The Final Stretch - Scenarios

We are getting down to the wire... Dallas won their game against Tampa Bay and currently stand at 8-6... The Giants lost to Washington and are now one game back at 7-7 and The Eagles are still somehow alive in the playoff hunt at 6-8 after winning against the Jets...

There are two games remaining and it's going to be intense... Here are the scenarios for Week 16 and 17... (keep in mind, Dallas plays Philly this week, and The Giants next week... The Giants play The Jets this week... and Philly plays Washington to end their season...)

- If The Giants win this week, and Dallas wins this week... the Eagles are knocked out and whoever wins the finale' will win the division

- If The Giants lose and Dallas wins... The Eagles are knocked out, and Dallas will win the division

- If The Giants lose and Dallas loses and The Eagles lose their finale... whoever wins the finale' will win the division

- If The Giants lose and Dallas loses and Dallas loses the finale and the Eagles win their finale... The Eagles will win the division

- If The Giants win and Dallas loses... The Eagles are knocked out and whoever wins the finale' will win the division...

Whew.... I think that's all of the possible scenarios... I will be crossing my finger that Giants lose and Dallas wins this week, that way The Cowboys will win the division and the final game won't even matter... meaning it'll probably be Stephen McGee time...

Final Stretch Predictions: NFC East

Things in the NFC East are as bad as ever, and once again I will go into my predictions for how the rest of this crazy season could play out for this division.

Washington Redskins:

I think it's pretty safe to say that Washington is no longer in the playoff hunt with their 4-9 record, so I'm pretty much going to skip over them... they do play The Giants next week and in Philly for the final game, so I can only hope they become a spoiler.

Philadelphia Eagles:

The Eagles are holding onto a 5-8 record right now, and although it's possible that they can win out, get some help and then win the division, it's a very long shot. Their remaining games are against The Jets, at Dallas and then they host Washington to finish the regular season.

The Jets are playing pretty good right now, which I think could send Philly to 5-9... if that were to occur, they would already be done and out of the playoff talk. Dallas is the next game and after the first Dallas/Philly game (which was the Cowboys biggest loss of the season (in terms of point margin,)) The Cowboys will be hungry for revenge, plus they'll be at home. This should put Philly at 5-10. Eagles final game will be against Washington, and there's a good shot they do indeed win this one... I predict Philly will finish with a 6-10 record.

New York Giants:

The current leaders of the division at 7-6 since they got the tiebreaker victory against Dallas last night. This is going to be a heated head to head battle to finish the season, Giants host Washington this week, play The Jets next week and then finish the season against Dallas which could very likely become the determining game to see who makes the playoff.

Against Washington, it's very probable that Giants win and go 8-6... I'm not sure about The Jets game, it really could go either way, but I'm crossing my fingers, legs and arms to hope Jets win and send Giants to 8-7. To finish the season against Dallas, again I am praying a'la Tim Tebow pose, hoping Dallas wins that and sends them to 8-8 and ending their season.

Dallas Cowboys:

The final stretch is when Dallas usually collapses, they will need to improve in all aspects to have a chance and finally play good in December.

This week they will head to Tampa Bay for a Saturday Night game... there's a good shot they win this and stand at 8-6. The next week they host Philly, and with Vick back it's going to be a tough game. Hopefully the 34-7 loss from earlier in the season will be remembered and Dallas will pull off a victory here, going 9-6. If they lose and end up 8-7, it will be up to the finale' against The Giants, in the Meadowlands, that will determine everything. Potentially it could be 8-7 against 8-7, winner will make playoffs. Dallas will be heading to New York and will absolutely need to play better than they have been, and if they do indeed pull it off, they will win the division at 9-7 and Giants fall to 8-8.

The stars will have to be aligned for it to play out like this, and considering the way The 'Boys have been playing, I really don't have too much hope that it will, although they have shocked me before.

The Sky is Falling

Sorry for not updating in a while, been very busy with life, responsibilities and all that jazz. Anyway, let me briefly break down the last 4 weeks.

For a moment this season, about two games ago, it seemed like Dallas was finally ready to walk right into the playoffs. Not saying they were playing great football or anything, but the rest of the division was even worse and Dallas was somehow pulling off victories.

After the Buffalo game, Dallas was 5-4 and on their way to lead the division. They played @ Washington the next week and won, barely (27-24) propelling them to 6-4. Things were starting to look up.

Dallas hosted Miami at home on Thanksgiving, and they kept their Thanksgiving streak alive with another close victory (20-19) and they were almost comfortably leading the division with a 7-4 record.

Things couldn't be going better... the way the rest of the division was playing, it became very possible that a win against Arizona and then The Giants would clinch a playoff berth for Dallas. Unfortunately, for whatever reason, The Cowboys did what they usually did when given an opportunity and blew it.

They played at Arizona the next week and ended up losing after Jason Garrett iced his own kicker. 13-19 was the score and Dallas stood at 7-5. I wasn't giving up hope yet, it's always a tough game against The Cardinals, especially when Dallas goes to their stadium.

Last night's game against The Giants could have given Dallas a 2 game lead in the division, as The Giants were 6-6. A win would propel Dallas to 8-5 and knocked Giants under 500% at 6-7. Their destiny was in their hands... and again, they blew it.

New York played really good, and for most of the game Dallas played good too, but when it mattered most, the defense couldn't get the stops they needed (and injuries all over the place didn't help anything.) At the end, it came down to another 49 yard Dan Bailey field goal attempt to send the game into overtime (the same distance as last week's debacle in Arizona.) Luckily Garrett decided not to ice his own kicker this time, but Coughlin did... during Bailey's second attempt, the ball was blocked and the field goal was missed, Dallas 34 - Giants 37.

Now Dallas and The Giants hold 7-6 records, but if it was determined today, The Giants would get the playoff berth because of the tiebreaker and it would still be tough for Dallas to get a wild card spot considering how crazy the rest of the NFC is going right now.

Next week is a Saturday night game at Tampa Bay, which should hopefully be a Dallas victory and help The Cowboys build up their confidence. The Bucs haven't been as dynamic this year as they hoped.

So in conclusion... it appears that the sky is indeed falling... Dallas could have easily secured a spot in the playoffs these last two weeks and due largely to sloppy play, they have failed miserably and now the chances of making the playoffs are looking more and more slim.

Prediction Time

I was going to make this post about my experience in Dallas, but I'll save that for the next post... I wanted to go over my thoughts and predictions of the NFC East for the rest of the season, so that's what the hell I'm doing... Sometimes I make predictions and I'm close, sometimes I'm way off, but either way, it's fun.

As of now... Week 10... The Giants lead the division at 6-3, Dallas is close behind at 5-4, while Washington and Philly both trail at 3-6.

Let's start with The Giants... Their next game is a Sunday Night game against the Eagles, which I think they win, propelling them to 7-3. After that is New Orleans, which will probably be a close game, but I'm giving the victory to The Saints, next game after that is Green Bay which they'll probably lose and then is the Dallas game at Cowboys stadium... they will hopefully lose that game and have a 7-6, record. If they heat up down the stretch they could win their final 3 against Washington, The Jets and they will probably split the Dallas game and win the last one... I could see NY finishing at 10-6.

Next... Washington... I don't think they will win this week against Dallas (at least I hope they don't.) They might have a win against Seattle the next week and go to 4-7, but after that I predict another 3 game losing streak against The Jets, New England and The Giants, making them 4-10. Their final two games are against Minnesota and Philly and I think they could win those and get to 6-10.

Philadelphia Eagles... The dream team that wasn't... I see them losing their next two against The Giants and New England, putting them at 3-8. They could probably win the next two, Seattle and Miami, going 5-8. I don't think they'll finish strong (although they often play better in the second part of year, so I may be way off.) Their last 3 games are The Giants, Dallas and Washington, and if they lose all 3 they will finish their season at 5-11.

And finally, The Dallas 'Football' Cowboys... Of course I hope they win all of the rest of their games, but that's a bit unrealistic. I can hope victories in the next two games, Washington and Thanksgiving against Miami... this will put Dallas at 7-4. I think it's winnable, but I would look far too bias if I said they win too many games, so let's say they lose in Arizona and go 7-5. It's possible they reel off the next 3 games into victories against The Giants, Tampa Bay and Philly and stand at 10-5. I hope I'm wrong, but I think they'll split the series and lose the last game against The Giants going 10-6 and if all my predictions stand, putting them in a first place tie with NY... I didn't go as far as figure the tie-breaking, but these are my guesses as of now.

Week 10 Recap: Buffalo (7) @ Dallas (44)

Where to begin?

This game was incredible, there are tons of aspects to go over and I'm not sure what to talk about first. Since I was actually at the game, I could talk a lot about the experience and atmosphere, but I'll put all of that into my next post. This recap will focus strictly on the game. I guess I could start by talking about the various records that were broken during the game:

- Jason Witten moved up to #3 on the list of most receptions by all NFL Tight Ends, ever.
- Tony Romo broke a Cowboys record for highest completion percentage in a game, successfully converting 23 of 26 passes for 88.5%.
- The margin of victory in the game was the biggest for a Cowboys game since 2000 (against Arizona.)

Not bad at all.


Next I should probably talk about DeMarco Murray.

Murray has been exactly what Dallas needed at Running Back. In the past four games he was the starter because of Felix Jones' injury and he has been dynamic each week. It'll be hard for him to top his 253 yard performance against St. Louis, but he hasn't disappointed yet. This week he rushed for 135 yards and stacked up 36 yards on receptions (That's 171 for those bad at math.) Having a running game that actually works is noticeably improving the passing game too, in fact, Murray's play is breathing life in all aspects of play.


Moving on... The Receivers.

I could single out Dez, (who had 6 catches for 74 yards and a touchdown,) or Laurent Robinson (3 catches, 73 yards, 2 touchdowns,) or even Witten (5 catches, 37 yards,) but it was really a great effort on every receiver's part. Without some spectacular catches, Romo wouldn't have broken that completion record. Even Jesse Holley, Kevin Ogletree and, surprise surprise, Martellus Bennett made clutch catches that kept drives alive.


Defense:

You get a good feeling in your gut when the first defensive play of the game is a sack, especially from DeMarcus Ware, who didn't record any sacks in last week's victory against Seattle. This made him the sack leader with 13, well for a day at least, (Jared Allen reclaimed the lead with 13.5 after he sacked Aaron Rodgers early in the Packers/Vikings game Monday Night.)

Turnovers aplenty. Terence Newman recorded two interceptions, with one being a pick-six. Frank Walker also grabbed an interception in the end zone late in garbage-time that ended the game and firmly held Buffalo to only 7 points. There was also a nice Gerald Sensabaugh forced fumble which wasn't called at first, but Jason Garrett quickly challenged and had the play reversed.


What's Left?... Oh yea, Special Teams.

There weren't many disappointments on Special Teams. Dan Bailey made another great case for getting rid of David Buehler next season by kicking off 8 out of 9 times into the end zone (6 touchbacks) and knocking in 3 out of 3 field goals. Also, although it wasn't really the doing of Dallas, the Bills missed on their only field goal try early in the game.


Overall, the game was amazing. If Dallas continues down this path, they will go far. I am honored to have seen this game in person, and like I said earlier, I will provide a detailed account of my personal experience in my next post. Go Cowboys! 5-4 and going strong! Next up, Washington and Miami.

Week 10 Preview: Buffalo @ Dallas

Thanks to my wonderful, magnificent and absolutely beautiful wife, Jen, we are going to Dallas this weekend to see this game. It is kind of a combination birthday and 2nd anniversary gift and I am so freaking excited.

Finally I will be able to watch a game and loudly cheer, proudly sport my colors and not worry about ridicule of any kind. Most people are fans of teams that are local to them, but I've never had that experience before, so I am almost excited more about that than being able to watch the game live and see the stadium.

But of course I will get to see the stadium and watch the game live... We have pretty good seats too... As you can see from the image to the right...

It's a pretty good view, especially when Dallas will be charging down the field towards us... I can't wait (I hope Dallas charges the field a lot.)

The Bills game will not be a gimmie-game, but I think that Dallas has a good shot, especially since Sean Lee and Felix Jones may be back (although I pray they only use Jones as a situational back.)

Anyway... I can't wait to see the stadium and be part of the magic and I really, really, really hope they win because I will be devastated if they lose... although I'm sure I will be happy I got to see them live. Romo, right there in front of me, Dez, Witten, Murray, Coach Garrett... I can't wait!! Go Cowboys!

Naturally, I won't be able to post my comments immediately following the game (although I rarely do that anyway,) but once I get back home and settled in I will try to work up a nice, full, recap full of live pictures.

Week 9 Recap: Seattle (13) @ Dallas (23)

Week 8 Recap: Dallas (7) @ Philly (34)

There's no explanation that makes sense, Dallas just blew it big this week. From the first drive of the game, Dallas appeared weak, confused and perhaps intimidated. I can't tell what exactly the problem was, but nothing worked right and I put most of the blame on the defense. They couldn't stop the run, Vick or his passes and it kept piling up and piling up. Tony Romo was not very effective, but in all honesty, he didn't have the ball long enough to make a difference.

Very upsetting loss, and a game that could have potentially knocked Philly out of playoff contention early in the season... as it stands now for the NFC East, The Giants have a 2 game lead over everyone at 5-3 and Cowboys, Eagles and Redskins are all 3-4... it's still anyone's division, but it got a little harder with this loss...ugh...

Nothing more to say, next week Dallas is hosting Seattle and hopefully a game they can bounce back with.

Week 7 Recap: St. Louis (7) @ Dallas (34)

Finally, a very convincing win.

Since Jason Garrett took over as Cowboys' Head Coach, every game has been decided by 4 points or less, which means they have always been competitive enough to potentially win, but the results were just about split 50/50.

This game threw that 4 points stat out the window. Although it may have been against the winless Rams, who were without their star QB Sam Bradford (A.J. Feeley was in at QB,) but even so, Dallas didn't make mistakes, they took a lead and ran with it, putting their foot on St. Louis' throats and not giving up. That's all I've ever wanted them do. If anything, this should serve as a confidence builder as they get ready to head into Philly next week.

But let's get back to the game... 34-7 and that score very much reflects how the game went.

First, Tony Romo who has been a bit inconsistent the first 4 games was on-point yesterday... nothing over the top or crazy but he managed the game very well with 14 of 24 completions, 166 yards and 2 touchdowns.

Romo didn't need to throw as much for this game, mostly thanks to DeMarco Murray, who was playing for injured Felix Jones. On the first Dallas drive, Murray's first carry was a 91 yard touchdown run, one of the longest in Cowboys history, and his historic day didn't stop there. Let's just say that even if you took away the 91 yard run from Murray's stats, he still managed 162 yards rushing (that's a total of 253 for those who don't want to do the math and that beats the highest rushing total in Cowboys history (by Emmitt Smith with 237 yards.))

Dez Bryant also had a pretty good game, with 5 receptions for 90 yards and 1 touchdown. For the games he played this year, he always was productive during the first half of the game and pretty much fell off in the second half, but he redeemed himself and made most of his clutch plays in the second half, including a stellar catch in the end zone over the pylon.

Witten was, well, Witten. He made catches when he needed to and got an early touchdown to help build up Dallas' lead.

Dan Bailey was again the lone kicker, even though Buehler said he was good to go all week (I think/hope Buehler's days are numbered... although he's a good kickoff guy, he is just not needed anymore, especially with the new kickoff rule.) Anyway, Bailey was 100% on extra points and nailed two field goals, including a 51 yarder with ease.

The defense was ON-POINT... everybody seemed to be contributing, especially Abe Elam, who was exceptional, forcing and recovering a fumble. Mike Jenkins played great at corner and pulled in a beautiful interception. Sean Lee played well, and DeMarcus got lots of pressure on A.J. Feeley and close to the end of the game finally grabbed another sack for his stat sheet.

Overall, this was how I expected Dallas to play every game, and they may have looked good because St. Louis is so bad, but a lot of times good teams don't show up and lose to bad teams. This was a great rebound game from the Detroit and Patriots losses, and will hopefully serve as a reminder of how good they can be.

Dallas heads to Philly next Sunday night, a game that is always exciting. I just hope Dallas treats Philly just like they treated The Rams.

Week 6 Recap: Dallas (16) @ New England (20)

Another game that Dallas should have won... well, obviously going into the game, not many expected Dallas to win, but once they hit the field, they had a shot. The offense sputtered at times but the defense was solid throughout, (minus the final Patriots drive which gave them the lead with only :22 seconds left.)


Here are some of the concerns I have leaving this game:

- There were far too many penalties, this needs to be cleaned up.

- There is NO running game to speak of. The backs can't get any yardage no matter what they try. Felix Jones sucks, Tashard Choice sucks and DeMarco Murray sucks... I think it's time to at least give that Tanner guy some carries.


Here are some things that I was generally pleased about:

- Romo was not horrible, he managed pretty well.

- DeMarcus Ware racked up 2 more sacks... dude is a beast.

- Sean Lee continues to impress, he scooped up a nice interception...again.


All in all, it wasn't bad, and they held The Patriots to only 20 points... unfortunately we just need the offense to put up more than 20 to be effective. Someday it might happen.