Cbz40
The Grand Poobah
- Messages
- 31,387
- Reaction score
- 39
Fri Sep 26, 2008 5:24 pm EDT
Let's not crown the Cowboys yet
By Chris Chase
From the sound of things, there doesn't appear to be much of a reason to play the rest of the 2008 NFL schedule. With the AFC powers in decline, the media seems to have already handed a title to the Dallas Cowboys before the calendar has even flipped to October. Everyone assumes that Dallas is going to roll through its schedule, steamroll NFC teams in the playoffs and then win the Super Bowl on the first weekend of February in a game that will be less of a contest than a coronation. This is patently absurd. Dallas is an excellent football team, but so is USC, and we all saw what happened last night.
Before penning odes to the magical 2008 Cowboys season, consider the following:
-- Tony Romo has choked in his only two playoff appearances. He gets so skittish under pressure that he makes Donovan McNabb look like John Elway.
-- Dallas hasn't won a playoff game since the 1996 season, when Barry Switzer was coaching the team.
-- The Cowboys win over the Browns in Week 1 looks a lot less impressive now than people thought then. The victory against the Packers last week will look about the same in Dallas' rearview mirror.
-- That much-heralded Monday night win over the Eagles came as the result of a flukey fumble by Donovan McNabb and Brian Westbrook when Philly was on the verge of going up two scores on a Dallas defense that had given up scores on six of eight possessions. In the Cowboys only true test of the year, they had to get lucky with a fumble to win at home.
-- This sentence was actually written by a major columnist today:
-- Last year, Dallas started the year 12-1 and was everyone's shoo-in to represent the NFC in the Super Bowl. A month later, the Cowboys had lost three of their last four and T.O. was crying during a press conference while defending his teammate, his quarterback, Tony Romo after a home playoff loss to the Giants.
Today, the Cowboys are probably the best team in the NFL, but it's a long season that is only predictable in its unpredictability. There's a good chance that Dallas will win it all this year. To assume that before the leaves have changed colors, however, is absurd.
Photo via Getty Images
Let's not crown the Cowboys yet
By Chris Chase
From the sound of things, there doesn't appear to be much of a reason to play the rest of the 2008 NFL schedule. With the AFC powers in decline, the media seems to have already handed a title to the Dallas Cowboys before the calendar has even flipped to October. Everyone assumes that Dallas is going to roll through its schedule, steamroll NFC teams in the playoffs and then win the Super Bowl on the first weekend of February in a game that will be less of a contest than a coronation. This is patently absurd. Dallas is an excellent football team, but so is USC, and we all saw what happened last night.
Before penning odes to the magical 2008 Cowboys season, consider the following:
-- Tony Romo has choked in his only two playoff appearances. He gets so skittish under pressure that he makes Donovan McNabb look like John Elway.
-- Dallas hasn't won a playoff game since the 1996 season, when Barry Switzer was coaching the team.
-- The Cowboys win over the Browns in Week 1 looks a lot less impressive now than people thought then. The victory against the Packers last week will look about the same in Dallas' rearview mirror.
-- That much-heralded Monday night win over the Eagles came as the result of a flukey fumble by Donovan McNabb and Brian Westbrook when Philly was on the verge of going up two scores on a Dallas defense that had given up scores on six of eight possessions. In the Cowboys only true test of the year, they had to get lucky with a fumble to win at home.
-- This sentence was actually written by a major columnist today:
Now that [the Cowboys] have Miles Austin going as a much-needed third receiver, really, the only guy who can stop this offense is Tony Romo.
People are so in love with the Cowboys that Miles Austin, he of the nine career catches, is being listed as a reason they're going to go all the way. Seriously, just engrave the Lombardi trophy now.
-- Last year, Dallas started the year 12-1 and was everyone's shoo-in to represent the NFC in the Super Bowl. A month later, the Cowboys had lost three of their last four and T.O. was crying during a press conference while defending his teammate, his quarterback, Tony Romo after a home playoff loss to the Giants.
Today, the Cowboys are probably the best team in the NFL, but it's a long season that is only predictable in its unpredictability. There's a good chance that Dallas will win it all this year. To assume that before the leaves have changed colors, however, is absurd.
Photo via Getty Images
