The more time passes by, the more I realize 2007 was the year

Am I the only one who thought we had a better shot in 2009?

I still maintain that we unfortunately ran into the only team that would be able to beat us that year in Minnesota?

Ntegrase96 said:

Am I the only one who thought we had a better shot in 2009?

I still maintain that we unfortunately ran into the only team that would be able to beat us that year in Minnesota?

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2009 was a good year but I also have to say 2008 was a missed opportunity. Look @ the divisional winners that year. None of them were really dominating going into the postseason. There were the Cardinals who was playing a weak NFC West, the Giants without Plax, Carolina was a team Dallas beat the year before, and Minnesota that had Jackson as their qb. I think that if the Cowboys made it to the wildcard, they could of made a run like the Eagles.

Ntegrase96 said:

Am I the only one who thought we had a better shot in 2009?

I still maintain that we unfortunately ran into the only team that would be able to beat us that year in Minnesota?

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yeah pretty much my whole point is 2006-2009 seems to have been the window for this core. Things have gotten progressively worse since then.

Ntegrase96 said:

Am I the only one who thought we had a better shot in 2009?

I still maintain that we unfortunately ran into the only team that would be able to beat us that year in Minnesota?

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We were too weak up front to win anything in 2009. That was one of the worst beatings I've seen a team take in the playoffs. They beat us down and violated our women.

CyberB0b said:

2007 was actually a farce, and set us up for the failure we have had since. It was really a perfect storm.

1. Lot's of players played beyond their ability. Ken Hamlin, Bigg Davis, etc.
2. Cupcake schedule. We had one of the easiest schedules ever.
3. Lot's of money spent on locking up guys after this season.

This season lead Jerry to think we were just a few players away from the Super Bowl. This directly lead to the Roy Williams trade, which spun into the dirty dozen draft.

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THIS x 100

It is amazing to me how much people on this board are enamored with the 2007 season. I guess it is the 13-3 record. The only team in recent years that had a chance of doing anything in the playoffs was the 2009 team. Most importantly you had a defense and team that actually (and finally) played BETTER as the season went along into December. A defense for the first time in Cowboys storied history that produced two back to back shutouts. It is no coincidence that was the only team to win a playoff game either. That team actually had "it" which is the last key ingredient into any playoff run. Remember all the BELIEVE graphics on here? I never felt that way about the 2007 season. It felt more like smoke and mirrors to me.

Risen Star said:

We were too weak up front to win anything in 2009. That was one of the worst beatings I've seen a team take in the playoffs. They beat us down and violated our women.

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Sadly the beginning of the end did come with that Minnesota beating. This team literally has not been the same sense. It crushed our spirits. Too bad, though, cause it really did seem as if they had finally gotten over the hump.

Zordon said:

2007 was the year.

anybody else feel the same?

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A few more years of this kind of repetitive mediocrity, 2007 will become the "Glory Days".

dallasfan4lizife said:

we didn't lose the game because of 1 drop. I know people like to fantasize about being able to blame 1 individual for the loss, but it was a well rounded effort to lose that one.

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Agreed.

Risen Star said:

We were too weak up front to win anything in 2009. That was one of the worst beatings I've seen a team take in the playoffs. They beat us down and violated our women.

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I agree it was massive beatdown, but I don't agree that we were weak up front.

I think Flo--Kosier--Gurode--Davis--Free would've been good that game and more than enough for any other opponent left in the tourney, but instead Colombo rushed back to play and wasn't healthy (thus Ray Edwards feasted), and Flo left the game early leaving Free playing LT for the first time against Jared Allen.

And on defense, that was one of Ratliff's better years, Spencer was starting to get hot, and Ware was playing great ball too. And that was a great year for Jenkins. Newman too. They could hang with a lot of receivers. Except for the 6'4" Sidney Rice. There wasn't going to be another WR like that either.

But Favre made some things happen early with his legs that neither Brees, nor Peyton would have against us. They broke our backs early and we never recovered.

All in all, I think the Vikings were not only a better team, but the only bad matchup remaining for Dallas that year.

Ntegrase96 said:

I agree it was massive beatdown, but I don't agree that we were weak up front.

I think Flo--Kosier--Gurode--Davis--Free would've been good that game and more than enough for any other opponent left in the tourney, but instead Colombo rushed back to play and wasn't healthy (thus Ray Edwards feasted), and Flo left the game early leaving Free playing LT for the first time against Jared Allen.

And on defense, that was one of Ratliff's better years, Spencer was starting to get hot, and Ware was playing great ball too. And that was a great year for Jenkins. Newman too. They could hang with a lot of receivers. Except for the 6'4" Sidney Rice. There wasn't going to be another WR like that either.

But Favre made some things happen early with his legs that neither Brees, nor Peyton would have against us. They broke our backs early and we never recovered.

All in all, I think the Vikings were not only a better team, but the only bad matchup remaining for Dallas that year.

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Yep.

Wayne02 said:

They wouldn't have beaten the Patriots, so the ring count would still be at 5.

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i think they wouldve.

dallasfan4lizife said:

Cabo the week before a playoff game wasn't an issue? He should be focused on what he gets paid millions to do. He couldn't wait until after the season?

He had a 64 rating and played poorly in that game.

Enough with the fantasizing, crayton never had a shot at that ball and it was a poorly designed play to begin with.

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Of course Cabo was a problem.

So was his singer girlfriend..big distractions.

While he and Written we're stroking pina coladas..

Eli Manning and friends were getting ready to win a World Championship.


As long as I'm a Cowboys fan..

I'll never forgive Romo for that bit of leadership.

LatinMind said:

i think they wouldve.

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The only way to beat the 2007 Patriots was to have a great pass rush, something Dallas did not have. It would not have ended well for the Cowboys that year, the Patriots offense was just too potent.

Zordon said:

2007 was the year.

anybody else feel the same?

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I agree 100%. We were better than the giants and GB. We should have played in the SB against NE.

What a wasted opportunity. Our OL was dominating.

I honestly can't be bothered to daydream about a season taht happened almost 7 years ago.

Toruk_Makto said:

I honestly can't be bothered to daydream about a season taht happened almost 7 years ago.

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But you can be bothered enough to post in the thread about it.

joseephuss said:

But you can be bothered enough to post in the thread about it.

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Yes. One thing took a few seconds as I was caught up on other threads i'm monitoring. The other takes considerably more effort.

Nevermind that the Pat probably curb stomp us that year as we weren't built to beat them the way the Giants were. Try and outscore that team? Please.

CyberB0b said:

2007 was actually a farce, and set us up for the failure we have had since. It was really a perfect storm.

1. Lot's of players played beyond their ability. Ken Hamlin, Bigg Davis, etc.
2. Cupcake schedule. We had one of the easiest schedules ever.
3. Lot's of money spent on locking up guys after this season.

This season lead Jerry to think we were just a few players away from the Super Bowl. This directly lead to the Roy Williams trade, which spun into the dirty dozen draft.

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Yes..2007 was the turning point of a multitude of sins.

Ever the gambler..

Jerrah tried to prime his Cowboy well with some insane stratagies not based in valid football thinking..

What we now have is the end result...

I posted this last year:


Preseason:

Bill Parcells quits after trying to strong arm Jerry into paying him more and we hire Wade Phillips. Jerry had already hired Jason Garrett as the OC, so it seemed likely we were getting a defensive minded head coach to take over. This was an odd move, as usually the HC picks his own staff.

Season

We got the AFC East and NFC North that year, which ended up being one of the easiest schedules in the league. The AFC East, was absolutely terrible, with the exception of New England.

We opened the season in a shoot out against the Giants on SNF. I remember the game vividly. I was excited to see the new "attacking" style defense of Wade Phillips, since we heard so many complaints about how vanilla the Parcells 3-4 was. It was one of the most exciting regular season games I have ever watched. After that game, we knew Romo was the real deal.

After that game, we had a bunch of cupcake games. The Bears were defending NFC champs, but they weren't very good. The Rams, Dolphins, Bills were the worst teams in the league, and the Vikings were mediocre.

In hindsight, we beat up on a bunch of bad teams, which allowed some individual players to play at a level that was not representative of their true potential.

Pro Bowl Players

This is where the "talented roster" talk started to happen. It seems like commonplace now, but in 2006, no one was praising the talent that is on this team. Now, every year, we hear the pundits claiming the Cowboys have enough talent to win the Super Bowl, but it just isn't true.

Romo
MBIII
TO
Witten
Flozell
Davis
Gurode
Ware
Ellis
Newman
Hamlin
Roy Williams
Folk

What is interesting is that Gurode was terrible this year at snapping. He was a decent interior blocker, but he had a ton of bad snaps, some of which were comical, like against the Rams.

It would be proven in the next year that a large majority of these guys were flukes who padded their stats by playing terrible teams.

2008 Season

Jerry truly believed we were really close to getting to the Super Bowl since we did so well in the 2007. This lead to Jerry giving away our 2009 draft for Roy Williams, who ended up being a complete bust.

The 2008 season was a complete disaster ending in a pure embarrassment as we closed out Texas Stadium with a loss and got destroyed by the Eagles.

2009 Season

The Cowboys and Wade Phillips looked to be on the ropes, until the miracle win over the Saints happened and we managed to sneak into the playoffs. We managed to beat the Eagles in a playoff game and this secured Wade Phillips' job.


Anyways, the point of this thread is that 2007 is where all the "talent" BS started being spewed around and probably extended Wade Phillips' time here as a coach by at least a year and a half. I believe this directly correlates with bad drafting (drafting for depth and lack of competition) that we saw from 2007 - 2010.

The Natural said:

At the very least they should've been competing for the title. If i remember right we played the Patriots early in the year and they waxed us, it would've been a tough game but losing to the damn giants in the divisional game is par the course for this franchise the last 15 or however many years

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I remember the game being close until the end. Didn't they have a couple garbage time TD's?