our offensive attack for years to come. Romo is the real deal and should be getting a new deal of his own this season.

Rototimes.com has this on Witten’s fantasy football value this year:

The aw-shucks kid from Tennessee has always been talented, but he now has numbers on his side as well. For his career, Witten is averaging 4.0 catches per game for 46.2 yards. However, in games started by his buddy Romo (by the way, you’ve gotta love when the guy on your fantasy roster is bff with the quarterback) those numbers shoot up to 4.5 catches and 57.5 yards per game. Even better, since Witten’s first Pro Bowl season in 2004, he’s averaged 5.7 catches for 70.6 yards and scored five times in the 12 games Glenn has missed. So even if Glenn returns later and Romo finds a new pal, Witten should at least continue his productivity for a few more weeks.

Many years from now, when Witten is retired, Cowboys fans will be saying, “is he the next Witten?” when we search for his replacement. Witten is quietly writing his own legacy in Cowboys Lore.

Remember that movie “The Number 23“, that starred Jim Carrey, in which he posed the question, “What is 23?” If you saw the movie you know what I’m talking about. Basically the movie is about His obsession with the number 23 starts to consume him.

In my boredom this evening I’ve created my own obsession with the number 9. And like Jim Carrey in his movie, I found my self asking, “what is 9?”

I ran with it and came up with these numbers based on Romo’s #9 and our WR’s, and it all relates to our teams of the ’90s. Eerie, yet strange and extremely fascinating.

9+81=90

9+82=91

9+83=92*

9+84=93*

9+86=95*

Romo’s current age, 27 divided by 9 = 3, the amount of Super Bowls* won in the ’90s

Super Bowl XXVII MVP was Aikman 8 + 9 = 17, Jason Garrett

What does all this craziness mean? It means whatever you think it could mean, it could mean nothing, or it could mean everything. Is this unit destined for the same success that we enjoyed in the ’90s?

Spread the word! You heard it here first.

I’ve  been trying to figure out who Jay Ratliff plays like. He’s been a solid pick for us since we drafted him in 2005. Ware, Spears, Burnett, and Canty were the other defensive players drafted that year. Ratliff is getting a lot more attention these days since starting NT Jason Ferguson is out for the rest of the year. So in watching him play against the Giants you can see he really does go after the QB.  It hit me during the game, Ratliff has this same high motor, explosiveness off the snap that another solid defensive tackle we had during our Super Bowl runs, Jimmie Jones. Jones was drafted in  the 3rd round back in 1990, and played exceptionally well. Ratliff plays like Jimmie Jones, same build, and similar size at 6-4. Jimmie Jones still shares the most fumble recoveries in Super Bowl history:Jimmie Jones, Dallas vs. Buffalo, 1993 (2 opp.) Man, the memories, there’s definitely a lot of ’90s nostalgia going around Cowboys Nation, and I’m a main proliferator.
I think we can expect the same type of play from Ratliff, this guy is a beast up and down the line.

On the eve of America’s real “pastime” it doesn’t matter if your favorite team is not the Saints or Colts, the fact is, Football is here! No more boring sports like tennis, golf, and baseball to torture us for most of the offseason. The real deal, NFL, is back on the block and all other sports can now take their designated seats in the back row. Get outta here with that stuff.

The NFL is the best sporting product out there. No other professional sports organization draws in the biggest viewers. Just think about it, the NFL Draft is pretty much a holiday, people request off or call in just to gather around friends and family to view the latest crop of prospects. The NFL Hall of Fame Inductions is money too, where else can you see the best stars of their time and enjoy watching all the inductees speeches? Baseball, and Basketball HOF coverage has nothing on the NFL. And now comes NFL Kickoff 2007, where the Saints visit the Colts, this is like the Super Bowl. There’s a whole lot of pregame festivities and events leading up to Kickoff - a big celebration!

Football is a game that you can watch even if your favorite team is not playing, we even enjoy watching our most hated rivals playing, just for the simple fact that we route for the opposing team to beat them up. And this is what most of America will be doing tomorrow, its an American tradition.

So, get your popcorn ready, its go time, now everything counts.

My Prediction for the first game of the year: Saints 30 Colts 26