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(This is part of a longer article. The link is below.)
Litmus test
Cowboys fighting for NFC respect against Patriots
Posted: Friday October 12, 2007 11:57AM; Updated: Friday October 12, 2007 11:57AM
Here's the unspoken reality behind the build-up to this week's Super Bowl preview that will unfold on Sunday in Texas Stadium: This Week 6 showdown of undefeated teams means significantly more to Dallas than it does visiting New England.
Why? Because for an NFC that has been humbled and largely dominated by the AFC this decade, it's a measuring stick game that will determine if the best team in the NFL's lightweight conference has what it takes to compete with the best team in the NFL's elite conference. For the Patriots, this is being treated as just another game, and certainly not on the same par as their looming Week 9 trip to Indianapolis, home of the defending Super Bowl champions.
Sorry, NFC and Cowboys fans, but those are the facts. This is the game Dallas (5-0) has been shooting for, because if the Cowboys win it, they will have validated themselves as their conference's legitimate Super Bowl favorite. It'll mean the difference between the Cowboys feeling they're for real, and knowing they are. The Patriots (5-0) require no such affirmation. They have known they're for real for years now, and they are perennially a Super Bow contender. Their main focus is unseating the Colts, who are also 5-0 heading into their bye weekend.
Everybody knows the AFC has out-classed the NFC this decade, but here's one theory why: Since the beginning of the Patriots reign in 2001 -- which happens to have coincided with Tom Brady's ascension to starting quarterback -- New England's superiority has provided the rest of the AFC with a team to try and both emulate and compete with. It gave the rest of the conference a definable standard that had to be met if you intended to play on the same field as the Patriots. It forced AFC teams to elevate their games, and that heightened competition pushed franchises like Indianapolis, Pittsburgh, Baltimore, Denver and San Diego to try and match New England's gains every year.
By comparison, for most of this decade, the NFC has had no such preeminent franchise that pushed the bar of competition ever higher. After New England upset the heavily favored St. Louis Rams for its first Super Bowl win following the 2001 season, the NFC has been won by a different team every year: Tampa Bay, Carolina, Philadelphia, Seattle and Chicago. They were one-hit wonders, as it were. There has been no NFC team that forced the competition within the conference to try and catch up to it, and perhaps that's how the AFC has surged past the NFC in terms of heavyweight teams.
The AFC has won five of the six Super Bowls that have been played since the Patriots' reign began in 2001, with only the Bucs win over Oakland breaking that trend in 2002. Not coincidentally perhaps, the Raiders preceded to drop off the face of the NFL map for the four years that followed their Super Bowl loss. In terms of interconference play, the AFC has won the season series against the NFC five years running, with the conferences tying 30-30 in 2001. Since the start of 2004, the AFC's edge has been a whopping 130-84 (.607 winning percentage), including this year's modest 12-10 AFC advantage through five weeks.
The rise of the Patriots may not account for all of the imbalance in the AFC vs. NFC competition, but it's a significant piece of the puzzle. The good news for Dallas fans? If anything, the Cowboys are the closest thing to an AFC team in the NFC as there is. After all, these Cowboys were built by Bill Parcells, whose most recent coaching stops before Dallas were in New England and with the Jets.
The Cowboys are a physical, AFC-style team that favors a sizable offensive line, power running game, and employs a 3-4 defense, the same system used by AFC powerhouses in New England, San Diego and Pittsburgh. And the Cowboys' young quarterback, Tony Romo, has a flare for play-making that could some day see him mentioned alongside the likes of AFC elite quarterbacks such as Brady, Peyton Manning and Carson Palmer.
With a win at Dallas, Brady will tie a nice neat bow on all this Patriots-Cowboys week talk. A victory will make him 76-24 in his first 100 regular-season starts, matching the record of Cowboys legend Roger Staubach. Then again, Brady already owns three Super Bowl rings at age 30. Staubach won two in his Hall of Fame career in Dallas.
Guess that means Brady and the Patriots will own the tiebreaker.
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http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2007/writers/don_banks/10/12/dallas/index.html
Litmus test
Cowboys fighting for NFC respect against Patriots
Posted: Friday October 12, 2007 11:57AM; Updated: Friday October 12, 2007 11:57AM
Here's the unspoken reality behind the build-up to this week's Super Bowl preview that will unfold on Sunday in Texas Stadium: This Week 6 showdown of undefeated teams means significantly more to Dallas than it does visiting New England.
Why? Because for an NFC that has been humbled and largely dominated by the AFC this decade, it's a measuring stick game that will determine if the best team in the NFL's lightweight conference has what it takes to compete with the best team in the NFL's elite conference. For the Patriots, this is being treated as just another game, and certainly not on the same par as their looming Week 9 trip to Indianapolis, home of the defending Super Bowl champions.
Sorry, NFC and Cowboys fans, but those are the facts. This is the game Dallas (5-0) has been shooting for, because if the Cowboys win it, they will have validated themselves as their conference's legitimate Super Bowl favorite. It'll mean the difference between the Cowboys feeling they're for real, and knowing they are. The Patriots (5-0) require no such affirmation. They have known they're for real for years now, and they are perennially a Super Bow contender. Their main focus is unseating the Colts, who are also 5-0 heading into their bye weekend.
Everybody knows the AFC has out-classed the NFC this decade, but here's one theory why: Since the beginning of the Patriots reign in 2001 -- which happens to have coincided with Tom Brady's ascension to starting quarterback -- New England's superiority has provided the rest of the AFC with a team to try and both emulate and compete with. It gave the rest of the conference a definable standard that had to be met if you intended to play on the same field as the Patriots. It forced AFC teams to elevate their games, and that heightened competition pushed franchises like Indianapolis, Pittsburgh, Baltimore, Denver and San Diego to try and match New England's gains every year.
By comparison, for most of this decade, the NFC has had no such preeminent franchise that pushed the bar of competition ever higher. After New England upset the heavily favored St. Louis Rams for its first Super Bowl win following the 2001 season, the NFC has been won by a different team every year: Tampa Bay, Carolina, Philadelphia, Seattle and Chicago. They were one-hit wonders, as it were. There has been no NFC team that forced the competition within the conference to try and catch up to it, and perhaps that's how the AFC has surged past the NFC in terms of heavyweight teams.
The AFC has won five of the six Super Bowls that have been played since the Patriots' reign began in 2001, with only the Bucs win over Oakland breaking that trend in 2002. Not coincidentally perhaps, the Raiders preceded to drop off the face of the NFL map for the four years that followed their Super Bowl loss. In terms of interconference play, the AFC has won the season series against the NFC five years running, with the conferences tying 30-30 in 2001. Since the start of 2004, the AFC's edge has been a whopping 130-84 (.607 winning percentage), including this year's modest 12-10 AFC advantage through five weeks.
The rise of the Patriots may not account for all of the imbalance in the AFC vs. NFC competition, but it's a significant piece of the puzzle. The good news for Dallas fans? If anything, the Cowboys are the closest thing to an AFC team in the NFC as there is. After all, these Cowboys were built by Bill Parcells, whose most recent coaching stops before Dallas were in New England and with the Jets.
The Cowboys are a physical, AFC-style team that favors a sizable offensive line, power running game, and employs a 3-4 defense, the same system used by AFC powerhouses in New England, San Diego and Pittsburgh. And the Cowboys' young quarterback, Tony Romo, has a flare for play-making that could some day see him mentioned alongside the likes of AFC elite quarterbacks such as Brady, Peyton Manning and Carson Palmer.
With a win at Dallas, Brady will tie a nice neat bow on all this Patriots-Cowboys week talk. A victory will make him 76-24 in his first 100 regular-season starts, matching the record of Cowboys legend Roger Staubach. Then again, Brady already owns three Super Bowl rings at age 30. Staubach won two in his Hall of Fame career in Dallas.
Guess that means Brady and the Patriots will own the tiebreaker.
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**********************
http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2007/writers/don_banks/10/12/dallas/index.html
