Dallas cowboys are not dead
The Vultures are haunting the Dallas Cowboys now. All the sports outlets like ESPN, the NFL network, sports writers, sports radio shows all over the United States have almost buried the Cowboys. But it’s still too early to bury the Cowboys. It is true that the Cowboys followed up a very impressive win against the then lost Houston Texans, with a loss against the Tennessee Titans. The Cowboys must have thought they won the Super Bowl when they beat the Texans because they thought they were going to beat the Titans by showing up, just like they did in their other two losses. This team has the swagger of a Super Bowl champion without the hardware. It’s the same issues that have hurt them in their previous losses. Penalties, costly turnovers, a missed field goal, and a lack of big plays on defense. This time the Cowboys also allowed six sacks.
The Cowboys have a lot of talent, but so far this year they’ve shown they’re short on brains. I’m not calling them stupid, I’m just saying that they don’t pay attention to the little details that can be the difference between winning and losing. Of the twelve penalties, the most costly was the excessive celebration after tying the score at the end of the last quarter. That penalty resulted in the Cowboys starting from their own fifteen instead of their own thirty and allowed the Titans to operate at shortstop after a long kickoff return and a personal foul penalty. That shouldn’t happen in that situation. A pair of costly turnovers, an interception that bounced off a tight end at the goal line, and an interception that deflected off the line of scrimmage, set up another short Titans touchdown. Those two turnovers cost them fourteen points. The tight end must catch the ball as it hits his hands and the offensive tackle must take down the defensive end in three steps from the quarterback. Lack of big plays on defense. I counted two dropped interceptions. Their defense should lead the NFL in dropped interceptions. The cowboy defense should play volleyball in practice instead of catching the ball. The Cowboys won every major offensive category in yards and time of possession except the bottom line, which is scoring. You don’t accumulate more than five hundred yards in total yards by luck. So there is hope.
The Cowboys are in exactly the same position as last year right now. They were 2-2 and the Giants were a very dominant 4-0 and we know it’s over. The Cowboys got hot and the Giants crashed and burned. The season has barely passed a quarter. The Cowboys are just 1 1/2 games behind the NFC East leaders New York Giants, Washington Redskins and Philadelphia Eagles, who are 3-2. None of those teams scares anyone. There is no one dominant team in the division or, for that matter, in the entire NFC. The Cowboys still have the best overall talent in the division and the conference. Of the 4-1 teams in the conference team are the Atlanta Falcons, who have a good young quarterback in Matt Ryan, solid players on both sides of the ball, but the Falcons had more than a little luck to win the San Francisco game on a 49ers fumble following an interception. The Falcons can easily be 3-2. The Chicago Bears have to be the luckiest 4-1 team in NFL history. How did they beat Carolina when their quarterback had a quarterback rating of six? That is incredible. That brings back memories of the Rex Grossman days. The Bears also have significant problems on their offensive line. The conference is wide open.
It’s time for the Cowboys to put on their helmets and get to work. The problems that are causing the Cowboys to lose can be fixed. If they can reduce their penalties by thirty to forty percent, not turn the ball over on offense, and keep the ball on defense, they can win ten games and win the division. Don’t bury the Cowboys yet, there’s a long season left.