News: BTB: Cowboys Defeat The Giants 36-31 To Start 1-0. Yeah, But...

NewsBot · Sep 10, 2013

For me, Sunday night was a blast.

I got to watch my Cowboys in a meaningful game for the first time since that crushing, gut-punch loss to Washington at the end of last season when we missed the opportunity to make the tournament. After a long off-season of salary-cap finagling, draft fiascoes and flat-out flawed memes, we finally got to see some real live action.

I got to watch my favorite team defeat a hated rival. Not just that, they beat them at home, AT&T Stadium, where the opponent and their fans were gleefully referring to our palace as their vacation home. How cute.

I got to watch my team, who couldn't turnover a piece of paper in 2012 much less their opponents, get not one, not two, not three, not four, not five, but six turnovers last night. Whattup LeBron.

Yeah but, they got six turnovers and almost lost.

Ummm, what? Ex-squeeze me? Come again?

Yeah but, the offense didn't do enough to win.

I'm sorry, when I looked up at the final scoreboard it said "Cowboys win, suckas". When I watched the game I'm pretty sure I saw the Cowboys offense take the field on several occasions.

Yeah but, the defense scored two touchdowns. You have to take that into account for their 36 points.

I missed the memo that when talking about a team, only achievements made by certain parts of the team count.

The refrains in the Twitterverse came at me over and over again. Yeah, the Cowboys won, but they sure didn't look good doing it.

Well here are my yeah buts to counter their yeah derrieres.

Yeah, but the Cowboys won a game where Dez Bryant only caught half of his targets, 4 receptions for only 22 yards and had the lowest yards-per-catch and yards-per-target of all Cowboys receivers. Not to mention the fact that Dez was molested twice that went uncalled and it took a referee from the oppo side of the field to throw a flag on the one that was called.

Yeah, but the Giants seemed to get away with egregious, flagrant penalties on a large majority of their big plays, including obvious holding on Orlando Scandrick on Victor Cruz's first touchdown catch and several other plays.

Yeah, but the Cowboys showed unique things that they hadn't shown before. Dedication to a no-huddle, pistol formations, 12 and 13 personnel galore.

Yeah, but the Cowboys won a game where Tony Romo didn't have to pass for 400 yards and 16 touchdowns.

Yeah, but the Cowboys ravaged defensive line that was missing two starters and rotating three street free agents who weren't with the team last year balled out.

Yeah, but the reason that Da'Rel Scott was in the game at the end to have bad timing with Manning that led to the sealing pick-six? That was because we stripped the number one running back of the ball, twice, and forced him to the bench.

Don't get me wrong (which often happens on twitter). Me saying that people shouldn't be doing the "Yeah, but" routine is not the same thing as me saying everything is roses. Sure, Will Allen frightens me, too. Watching DeMarco have to make his own way again isn't my preference. If Icarus fell from the sky and landed on the cushion that Claiborne was giving up, we'd probably never have had one of the best video games ever.

Big picture though, the Cowboys outscored 30 of the other 31 teams that suited up for week one. That's impressive, no matter how likely it is for us to ever get six turnovers again.

Saying Dallas can't plan on getting 6 turnovers is a moot point to me, because I'm also not planning on Dez Bryant being shut down on a regular basis, on Mo Claiborne being that gawd-awful rusty, on Anthony Spencer not being there, on Mackenzy Bernadeau ever being in a starting lineup again, et cetera, et cetera.

Week 1 means that any and every storyline which occurred has as much chance of continuing as it does never being heard from again. No one knows. So why have "yeah, but" be the first thing out your mouth, or fingertips, after the game ends? Why sit and dwell on saying they only won because, without saying I don't think that bad stuff rears it head again?

It was one game. That we won.

Most people have said it takes a year and a half to learn a new defense. The Cowboys are a week into the Montinelli and personally, I'd call this last game a good first step. Football's 16-game season is too small a sample size to begin with, so to look at just one game as anything more than a loss or a victory seems mighty short-sighted. If we get to Game Four and have these problems, then we can start fretting over "winning ugly".

For now, put some lipstick on that swine and dance a piggy-jig. The Cowboys are 1-0.

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News: BTB: Cowboys Defeat The Giants 36-31 To Start 1-0. Yeah, But...

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