A Big One... bring on the Ravens

Ha!

First of all, that was both a fantastic game and a HUGE win for the 'Boys. The defense was insane. Something like 7 sacks on the night of Eli Manning (I haven't looked at any official numbers). Held the Giants to ZERO touchdowns. DeMarcus Ware had 3ish sacks by himself, putting him in the lead for most sacks in the league this season. Terrence Newman stuck to Domenik Hixon like glue, and came out of it not only with an awesome defensive game (maybe one of the single best cornerback performances I've ever seen in a game where I actually sat down and watched all of it), but also TWO interceptions. If the defense keeps playing like it has the last few games, this team could be sitting in good shape come playoff time.

As for the offense, it wasn't anything spectacular, but they made the plays they needed to make. The offensive line looked a bit suspect at points. Romo took a few sacks, and a couple of them made him grimace pretty badly. I hope there's nothing serious in his injuries. Nonetheless, Romo is the kind of quarterback you love to have on your team. He eludes certain sacks way more often than he takes them. With Marion Barber still running a little un-Marion-like because of his toe injury, rookie Tashard Choice continued to look fantastic tonight. The Dallas rushing attack was not the best I've ever seen by any means, but as the clock ticked down in the 4th quarter, Choice came through on a few big plays, including his 20- or 30-something yard touchdown run right up the middle to put the game away in the waning minutes. They also wouldn't have quite made it to the waning minutes if it hadn't been for a huge first-down picked up by Jason Witten on a 3rd and 9.

So the playoff picture: If the playoffs started today, Dallas would be the 5 seed. They have the same record as Tampa Bay (6 seed) and Atlanta (just out), but hold the tiebreakers over both. Therefore, if the Cowboys win out, they'll automatically be in the playoffs. If one or both of the aforementioned teams do any stumbling the last two weeks, Dallas will have a shot even if they lose one (but I'd really rather that not happen). Technically, the Bears, Eagles, and Redskins are still in the hunt too. Notice: Even though the NFC South has turned out, shockingly, to be the toughest division in the league, the East is still the only one with all four of its teams in contention, though that will likely change next week.

Regarding this week's "controversial call" in the Ravens-Steelers game. Near the end of the game, with Pittsburgh down 9-3 and facing a 3rd and goal, Roethlisberger threw a pass that was caught by a Steeler whose body was in the endzone, but his outstretched hands weren't. The official on the field didn't think the ball crossed the plane, and ruled the receiver down about 3 inches before the endzone. After reviewing the play, even though there did not appear to be conclusive evidence, the referee overturned the call and gave the Steelers the touchdown. Now, I personally think that the ball probably did at least cross the plane, though it didn't get much further than that. However, none of the replay angles provided conclusive evidence about anything. If the original call had been "touchdown," it shouldn't have been overturned, but since the call was "no touchdown," it shouldn't have been overturned either. I agree with Cris Collinsworth of NBC's Football Night in America: The replay was intended to make the call right when there was obvious evidence that a wrong call had been made. It's turning into referees making their best guess on not-so conclusive evidence. That's too bad. I won't argue to Steeler fans that they had one "given to them," or to Ravens fans that they had one "taken from them," but I don't think the original call should have been reversed with the evidence I saw.

Now, about the Cowboys drama. First of all, as Tiki Barber reported before the game, after having spoken with T.O. and numerous players and personnel in the Dallas locker room, the whole "drama" stuff from this past week was blown out of proportion by the media. Secondly, all we seem to read about regarding the Cowboys are the "distractions," and "coach who has no control," and "big egos," and "players who have tons of off-field issues." Pretend for a second that there was no media. Look at the Cowboys season. They went through a really rocky middle of the season, but since Romo's return from his pinkie injury, they've won 3 straight, lost a close one to Pittsburgh (granted, it was all their fault), who's a good team, and pretty well whooped up on the reigning Super Bowl champion and current NFC #1 seed New York Giants. I'm not saying I love all of the Cowboys coaches, or their owner, or all of the players, nor do I necessarily think that the collection of players they have are great at avoiding bad media attention. However, because of who they are, they get put in the spotlight in a negative way more than any other team. That's okay, and tonight the team showed that negative attention doesn't equal poor performance.

So to all of the naysayers out there who thought for sure that the T.O.-Jason Witten saga would lead to bitterness, resentment, and poor play by the team, I say HA! And if this team wins out and heads into the playoffs having won 6 of their last 7 against the schedule they will have faced, I would venture to say that whoever they play in the wildcard round will not be happy that they drew the Cowboys.