Bolts of lightning

I just feel like I need to say that I'm watching the Chargers-Patriots game right now (San Diego is ahead 27-3 at the end of the 3rd quarter) and the Chargers look like men playing against boys. Every time Philip Rivers lets go of the ball I simply KNOW it will be a completed pass. It's the way I felt about Brady and the Pats all of last season, only maybe even more so. Seriously, after today I would probably rank them 1 or 2 in the league, and I'm going to predict that they will represent the AFC in the Super Bowl. I will also revise my "projections" from the AFC West post I wrote yesterday. I was way off. San Diego WILL win the West, and the Broncos will fall short of the playoffs.

Something's wrong with this picture

For the second straight week my team's game was not shown on tv (fox opted to show a home-video quality movie about people on a boat who, I guess, occasionally went scuba diving), so I've only seen highlights from other networks.

It looks to me like when the Cowboys only have about a minute to go 80 yards to score, they succeed every time. They did it against Washington to pull within two at the end (and failed to recover the on-side kick), they scored late when the Bengals were within one last week, and today they scored 10 points in the last two minutes to tie the game and force overtime. Then in overtime, when there was no race against the clock, Romo took a sack for a huge loss, and then threw two incomplete passes before McBriar got his punt blocked which effectively handed the game to Arizona. Someone on the Cowboys' staff should just fix all the clocks in the stadium to look like there's 2 minutes or less left in the game ALL the time, right? It's like when there's an actual game plan and a huddle and an offensive coordinator calling the shots, things aren't going so well. When there's no huddle and the offense is flying by the seat of its pants and plays are being called and audibled at the line of scrimmage, the team can pretty much accomplish whatever it needs to. That's just weird. It's like all the practice throughout the week doesn't help at all. They just need to be thrown into the deep end and told to score twice in 2 minutes or the game's over. I'm going to start rooting for the Cowboys to lose the time-of-possession battle every week. That might be an indicator that they're scoring.

AFC West

I plan to write on each of the NFL's eight divisions and cover every team. Let's start with a look at the AFC West.

Denver Broncos: People (especially here in Denver) forget that this is a very young team. When we saw a 3-0 start, expectations of winning the division all of a sudden descended on Denver. I would describe this team as very good, with a LOT to improve on. Their defense actually showed up in week 5, surprising everyone. They have a fairly difficult schedule, as far as I'm concerned, but I think they should still at least compete for a division championship.

Projection: With the San Diego Chargers starting the season rather underwhelmingly, look for the Broncos to challenge for the division championship. Denver goes to San Diego in the last week of the season. Don't expect either team to have the West wrapped up. That game could decide the division champion. If Denver does not win the division, I think they'll still pick up a wild card spot for the playoffs.

Kansas City Chiefs: This is simply not a good team. I don't have a whole lot to say about them other than their inexperienced quarterbacks can't stop getting hurt, and it's tough to compete when that's the case.

Projection: If Kansas City wins five games they should consider this season a success.

Oakland Raiders: As long as Al Davis is alive and actively running the Raiders organization, it will probably be tough for them to succeed.

Projection: Same as Kansas City.

San Diego Chargers: Without Shawn Merriman the San Diego defense has not adequately adjusted. The Chargers have lost to every decent team they've played. Still, Philip Rivers looks pretty good, and I'm even told he leads NFL quarterbacks in fantasy points per game. The Chargers have not lost all hope by any means. They're still a good team, just probably not as dominant as most thought they'd be at this time.

Projection: Their home game against Denver in week 17 will decide whether or not they win the division, but even if not they'll pick up a wild card spot.

Cowboys-Cardinals

I've checked the local listings, and it looks like the Cowboys game WILL be shown on Fox here in Denver... which makes me excited. I didn't get to see last week's game against Cincinnati, but I will get to see them play at Arizona on Sunday afternoon.

This game actually has the potential to be pretty close. Kurt Warner has passed for over 1,400 yards so far this season, which is pretty incredible. The Cowboys haven't played extremely well this season, with the exception of the win over the Eagles, so we'll kind of have to see who shows up. I desperately want them to come out on Sunday with a renewed passion and win in a blowout. That would go a long way toward my confidence in this team. Honestly though, I'll still be happy with a win, even a close win.

In defense of the Cowboys... again

Not to beat a dead horse, but the hits just keep on comin', and I'll continue to defend my 'Boys.

What we're being fed: The Cowboys are in big trouble. They can't handle criticism. They have played poorly for two straight weeks. They're the third-best team in the NFC East. They got killed by the Redskins in week 4 and barely pulled out a win against the winless Bengals.

What's actually true: The Cowboys were defeated by the Redskins by 2 points in week 4. Did you see that? TWO points (but remember, they got KILLED). They beat the Bengals by nine. Did you see that? NINE points (but remember, they "escaped," and "barely pulled it out"). The Cowboys, by their own standards and those imposed by analysts and fans, have played to expectations in exactly one week so far. They've not been at their best the other four. Still, in the league's toughest division, they're 4-1.

Over the last couple of days I've read three or four stories that criticize Tony Romo for the following comment: "I'm sorry that I'm not sorry we won." I didn't see whatever interview he offered this up in, but I'm sure it came in response to someone's suggesting that they didn't play very well and they had mistakes. He's not denying that, by the way. Re-read the quote. He's not sorry that they won, and he makes no apologies. (two of those stories can be found here and here)

Of all the credible places where I could find this week's power rankings (ESPN, NBC Sports, Fox Sports, and Sports Illustrated), no one had the Cowboys ranked lower than 5th or higher than 2nd. What's all the fuss about?

The Cowboys are doing just fine, so back off.

I'm a little confused. People seem to be going off the "What's with the Cowboys?" deep end. Today Matt Mosely, ESPN's blogger for the NFC East, posted a story about how the 'Boys need a reality check, because apparently they cry and whine too much and expect to be treated like champions while refusing to acknowledge that they aren't playing like it.

Today at school the first friend who greeted me, a fellow Cowboys fan, said, "Man, what's with our Cowboys?" My boss at work welcomed me with, "The Cowboys escaped!" I'm confused.

Of the five games the Cowboys have played this season, they have looked truly great in one of them. It was week two and they beat Philadelphia in a shootout at home. The other four weeks they looked average at best. Yet after their week 3 victory over the Packers at Lambeau Field, most of the analysts were ready to crown them Super Bowl champs. So were many other football followers, Cowboys fans or not. After those first three wins, the 'Boys lost (by two points, mind you) to a now obviously very good Redskins team. They didn't look bad, they just looked as average as they had in two of the first three weeks and got served their first loss. Yesterday they looked just fine again (by "fine" I mean not great and still with a lot of work to do, but not bad by any stretch of the imagination).

Friend: There's nothing "with" our Cowboys, other than a completely normal need to improve in certain areas of their game. Ask any other team in the league if they have anything they could work on and see what they say.

Boss: I don't think a game can be called an "escape" when 1) the 'Boys never trailed and 2) the margin of victory was nine points (that's TWO scores... a great play as time expires wouldn't even have made a difference).

Mosely makes a big deal that the Cowboys are the NFC East's third best team (I think he means it in a bad way), but when this week's power rankings come out tomorrow, you can bet Dallas will be in the top five in the entire league. I guess I just don't see what all the fuss is about. The Cowboys have to put some serious work into certain parts of their game. There's no doubt about that. But consider the fact that the East will provide both NFC wild cards for the playoffs this year, hands down. To be third in the division is still plenty good enough. And don't forget there's a LONG way to go this year, and no one's won anything yet.

At the end of the day, the Cowboys are 4-1, which is a tie for the second-best record in football. I don't think there needs to be a whole lot of panic.

5 weeks of weirdness

After week 5 in the NFL, there are some major surprises, some not-so-surprising realities, and the bottom line is that it feels like we don't really know anything yet about how the season will end up.

The Green Bay Packers are 2-3, with their two wins coming against teams whose records combined include only one victory. Against teams who have won more than one game, the Pack is 0-3.

For the Chargers to have a solid shot at making the playoffs they'll have to finish about 10-6, which means that in their 11 remaining games they have to win 8 of them (and they've got some tough teams ahead).

The Miami Dolphins, who last year won one game, have now toppled both of last year's AFC Championship contenders (Chargers, Patriots) in consecutive weeks. It looks like Bill Parcells was a good choice as GM.

The Arizona Cardinals are leading their division, while the long-time division champion Seattle Seahawks are 1-3, good enough for third place (out of four).

And of course, there's the NFC East. Four teams in the East have 4 wins. Of the 7 other NFL divisions, 3 of them don't have even one team with four wins (that could change if the Steelers hold on to their current 5-point lead), and no other division has more than one team with at least 4 wins.

It's been a weird 5 weeks. I'll write something about the Cowboys' week later.