Never underestimate...

...the ineptitude of the Cowboys' coaching staff.

In his pre-game matchup blog post, ESPN's NFC East blogger, Matt Moseley gives an edge to one team or the other in multiple categories (e.g., when the Titans pass, when the Titans run, when the Cowboys pass, when the Cowboys run, etc.). The last category is "intangibles." Moseley gave the Cowboys the edge because they were coming off a bye week and had two weeks to prepare for Tennessee at home.

BUT, what Moseley forgot to take into account is that Dallas has the Marshmallow Man for a head coach, and a getting-more-worthless-by-the-week assistant head coach/offensive coordinator.

Certainly the coaches don't deserve the entirety of the blame for the Cowboys' inability to win a game against a beatable team at home when you're basically desperate. Mike Jenkins, for example, was called for multiple pass interference infractions, two of which came on the Titans' opening drive (which ended in a touchdown). Jenkins also gave up a deep pass to Kenny Brit in the third quarter. He looked like he didn't have a clue half the time -- not like the pro-bowler he's supposed to be. Also, the Cowboys had more penalty yards against them as a team than they'd had in four years (and for the Cowboys, that's saying something -- they've been one of the top two penalized teams in the league over the last couple of seasons).

There were moments of brilliance. Moments when the defense looked suffocating, and moments when the offense looked like Super Bowlers (Romo threw for over 400 yards, Austin averaged about 20 yards per catch, leaving him with over 160 yards receiving, Roy Williams had a pretty big game, making a few really great catches including a 2nd touchdown grab), but it wasn't enough.

I'll go back to what I've said before: When you have the talent that this team has, and they've only shown up for one out of their four games so far this season, and they come out after a bye week and can't handle a so-so team at home, you have MAJOR coaching issues. The players deserve their share of the blame for this loss, but until Wade Philips and his sidekick Jason Garrett are history, so are the Cowboys' Super Bowl hopes.