Giants-Cowboys hatred? Who'da thunk it?

Apparently, Brandon Jacobs of the New York Giants "hates the Cowboys with a bloody passion." He said that in response to a question about Cowboys defensive star Demarcus Ware who shared on a Dallas-area radio show that he hates the Giants. I don't think anyone's surprised by those comments.

The Giants head to Arlington this weekend where they play the 'Boys in the regular season debut of the new stadium affectionately known as "Jerry's World."

Jacobs also made some comments about being excited to play against Dallas in the stadium's opener. He said that the Cowboys should have chosen to play the Lions instead of the Giants in the big premier. I guess he thinks that Jerry Jones selected the Giants as their first home opponents because he wants to get a big win.

Say what you want about Jerry Jones, but the man's not stupid. He doesn't think this will be an easy game by any stretch of the imagination. Even if he had some say in who they played their home opener against, he didn't pick the Giants because he thought it would be a definite win for his Cowboys. If that were the case he wouldn't have picked a division foe at all, let alone the highly favored Giants. He'd have chosen the Raiders. Even if the Cowboys were fantastic and the Giants were terrible, a division game is never EVER a gimme in the NFC East.

Anywho, that's all I have to say. Just killing some time...

A somewhat brief review of Week 1

Here are a few of the things that struck me in my evaluation of the Cowboys after their first regular season game of the year:

WHAT BUGGED ME?

The defense scared me a little bit. The secondary looked porous (it is very young), and it seemed like for much of the game the Buccaneers receivers were able to get open just about whenever they wanted. The Buccs' Cadillac Williams and Derrick Ward also ran all over the Cowboys front line for too much of the game. I kept having to yell at my TV, "Can't we STOP THE RUN ONCE IN AWHILE?!?!" Finally, not having closely analyzed each play of the game, I feel like Byron Leftwich was way too protected. There weren't many sacks or even hurries on him, and considering his glacially slow release, he should have been on his back much more than he was. Good teams with good quarterbacks (which is what you face almost every week when you play in the NFC East) will make you pay for allowing the QB to take his time picking apart an inexperienced secondary.

WHAT DID I LIKE?

The answer to the most common question in the last few months, "Who will replace T.O.'s playmaking ability?" is "About eight different guys." Romo threw touchdown passes to Roy Williams, Patrick Crayton, and Miles Austin today. He threw a big first down to Martellus Bennett. He hit his favorite target, Jason Witten, for a couple of significant gains. All three Dallas running backs looked good. Tashard Choice didn't get much action, but looked like a pro when he did. Felix Jones, in my opinion, has the skills to become the second-best playmaker at the running back position in the league (behind Adrian Peterson, if you were wondering), and Marion Barber had another solid "bash-the-defense" kind of day. I don't think it'll be a struggle for the 'Boys not to have a single big-time playmaker at wide receiver, because their depth at the positions of receiver, tight end, and running back will more than compensate.

Next week against the G-Men will likely be a much tougher test than today's win over Tampa, but I'll still say that Cowboys fans have every reason to be optimistic about this season. I think Tampa was a little bit better than many thought they'd be.

In conclusion, GO COWBOYS!!

A Wacky Divisional Prediction

I'm going to make a prediction about where NFC East teams will finish this season within the division. It's bold for me, I know.

You might expect me to pick the Cowboys to be the division champs, since I'm an overly-optimistic and sincerely misguided fan, but I'm not going to do it. I'm going to be even crazier than that. I'm picking the Washington Redskins. I know, I know, that's a pretty stupid pick. I'm not picking it with any sort of real confidence. It's not based on me thinking they're going to blow people away and be the best team in the league. It's actually based on my belief that the East will beat itself up. I won't be surprised if Washington beats the Giants tomorrow. I won't be surprised if both New York and Philadelphia end up being just slightly worse than everyone expects, and if the Redskins and Cowboys end up being just slightly better than everyone expects. So, my NFC East predictions are almost the exact opposite of what most experts are picking, but I will say this as my disclaimer: I honestly think that the East could finish in any possible order. Usually you can be pretty confident in who might win the division, and it's often even easier to pick who will finish last, but this year I think any team could come in at any position. Here we go:

1 Redskins

2 Cowboys

3 Giants

4 Eagles

I'd love to say that I think Dallas will win the division, but with a really tough late-season schedule, and their propensity for playing like the Detroit Lions in December, I just don't see it happening. Second in the division might be a stretch too, but the optimistic side of me is poking through, and I really want the 'Boys to pull off a wildcard spot and make the playoffs. We'll see...

Silliness

Sign of the season.
Number of posts on this blog between May and July: 3
Number of posts on this blog in the last two weeks: 5

ESPN.com recently posted in-depth analyses and previews of every NFL team. NFC East blogger, Matt Mosely, wrote a good summary post here where he mentioned some of the more "off the wall" predictions of some of ESPN's contributors. I think it's funny that some of these "expert" picks are talked about as "controversial" and as having "upset some readers." I've said this before regarding the weekly power rankings, but it also applies to all of this pre-season prediction-making and analysis and previewing and picking who's gonna be defensive player of the year and everything else. It doesn't matter. Readers who are "upset" over who an ESPN employee said is going to win the AFC wildcard spots really need to find something better to get passionate about. I can picture a couple of morons on their lunch break going, "Can you believe that Adam Schefter thinks Aaron Rodgers is going to be this year's MVP? I'm so mad! What a stupid idiot. Has that guy ever SEEN a football game? GOSH!"

I love to talk about football with friends, and I often ask for predictions and analysis myself (I occasionally even give it). I think it's part of the fun of sports. But I'll never get ANGRY with someone for making a prediction. That's just ridiculous. That's like me picking a fight with someone who thinks Papa John's makes better pizza than Pizza Hut. C'mon.

Rankings & whatnot

ESPN's Week 1 Power Rankings were released today. Each Tuesday afternoon the week's rankings are posted, and even though it really means nothing, it's always a very exciting time for me (believe it or not). As time allows, I'll try to post on this blog each week and let you know where the Cowboys are sitting, and I'll likely include whatever random thoughts from the rankings happen to strike me.

Dallas sits at 17 in the final rankings before the season begins. That's a 3-spot fall since the training camp rankings were released a few weeks ago. I don't have any idea what in the Cowboys' preseason looked that bad to the four ESPN voters, but I guess that's how it goes. I'll just say that I think it's a bit ridiculous to think Dallas is in the bottom half of the league. But anywho...

On a SUPER DUPER FUN AND EXCITING note: Yours Truly will be at Invesco Field on October 4 when the Cowboys take on the Broncos. It'll be my first in-person NFL game ever. And it's my two favorite teams, in my favorite sport. I don't know if I could be more excited.

X-Factors

I'm not giving up on the Cowboys or Wade Phillips for this season, but I just wanted to mention that next season, think about these head coaches that might be willing to come out of retirement to coach the 'Boys if things don't work out this season: Tony Dungy, Mike Shanahan, Mike Holmgren, Bill Cowher. Wow.

I just watched some of the Cowboys-Vikings preseason game. It was fun to watch football, but the Cowboys 35-31 win means about as much as Elizabeth beating her personal high score in her "Turkey Shoot" computer game (which is to say, not much).

I just wanted to give a quick rundown of why I think the upcoming season will be interesting, and here it is: There seem to be a BUNCH of unknowns (more than usual) headed into the season. I'm gonna rattle some off the top of my head. Let me know if you've got more.

-Tom Brady's back for the Patriots (there's no question he's one of the all-time greats, but I consider it an unknown because we don't know if his injury will have lingering effects or anything else... okay, I'm really just HOPING that they don't go 18-0 to start their season again).

-How will Brett Favre impact the Vikings?

-How will Jay Cutler impact the Bears?

-How will the Dolphins follow up their unlikely 11-5 2008 season, and will teams figure out how to stop the wildcat offense enough to stifle the Fins?

-How will rookie QBs like Matthew Stafford and Mark Sanchez impact their respective teams?

-Will there be a "sophomore letdown" in Atlanta or Baltimore with Matt Ryan or Joe Flacco?

-How will T.O. impact the Bills (by joining them) and the Cowboys (by leaving them)?

-Are the Broncos really going to be as bad as they've looked?

-How will Michael Vick perform and in what function? And will he even have to be THAT good, or will his threat simply help the Eagles because defenses will have to take him into consideration?

-Will the absence of Tony Dungy on the Indianapolis sideline create big problems for the Colts?

-Will the absense of Jim Johnson on the Philadelphia sideline create big problems for the Eagles defense?

Okay, I think that's all I've got. What are the nagging questions in your mind as we prepare to kickoff the season?

SIX DAYS UNTIL THE OPENER!!!!

Around-the-league glance

This is not even close to a comprehensive look at the upcoming NFL season (though when I read the soon-to-be-released Sports Illustrated NFL Preview issue I might do one of those posts...), but I wanted to give some thoughts on all the teams I've heard a lot about lately, and see if we can't come up with at least something to say about each division. If you read this blog last year, you'll know that I made some statements and predictions early on that sounded downright stupid after four or five weeks of the season. It's entirely possible that the same thing will happen this season. I make no claims to expertise. Just a fans ramblings...

AFC South

The only stuff I've heard about the Titans this offseason was when I watched them play the Cowboys in a preseason game last weekend. Everything I heard from the announcers was that they're at least as good, if not better than they were last year, when they jumped out to a 10-1 start and captured the #1 seed in the AFC playoffs. I don't agree with that. I don't think they're a bad team, but they're not one of the best in the league, or even in the AFC. Indianapolis will be tough because Peyton Manning is still their quarterback. The other team to keep an eye on is Houston. I have no reason to think that they'll be better than the .500ish seasons they've been having for awhile, but at some level I guess it just feels like at some point they'll get over that hump and make the playoffs.

AFC East

It might be interesting to see how Miami follows up its very impressive 2008 season. It also might be interesting to see how the Matt Sanchez story unfolds for the Jets. It also might be interesting to see what impact T.O. has on the never-spectacular Bills. But it's very likely that much of that won't matter, because Tom Brady will be on the field for the Pats again, and that pretty much spells doom for everyone else.

AFC North

No reason to think that anyone will seriously challenge the Steelers for the division championship here.

AFC West

This might be one of the more dismal divisions in the NFL. The preseason hasn't given Broncos fans a whole lot of reasons to be optimistic. Orton doesn't look great, and their best receiver forgot to grow out of his three-year-old temper-tantrum phase. I think there's some confidence in Josh McDaniels' ability to manufacture some good from the season, but not many are expecting a serious playoff run. San Diego will be the frontrunner in this division as they've been for quite some time. The Raiders are still owned by Al Davis, so there's not a whole lot of good to be said about them either.

NFC West

The reigning NFC Champion Cardinals haven't done anything impressive in the preseason, so I'm not necessarily keeping them at the top of this division in my thinking. Seattle and San Francisco have both shown some promising elements, perhaps most notably would be the young, strong 49er defense. But I hate the 49ers, so we'll hope the Seahawks can take 'em down. I've told people recently, though, that winning the NFC West is sort of like being named Valedictorian of summer school. I mean, congratulations, but look at your competition.

NFC South

It seems like both the Panthers and the Buccs are more or less in panic mode. Carolina's defense doesn't seem to be able to stop anyone, and Colin Cowherd, who originally predicted Tampa Bay to go 6-10, switched his prediction to 1-15 after watching them play a preseason game last week... "and to be honest," he said, "I can't find the one game they might win." I guess that opens the door for the Matt Ryan-led Falcons or the always-in-the-hunt Saints to win that division. I'm (not-so) secretly pulling for Ryan & the birds.

NFC North

This is beginning to look like it could be quite a fight. Obviously, the talk of the offseason has been about Matthew Stafford in Detroit, Jay Cutler in Chicago, and Brett Favre in Minnesota, but if I'm choosing the North champion today, I'm picking Aaron Rodgers and the Green Bay Packers. They've looked better in the preseason than any other team in the league. Favre will help make Minnesota a contender, and I'll grant that they could be quite tough. Although Cutler has looked quite good for Chicago thus far I'm not ready to say that he'll have the Bears fighting for the division championship. And I don't see any reason to include Detroit in talks of who might win, well, anything.

NFC East

The toughest division in football will remain the NFC East for at least another season. The Giants look good, and are predicted by many to win the division. The Eagles look pretty good and are predicted by many to get second in the division and make the playoffs. The Redskins look like they've got a somewhat competent and confident quarterback which will put them right in the mix, even if most consider them merely a spoiler. And despite what everyone says, I wouldn't be surprised a bit if the Cowboys won the division. It'll serve them well not to be quite as hyped-up as they've been for a few years now.

That's all I got. What are your predictions?