The Toughest Season

Pre-season predictions are probably one of my favorite things about the NFL off-season.  I love this time so much because it absolutely validates my opinions of specific football analyst as well as football analysis as a whole.  I mean seriously, has anyone listened to Mark Schlereth talk football.  I’ll credit him on being a handsome and well spoken former football player, but he is no analyst.  Same goes for “Dat Dude” Marcellus Wiley.  I know he went to an Ivy League school, but I’m starting to seriously question this guy’s football intelligence.  But I am digressing.  Pre-season predictions are great because nearly everyone is wrong at the end of the season (not just Mark and Marc…that would be a great show huh?).  There might be one or two people that actually predict the outcome of the Super Bowl, but to try and anticipate what will happen at the top end of the National Football League is nearly impossible.  Notice I say “top end” because there are some teams that are guaranteed to be at the bottom of the food chain: Lions, Raiders, Rams, Bills, Chiefs, Broncos, Buccaneers, etc.  But, predicting who will make the playoffs and who will ultimately win the Super Bowl is about as close to a crapshoot as you can get in professional sports.  This is why I like that the Dallas Cowboys are ranked no higher than 15th on any major power rankings. 

The Cowboys are virtually the same team they were last year when everyone was putting them in the Super Bowl despite the fact that it was July.  Of course they lost some veteran talent: T.O., Greg Ellis, Anthony Henry, Roy Williams, and Chris Canty.  But they have reloaded and brought in viable replacements for all of those people.  The only spot that you might question is wide-receiver but T.O. is definitely on his way down and Roy Williams will have equitable statistics if not better numbers than #81.  The Cowboys’ main issue at this point is their schedule.  They play in the NFC Beast and it’s always going to be tough to make it out of the division alive.  But I love what Eagles’ President Joe Banner had to say in regards to the best division in football:

 "Any one (of the teams in the NFC East) is capable of winning the division," Banner said. "Any one of them is capable of winning the Super Bowl. That's how good this division is."

I think that’s what is going to make this season fun for football fans and especially Cowboys’ fans.  I can guarantee you that the Cowboys will not go 13-3 like they did two years ago.  As a matter of fact, I think the best the Cowboys could do this year is 10-6 with a wild-card spot.  But here’s the kicker…that’s not necessarily a bad thing.  The Cowboys are going to lose games, but I still don’t see them getting blown out at any point.  I also don’t see them blowing out teams like they did over the past couple years.  They’ll be dialed down this year; a lot less flamboyant but a lot tougher.  That’s what you need to survive the NFC East: toughness.  With a three headed monster at running back, two Pro-Bowl caliber tight ends, a massive offensive line, and a perpetually underrated hard-hitting defense, the Cowboys can show the world how tough they are.  

Prediction: 10-6, second in the NFC East