An Eagles-Redskins related post

NFC East blogger Matt Moseley is picking the Eagles in a tight one against Washington today. He says that though everything points to a Philadelphia win, he doesn't trust them, and that "I just watched the Redskins outplay the division-leading Cowboys."

I can understand not trusting Philly, and believing it will be a close game, as I do (if for no other reason than it's a division rivalry). Still, I don't quite understand how "I just watched the Redskins outplay the division-leading Cowboys" is any kind of positive statement for Washington. They "outplayed" a completely schizophrenic team... and LOST, scoring a whopping six points on four fieldgoal attempts. That's, frankly, sad. When you're an NFL team and you look AWFUL and still win the game (Dallas), your opponent (Washington) isn't that great.

Giants = BAD

As I write the Broncos are about to finish up an absolute dismantling of the New York Giants. Frankly, the Giants haven't done ANYTHING impressive this season. I don't consider them very good at all.

Dallas travels to New York a week from Sunday. It'll be a tough game because a) it's a divisional matchup, which are never easy, and b) even though the Giants aren't good, in recent history they're MUCH better late in the season than Dallas is. Now, I don't know how much will change between tonight (where the Giants look awful) and 10 days from now, but I'll be honest and say that I'm not completely confident in a Cowboys win, but they'll definitely be the better team on the field. Unfortunately, that doesn't always translate to wins.

Quick Thanksgiving day recap

Dallas took care of the Raiders today with a plethora of big-time plays. Felix Jones had a 46-yard run for a touchdown. Miles Austin had almost 150 yards receiving with a touchdown. Romo threw for more than 300 yards. Marion Barber had a long catch-and-run. Jason Witten had his best game of the year -- 5 catches for 107 yards. Roy Williams caught a touchdown pass. Oh yeah, and the defense gave up just 7 points. It probably would've been 10 if Oakland had decided to kick a field goal from deep in Dallas territory in garbage time at the end of the game (they instead tried to go for it, and failed).

The Raiders are no great team, but they're supposed to have a really great defensive secondary. Apparently nobody told that to Austin or Witten, who ate the Raider defense alive all day long.

It was a solid win, and for the first time since playing Philadelphia three weeks ago the Dallas offense looked like it knew what it was doing. Now the Cowboys head into December, the month in which they've struggled for years, with an 8-3 record. Their last five games include the Giants, Saints, Chargers, Eagles, and Redskins. I'm guessing that 11-5 will win them the division (which would mean 3-2 the rest of the way), but 10-6 would still put them in the playoffs (2-3 the rest of the way). I'd like to think that both of those are very doable, but if recent history means anything, I'm none too confident!

Remember Gordon Bombay?

In my previous post about Bill Belichick and his decision to go for it on 4th and 2 at the end of the game, I meant to make a Coach Riley connection from The Mighty Ducks.

"It's not worth winning if you CAN'T WIN BIG!!!" Sometimes I think Belichick is just like that guy... but with less personality.

Mighty Belichick STRUCK OUT!

If you didn't catch the Patriots-Colts game on Sunday night, you missed out. For future reference, it's ALWAYS a good idea to watch this matchup as long as Tom Brady and Peyton Manning are the quarterbacks involved.

It was a FABULOUS game, but what I want to focus on (no surprise) is what Peter King named "The Call Heard Round the World."

With 2:08 left and the Pats leading by 6 with no timeouts (Indy had 1 left) they faced a 4th and 2 at their own 28 yard line.

If you punt it, you give Manning and the Colts the ball somewhere around their own 30 (most likely), with 2:00 to go and 1 timeout. Manning has to drive 70ish yards for a winning touchdown.

If you go for it and make it, you effectively win the game. With just one Colts timeout left and the two-minute warning, New England could run the clock WAY down, and if they didn't convert another first down, Indy would get the ball back with very little time on the clock.

If you go for it and DON'T make it, Manning and his 1 timeout (plus the warning) have to go less than 30 yards for a winning touchdown.

Belichick decided to go for it. The Pats were stopped just short of the first down marker. Manning took about four plays to put the ball in the endzone on a 1-yard slant to Reggie Wayne with just 13 seconds left. Colts win.

People are shocked Belichick decided to go for it. I'm not. As much as I respect the guy (and I do) for being a brilliant coach (there's no denying it), he's an arrogant son-of-a-gun who wants to win more than anything, but only slightly less than his desire to win is his desire to win big, defiantly, and to rub the losers' faces in it. In 2007 when the Pats were on their 18-win tear that took them all the way to the Super Bowl before they were beaten, they did this kind of thing all the time. The annoying thing is, they most often convert that 4th-down and win the game. It's frustrating to me because I just wanted a team to stop them (like they should) and make Belichick eat his hot-headed rub-it-in playcalling -- make him pay for his risky decisions.

Well, Sunday night that happened.

P.S. Not only were the last two minutes thrilling, but so was most of the fourth quarter. The Pats entered the 4th with a 17-point lead over the Colts. Under Belichick the Pats had NEVER lost a game in which they led by 13 or more points heading into the 4th. Now they have. I like Peyton Manning quite a bit.

Nearly shutout? C'mon, guys.

I watched the game via NFL.com's live gamecast thingie. From what I hear, the Cowboys looked about as good in person and on television as they did on my little computer graphic tracker (which is to say, not very).

What I noticed while following what's essentially a play-by-play written description of the game was:

LOTS of penalties

FIVE sacks of Tony Romo. FIVE!??!!?

Giving up 1st downs on Packer 3rd downs constantly

Major, costly fumbles. Interceptions.

Complete lack of rhythm on offense

and perhaps most avoidably and stupid...

COMPLETE ABANDON OF THE RUNNING GAME!!! Marion Barber had 4 carries for something like 27 yards in the first quarter (almost 7 yards/carry). I'm pretty sure I read that he then had ONE carry the rest of the game. Dear Jason Garrett, for a guy who aspires to be an NFL head coach, you sure make some STUPID decisions. How about this stat: In this decade the Cowboys are 1-16 when rushing the ball fewer than 20 times. 1-16!!!! Geez, with a stat like that, if I'm the offensive coordinator I'd start the game off with 20 straight runs and THEN rely on my own whims for play-calling strategy. Completely ridiculous.

Roy Williams took the blame for the loss because of one play in the 2nd quarter when he caught a 42-yard pass... and then fumbled it. The most promising Cowboys drive of the game was halted in its tracks. No points. I appreciate Williams' shouldering the burden, and that was a costly mistake. BUT, the guy had his first 100-yard game as a Cowboy, and with how poorly the rest of the team looked, it's not all your fault, big guy.

Pretty much seems like the 'Boys played like they looked at the end of last season, and that's not comforting. I was beginning to think they were completely different.

(Stay in your seat... I've got another post on its way in just a few minutes! Hint: It has to do with a very entertaining Sunday Night game.)

mid-game

For the third time in the last four Cowboys games, they're not being shown here in Denver. So, as I watch the Chargers completely smoke the Eagles on the TV, I'm watching the NFL gamecast of the Cowboys-Packers game online.

Not actually being able to view the game, I won't say that these comments won't need some tweaking.

Right now the score is 3-0 Green Bay, midway through the 3rd quarter, and that sounds shocking. Dallas is supposed to score more than that! It appears they can't really get into a rhythm on offense, and when they do make a big play, they fumble it. I feel like there's been at least three Romo sacks, and that's far too many.

On the other hand, the Dallas pass rush seems like it's starting to come alive, as they've sacked Rodgers a couple of times already in the 3rd quarter.

Let's hope they click at some point on offense and score a few points.