Tuesday, September 16, 2008

Another wild one

My disdain for Monday Night Football keeps rising. The Dallas Cowboys cannot play a sane game on Mondays. It just doesn’t happen. There is always going to be some collapse, some strange play, some turnover that will drive Cowboys fans nuts. Romo will play terrible for a stretch before kicking it back into gear. They may come back to win the game or give it up in the closing seconds. Whatever it is, it is never a boring game.

That leads to me drinking an insane amount of beer. Whenever these games get going like this I develop a nervous habit of drinking more. That combined with the adrenaline surge means I don’t sleep well, even after victory.

Last night was more of that insanity. The Eagles are a good team. A damn good team. But last night they weren’t good enough. I am not sure where the Dallas defense was for the first half but they did a good job in the second half keeping the Eagles off the scoreboard. After giving up 30 in the first half, allowing only 7 in the second was pretty good. Shutting McNabb down for the final 4:36 was even better. What the hell happened on those last two drives that wasn’t happening all game?

I have to scour the papers but I think it was part of the defensive plan. Allow McNabb to hit stuff underneath but don’t get beat deep. There were too many third and longs completed. Too many plays of over 10yards. But somehow the defense buckled down in the end and a fumble actually fell into their hands. They also did a decent job of preventing Westbrook from making any huge plays. He got some yardage but also got stuffed many a time on the run.

The officiating seemed pretty bad in the first half. The pass interference call against Cowboys corner Anthony Henry was ridiculous. Greg Lewis has a handful of jersey and clearly pulls Henry into him and gets the call. It should have been offensive pass interference. Can’t complain though. The Cowboys got away with at least one blatant face mask penalty in the first quarter.

I see two downsides from this game. First is injuries. The Cowboys have Roy Williams out for 4 weeks with a fractured forearm and Jason Witten dislocated a shoulder. He returned to play and should be ok for next week. Second is the Packers have been given a gameplan to copy for Sunday night. The Cowboys will most come out with the same kind of defense. Don’t get beat deep and allow the underneath stuff. Try to keep the points down enough so the offense can win the game.

Upside is the team can come back to win games against good team. They can put big points on the board and overcome adversity. Better yet, the upcoming game is a Sunday night game. They play much better on Sunday nights than on Monday nights.

Just like last year, this Cowboys team is better than the Packers. Not much has changed. The Packers still do not have someone who can cover T.O. The biggest advantage the Pack has is that the Cowboys have never won at Lambeau. They won a couple times in Milwaukee but never Green Bay. Hopefully Romo & Co can make that change. Should be a fun one.

Other football thoughts:
• If I were the Lions I would bench Kitna. His actions on the last interception were deplorable. As soon as the ball was picked off, he took off his helmet and started walking to the sideline, ignoring the guy with the ball and not even trying to stop him. He quit. Flat out quit on his team. I guess that is acceptable to Millen.
• If Millen had any decency he would resign as the Lions GM.
• Man, did the San Diego Chargers get royally screwed by the refs or what? Insult to injury is having the head referee tell you he made a bad call after the game is over. The Chargers have every right to be pissed off.
• Are the Bears actually good?
• Taking the Patriots and the points on Sunday was money in the bank. I cannot believe my friends took the Jets. Stupid.
• The Colts beating the Vikings with the offensive line consisting of backups is amazing. The Vikings need to understand the end zone is where you want to end up.
• It was nice to see Terrell Owens catching long passes on a Monday night for the Cowboys instead of against.
• It had been 5 years since the Cowboys had returned a kick for a touchdown. That is a long time. Good job Felix!

Time to work. I have way too much to do and I need more coffee. This is going to be a long day.

2 comments:

OMW said...

"insane amount of beer"
no such thing as far as I can tell

OMW said...

you're ptobably going to the game so I won't see you at the bar.
Let me know if you want to place a bet---points on the game.