All Smiles

In the past five games, Dallas Cowboys QB Tony Romo has thrown nine touchdowns and only one interception. His quarterback rating during that span is an eye-popping 109.7.

In related news, the Cowboys are sporting a handsome 4–1 record during the same five-game stretch.

In a league that often gives too much credit to the quarterback for his team’s victories and too much blame for losses, it is still safe to say, “As goes Tony Romo, so go the Dallas Cowboys.”

A couple of games ago, after posting a near-perfect 148.4 rating by completing 23 of 26 passes for 270 yards and two touchdowns, Romo boiled his recent resurgence down to one pretty simple factor: Good health.

According to Todd Archer of ESPN.com, Romo repeated that sentiment last week as he prepared for Sunday’s game with the Washington Redskins:

“I don’t have a broken rib now, so that’s a positive,” Romo said Thursday, three days before the Dallas Cowboys‘ rematch with the Redskins. “It just feels good. I don’t know. You get used to playing hurt, but it’s just a little different kind of thing.”

Some in the league, in the media and in the stands have questioned just how much Romo’s injury was affecting his play. Suggestions were offered that maybe he was playing up the whole fighting through the pain thing. Maybe it was just a convenient excuse.

Apparently, these yardbirds think being kicked in the ribs by a mule is no big deal.

I, on the other hand, can identify with Tony. Just recently, I had a terrible head cold that I could not shake. Despite going for a steroid shot and an antibiotic, the nasty malady worked its way into my chest and there it stayed for a solid week.

I can tell you, my enthusiasm for work waned. I found it difficult to concentrate. My production slipped. This is all true and I must also confess that I have the kind of job that almost never involves angry, amped-up, 300-pound men using every means at their disposal to grind me into so much powder.

So, here’s to Tony Romo’s health and the continued success of the Dallas Cowboys that, like it or not, have their very fortunes tied to just how well Tony Romo feels.

I am mad as hell, and I’m not gonna take it anymore!

The love fest at the conclusion of what was almost the perfect Sunday Night Football game ruined the whole night for me.The way the vanquished Dallas Cowboys embraced the victorious Philadelphia Eagles, you would think they had just completed a closed-door corporate merger and were set to announce they were all now on the same team and headed for the Super Bowl together.

You know, like LeBron James and his new crew. One big, happy, rich family.

Remember when you learned the truth about Santa Claus?

Did you feel a little like you had been played? Like you were buying into this colossal, universal lie that everyone was in on but you? Did you begin to have suspicions about the other stuff your mom and dad told you about life in general and Christmas in particular?

So, Santa and his flying reindeer are fantasy, but the virgin-born baby Jesus, that’s real?

It all gets very confusing when people are selling you things that are a mixture of fantasy and reality.

Like NFL football, for instance.

As far back as I can remember, I have been a football freak. I bought player cards, magazines, electric football sets. Heck, I even organized paper football leagues at school, the kind where you fold a piece of notebook paper into a triangle, your friend makes goal posts with his fingers, and you attempt to thump a field goal and put his eye out at the same time.

I was a true believer.

I believed in the magic, the wonder of the NFL and its greatest, most glorious team: My Dallas Cowboys.

I believed they cared as much as I did, even more, how the game turned out on Sunday. I believed they were warriors, willing to sacrifice life and limb for the team they loved every bit as much as I did.

Then, I saw the 2010 Dallas Cowboys suffer their ninth gut-wrenching loss in 13 tries.

They lost 30–27 to the hated Philadelphia Eagles, led by Michael Vick—former inmate number 33765-183 and current number seven in your program—and their jolly, round bellied, rose-cheeked coach, Andy Reid.

While I am trying to figure out how a defense that took the field with more than four minutes on the clock, all of their timeouts in hand, and needing just to get one lousy defensive stop, got sliced and diced like a ripe tomato, right up the middle, by a team that doesn’t even like to run the football, the Cowboys are running onto the field all grins and giggles like preteen girls at a Jonas Brothers concert.

There is no Santa.

Worse still, there is no NFL. There is only the WWF masquerading as the NFL.

It is all just a show. It may as well be on Broadway and feature Barbra Streisand belting out some soul-shaking sonnet, face aglow, enraptured, big beak of a nose pointed to heaven (or at least the balcony), making us believe, making us cry, strumming out hearts with her lie, while her mind wanders to a double cheeseburger and milk shake.

While you took it like a punch to the gut—the loss that officially means your Cowboys will have a losing season for the first time since 2004—your heroes were all smiles and back slaps.

Could someone please explain to Jason Garrett, the man I have unashamedly backed for the head coach position for the past two years, that losing a heart-breaker of a game on national television is probably not the best forum for a possum-eating-peat seed grin and a Christmas morning-like bounce in your step?

You would have thought Jerry Jones—who was down there on the sidelines, performing that ridiculous sideshow clown act we have come to know so well—had just whispered, “You got the job, Red,” into his ear.

Garrett needs to understand that, here in Dallas, when we grab the measuring stick of coaching greatness, it bears the likeness of Tom Landry on one side and Jimmy Johnson on the other.

Jimmy Johnson didn’t have a good old time of yucks and giggles after losing the game known as “Bounty Bowl II” to coach Buddy Ryan’s Eagles. In fact, Johnson, red-faced and more than a little torqued, claimed he wanted to have a word with Ryan about it, but the Philly coach “ran his fat butt” to the locker room before he could do so.

Can you imagine Tom Landry grinning like Garrett at, say, George Allen after his archenemy had just punched the Cowboys’ ticket to a losing season?

Can you imagine Landry smiling, embracing and encouraging Ron Jaworski?

Heck, Tom barely cracked a smile when he won the Super Bowl! He dang sure wasn’t grinning like he just scored a prom date with the head cheerleader after a tough loss to a bitter rival.

Isn’t that the problem? For too many of today’s NFL players—more specifically, for way too many of today’s Cowboys players—there are no tough losses or bitter rivals.

We all remember Tony Romo two years ago, after his team was thoroughly humiliated 44–6 by these same Eagles, saying, “If that is the worst thing that ever happens to me, I have lived a good life.”

It’s only a game. Right, Tony?

Besides, if you miss the postseason, you can get in that many more rounds of golf.

And the bitter rival thing? They used to be able to say, “These teams do not like each other,” and it meant something.

Not anymore.

They are no longer teams; they are a team. They are just one big fraternity, one troupe, paid insanely huge salaries to put on a show, to act out a part.

These thespians (another word for “players”) don’t even have the decency to wait until the curtain closes to hug each other and laugh at the audience for buying into their sham. They do it at midfield, beneath the bright lights, the TV cameras, and the disillusioned fans, who watch, mouths agape and misty-eyed, as the truth about Santa and all the other silly things they used to believe in is hammered home once again.

Then there is Tashard Choice.

What can you say about a guy who deals with a tough loss by asking the opposing quarterback for an autograph?

But that sort of thing happens every day, right? Don’t you remember Tony Dorsett running over to get Bradshaw’s autograph right after the Cowboys lost to the Pittsburgh Steelers in the Super Bowl?

You don’t remember that?

Me neither.

What about the time when Emmitt Smith hit Steve Young up for his autograph after Young beat them in the 1994 NFC championship game. Remember that?

Me neither.

When the NFL is full of players who care less about the outcome of games than the fans do, players whose sole concern is when does the check hit the bank and how much is it…

When the team I follow is made up of players for whom losing doesn’t hurt…

When perhaps the best running back on the Dallas Cowboys runs like a school girl to Michael Vick for an autograph…

When a defense that was supposed to be the strength of the team allows the opponent to run through them like Sherman through Georgia, running four minutes off the game clock and sealing the win…

When the head coach watches with a grin while his team quietly folds its hand…

It is almost enough for me to cheer for a lock-out. It is almost enough for me to hope their own greed and excesses finally brings them to their collective knees, until they remember it is more than a game.

And it is their privilege, not their birthright, to play it.

And when they do play it, they get paid to do so for one reason, and one reason only.

Because we care.

If you have ever watched MartyB TV on YouTube, or if you are a follower of Jupiter’s Crunch on Twitter, then you know what a Devil-may-care, fun guy Martellus Bennett is.

From his rap about having “Jerry Jone (sic) money, iPhone money” his rookie year to hosting the controversial “Black Olympics” thing with his cousin, Marty B is a prime product of the irreverent-but-always-connected Generation Y. (Or is it  Generation Z? I don’t know. I can never keep up.)

Jupiter's Crunch

You know the generation I am talking about. They crave constant attention. They think the world is one big video game and even if you get blown to Hell, you still have seven more lives anyways. They upload videos from their iPhone, “sext” during Math class, think the Simpsons are real (and old school), are so over Facebook and MySpace, Tweet their every movement (even the bowel variety), and refuse to leave home.

At 6’7″, 248 pounds, Martellus Bennett is a physical specimen to be admired. A sculptor could not carve a more Greek godlike physique. He was considered a steal when the Cowboys took him in the second round of the 2008 draft.

The marvelous stat site, pro-football-reference.com, on their page dedicated to the Cowboys’ backup Tight End, has this to say about him: “Marty B stormed onto the scene in 2008 with the Dallas Cowboys as a second round draft pick. Look for him to have a breakout season in 2009 as he combines with Jason Witten to form the best TE duo in the NFL. Together they are known as ‘Beans and Rice’!”

Most Cowboys beat writers and national observers anticipated Marty B having a breakout season in 2009. He would give the Cowboys a dimension no one else had. They would be able to go into a two-tight end set, and you wouldn’t know if it was going to be a power running play or a pass play. With his speed and size, you could split him out wide and defensive coordinators would not know whether to put a small-but-quick cornerback on him or a big, slow-footed linebacker. Match-up problems would abound.

Those predictions never materialized. After a solid rookie season, Marty B had a subpar, disappointing Sophomore year. He caught 15 passes for 159 yards and not a single touchdown. The team had to be disappointed in his lack of production, but no one said so during the season

Then came Jerry Jones’s final news conference of the season, his statement of the team going forward. He was asked whether Martellus Bennett might show the kind of improvement next year that linebacker Anthony Spencer showed this year…

“There’s a big difference in the ‘down to business’ of those two guys,” Jerry answered. “Spencer has been down to business since he walked in the door. Bennett can get down to business. I know that he can. …We all see what a tremendous weapon he is and can be. His blocking is really as impressive as his ability to be a big target for [Tony] Romo.

“I’m confident he sees that. He’s extremely smart. He can get it; I think focus would be the word. He will get a lot more tweets if he’s a big-time ballplayer than he will just off of his creative ability.”

Pardon me for having a flashback to my years as a middle school teacher, but that sounded like the same sort of speech I gave at least a hundred kids during that four year span. It sounded like the sort of things I would tell parents during parent-teacher conferences.

Me: “Your child is extremely bright, but I just cannot get him to focus.”

Them: “We don’t know what else to do. He won’t focus at home either. He can’t sit still. We tried Ritalin, but that just puts him in a comatose state.”

Jerry sounds like a frustrated teacher or parent trying to deal with an ADHD kid. He sees a world of physical and mental potential trapped in a flighty, adolescent, social networking junkie persona.

The fact that Jones would call him out by name is certainly a warning shot across Jupiter Crunch’s Twitter page. I do not think Jerry minds Martellus having “Jerry Jone (sic) money, iPhone money.” He just won’t let him steal it.

With the emergence of third Tight End John Phillips, a sixth round pick who made a handful of key catches and at least as many key blocks in 2009, Marty B may find himself a tradable commodity if he cannot convince Jones that becoming an impact football player in the NFL is at least as important to him as making his next hilarious YouTube video or really kick-ass Tweet.

High Noon. Be there!

Everyone knows that long before he packed his bags and took that boyish grin to Dallas, Tony Romo was a Wisconsin boy, a cheese head. Everyone knows he idolized the Green Bay Packers great, Brett Favre. Everyone knows that, in today’s NFL, there is no other quarterback whose game more closely resembles Favre’s than Tony Romo’s.

Everyone knows that Favre is the master and Romo is the pupil.

Now, in the divisional round of the 2010 NFL playoffs, generations clash. The old gunslinger comes face to face with the young gun. One has more than a few notches in his gun belt; the other is gunnin’ for him. The two meet at high noon (Central time) to settle once and for all (or at least for now) who gets to wear the stetson to the NFC championship.

The perception is that Favre has the upper hand based on all of his postseason success compared to what is perceived to be Romo’s inept playoff performances prior to last Saturday.

Perception, however, is one thing. Fact is quite often another thing entirely.

Post-Super Bowl MVP Favre isn’t all that in the playoffs.

Bob Sturm of KTCK (the Ticket) in Dallas shared a rather eye-opening look at Favre’s postseason play. There is a distinct difference in Favre’s postseason performances—and record—leading up to the Super Bowl loss to the Denver Broncos in 1998 and his playoff performances thereafter.

Early Favre,as we will call it, had a postseason record of 7-3. He was the Super Bowl MVP in ’97, when his Packers trounced the New England Patriots, 35-21. During the early Favre period, he threw 23 touchdowns and only nine interceptions in postseason play. He had a quarterback rating of 94.1.

Beginning with the Super Bowl loss to New England, we enter the period we will call Vintage Favre. It is hard to believe that you can cut the man’s career in two parts and either part would be a nice long run for a human playing the position. However, this man is hardly human.

So, how does the wizened veteran playoff Favre compare to the young and coming Favre? Not that well. Beginning with that Super Bowl loss in 1998, Favre’s postseason record is a paltry 3-7, meaning his team has won just 30 percent of those games. Moreover, Favra has thrown 19 touchdowns and 19 interceptions during this period. His quarterback rating has averaged 84.0.

Strictly by the numbers, it is certainly preferred to play Vintage Favre rather than Early Favre is you want to beat him.

That said, the 2009 season has been nothing short of miraculous. Brett has shattered all the preconceptions about the effects of age on a quarterback’s skills. At age 40, he has posted perhaps the best year of his career. Never has he thrown fewer interceptions in a season (seven). Only three times has he thrown more touchdowns than the thirty-three he posted this season. And for the first time in his career, he finished with a quarterback rating over 100 (107.2 for the season).

His team started off 6-0 and finished 12-4, good enough for the second seed, a first-week bye in the playoffs, and the privilege of hosting the match against the Sensei’s understudy.

Tony Romo is better in the playoffs than you think.

Obviously, Romo doesn’t have anywhere close to the history of a Favre to unravel. Who does?

Romo only just completed his third full season at the helm. In these three years and change, he has guided his team to the playoffs three times and won the tough NFC East division title twice.

With so few playoff games under his belt, it is not much trouble to break down each to see how Romo performed.

In 2006, against Seattle, in a very hostile environment (remember the 12th man), Romo completed 17 of 29 passes for 189 yards. He threw for one touchdown and had no interceptions. He posted a quarterback rating of 89.6. Additionally, Romo drove his team down the field in the waning moments of the fourth quarter, setting them up for a chip shot field goal that would have won the game.

Everyone remembers the mishandled snap. Everyone remembers Romo dropping the ball, picking it up, scrambling for the end zone, and being tackled just short. It is the play most associated with Tony Romo in the playoffs, and the reason so many want to apply the choker tag to him.

That’s fine. Just don’t forget that Romo the quarterback played well enough to win a tough game in hostile conditions. Romo the holder let him down. Seattle won 21-20.

In 2008, against the Giants, Romo completed 18 of 36 passes for 201 yards. He threw one touchdown and one interception. His quarterback rating was a pedestrian 64.7. Still, at game’s end, he was throwing into the end zone for the win. It didn’t work out. He was picked off, his team lost 21-17, and the choke collar was tightened.

Now, we come to 2010 and the wild card round of the playoffs. This one is fresh in our memories, isn’t it? The Cowboys thrashed their division nemesis the Philadelphia Eagles 34-14. Romo was 23 of 35 for 244 yards. He threw for two touchdowns, no interceptions and had a 104.9 QB rating.

Through his first three playoff games, Romo has a 1-2 record (33%). He has thrown four touchdowns against just one interception. And he has posted an average rating of 86.4.

This showdown could be one for the ages.

If you compare Vintage favre with Early Romo, a slight edge goes to the kid in winning percentage, quarterback rating, and touchdown-to-interception ratio.

What does all of this mean?

Come Sunday, not much.

If one of these guys has a meltdown, his team loses. Both of them, however, have the hot hand. So, let’s say they each continue to play well. They keep their mistakes to a minimum and finish with similar numbers. What then is the deciding factor?

The answer: The running game, defense, and special teams.

Neither the master nor the pupil seems to have a distinct upper hand going into this contest. Neither will be able to win the game by himself. But one of them will win. If it is the master, then his legend is furthered. If it is the pupil, perhaps a legend is born.

The matter will be settled, like all such matters should, at high noon, with guns a-blazin’.

A Father-Son Moment

Raise your hand if you have ever dog-cussed Jason Garrett or said Wade Phillips should be fired (or worse).

God bless you. I see that hand. Yes, and yours too. Oh, and yours, way back in the corner. And yes…my hand is raised, as well. Guilty. All over the vast expanse of Jerry’s magnificent, shiny football Mecca, hands are raised.

Four weeks ago, when the Cowboys were fresh off stumbling into December with back-to-back losses to the San Diego Chargers and the New York Giants, most who bleed silver and blue were sighing, cussing, cramping, complaining, puking, bleeding out the ears…and convinced this team was going nowhere as long as Jerry Jones was the General Manager, Wade Phillips was the head coach, and Jason Garrett was the offensive coordinator.

My, how our tune has changed. Now, we have this 11-5 team that has, for the first time in the illustrious history of the franchise, shut out opponents in back-to-back games. Division opponents, no less. We have this team that is roaring into the playoffs by winning the final three games of the season, clinching a division title, and serving notice to the rest of the NFC that the Dallas Cowboys are a team you just don’t want any part of, thank you very much.

We know the what. But do we know why? Why did this team do what last year’s team could not? Why is the feeling around this team even better than in 2007, when they were 13-3? We always know who to blame for the failures around here. But whom do we credit for the success?

Glad you asked. I have some candidates. In fact, I have the top twelve people most responsible for this team’s turn-around. We could call them the Twelve Apostles of the About Face, or the Not-So-Dirty Dozen.

Here they are…

Number Twelve: Jason Witten

It isn’t that Witten wasn’t great last year. He was. He always is. But never has he been more clutch than this year. Whenever you absolutely, positively must have a first down, throw it to Witten. It usually works out. Just ask Tony Romo. When has a receiver only scored two touchdowns in a season and had a more positive impact on his team?

Number Eleven: Mike Jenkins

By the first week in the regular season, Wade Phillips had not been able to decide between Jenkins and Orlando Scandrick as to which one would start opposite Terrence Newman. Newman, it was assumed, was the best corner on the team, and one of these young guys would have to step up and claim that second spot. By season’s end, Jenkins had asserted himself as a Pro Bowl-caliber corner, the best on the team, and one of the better corners in the league.

Number Ten: DeMarcus Ware

Sure, Ware was phenomenal a year ago and probably should have been named the NFL Defensive Player of the Year. But what about this year? What about being carted off the field one week on a stretcher and coming back the next to get two sacks, force two turnovers, and seal the victory over the previously undefeated Saints? DeMarcus on the field makes every other Cowboys defender’s job easier.

Number Nine: Jay Ratliff

He is too small to be a nose tackle. He is also too quick, too tenacious, and too talented to be handled by most centers or guards or centers plus guards. The Ratliff motor is always humming. He creates havoc and helps set a tone for Phillips’ aggressive 3-4 defense.

Number Eight: The Offensive Line

They play so well as a unit, may as well treat them as one. From tackle to tackle, the Cowboys’ line has done a superb job of protecting the quarterback and gashing defenses for one of the league’s most potent ground attacks. Even when Marc Colombo, who was playing lights out, went down, the line never missed a beat. They plugged in Doug Free, and he has been more than serviceable as a replacement. (Witness the block Free threw forty yards downfield on Felix Jones’ 49-yard scamper last Sunday.)

Number Seven: Anthony Spencer

Did anyone else notice that Peter King selected both Spencer and DeMarcus Ware for his All-Pro team? And why not? Spencer has been a force, a monster, a whirling dervish, disrupting plays, harassing passers, corralling runners, and complementing Ware so well that no one misses Greg Ellis for a minute. Spencer had 50 tackles, 17 assists, six sacks, two forced fumbles, and an interception during the 2009 regular season.

But numbers only tell part of the story. Anyone watching the Cowboys this year saw how Spencer influenced plays on almost every series.

Number Six: Keith Brooking

Brooking did not crack the Pro Bowl lineup in 2009, but he became the heart and soul of the Dallas Cowboys defense. He was the spiritual leader. His on-field play was as effective and impressive as the leadership he provided. Without Brooking, the Cowboys defense is a very different unit altogether.

Number Five: Miles Austin

Roy Williams was supposed to be the guy here. He got the fat contract. He cost the team all those draft picks. He was going to pick up the slack for the departed Terrell Owens. Right?

Wrong.

Miles Austin began the season as the number three receiver. But in Kansas City, with Williams hurt, he asserted himself, had one of the best days ever for a Cowboys receiver and began his dash to the Pro Bowl. He has been the big-time receiver, making the big plays at crunch time, torching defenses, snatching balls from the grasp of defensive backs, shaking off would-be tacklers, running past people, running over people.

Austin has done everything Owens did and managed to remain a team player. Imagine that.

Number Four: Jason Garrett

Granted, third down or fourth down and a yard to go has been a bit of a sticky wicket. Sure, the point production (ranked 14th in the league)  isn’t on par with the yardage this team racks up (second most in the NFL). But have you not seen steady—and marked—improvement in this offense over the course of the year?

No longer saddled with the burden of getting the ball to T.O., whether it makes sense to do so or not, Garrett has devised a sophisticated offense that features a dynamite running game and a lethal passing attack. If he could just make those catches for Roy Williams and Martellus Bennett, he would be the genius he was touted to be a couple years ago.

Number Three: Wade Phillips

Yes. You read that right. I said Wade Phillips. I know I have been a rather vocal critic of the man. I dislike plenty of things about his leadership style. But you cannot argue with the results. The man has won 68% of the games he has coached in Dallas (record: 33-15). He has now won two division titles in three years. He has put together a defense that is on the best roll of any team going into the postseason.

And his players believe in him. They genuinely like him. They want to win for him. (Of course, if they really like him and want to keep him around, they might try winning at least one more game, just to be safe.)

Number Two: Tony Romo

From the first time he stepped on the field as the team’s starter, Romo has shown flashes of utter brilliance. He has made plays few others could have made. Unfortunately, he was also prone to making the worst possible mistakes at the worst possible times, costing his team scoring chances, giving up points to opposing defenses, and contributing to the team’s failure to achieve postseason success.

But Tony has turned a corner. He has gotten his gun-slinger propensity under control, and he has done so without diminishing his play-making prowess. Consider that in 2009, he threw for more yards—4,483—than ever before. He threw just nine interceptions, after having thrown 13, 19, and 14 the previous three seasons.  He threw 26 touchdown passes this year and finished with a quarterback rating of 97.6, his highest ever.

More importantly, he has asserted himself as the undisputed leader of the offense.

Number one: Jerry and Stephen Jones

I picked Jerry Jones number one because this season’s success was predicated on his off-season moves. It was, far and away, Jerry’s best off-season for signing the right players and cutting the right ones loose.

I include Stephen because word has it that it was Stephen Jones who convinced daddy to cut ties with T.O. It was not an easy decision for Jerry Jones to make, not an easy thing to do. Not just because of his own ego, but because, I believe, he genuinely had a warm feeling for the receiver.

Jones did it. he pulled the trigger and Terrell Owens, PacMan Jones, and Tank Johnson were— *poof* —gone. Equally important, he let Greg  Ellis, the so-called team leader who had become a broken record for whining about his contract and generally sowing discord on the team, go.

Then, Jones set about signing key people. He got Igor Olshansky to replace Christ Canty, the departed defensive end overpaid by the Giants. He signed Gerald Sensabaugh to shore up the defensive backfield, which had long been vulnerable due to the diminishing skills of safety Roy Williams. Best of all, he signed Keith Brooking, the five-time Pro Bowler who still had plenty in his tank…and the kind of salt and savvy this team so desperately needed in a locker room leader.

Sure, there is the whole Roy Williams (the receiver) debacle. But wasn’t it Jones who first told us that Miles Austin would be the deep threat the team needed in Terrell Owens’ absence? Didn’t we giggle…or snicker…or roll our collective eyes?

Wasn’t he right?

He’s been right about a good many things lately. And that is a good thing for a team that has been all wrong for way too long.

It was supposed to be the perfect night. It was to be the perfect cherry atop the perfect season in the perfect place. New

Perfect!

Orleans, the city hammered by Katrina and then pummeled by FEMA, would show the world their indomitable spirit and their unique ability to party their way through any sort of disaster and come out the other end, drink in hand, shouting “I dare ya” in the Devil’s face.

It was the perfect stage: They had the national spotlight all to themselves. It was the perfect opponent: that hated team with the silver pants, the shiny new silver – and – glass stadium, all those silver Lombardi trophies…and that infuriating silver spoon stuck in their smug gobs.

The have-nots would finally deal the haves their come-uppance. It would be glorious. It would be…perfect!

The crowd was sauced. The signs were all made and ready to wave in America’s face. The pundits—to a man (this one included)—were all certain this contest would belong to “dem Saints.” The “Who Dats” were finally set to become the “We Dats.” This would be the last major challenge, the last big hurdle to get over. Then, the boys in the Gold and Black would sprint down the homestretch and into the playoffs, sporting a perfect 16 – 0 record, and ready to zip past all NFC comers to the Super Bowl, where the other perfect team—the 16 – 0 Colts—would be waiting to play them in the perfect ending to the perfect season.

Perfection would show his elusive face in the Cowboys—Saints contest Saturday night, December 19, 2009. Only he would have a mind of his own. He would choose the wrong team. He would shun the Fleur de Lis and, instead, don the Star.

Perfection would be the Redheaded Boy Genius calling all the right plays, pushing all the right buttons. Here a run; there a run. Now a deep pass. Cowboys 7, Saints 0. Perfection would return a punt, pound the rock, dash up the sideline, blast defenders off the line, and finally, dive, braided locks flying, into the end zone. Cowboys 14, Saints 0.

Perfection would be bookend linebackers named DeMarcus Ware and Anthony Spencer harassing the league’s newest darling, Drew Brees. They would hurry his throws, hit him in the chops, flush him from the pocket, sling him to the ground…and then do it some more. Perfection would be Ware, a wounded linebacker who wasn’t expected to play in the contest, making two key sacks, forcing two key turnovers, and sealing victory for the underdogs.

Perfection would be the other quarterback: The one who couldn’t win the big games. The one who folds like a K-Mart umbrella when the calendar reads December. While Drew Brees turned the ball over three times, Tony Romo—for the fourth consecutive week—avoided throwing an interception. What he did throw was a perfect deep ball to Miles Austin to put his team up 7 – 0.

Romo protected the ball. He managed the game. He rallied the troops. And when he needed to, he threaded the needle.

Perfection was a team motivated by necessity. Perfection wore the grim look of determination on its face and played with a distinct sense of desperation. He didn’t need a field goal from Nick Folk to seal the game, nor did he require a key third down catch from the still way – too – erratic receiver Roy Williams. Who needs those guys when even Bobby Carpenter is making plays?

As it turns out, the underachieving Cowboys were the perfect spoiler for the horseshoe-carrying Saints. New Orleans should have lost to Washington. They could have lost to Carolina. They didn’t. Luck was partnering with Perfection, conspiring to keep their perfect season intact. The Saints just kept winning and winning and winning…until most everyone was convinced they would never do anything but win.

Meanwhile, the Cowboys had held the high-scoring Chargers to their lowest season scoring output. They had strung together five straight weeks of stellar defensive performances. On offense, they had moved the ball at times with precision, only to break down in the red zone. They just had not put it all together for an entire game since their big win in Philadephia.

The Cowboys were better than they appeared. The Saints were not quite as good as they seemed. So, the Cowboys did what no one gave them a chance to do: They won the game, 24 – 17.

The Saints still control their own destiny. They still have the conference lead in wins. Now, the Cowboys control theirs, as well. If they can post wins in their last two games—against the 4 – 9 Redskins and the 9 – 4 Eagles, they will win their division.

Who knows? These same two teams may meet in the same place in a few weeks with much more on the line.

Wouldn’t that be…perfect?

Collision Course

I shall be telling this with a sigh
Somewhere ages and ages hence:
two roads diverged in a wood, and I –
I took the one less traveled by,
And that has made all the difference. – Robert Frost

The Dallas Cowboys  are 8 – 4, and as coach Wade Phillips reminded the media, that makes them winners. Unfortunately, their foe Sunday, the San Diego Chargers, are 9 – 3, riding a hot streak, and, well, they, too, are winners.

The two teams, though they seldom meet – this is only their ninth meeting – have plenty of history. Norv Turner, the Chargers’ coach, is a former offensive coordinator for the Cowboys. Wade Phillips is the former defensive coordinator for the Chargers. Both men were strongly considered for the coaching position in Dallas, after Bill Parcells left. Most thought Turner would be Jerry Jones’s choice.

He wasn’t. Phillips was. Jones figured he had the offense covered with Jason Garrett (who was a hot commodity at the time, you may recall). What he needed, in his mind, was someone to whip the defense into shape. Wade has done that.

Phillips has also posted a nice winning percentage with the Cowboys…especially if you do not count December or the playoffs. Dallas’s December woes are well chronicled and much debated. Meanwhile, Turner’s Chargers are 15 – 0 in December. Turner’s team made the conference championship in 2007, losing to the New England Patriots. They made the Divisional round last year and lost.

While the Chargers try to figure out how to take that next step and make the Super Bowl, The Cowboys are just trying to solve December and finally post a playoff win for the first time in thirteen years. The Chargers want to win this game; the Cowboys have to win it.

Phillip Rivers and company are as dangerous an offense as any this side of New Orleans. They create matchup problems all over the field, especially with Tight End Antonio Gates. The Dallas Defense is playing well, though, currently ranked fifth in points allowed and 14^th in yards allowed per game.

The Cowboys’ high-octane offense, however, has not played as well in recent weeks. They run well one week, pass well the next, but haven’t put the two together in awhile.

Sunday’s game will come down to quarterback play, defense, and coaching. One might give an ever-so-slight edge to Phillip Rivers over Tony Romo, but it is razor-thin. Romo has played well this year, while Rivers is playing out of his mind. Defensively, you have to like Dallas. Phillips knows how to prepare a defense and call a game on that side of the ball. And he knows the Chargers.  The Coaching edge, it says here, belongs to Norv Turner, simply because he has proven he can get his team ready to play the games that matter most and get into the post-season, where he has had good success with the Chargers.

The wildcard may be Jason Garrett. If he can mix his game plan up enough to keep the Chargers off-balance and resist the urge to be cute when he needs to just be right, his offense could have a nice day against the Chargers, which ranks 15^th in points allowed and 12^th in yards given up.

The outcome of the game may very well determine Wade Phillips’s future with the Cowboys…and he knows it. His margin for error is nonexistent after the loss last week to the Giants. Should his team lose its grip on the NFC East and fall into a wild card fight, or out of playoff contention entirely, he will need to dust off that resume.

The Chargers will come to play. Of that, there is little doubt. If the Cowboys do, as well, this could be the NFL game of the week. The series edge is decidedly in the Cowboys favor. They hold a 6 – 2 series edge over the Chargers. But this is not your daddy’s Chargers…or your momma’s Cowboys.

For Wade Phillips and his Dallas Cowboys, in light of recent late-season collapses, this is definitely the time for them to take that road less traveled.

Prediction: Cowboys win 27-24.

Some things are personal opinions. These are just plain facts.

FACT ONE: Tony Romo does NOT suck.

It is a favorite pastime of Cowboys’ haters everywhere to play fast and loose with Romo’s name. The usual choice is “Tony Homo,” and the old, tired, standard assertion is simply, “Tony Homo sucks.”

That is just not true, people.

Consider his record. He has now started a total of 44 regular season games in the NFL. His record? 30-14. That is a 69% winning percentage. It is also better than all but four quarterbacks in the history of the league. Does that suck?

Consider that he already has nineteen 300-yard passing games and has become, in less than four full seasons as the starter, the all-time team leader in that category. (Remember, this is a team with eight Super Bowl appearances, five Lombardi trophies, and former QBs named Meredith, Staubach, White, and Aikman.)

We could go on spouting facts, but all it really takes is the eye ball test. Watch the man play the position. Sure, he makes mistakes. The position he is playing is the most challenging, difficult position in all of team sports. Every man who has ever played it made mistakes. That five yard touchdown pass to Patrick Crayton last Sunday, however, was a play not two or three other quarterbacks in the league could have made.

The biggest argument against Romo is that he has not won a playoff game. But when people say that, they tend to leave off the most important word in the sentence, the qualifier:

“Yet.”

FACT TWO: DeMarcus Ware is still a steal, even with his new deal.

Jerry Jones opened the coffers and lavished his riches on his best defensive player – and it was absolutely the right thing to do.

Paying Ware is not the same thing as Danny Snyder handing Albert Haynesworth the reins to a Wells Fargo stagecoach full of cash. Overpaying high priced free agents often comes back to bite teams. The player was great, sure…for someone else. Now, he is on a new team with new coaches and new teammates. He has to learn a new scheme. He is sleeping in a different bed and waking up in a different town. And, he has just hit the lottery, so motivation may become an issue.

Some can handle such challenges. Many cannot.

DeMarcus Ware is a proven commodity for the Dallas Cowboys. He has made his mark with that star on his helmet. He has done the right things the right way…and done the things he does on the field better than just about anyone else in the league.

The return on Jerry’s money will be more immediate and appreciable where Ware is concerned than the money spent on that shiny new stadium.

FACT THREE: Miles Austin is more than a speedster.

When Terrell “The Mouth” Owens was kicked to the curb and then banished to the football wasteland known as Buffalo, there was wringing of hands and gnashing of teeth in Big D.

Who will replace all those yards and touchdowns? Who will stretch the field?

Most, including Jerry and Co., pointed to Miles Austin. The rationale was simply that he was the only receiver left on the team with the speed to present a deep threat.

But Miles Austin is more than a speed receiver. He is big – 6’3”. He is strong. He is intelligent. He is a precise route runner. He has excellent hands. And, perhaps most importantly, he is a team player, not a prima donna.

Get used to seeing those bright eyes and big smile on camera. Tony has a new toy, and there will likely be miles and miles of passes to Miles in the Cowboys’ future.

FACT FOUR: Felix Jones is more than a speed back.

Here is a dude that averaged nearly nine yards per carry in a Division One, Southeast Conference football program. That was a bit of a disappointment, really. In high school, his yards per carry was eleven plus.

So, what has he done so far in the NFL? A measly 8.5 yards per rush.

I know. He has been hurt and hasn’t carried the ball an inordinate amount. BUT…he has run far enough, fast enough, and well enough to put the NFL on notice.

This guy can get it.

It isn’t just his speed either. It is his burst. It is his vision. It is his surprising power. He is a threat to go all the way from anywhere, anytime.

He isn’t Adrian Peterson, but he will do until one comes along.

FACT FIVE: Bobby Carpenter still sucks.

I noticed Carpenter three times in the game against the Falcons. Each time, he either made the tackle, or assisted…after the runner or ball catcher had made a first down.

Jerry Jones once called Carpenter a finesse player. That is as close as he could come to calling the linebacker a sissy without just out and out doing so.

A finesse linebacker?

Carpenter appears to detest contact. This is tantamount to a pilot that fears heights, or a surgeon that faints at the sight of blood, or a hydrophobic Navy Seal.

The New Jersey Football Genius Bill Parcells picked Carpenter in the first round in 2006. Why??? Because his daddy was a former Parcells lackey? Because he played at Ohio State? Or was it something more sinister. Was the Carpenter pick part of an elaborate scheme to sabotage his former nemesis and saddle them with the kind of salary cap hell a first round bust puts on a team?

Or was he thinking that the blonde bombshell could make the cheerleading squad if he didn’t work out on the field?

Never trust a Tuna with bigger breasts than your wife.

These are the facts, and they are indisputable. But…dispute if you must.

A leaderless locker room is a rudderless ship.

The Dallas Cowboys are a team needing compensation. The absence of sideline leadership under Wade Phillips has led to frequent chaos. The Patrick Clayton flap is just the most recent evidence that there is poor communication between the coaching staff and the men in the trenches. Crayton said he did not even know he had been demoted. No one told him.

I believe him.

A weak head coach heightens the need for players to step forward and become the vocal and spiritual leaders of the team. What exists in the Cowboys organization today is not unlike the Barry Switzer era. That team managed to overcome the absence of a strong head coach, primarily because there were established leaders on both sides of the ball. Michael Irvin, Troy Aikman and Darren Woodson did what Switzer could not – would not – do: they inspired their teammates to rise to every challenge, to meet adversity with single-minded determination, to excel, to exceed expectations.

It didn’t hurt that they happened to be stacked with talented players at practically every position. But history has proven that the most talented team is not always the last team standing. Winning a Super Bowl takes more than talent.

It takes a team.

And a team needs leadership. It needs people confident and strong enough to stand up and say, “Follow me. I know the way.”

It is a mistake to assume that a great soldier will automatically make a great General. The current crop of Cowboys have some great performers. DeMarcus Ware, Jason Witten, Jay Ratliff, and others have proven they have the talent to do their jobs at the highest level. They have yet to prove they can inspire their teammates to do the same.

Enter Keith Brooking.

Brooking is proving himself to be the best off-season move the Cowboys have made in some time…and it isn’t just the quality of his play on the field. Watch him in the defensive huddle. Keep an eye on him when he is on the sideline. Listen to him in interviews. The man has assumed a leadership role on a team in desperate need of a natural born leader.

Brooking hasn’t bullied his way into his new-found role. Nor has he been officially appointed to be the leader of the Dallas defense. He has just been himself. Leaders lead. It is inherent in their nature. Born leaders are the most effective kind.

The idea that a professional football team doesn’t require on-field leaders is just wrong. It is more important at that level than any other. In college, high school, or Pop Warner, the leadership is almost always provided by the coaching staff. But these are grown men, playing their game at the highest level in the world. The rah-rah coach may inspire them, sure. The intellectual football genius coach may instruct them. But it takes a peer with skins on the wall, with a proven track record of his own, and with the innate ability to lead men to truly galvanize them on the field.

Otherwise, you have fifty-four individuals performing. One team will always trump fifty-four individuals.

The Cowboys are just another Brooking or two away from finding themselves in spite of their milk toast head coach.

OK, Blue Bloods. Nobody likes to lose…not even in the preseason. But if you are going to lose, that is a better time than any to do it. Games that don’t count don’t count.

Losing 31-10, you might think would indicate that there were few positives to be taken from the game. That just isn’t so. I saw plenty to smile about last night. Here are some things that come immediately to mind:

Martellus Bennett and Felix Jones

The Cat!

Marty B and Felix are not your typical back ups. They are frontline talents whose skills will – or should – be prominently displayed all season long. If The sight of Martellus catching a short pass in the flat, scooting past one defender, and bowling over another for a first down doesn’t get you stoked, then your stoker is broken.

And Felix…wow!

In the 1970s the Cowboys were the best team in the NFL at running the screen pass. Why? Because of Tony Dorsett. His vision, burst, patience, and speed made him a threat to score at any time. The screen pass got him outside the tackles, on the corner, where it often became mano y mano, catch me if you can.

They frequently could not.

Say hello to Felix Jones. The Cowboys haven’t had the combination of burst, vision and break away speed that he brings to the team since the great Dorsett. He showed again last night that if he can stay healthy, he is a weapon every opposing defensive coordinator will have to account for…and the screen pass will live again in Big D.

David Beuhler

After getting the jitters out, the linebacker-size kickoff specialist sent a kick eight yards deep into the end zone. Touchback! Has a nice ring to it, doesn’t it? Especially since the Cowboys were the NFL’s only team not to record a single touchback in 2008.

He also pegged a 35-yard field goal, which is just icing really.

Tony Romo

For all the haters out there (and there are plenty of them), Romo remains one of the league’s top playmakers at the most important position (by far) on the field. Witness the touchdown pass to Jason Witten. Pump, move those feet, dip that shoulder, he’s open..fire!

Quickest release in the league? If not, it’s within milliseconds of whomever is faster.

Jason Garrett

That TD drive was a nice display of mixing things up, spreading the ball around, and using all of his weapons. And did anyone besides me notice how much more “presidential” on the sideline Garrett looks than the Pillsbury Doughboy, aw shucks, so-called head coach?

Keith Brooking

Yes, it was only one sack, but…nice!

Jon Kitna

He’ll do, won’t he? Nice to have a backup QB who could probably start for about half of the league.

Concerns? Sure! Plenty of them, but most of them have to do with reserves rather than starters. I would say the biggest concern at the moment is the injury bug. If the wrong people go down, it could be a long season. If the Cowboys stay relatively healthy, they won’t be losing to the Raiders 31-10 come Thanksgiving.