Cowboys host Saints: 8-5

ddh33

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Tonight's game is precisely why I would never bet on football. Every Sunday things happen in this league that I just can't explain. This game was one of them. If you would have told me that the Saints would win, I could understand. I would have never believed this would have happened.

The good news is that the team is still in first in the division, and next Sunday is always another game. And spare me all of the "Dallas will never win another game" junk. You can't say that any more than someone saying that Dallas won't lose another one. Anything can happen on any given Sunday.

The team was out-coached tonight. Give a ton of credit to Sean Payton. He called a great game. I thought that making the linebackers and safeties cover was a great call simply because those groups struggle with that at times. He was also very confident and gutsy in his calls. I think that confidence trickled down to his players.

As far as Dallas was concerned, this was one of those nights where anything that could go wrong did.

I saw a few good things, although there weren't many.
---Demarcus Ware is becoming a great football player. I just wish he hadn't been out there by himself tonight on defense.
---Terry Glenn is the best receiver on this team, hands down. It's not even close.
---Julius Jones looked goog in his limited opportunities. I wouldn't have minded seeing more of him.
---Miles Austin is doing a nice job on special teams.

I saw a lot of bad stuff though.
---The safeties and linebackers were terrible in coverage. I think Roy Williams takes a beating for a ton of things that aren't at all his fault. Beat away on him after today though. He was bad. Keith Davis was still worse.
---Romo struggled. The Saints made a big effort to keep him in the pocket, and he didn't get into the flow of the game at all. He was asked to do way too much because the game got out of hand, but he struggled.
---The run defense wasn't up to par either.
---Despite the big kick last week, is anyone that confident in this kicking situation?

The stuff that really has me worried:
---The refs were terrible. I thought that was a very poorly officiated game. I'm glad it wasn't a close game. Who knows what would have happened?
---It looks like teams are going to make Dallas beat them with the run again too. The receivers were being paid a lot of attention, and Dallas missed their playmakers.
---Something is up with TO. There was a lot of talk about his conversation on ESPN, and something was up. It might not have had anything to do with that, but TO was not fired up in this game. He looked like he was pouting, and he is quickly wearing out his welcome among fans, it seems. I think it gets gets so tiring to constantly deal with junk.

Absolutely, no question about it, the scariest thing about this game was that it showed a huge weakness of this team - toughness. On multiple times this season I have seen a team just punch Dallas right in the face with their play. On just about every occassion when that has happened, the Cowboys look like they are about to cry. They don't come back tough or mean. They don't play inspired. They just take their beating. That bothers me more than everything else combined. Give me more fighters on this team!

That fight is exactly why I will overlook some things and applaud Romo for competing, Terry Glenn for being a stud, and Demarcus Ware. That competitveness was missing in way too many guys though.


In the end, I hope and think that tonight was just one of those games. Dallas obviously has some issues they have to work on. They better do it fast.
 
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