It's been hard to be quiet this long. I was waiting to see if this team had finally turned the corner and was ready to make the jump ( even a small jump) to being the kind of team that could win 3 or 4 in a row. My wait continues. The loss to the Lions showed us that , sadly, these are the same old Cowboys of recent years. In spite of being totally whipped by the Lions, our magical Cowboys had managed to lead the whole game. ( magical meaning Sean Lee and the multiple turnovers by the Lions) Then in the dramatic fashion of the Boys, we managed to snatch defeat from the jaws of victory...again. No surprise really. Anyone who watches this team had to kind of know that as soon as that holding penalty was called on Smith and the clock stopped that the Lions would go right down the field and score. I understand that our defense is riddled with injuries. Our defensive line is stocked with guys who could have been writing their own blogs like this one back when the brain trust at valley ranch was putting their team together earlier in the year. I know our starting running back was out. What I don't know is why it seems like the Cowboys always find it easier to fall back on those excuses than to actually build and field a team that is capable of overcoming those type of problems. Other teams do it. This is not the blog I wanted to write. I was hoping to be here talking about how this team is different, how they managed to win 3 in a row, how they widened their lead over the inept NFC East. Yet here we go again. Is this some kind of cruel joke on us Cowboy fans ? Right now I am so frustrated I can't even seem to go on a good rant about it. Instead this is what you get. later poke

keeping quiet until the halfway mark.

Bipolar Cowboys

when last heard from our good guys were 3-3 and I had decided to stop ranting and just wait and see what they showed us.

I said then that we should give them a chance to show us their identity.

now that I have seen it, I don’t like it very much.

8-8 for the second year in  a row.

another season ending loss in a game that would have put us into the playoffs.

a team that could look great one game, horrible the next.

heck a team that could look horrible one half, then unstoppable the second half.

even worse a team that could look unstoppable one play, then look like the 10 year old team sponsored by the local car dealership on the very next play.

so yeah I am glad I didn’t use a lot of energy ranting and raving about a team that was, sadly, just average. 

Mr. Jones is going to have to change something to keep putting butts in the seats at Cowboys Stadium cause I gotta tell you.

The casual fans are gone, there is no bandwagon for the bandwagon fans to jump on.  The long time holdover fans have been leaving ever since Jerry fired Tom.  All that’s left are us folks who have been too hardheaded to quit on our team ( and that’s the way we look at it, its not Jerry’s team, its ours !).

but you better take notice Mr. Jones, when a hard headed, old time fan cant seem to even work up enough hate and discontent to rant about the team for 3 months somethings gotta change.

Still Waiting

I haven’t given up on the Good Guys.  Don’t take my lack of ranting this year to give you that idea.  I really am just waiting to see what identity this years team is going to create.

I don’t care about style points so the win yesterday is just that. A win. Move on, get ready for the next game.  A big game.  At home.  Against the New York football Giants.  Those guys.

So our Heroes are 3-3.  This is one of those games where you find out if you can take that next step towards being a contender.  It won’t be easy, it seems like there are never any easy games anymore as a Cowboys fan.

My plan is to be at the game.  See in person how our guys react to the tough time that I fully expect the Gints to give us.  Watch how the pass rush of the Giants tests the o-line, see how Lil Eli works on our defensive secondary.  This is when you start to figure out if you have a good team or not.  The trick is staying in the hunt until Thanksgiving and then making a push for the playoffs.

So I sit and think about ranting and raving and moaning and cussing but I try to bite my tongue and just wait. 

A more mature blogger.  That’s my goal.  Well that and a Super Bowl trophy for the Cowboys .

The Sound Of Silence

I planned on writing a lengthy, well crafted post here to discuss the state of the Cowboys after their first 4 games.

My thought was that after 4 games I would have a better idea of what kind of team we would have this year.

I purposely kept quiet in an effort to be a mature, responsible fan , who could analyze his Heroes with an objective eye.

I then remembered being taught as a child that if you can’t say something nice about somebody, you shouldn’t say anything at all.

With that lesson firmly in mind I stop typing.

A Different Approach

Hello buckaroos !  Welcome Back My Friends to The Blog That Never Ends !  It’s been a long 8 months or so since we last saw Our Heroes play a meaningful game of football.  There are some who would say it’s been much longer than that even , but hey, no reason to start the new season off being snarky.

Usually by now I would have filled the blogwaves with tons of reasons why I thought this years Good Guys would be much better than last years Good Guys.  Taking a new approach this year.  I decided to let them play at least one real game before I started making up my mind about what kind of team they might be.

To be honest, after the first few series I was pretty much thinking that the only thing different was gonna be the new Nike jerseys they were wearing.

The O-line looked pretty much the same, even with different people wearing the Blue and Silver.  Penalties, missed blocks, no push up front all reminded me of the group that inspired my last blog of the year.

I didn’t start feeling too good until Romo threw an interception.  WHAT ????? 

I was encouraged by the hustle of Tyron Smith getting downfield to make a horse collar tackle.  Stopping a touchdown was worth the penalty.

I was very encouraged by the goal line stand by the defense. Very.

I don’t say that lightly either fellow followers of the Blue Star.  I refuse to anoint Coach Ryan as a guru until this team shows me it can win a game with a 10, 11 or 12 point lead in the fourth quarter. They got one of those with Wednesday nights game so I can’t help but to be excited.

Offensively our biggest worry all year is going to be the big uglies up front.  If they can keep people off Romo long enough he will hurt some other teams.  If they can make any kind of blocks on people Murray is going to make them pay.  I still have high hopes for Felix.  Our recievers looked great.  Ogletree is going to benefit from teams watching Dez and Miles and Jason so closely.  Now he just needs to do his part when they call on him just like he did against the Giants.

Since I am not in midseason form my fingers are tired from all this typing so I am going to cut it short and not go into a lengthy explanation of why I am satisfied with the special teams.  Nor will I go into X’s and O’s about the failed 4th and 1 attempt with probably our worst running back ( who happens to be a great blocker).

Nope, just gonna stop here and enjoy the fact that the Heroes of My Youth are 1-0 and the Giants…aren’t.  Stay tuned though because I think it could be a very fun year !

later poke

Letdown

yeah you all saw it.

not much to say even after all this time.

wait till next year ! go Cowboys !

It Wasn’t Meaningless To Me !! @##$&^%*^%$

Yeah I heard all the talk that said it didn’t matter if the Cowboys won after the Giants had beaten the Jets earlier Saturday.

I don’t/didn’t buy it.  It mattered.  There was still a slim chance that The Good Guys could have gotten a wild card if all the right teams lost.  It mattered,  I never like leaving a stadium after a loss.  I sure don’t like it when it looks like the team you root for is just trying to hurry up and lose and get back home to unwrap their Christmas presents.  I hope they all got a lump of coal this year !  It mattered,  thousands of people put off celebrating Christmas with families to spend several hours getting there, 100% effort isn’t asking for too much.  It mattered, I firmly believe in momentum in sports and do you really want to limp into the last game of the year, with the Division title on the line after turning in a performance like that stinker ?  It mattered and I don’t care what Jason Garrett says about “the process”, isn’t winning part of his process ?  I also heard him say ( and I paraphrase here a bit) that you have to try and take the emotion out of it , discussing the thought process of removing starters early.  Well he certainly succeeded in taking “emotion” out of it.  There was none !!#$%^^&&$%

At some point coaches have changed over the years, no coach I ever knew or was around ever played trying to not get anybody hurt or looking ahead to next weeks game. 

I bet it mattered to ole Jerry Jones too.  I didn’t see anybody lined up at the many souvenir stands after that game.  Not too many people want a memento from something that bad.  Pretty sure he lost money also when thousands of people left early meaning they weren’t buying his $5 sodas and $8 beers and $10 popcorns.

Now to be fair, if the Heroes of My Youth win in New York this week then maybe it was a smart thing to just give up and start thinking ahead.  Maybe smart but dadgummitt don’t tell me it didn’t MATTER !!!

later Poke

Time Outs

Saying anything about Jason Garrett’s use or non use of timeouts at the end of regulation seems almost silly at this point.

Every radio station, newspaper, blog, TV station and any other media has covered it more extensively than any other news story since Sunday evening.

I will do it anyway, in a limited fashion.

I have no problem with the time out called right before our kicker nailed his first attempt.  The brain trust thought it was needed, maybe they saw stuff they didn’t like and using one of their 2 remaining time outs was the smart thing to do.  Lets face it, you could see the Arizona players not really rushing and the kicker wisely just used it as a warm up kick. 

The time out, or lack of one is what makes me mad.  When Dez caught that last pass, The Good Guys should have called a time out. They had 2 left at that point.  There would have been 22-26 seconds left.  You could then have discussed what you wanted to do.  If you still wanted to kick, you could have done that.  I would have liked to have seen them try to get a few more yards and make it a more makeable kick myself.  Then use your last timeout.

Sadly Jason Garrett didn’t see it the same way I did.  His reasoning was that he didn’t want a “negative” play.  I don’t like that kind of reasoning. 

All is not lost.  A victory over the Giants Sunday smooths out this latest bump in the road.  I know it’s hard to imagine a win after watching that mess of a game against Arizona but last weeks performance has no bearing on this weeks.  At least I hope it doesn’t.

later, Poke

Too Soon

So yeah the topic around the water cooler at work is about the Cowboys, it has to be right ?  First place in their division and Thanksgiving has come and gone.  What else would we be talking about ? Christmas ? Travel plans ? Politics ? Nope, just the important stuff. 

Pay attention and see if the fullback Chapas that got brought up from the practice squad makes a difference in the run game this week.  When Fiammetta went out the stats went down for DeMarco Murray.  The tight end Phillips is a good blocker BUT, it only makes sense that a guy who has spent his whole life running through holes and making blocks would be better at it than a guy who has spent his football playing life making blocks only while trying to get himself open to catch a pass.  The size issue also has to be a part of it. 

Playoffs ?? You’re talking Playoffs ?? ( cue Jim Mora)

Too soon to start penciling in all the different scenarios for me.  My rule of thumb is if I need a computer to figure out who MIGHT play who if Team A beats Team C and Team D loses to Team G then its TOO SOON.  Some people love doing that stuff and that’s okay, more power to them.  As for me I will wait until there are just a couple different possibilities THEN I will start over-worrying about those.

For now I only have enough energy to worry about beating the pesky Cardinals.  I know they have a horrible record.  I know there will be tons of Cowboys fans at the game in Arizona.

I also know that any team can beat any team so I have to hope that Jason Garrett makes sure his team is ready to play.  It might help if a couple of the injured players get to come back.

I also feel a need to post it here that the Cowboys SHOULD NOT PUNT THE BALL TO PATRICK PETERSON.  In case Jerry and Jason read this blog now they will have NO EXCUSE if they do.  On a more serious note I worry about Mat McBriar and his nerve problem in his leg.  I hope that works out for him and not just to benefit the Good Guys. 

The Heroes of Our Youth have put themselves in a good position, now they have to finish the job and keep winning ! later Poke