News: BTB: Six Thoughts After The Cowboys' Big Win Against The Bears

[NewsBot]

The road record, Tony Romo's health, and Josh Brent's play are among the things that stood out after the game.

During the Cowboys big win over Chicago, on the road, there was a stat mentioned about teams that went undefeated on the road for the season and what their ultimate outcome was. It turns out that all of them made the playoffs and a couple of them actually won it all.

To be clear, I am not saying Dallas should hope to get the wildcard so they can play on the road, but rather just saying that an unblemished road record says something about how good a team is and that the final outcome of the season for those teams was proof of that. Keep in mind that in order to win all of the road games the Cowboys still need to win two more to get that distinguished record.

THE COIN TOSS:


A lot of teams this year that win the coin toss are kicking off so they can get the ball to start the second half. The idea would appear to be two-fold, first they think that if they can get a three-and-out on the first drive that they can get a good start on the field position battle, and that getting the ball to start the second half is somehow an advantage. My question is "Could it really be all about who scores just before the half?" If so, then the advantage would be that the team that scored to end the half, gets to have the ball twice in a row if it was the team that kicked off to start the game.

The Cowboys won the toss and elected to get the ball first. If the Bears scored just before the half and then got the ball to start the second half, it would be a huge psychological advantage, but a score by the Cowboys just before the half negated that.

THE TURNING POINT:


When Anthony Spencer caused Matt Forte of the Bears to fumble the ball on their first drive to start the second half, I thought at that time it was the turning point of the game. After the game was over, though, I recalled the third and 15 with just a little over a minute left in the second quarter where Tony Romo threw a beautiful pass to Jason Witten for 19 yards, that kept the drive alive and allowed them to score right before the half. This combined with the fumble by the Bears on the first drive after the half led to the Cowboys scoring three times on just eight plays.

THIS TEAM IS DIFFERENT:


When the media keeps bringing up the Cowboys woes in December, remember this team does not have the same players as those other teams. Every year is different and no matter how much the talking heads try to paint the picture that the teams from the past somehow affect this year's team it is not a valid way to view it.

For one thing this years' team has a better OC, for another it has Zack Martin, and those are just two examples as to why this year's team is actually different. If the Cowboys wind up having a winning record in December, it will be because this IS a different team from the ones that did not have a good December record in the past.

ROMOS' HEALTH:


Tony Romo looked like a different person than the one that played the Eagles on Thanksgiving, and with ten days to prepare for them this time around, confidence levels went through the roof after the offensive explosion. Then during the post-game he mentioned how he decided to not take a shot for the Eagles game and it turned out to be a mistake that he won't make again.

JOSH BRENT:


While Josh Brent was not yet in game shape, he looked like he started to be a force to be reckoned with. He showed why he may be a really good rotation upgrade for the 1-tech for the remaining three games.

The Cowboys 23rd-ranked run defense can sure use some help and Brent is known as a guy that can demand double-teams, and that is one trait that is needed in the middle.

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