a few tidbits

I watched the second half of the Cowboys' 33-20 win over the Giants today, so maybe now I can offer some thoughts.

First of all, I'll say that Dallas looked like a completely different team today than they did for their first 8 games. There was an energy and emotion that we haven't seen since their playoff win over the Eagles last year. I don't know if Jason Garrett was THE reason for this, but was certainly one of them. I can't help but wonder if Jerry Jones is kicking himself for not making a change a few weeks earlier -- when the team still had an outside playoff chance. I kind of got a kick out of the fact that Garrett didn't seem to be able to wipe a small grin off his face during the last few minutes of the game or any of his post-game interviews.

If the ONLY thing that changes with the Jason Garrett era is that the Cowboys' huge plays stand instead of being called back for stupid penalties, that should be enough to make Dallas a competitor. That happened today. I saw big play after big play, and almost felt shocked that after each one there weren't yellow flags flying. In fact, in a couple of the cases I can think of where flags did fly, they were penalties against the Giants!

Prior to today's game, every analyst I heard said that the only bright spot for the 'Boys this season was the play of rookie Dez Bryant. Well, that bright spot just got brighter tonight. Bryant had some big plays. Also, Miles Austin had a big touchdown, Felix Jones had a 71-yard touchdown on a perfectly executed screen pass, and Roy Williams caught at least one BIG pass to convert a 3rd and long in the 3rd quarter. Rather than just laying down when the Giants started to look like they were going to make a comeback in the 3rd, the team kept playing hard, and Alan Ball got a huge interception late in the game to make it more difficult for the G-men to try and put together a win.

In all of those big pass plays I mentioned in the above paragraph, we should also mention that Jon Kitna was the one making those throws. He had well over 300 yards in today's game and didn't get sacked once (unless I completely missed something). Against the "feared" pass-rush of the Giants, the fact that the Cowboys O-line was able to protect the largely immobile Kitna for a whole game is pretty impressive.

I'm still not convinced I want Jason Garrett in the head coach's parking space when next season rolls around, but I suppose he's audition for us fans as much as he is for owner Jerry Jones. It's nice not to have to feel ashamed of the team I cheer for quite as badly this week.