I am a big Cowboys fan. Always have been. When I was about 11-12 years old I had not yet "chosen" my favorite teams in any sport and my parents were divorced so my father was not influencing me on my choices. I also lived in western PA about equidistant from Pittsburgh, Cleveland, and Buffalo so everybody rooted for different teams (giving the edge to the Steeler's because of the home state favoritism). My backyard had the perfect boundaries for the neighborhood football field and every weekend there were kids playing. One of the neighbors was about 5 years older than me and often came over to throw the football around and I remember many times playing 1 on 1 football between the 2 of us. He had me beat by almost a foot in height, but I could still throw the ball high enough and long enough to be able to run underneath it (or go for the quick dump off passes and hope he slipped). But during these 1 on 1 sessions we gave running play-by-play and since he was the older (and bigger) one of us, he always was the Steeler's and, because we were archrivals, I was the Cowboys. I had to find Cowboy football cards just to figure out who was on the team. Since this happened in the very early 80's, he had the advantage of 4 Super Bowl wins and many of the superstars were still playing. I was left with Danny White, Tony Hill, Drew Pearson, and Tony Dorsett. Not a bad bunch but it did not have the prestige of the Steeler's.
Regardless, it stuck with me and I became a die-hard fan even though I have migrated closer to Pittsburgh over time (and now live within fireworks distance of Heinz Field). I stuck with them through the 80's and the end of the Landry era, through the dismal first seasons of the Jimmy Johnson era (including the 1-15 season), the exhilaration of 3 Super Bowl victories, then the slow disintegration of "America's Team" with aging superstars, drugs, poor coaching, and crappy drafts. The team always had hope, but the swagger was not there anymore. They were good but not great and I always expected the worst (and was always correct). But at the same time my hopes were never too high or never too low so I was never really disappointed. And so it continues this season...
I had hopes for this season... but not too high. This team was different than ones from the past few, but not by much. It still had T.O. (which in itself has given every team he has been part of pause in their hopes), shaky coaching, a young QB, and a running back-by-committee. But the drafting seems to be better recently. I like the focus on defense over the past few years in Ware, Canty, Carpenter and Spencer and the free agent acquisitions of Hamlin and Henry. But overall there were still many suspect moves (signing Leonard Davis), a tough schedule, and a relatively young team led by a quarterback who had less than 10 career starts to his record. The questions far outweighed the known and going into the season I could have seen the team self-destructing just as much as I could have seen them going 13-3... So I was as glad as anyone when they were undefeated going into their week 6 game agains the Patriots. But after watching them trip all over themselves in Buffalo the week before, I was not as pumped up as I shouls have been. They played well against the Pats for a while, but ended up making enough mistakes to get blown out by 21.
To their credit though, they kept playing good football. T.O. was a non-factor in the distraction department, their defense was playing well, Romo was a Pro Bowler, and the RBBC was working well with Jones and Barber. But cracks were showing and when the Boys played Detroit the week after Thanksgiving their faults were brought to the forefront. They let Kevin freaking-Jones run well and had to use a last-minute drive to beat a team that was in complete disarray. Then they lost to the Eagles at home, barely got past a injury-riddled Panthers team, and lost badly to the Redskins in the final week.
At this point the warning bells were going off and I had no doubt that they were going to have their hands full regardless of who they were playing. And when the Giants manhandled Tampa to move on, I knew there were going to be problems. Even with Eli Manning the Giants had been playing well and hadn't loss on the road since the week 1 loss to the Cowboys (which is pretty crazy when you think about how important home field advantage is around the league). But the Cowboys had beaten them twice already by double-digits each time and the game would be at home and the ream would be rested so everything should be pointing to their favor. But with T.O's ankle and with the media evening things out by beating the Jessica Simpson thing into the ground and turning the weeks leading up to the game into a circus, I was really wondering if the karma was gone.
But the real reason the Cowboys lost was coaching decisions. I love Marion Barber, but I loved him coming off the bench a lot more than I like him starting. By not starting him, he was able to be fresh in the second half of games and beat on defenses late when it mattered most (and when it could be most effective). Instead, he started the game, had a great first half, but slowed down in the second half when it mattered the most.
And the whole Terry Glenn thing mystified me. How can a team suddenly thrust a player into a prominent role on the offense after sitting out 16 weeks? Was Sam Hurd a worse player than Glenn in that situation? And did Romo feel obligated to try to ge the ball to Glenn in the game at the expense of players like Witten or Crayton? I would rather they had just gone with the players who had gotten them there rather than bring back a player who hadn't played a meaningful snap in over a year. But that's just me.
I guess there is always next year. The team is still young with only a few players on the downside of their careers. Let's just hope they don't screw up and let Jason Garrett go to become a head coach in Baltimore or Atlanta without giving him a chance (or promise) to be the head coach-in-waiting of the Cowboys (which I think he would be favorable to). The team is close, real close, to competing every year, and maybe soon I won't continually think the worst of the team before they actually play the game.
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