First, let me say to the Mods: I apologize if this is misplaced or shouldn't be posted as a new thread. I've been reading this board since '03-'04, but tend to keep my thoughts to myself. Many people may feel this is a good thing once they read my rant...lol. Obviously, feel free to move/merge/delete at your leisure!
Now that that's out of the way....let me say that in all the time I've been hanging around here, I get as much of a kick out of the "chicken littles" as anyone...I roll my eyes and have been PUMPED about this season.
If anyone cares, here are my thoughts on the game:
I'll take the win...but are you gonna tell me that you're comfortable with that performance?
Especially in the first half, on a national stage, the things that were highlighted and killed us were the very things that all the critics have been cutting us down for. And then some!
Embarrassing.
Enraging.
Unbelievable.
This team was presented with a chance to step up to the plate tonight, and in reality all they had to do to pass that test was to not f*** it up too much. They failed, in spite of the win. They played some incredibly BAD football, reminiscent of the 2002-2004 teams. With 10x the talent. Wow. Just wow.
Are you kidding me?! I'm extremely troubled with what I saw.
Amongst my friends, family and acquaintances, I've been driving this Cowboys bandwagon for 2008, but its been under the assumption that this team has learned from its past mistakes, that it has grown together and has been working as a cohesive unit to LEARN how to be a championship team.
I saw very little evidence of that against the Eagles, and that's being kind, even though they won.
I'm no expert by any means, but all night long it seemed to me that all 53 members of this team (and the coaches!!!) were hoping that the next series would bail them out. Fortunately for them, in the end they WERE bailed out. At no point did I see evidence of them deciding to take control, I never saw anyone take it upon themselves and say "F*** this, we're gonna win this game." If you need a reference as to what that's about, see Manning, Peyton...2nd half on Sunday in Minnesota. This is just one game, but the point is this: HUGE difference.
Again, I'll take the win, but the concern here is that sooner or later these things are going to bite you in the @$$ over a long NFL season, and at the worst possible time. It's what did us in last year. I remember us blowing out the defending NFC Champion Bears, the overhyped Eagles, and the streaking Giants, all on the road (I was in the crowd for two of those games). But what happened when the chips were down?
To further illustrate the point: think about the New England Patriots these past few years....even this year once they lost Tom Brady, how would they have played this game against the Eagles? If you think it would have been anything close to as sloppy, as undisciplined, as amateurish as the Cowboys played, IN SPITE of winning the game (which does encourage me, just not nearly enough), you're fooling yourself.
I can't think of any reason why the Cowboys sans Tony Romo would have looked nearly as good against the Jets in NY on Sunday. In fact, I would be the least surprised guy in the room had they lost.
And I have a hard time believing that the Brady-less Pats would have performed any worse against the Eagles tonight than the far-more-talented Cowboys SHOULD have. They wouldn't have let the Eagles even have a sniff of this game once it was 14-6, I can almost guarantee you that.
As much as I want to believe it, we're just not a complete team. Not yet. It's depressing, because we have all the pieces. It's demoralizing, because there's no legitimate reason why any fan of this team should feel this way.
There are 14 weeks left in this season, and a lot can happen, but lets be honest....between November of 2007 and right now, I have seen no evidence that this team has learned anything, or has the guts to overcome the true obstacles that have stood in the way since 2006. Hard Knocks fired me up, but tonight was a wakeup call. The bonehead mistakes, the cavalier attitude.... its the same as last year when we were 12-1 before collapsing.
Even though we won, this game came dangerously close to playing itself out as the worst case scenario, and the result came in spite of ourselves.
We got up early, even if it was with a few breaks, against an inferior team that could hang around only if we let them. To compound matters, it was a big game at home that could really set the tone for the rest of the 2008 season.
What happened?
I have loved to blame Parcells' exceedingly conservative approach for holding us back in '06, but now I'm not quite as sure. If he couldn't get this team to get its head out of its @$$, can Wade? I'm far from a Parcells fan, but so far, the answer is NO. I have a hard time believing we will average much less than 8-9 penalties PER GAME this year, most of them in costly situations like 3rd downs. That's junior varsity B.S. for a team that thinks it has all the tools....and completely unacceptable.
We do have a lot of talent, and thats the only reason we didn't get blown out tonight against Philly. But IMO its important to recognize that it was big plays that saved us, not guts or winning in the trenches.
Let's face some hard facts: we are totally ***'d if we don't get a lot tougher mentally and physically, and in a BIG hurry. We better develop an attitude that other teams need to prove themselves against us, and all we have to do is keep a cool head and play our game. We're not doing that.
These guys are soft and undisciplined. They believe their own hype, and think they are almost entitled to win if they just show up (remember how well that worked against the Giants in January?). Maybe thats because of Wade Phillips, or maybe its because of the equipment guys or some other factor....I don't know how, but thats the reality of the situation, whatever the cause. I can only hope Jerry Jones is aware of the cause and fixes it.
I bleed silver and blue, and I would LOVE to be proven wrong. But the fact is that I can't be on this bandwagon, nor can I believe that we have a legitimate shot to be champions with the way this coaching staff is shaping this team. I have not been given any reason to be confident with what I've seen on the field, despite all the talent we have. It's sad, and I hope I'm wrong. But there it is.
Bottom line: tell me with a straight face that this team can win in December and January with what you saw against the Eagles...and this is while we're relatively healthy and excited. That's all that matters this season, winning when it counts. We don't need to be 13-3 again...hell, we don't even need to win the division again, just get to January and then win when it matters.
We're an explosive team for sure, and we can score from anywhere on the field...but do we have the cajones in every phase of the game to survive until the end, and make other teams fear us? Not right now. I can tell you as someone living in NYC, that Giants fans had a lot of fun watching this game.
Please understand that none of this means that I believe that this team can't overcome its problems, because it ABSOLUTELY can. If they do, they will be unstoppable, no question. They are far and away the best team in the NFL if they CHOOSE to be. But I have a real fear that they may not.
That's it. Flame away if you must.
