After the last few years I’m beginning to wonder how many times I’ve thought to myself, “The Cowboys should have won that game.”  So many big games come to mind:

In 2007 the Cowboys were 13-3 and hosting the New York Giants in a divisional playoff game.  Although the Cowboys had already beaten the Giants twice in the regular season, everyone knew this would be a tough game (except for maybe the Cowboys).  On the first drive of the game, not only did Demarcus Ware get called for a bogus offsides penalty to give the Giants a first down, but Amani Toomer (who was way past his prime) managed to shake several Cowboys’ defenders on the next play for a 52 yard touchdown.  The rest was history as the Cowboys would lose to the eventual Super Bowl Champions 21-17.

Continue reading "History Repeating: The Lost Inches"

Any Cowboys fan who watched Sunday’s game had to be ready to throw themselves out of a 3rd story window when they saw that the Cowboys were getting beaten by the Chiefs nearly the entire game.  I, myself, wasn’t able to watch the game but I constantly monitored the score which may be even more maddening.  

Fast forward to the 4th quarter and the Cowboys were deadlocked with the Chiefs at 13-13.  After coming up with a pivotal stop, the Cowboys had an opportunity to finally put away a team they should’ve beaten in the 1st quarter.  At this juncture, Miles Austin made the first big play in what would be the making of the legend of Miles Austin.  He caught the ball on a slant route, broke a couple of tackles and scampered 59 yards for what

Continue reading "250 Miles between Austin & Kansas City"

After the Jets got pushed around by Miami on Monday night football, there were a lot of complaints coming out of the Jets locker room.  Head Coach Rex Ryan said that the Wildcat was “gimmicky”.  Jets outside linebacker Calvin Pace, who returned from a 4-game suspension for getting performance enhancing drugs, said that there was no place for the Wildcat offense in professional football. 

I have loved the swagger and confidence that Rex Ryan has brought to this Jets team with his brash talk, and the ability to back it up.  But this infectious whining is not garnering any respect around the league.  The Dolphins are 2-3, so clearly there are teams who are able to deal with the wildcat offense.  And I wouldn’t call it a gimmick either, seeing as you have at least a thousand plays on tape of this offense.  They can’t do anything out of this formation that you haven’t seen before (except for maybe a

Continue reading "Wildcat Whining"

Just a couple of hours before the Titans played the Colts on primetime television Sunday night, Jevon Kearse was told that he would not be dressing for the game.  In the NFL they call this a “healthy scratch”.  Kearse responded by scratching himself from the stadium and leaving before the game even started.  This particular drama sparked a lot of controversy in NFL circles.  Was Jevon Kearse in the wrong for leaving the stadium?  Was Jeff Fisher in the wrong for telling Kearse at the last minute he would not be playing in the big Sunday night game?  Both parties acted a bit irresponsibly, but Jeff Fisher did the most damage to his relationship with Kearse as well as the rest of this team.

Tennessee has gotten off to a terrible start as they are 0-5, and have completely undewhelmed after finishing the regular season with the best record in the league a year ago.  A lot of those failures have to be placed at the feet of Jeff Fisher.  I don’t know if he just assumed they would be good this because they were good last year, but you can’t approach every season the same.  You have to make proper adjustments and you have to continue to challenge your team.  Granted, the Titans have had their share of injuries but so has every other team in the league.  There shouldn’t be that much of a drop off.  The Titans really miss Albert Haynesworth, but you have to be prepared for that situation.  And then to have a communication breakdown of this magnitude with Kearse, in his second home of Tennessee in front of all of his family and friends…what else would you expect?  This team is going nowhere fast and if Fisher can’t find a way to bring some promise out of this squad then he should not be the head coach for this team next year.  Jeff Fisher is a good coach, but like Cowher, Shannahan and Gruden, he may need a clean break from the grind of the NFL season.

Continue reading "Fisher is falling out of favor..."