The Cowboys have won nothing yet

[Alexander]

To each is own. Wasn't trying to tell you how to live, but from my point of view the higher you get the farther you fall and the harder you hit.

Pick your poison, pleasantly surprised or bitterly disappointed.

What amuses me is that there are some who imply that what end of that scale you fall on defines how much of a "real fan" you are.

 

[Alexander]

Because almost every national magazine and most media sources are predicting we are not going to the playoffs. The same idiots that had us as a 3-6 win team last year are saying 6-9 wins this year.

Name the national magazine or media source that is saying anything like 6 wins.

That darn evil media again. Will they ever stop?

 

[Alexander]

The last time there was this much hype, the Cowboys won 6 games and Wade got fired. Talk is cheap. The Cowboys have to go out and prove it. And they better be able to run the ball because that is the key. This team is not passing itself to a SB.

If the Cowboys had this offseason and did something after losing Murray, it would be hard not to become an unrecognizable raging homer.

It is not just about Murray. It is the leap of faith in what we have. That decision was critical and I do not blame anyone for looking at the history and players involved and coming back with the idea that there is a serious step backwards on paper.

To me, that makes or breaks this season just as much as the defensive changes.

I said it before during the free agency and draft period.

They better have got this right. Let Murray go, fine. Decide to ignore running back, even through to the UDFA crowd, is very very risky. It puts everything on the self evaluation of the current personnel.

 

[jday]

Looks at schedule.

You're right.

******

No wonder my Cowboys just won the super bowl celebrations are getting me made fun of.

Thanks for the heads up.

I would imagine your signature is oddly appropriate for all of your responses on this site. Well played.

 

[ShiningStar]

If the Cowboys had this offseason and did something after losing Murray, it would be hard not to become an unrecognizable raging homer.

It is not just about Murray. It is the leap of faith in what we have. That decision was critical and I do not blame anyone for looking at the history and players involved and coming back with the idea that there is a serious step backwards on paper.

To me, that makes or breaks this season just as much as the defensive changes.

I said it before during the free agency and draft period.

They better have got this right. Let Murray go, fine. Decide to ignore running back, even through to the UDFA crowd, is very very risky. It puts everything on the self evaluation of the current personnel.

you cant succeed at every position and its a game of chess, you cant keep every piece at the end of the game and you cant stop what your opponent does. Dallas dd what they could and they sacrificed what they could. Deal with it. I prefer the upgrade to defnese and a step back on offense. The line will do its job and the right runners will emerge. Nothing we can do.

No offseason is perfect even if you move all teh correct pieces Chaos is still in the game.

 

[Garrettop]

The enthusiasm on this year isn't merely about this year. It's about starting to feel comfortable with a FO that is no longer solely ruled by a chronic gambler.

 

[blindzebra]

Name the national magazine or media source that is saying anything like 6 wins.

That darn evil media again. Will they ever stop?

It was either The Sporting News or USA Today I can't remember which one.

 

[Vanilla2]

I would imagine your signature is oddly appropriate for all of your responses on this site. Well played.

I have a signature?

Edit: just unlocked my screen and turned my phone sideways.

And yep I have a sig. It's been a while since I've seen that.

Eat it skid fans

 

[Eskimo]

I do understand your trepidation of expectations of grand success as they will usually go unfulfilled. We know each year that each team randomly would have only a 1/32 chance of winning it all. Even the best team in the league at the end of the season probably only has about a 1/4 chance of winning the whole thing because of the 1 and done format of the playoffs.

However, I would not put much weight on the performance of the post-Jimmy Cowboys. It is not relevant as the team has been constructed in a different manner and has a different culture/mindset. This team used to get fat on its laurels and JJ used to heavily reward mediocre players coming off career seasons. This is no longer the case - we will upgrade whenever possible. We will let vets go a year early (see Jason Hatcher). We will let core guys go if they are paid more than what they deem them to be worth to us. We will draft a guy and get him ready to play. We will take underrated vets off other teams and instill them in schemes and roles where they can be successful.

Now there will be luck involved and we need some guys to step up and this is true of all teams these days. But it should be a great ride and I'm looking forward to a hell of a season.

Truth be told, I just love football season. Even when we aren't all that great (but not laughingstocks - see Wade's final games) I still love watching Cowboys football. I really like it when we're in the playoffs and I love it when we are true contenders. We project to be a top 8 team this year and let the chips fall where they may.

Enjoy and don't worry about things you can't control like the outcome of a football game. As Garrett would say just focus on the process. The process here is good and that's all you can ask for as a fan of a sports team.

 

[Blackspider214]

These posts are tiring. Just because people are pumped, you always get the contrarians who say "OMG guys we haven't won yet". Well uh! It's still July and 2 weeks away from camp.

You posted a lot of words that amounted to really nothing. Anytime people get excited about anything, you will always find these types of posts soon after telling everyone to quit having any enjoyment.

We could win a Super Bowl this year and the next day, there would be a post telling everyone to quit celebrating that we have have offseason moves to worry about.

It gets old.

 

[Bullflop]

I'd agree that there are several valid reasons to keep unbridled optimism at arm's length at this particular juncture. Without a doubt, the thing that concerns me the most is our dependence upon players with injury histories.

To illucidate, on offense, two out of our four RBs (McFadden and Williams) fall well within that injury-prone category, with nobody who would be considered solidly established to replace them as yet. Hopefully, Romo's back will be able to withstand the season-long test that lies ahead. Obviously, his loss would likely be devastating.

On defense, Mo Claiborne, Chaz Green, Doug Free, Terrell McClain, Ro McClain are others surely worth mentioning as being familiar to injury as well. Fortunately, some of these defensive players have reasonably capable backups available to replace them if and when the need arises. Still, in perhaps a couple of these cases, questions linger as to possible dropoffs in performance.

Certainly, as jday has taken the trouble to caution, nothing is guaranteed. Nevertheless, let's also be careful to mention that there's plenty of room for optimism as well. This offseason has surely been unusually kind to the Cowboys organization. With good fortune as a partner, let's just say our chances of enjoying an exceptional season in 2015 appear just about as encouraging as any realistic fan might reasonably expect.

 

[LittleBoyBlue]

Another is a complete overvaluation of DeMarco Murray

Not by us ;-)

 

[waving monkey]

Some would say the Cowboys have been winning the entire off season.

yap and I really dont understand the tone or reason for such a thread

 

[DandyDon52]

you look at the history of the SB and there are many one time winners who just put it all together at the right time. When Peyton won his ring he pretty much was at best mediocre the entire playoffs but late in the season his D was healthy (Bob Sanders for probably about the only time in his career late in the season) and his running game - Addai mainly- played very well when it mattered.

Look at the Raiders when Plunkett was with them- their skill position players were mostly guys who had career years or great stretches when it mattered when they won their two. While when they had Stabler, Biletnikoff , Branch and Casper and the rest of the cast in the 70' they only won ONE.

This, you hit is on the head for winning a SB, a team has to play well in the playoffs, for those few games.
Dallas last year had a strong finish to season , scoring a lot of points, and defense doing good, then in playoffs they did not look so good,
and they made key mistakes and bad plays instead of good ones.

look at the year packers went 15-1, then one and done in playoffs.
you have to be able to turn it up when you get into the playoffs.

I think Cowboys will try to run same offense as last year, only without murray and teams are more ready to defend it, so It might not work
as well as it did last year.
At same time our defense should be better , they should have a pass rush now.

This year they have to play the AFC East , which I think they may go 2-2 there , and last year they got 4 wins from AFC south.
Dallas should get 10 or more wins and make playoffs.

Now @ the op, dallas does have a history of flopping when it looks like they have a potential SB team. but they usually flop in the playoffs.
2006,2007,2009 were such years. however last year was not looked at as a SB year , very low expectations, and they still flopped in playoffs.
A Romo /Garrett team-offense has never made it past div. round in playoffs,so can they get past div. round this year?
I dont know but I kinda doubt it.
Might depend on who they play and where.
Should be a fun season though.

 

[DandyDon52]

These posts are tiring. Just because people are pumped, you always get the contrarians who say "OMG guys we haven't won yet". Well uh! It's still July and 2 weeks away from camp.

You posted a lot of words that amounted to really nothing. Anytime people get excited about anything, you will always find these types of posts soon after telling everyone to quit having any enjoyment.

We could win a Super Bowl this year and the next day, there would be a post telling everyone to quit celebrating that we have have offseason moves to worry about.

It gets old.

it is quite simple, dont read or post in threads like this, and you can be happy and picture SB rings for this year.

 

[LOBO7]

There isnt one team out there we should fear.
We are a better team than we were a year ago.
Our defense is now an asset or will become one very soon.
If your taking our turnovers away then take away the Eagles turnovers and they are a .500 team.
We can go anywhere and play with anybody.
Still, I get what your saying, they still have to pull it off.
I haven't heard anyone but the media talking about the Super Bowl any way. Non issue.

 

[jday]

These posts are tiring. Just because people are pumped, you always get the contrarians who say "OMG guys we haven't won yet". Well uh! It's still July and 2 weeks away from camp.

You posted a lot of words that amounted to really nothing. Anytime people get excited about anything, you will always find these types of posts soon after telling everyone to quit having any enjoyment.

We could win a Super Bowl this year and the next day, there would be a post telling everyone to quit celebrating that we have have offseason moves to worry about.

It gets old.

These responses are tiring. I could understand if the title of the thread was misleading but everything you needed to know about the content was right there and yet here you are reading anyway knowing full well you are not going to like what you read.

A blog, for me, is a place where I can write what I think whatever that may be...and this just so happened to be what I was thinking about. If it offends you, do us both a favor and use the ignore feature.

Good day to you sir!

 

[erod]

Garrett is the perfect coach for a team like this.

And Romo and the veterans have been through too much to start drinking Kool-Aid now.

 

[foofighters]

We need a TL;DR piece with the "ya buts..."

 

[AsthmaField]

The last time there was this much hype, the Cowboys won 6 games and Wade got fired. Talk is cheap. The Cowboys have to go out and prove it. And they better be able to run the ball because that is the key. This team is not passing itself to a SB.

@jday

This team's attitude and make-up is light years away from that 2009-2010 team and the 2007-2008 team that disappointed following successful seasons.

Both of those other teams were much older and they just didn't feel very substantial to me. Speaking for myself, I didn't have much confidence in those teams. The coaching was mediocre at best, the rosters didn't really reflect a talented team (IMO), and frankly, it just felt a little like they had caught lightning in a bottle in 2007 and 2009.

The 2007 team got weaker and weaker as they moved further and further away from Bill Parcells influence. By the end of the season, they just weren't that good. With the way that year ended, I had big time concerns about the team going into 2008. I hoped... but deep down, I knew they were going to crap their pants.

The 2009 defense got hot to end the season and played well against Philly in the playoffs, but that team felt nothing like this one does. Wade Phillips has always been a great defensive coordinator and a below average head coach. It was easy to see he was responsible for the defensive showing that season, but it was also easy to see the discipline and intensity of the team continuing to erode. I had big time worries about that team going into 2010. Just the sense of entitlement from that group made me dread what was coming. Just because they finally won a playoff game, that entire team (including Wade Phillips) acted like they had reached the pinnacle of the sport. They thought they had arrived.

Those teams never had much direction and really had no identity. The franchise still felt a little rudderless.

This team feels completely different to me and nothing about last year felt like a fluke occurrence. They just flat beat teams up last year. They were consistently the most physical team on the field, and as the year went along they got stronger and stronger. The coaching is really good, the players are focused and nobody is taking anything for granted. The depth is so much better that I could write a whole paper on just that alone. The youth of this team and the strength in areas that I feel are critical to success give me a feeling like I haven't had since the mid 90's.

This team feels legit to me, for the first time since the 90's. Instead of resting on their laurels like the 2008 and 2010 teams, they have gone out and improved on the weak spots from last year. Improved them big-time. Real improvements and not band aid type of pick ups.

Which leads me to the biggest reason that this team feels different: It has an identity... a direction, and their drafts have been stellar. You can tell the team knows what it is doing in acquiring talent and they're not screwing up the cap left and right. I would put the Cowboys drafts since 2010 up against any team in the league, and I'd come out ahead. They have been better than good. They've been stellar. Their free agent pick ups have been smart and useful for the first time since free agency started.

I have confidence in this team that I last had when Jimmy Johnson roamed the sidelines. They will play well. They will play smart. They will be disciplined. They will take it one game at a time and won't be full of themselves. They will be the most physical team on the field, and they will never, ever quit.

This I know. I'm not sure what their record will be or if they'll go all the way or not... but these things I know. And it gives me a confidence that I thought was long lost.