Question for after the bye

 Question: How will Miles Austin respond to his new role?


Miles Austin has a big reputation to live up to and he created it. You can't go out and put up all time Dallas Cowboy's record numbers and just go back to being a guy. There is a great opportunity for Austin and with that great risk. Once you are out there, you are noticed.

Hiding in the shadows of first T O and then R W it was easy to be a cult player. He had his fans and though they were a small group they were out there. Well now the group is larger and will be expecting great things. Don't believe me, ask Tony Romo..

It is easy to be a back up and have people love you. There is a certain portion of fans who always know more than the coaches. They are the this guy should start and this other guy should be traded bunch. Now with the conspiracy bunch moving on to Ogletree as the new receiver who must get time, Miles is now main stream. MS has it's downfall because it brings out the I told you so bunch. They are the other part of the X-File group that likes a player until he becomes a regular and then, not so much.

Miles problem may well be, he had his career game in his coming out party. How do you top something that may be impossible to top? I believe the answer is simple. You don't try to do anything different than you did the first game. Just keep running routes and catching the ball. The rest will take care of itself.

Hook Em Horns

Horns win 16-13

NFC East Predictions

The schedule gets harder as the season goes on, not only for the Cowboys but the rest of the NFC East as well. I have never seen a schedule like this one. Seems everyone in this division has played the same teams. That doesn't usually happen but it did this year.

The NFC East as a whole has only played 5 teams with a winning record out of a total of 19 games. Washington, Dallas and Philadelphia are ofer against winning teams. The Giants are 1-0 with their only winning team being Dallas. They had to go to the last play of the game to defeat the Cowboys and the Cowboys committed 4 turnovers. With that as a backdrop it is hard to know how good any of these teams are but I will try.


The rest of the season plays out like this. The Eagles have had their bye so they have 12 games remaining. The three teams left in the division play the following schedules.


NYG...........11 games remaining...9 teams with winning records....2 teams with losing records
Eagles.........12 games remaining...9 teams with winning records....3 teams with losing records
Cowboys....11 games remaining...7 teams with winning records....4 teams with losing records

Redskins.....11 games remaining...9 teams with winning records....2  teams with losing records


Based on my analysis of the remaining games and using the records of the opposing teams at this point..


Giants will be favored in 9 of their final 11 games..
Easles will be favored in 9 of their final 12 games..
Cowboys will be favored in 7 of their final 11 games
Redskins will be favored in 2 of their final 11 games


If the teams play up to their present play the records for each team will be as follows..

Giants will go..........14 and 2 and win the division

Eagles will go..........13 and 3 and be a wild card team
Cowboys will go.....10 and 6 and be in the hunt for a wild card berth..
Redskins will go.......4 and 12 and be in the hunt for the number one draft pick..


Key Games....


Dallas....@ Green Bay..Philadelphia...GB maybe for a wild card..Phil. maybe for the playoffs

NY.....@ New Orleans...@ Philadelphia...@ Minnesota..all games could be for the best record in the NFC..
Philadelphia...@ NYG....@ Dallas....@ Atlanta...NY and Atl..maybe for best record..Dallas maybe for top seated wild card or division winner
Redskins...no key games..I have them out of it.



There is a long way to go and a lot can change but this is the way I see it as of today. 

Bye Week thoughts..

The Cowboys are off this week and play Atlanta at Jerry World next week..I thought I would list some thoughts and ideas on this team and the NFL in general..

I think the New Orleans Saints are the best team I have seen so far. That will be settled this week when the Giants come to the Super Dome..

The best player so far on the Cowboys has been JRatliff. His over the offensive line and blocking a field goal was the play of the week and a candidate for play of the year..He has bee awesome..

Tony Romo please stay home. If you must go somewhere go to Ft Worth or Austin..Anywhere but Mexico

3-2 record..I had them at 5-1 but I never saw Denver coming. I don't think Bronco fans did either.

Looks like the Cowboys may have found a premier WR..He was on the roster all this time..Wade said he would play the same amount of plays he played against Kansas City..He played 50 games..Why not just come out and call him a starter? The crazy thing this kid has never gotten a chance. He has never gotten the work load. It makes me wonder who else is lurking behind the starters..

The week following the bye I start Choice and Free at L Tackle..Flozell has lost the right to start. He was bad and this season has digressed. Choice has proven he deserves the right to start, based on performance not because the other two are hurt. I also move Crayton off the depth chart. Hurd needs to be the third receiver when they go to three receivers..

Please get another field goal/extra point holder. Not turning the laces away from the kicker's foot is a firing offense if I have ever heard of one. Fire his azz and bring in another holder as long as his initials aren't TR..

Fire Wade Phillips and promote Jason Garrett to head coach. I see no down side to this. It gives JJ a few weeks to see if JG is the man..If not he won't have to waiste any brain cells trying to decide to keep him..

There are many more but that will do. Have a good bye week Cowboys and come back healthy and ready for the rest of the season.

Dallas Mavericks Look Loaded

It is just the second pre season game but things are looking up for the Mavs. In the first game D. Gooden looked like the first offensive center the Mavs have had in a while.

In game two S Marion was unstoppable. It is going to be fun to watch him on the break with Jason Kidd..

Rookie R. Beaubois got into the act and showed the promise the Mavs saw when they drafted him.

It is going to be hard to get playing time on this team. There is no reason to keep someone having a off night in the game.

This is the box score from the game against the Wizzards..The league better look out..

Dallas
Starters		Min	FG	3Pt	FT	+/-	Off	Reb	Ast	TO	Stl	BS	BA	PF	Pts
J. Kidd	G	25:33	5-9	4-7	1-1	+11	1	5	7	3	0	0	0	1	15
M. Carroll	G	15:18	1-7	0-4	0-0	-12	1	1	0	0	0	0	0	3	2
D. Gooden	C	18:39	2-6	0-0	4-4	-3	3	4	1	0	0	0	1	3	8
S. Marion	F	30:00	11-15	0-1	4-4	+15	1	5	2	0	3	0	1	1	26
D. Nowitzki	F	23:52	5-9	0-1	4-4	+3	0	4	2	2	2	0	0	2	14
Bench		Min	FG	3Pt	FT	+/-	Off	Reb	Ast	TO	Stl	BS	BA	PF	Pts
J. Barea		24:00	1-6	1-5	5-6	0	0	1	3	0	1	0	0	1	8
R. Beaubois		20:33	4-8	2-4	4-6	+8	0	0	3	1	3	0	0	4	14
E. Dampier		19:32	1-2	0-0	1-4	+3	1	4	2	0	0	1	0	1	3
Q. Ross		19:08	1-4	0-2	4-4	+6	1	3	0	1	0	0	0	4	6
K. Humphries		16:28	4-9	0-1	7-7	0	0	7	3	2	0	0	0	6	15
J. Terry		15:58	3-5	1-1	2-2	+9	0	2	3	1	0	1	0	1	9
J. Singleton		6:46	0-1	0-1	0-0	+1	0	2	1	1	0	0	0	1	0
J. Voskuhl		4:13	1-2	0-1	1-1	-1	0	1	0	1	0	0	0	1	3
J. Howard		DNP - Coach's Decision
N. Jawai		DNP - Coach's Decision
T. Thomas		DNP - Coach's Decision
S. Williams		DNP - Coach's Decision

Defense vs Offense

There has been a lot of talk about the Cowboys offense and Tony Romo. I wanted to see a scoring comparison of two units. I used the following criteria.

On offense I looked at fourth quarter scoring. How many points the offense scored in the fourth quarter. On defense I used how many points the defense allowed. Then I put that in context of how many points were scored the entire game. I then rated the fourth quarter in contex of how many times the fourth was the worst or best for each uint.

Defense. I looked at the last nine losses. In those games the defense allowed the most points in six of nine games. For further reference the other three times the second quarter was the leader. The defense has given up the most points in the fourth quarter, with the game on the line in six games. Three times the defense has given up the most points in the second quarter, before half time. The only fourth quarter shut out were against the Seahawks, when they had a huge lead and the Eagles when the game was over after the first quarter.

Offense. I looked at the last eight wins. The offense has scored the most points in 6 of those games. Further Tony Romo has his highest rating in the fourth quarter and led the league last season. The offense has been shut out in one game. The Broncos did that last season.

This proves to me that the offense has 75% of the time scored the most points in the fourth quarter and 66% of the games the defense has allowed the most points in the same quarter..Make what you will of the data, I just found it  interesting.

Four Games

The Cowboys are four games into their 2009 schedule. Their record is 2 and 2. They have lost twice to teams with a combined record of 8-0. The wins were by double digits. What does the record say about the Cowboys? I believe that the jury is still out on Dallas and the rest of the NFC East, with the possible exception of the Washington Redskins.

Philadelphia has lost to New Orleans. The loss could be blamed on Donovan McNabb not playing unless you factor in the lopsided score. The Saints moved up and down the field at will. The Eagles defense didn't have a clue how to contain, let alone stop them. In their other games the Birds have pretty much done what needed to be done.

The Giants look for all the head of the class. They are 4-0 and leading the division. Still they have struggled to defeat the Cowboys and Redskins. There may be trouble looming with the injury to Eli Manning. He is suffering from plantar fasciitis a very painful injury of the tissue on the bottom of the foot. Cowboy fans remember this as the injury that ended Terry Glenn's career. Sunday he strained ligaments in the foot while compensating for the pf..

The Washington Redskins appear to be a mess. The struggled to beat the Rams and lost to Detroit. They seem to have no offense and a quarter back they have no confidence in. Like the Eagles and the Cowboys, they have no quality wins. The defense is solid and that keeps the Skins in most games. Losses like those to the Lions always seem to come back to haunt. Ask the Cowboys, the loss last season to the Rams cost the Cowboys the playoffs.

Four games into the season and counting there seems to be no pattern. All four teams have played the bottom of the heap except for the Cowboys and Eagles. Outside the division the Giants and Redskins have played bottom feeding teams. All have QB problems. The Giants and Eagles have injured QB'S. The Cowboys and Redskins have ineffective QB'S. Coming weeks bring better opponents and more head to head play. The next four will be interesting.