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February 2008
Categories
Movers and Shakers Pre-season Texas Stadium dallasnews.com
Sports Blogs |
So some want some credit for the regular season. We got your credit right here, with an expiration date of now – as Timmy Tabloid detailed so eloquently, all it’ll get is certain people a bus ticket if it leads to a divisional-round exit. Yeah, that’s right, we’re closing the book on 13-3 and all it entails. Unless, of course, we get told about 13-3 again next week. Then, we’ll pass along what was said. Anyway, one thing that the Cowboys wouldn’t let fly under the radar, their record, got Cowboys Blog thinking. Are they the most improved team in the league? The answer’s no. But they are close, lodged in a four-way tie for fourth with the Lions, Patriots and Redskins. Follow the jump for a look at the swings every team in the league took from 2006 to 2007. PLUS-6 PLUS-5 PLUS-4 PLUS-3 PLUS-2 PLUS-1 EVEN MINUS-1 MINUS-2 MINUS-3 MINUS-5 MINUS-6 MINUS-8 |
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Comments
Posted by WilliamC @ 10:55 AM Sat, Jan 05, 2008
BLOG CAPTAIN:
WHEN I CLICK ON "COWBOYS" AT THE TOP OF THE BLOG LISTINGS TO TRY TO BRING UP THE ENTIRE BLOG, I GET AN ERROR MESSAGE AND THE BLOG DOES NOT COME UP. HAS BEEN THAT WAY FOR 2-DAYS NOW.
IS THE PROBLEM AT MY END OR YOURS?
NEVER HAD ANY PROBLEM ON THIS COMPUTER BEFORE
Posted by Tonto @ 12:00 PM Sat, Jan 05, 2008
WHY U TYPE LIKE RAMS FAN ???
Posted by Tim Burns @ 1:21 PM Sat, Jan 05, 2008
What, again with the attack on 13-3? What is it with you guys? How do you decide who's going to downplay it from day to day?
I give up. You're right. The 13-3 record really isn't all that impressive, considering it only ties the '92 team for best record in franchise history. Now 14-2, with the Week 17 victory over the Redskins, now THAT would have been worth talking about!
Look, I don't know of a single fan that wants this season to end any earlier than about 9pm on the night of Feb. 3rd...But if you want me to agree that heads will roll or someone will need a "bus ticket" if we don't make it that far, you are goofy. Who do we run? The HC? The OC? How about one of the Pro Bowl players? Who needs a bus ticket if they bow out early? Answer me!!!!!
Posted by WilliamC @ 1:37 PM Sat, Jan 05, 2008
Tim Burns,
I hear you and I agree....to an extent.
Of Course 13-3 is great. I was just looking at the final NFC East standings yesterday and imagining if it was August again and I was getting a view of how the season would turn out. WOW, it kinda knocks you over if you look at it with Pre-Season eyes and see what has been accomplished.
I think the 13-3 not getting its proper respect for several reason. First, the way the team has performed in the last month. Fans, including me, are worried, and rightly so, on which team will show up next weekend, The 12-1 team of the first 13 games, or the 1-2 team of the last 3-games. That has kinda taken the luster off the 13-3 season.
Secondly, given the fact the team has not performed at peak level over the past 3 games, it was less than encouraging that Wade Phillips keeps throwing the 13-3 record in everyone's face when ask about that 1-2 performance. Surely he DOES recognize that this team has problems and is heavily into "fixing" them, but if you just go by his public statements, he sees no such problems. I think thats a little disconcerting to a lot of fans, and I have to admit, I am one of them.
Fans fixated on who we play next week better worry more on how this team hits the field. The boys, playing at that 12-1 level can beat anyone, including the vaunted Patriots, but playing at that 1-2 level, they are not going anywhere.
Posted by Tim Burns @ 4:42 PM Sat, Jan 05, 2008
WC,
I blow & go on here a lot because, well, I can. I share a few of the same concerns to be honest, but I don't think things are as dire as some on here would have us believe. Everyone wants to talk about how bad this team has played in December & I agree...We played terribly...in one game, versus the Eagles. The stats may not have been there for Detroit or Carolina, but we WON those games, on the road, no easy feat in today's NFL. The Washington game was a throw-away. My only point is that they didn't forget how to perform well on both sides of the ball in a month. They had some unique challenges, like staying focused when they had everything including home-field advantage wrapped up. If they come out flat, I'll really be surprised. If Owens is healthy, so Romo has the full compliment of receivers he had all year, we'll be fine. I believe his throwing thumb was still an issue at Washington, especially at the start. It won't be next week.
I see a loose but confident team that is still getting a ration of "S" for breezing through most of the regular season. I haven't seen anything that makes me think they can't & won't return to form when it MATTERS again.
Wade's a lucky guy. He's got the most competitive quarterback in the NFL, and he's surrounded by a bunch of great "character guys" that aren't going to let Romo's head explode. I mean really, does this bunch need MOUSETRAPS hanging around the locker room? Wade HAS been saying the right things, it's just not what those hyenas at the press conferences want to hear. It's a different way of using the media. BP would rip a player or a position. Wade wouldn't do that because he knows it's handled "in house". The players already have more RESPECT for Phillips than they ever had for Parcells. (Don't confuse fear with respect.) These guys will go through brick walls for Wade because he's treated them like men and ALLOWED them to win 13 games! With BP's "governor" on this machine, we'd be lucky to be 10-6. Wade is alot like his daddy. Bum's players always talk of him like a father-figure. They speak of him as family. That's not a bad thing. It's all about timing. The '07 Bengals need a disciplinarian. The '07 Cowboys do not. A "players coach" need not be confused with soft. Dungy seems to have done just fine without berating players or using props to get their attention.
The reporters just aren't getting the same "sound bites" and funny stories they got from Bill. They can't give him all of the courtesy laughter and guffaws after he tells some story about Lawrence Taylor or Bobby Knight or whatever...And regardless of who "shopped for these groceries", BP didn't make chicken salad out of it. He made a little more than chicken "S", then he walked away from it, retired...again...sorta...Just like he always does. So anyway, don't be so rough on these guys until they're in another game that counts...
Posted by Reality_Check @ 10:49 AM Sun, Jan 06, 2008
Ask Todd Archer about WORRY
Another DMN staff member, Cowboys beat writer Todd Archer, pointed out that of the 10 times the Cowboys entered the postseason in the Super Bowl era with a loss in the finale, they have never made it to the Super Bowl, losing in the conference championship four times. The Cowboys were 2-2 in December, which might as well be a losing record, considering how lucky they were to beat Detroit by one point, and lost badly to Washington in the finale.
from looks of things Dallas will be same place they been last 12 years, siting in same spot on couch watching The Super Bowl