Amari Harris's Dallas Cowboys fan blog

To this point of the season the Cowboys have taken care of business, for the most part.  The Cowboys could very easily be 9-1 had they just maintained their composure against the likes of the New York Giants and Denver Broncos.  But instead of dwelling on what could have been, the ‘Boys did a good job of moving on as they went on to win 6 of their next 7 games and claim 1st place in the NFC east.  Unfortunately, none of that matters now.  The Cowboys are 8-3 with the Philadelphia Eagles in a close trail at 7-4, and the Giants still kicking at 6-5.  And being that the final five games of this season are in the dreaded month of December, the phrase “anything can happen” is an understatement. 

In the last 3 seasons the Cowboys have gone 5-8 in the month of December.  Their December woes are well documented so I don’t have to go too far into detail to paint the picture.  They have been battered and bruised in this month and they always seem to lose the big game.   Tony Romo has taken a large share of the blame for these losses as he has QB rating of 71.9 in the month of December while posting a 93.0 QB rating during the other months of the season.  So any Cowboys fan knows that December is looming and this will be the biggest test yet for this team.

Continue reading "Going Forward: Can the Dallas Cowboys conquer their December Woes/Foes?"

Observations from Sunday:

- Jason Garrett tried to prove a point and the Cowboys almost lost the game because of it. 

Garrett came under fire for only running the ball 11 times all of last week, so he decided to double that total in the first half on Sunday.  That approach was somewhat understandable as the Cowboys got a pretty good push against a Haynesworth-less front four, but they should have mixed it up much more.  The Cowboys play best when they are spreading the ball around to all of their playmakers.  The wide-receivers didn’t even catch a ball until the 4th quarter, and Roy Williams didn’t register a single stat.  Which brings me to my next point?

- Roy Williams has a cancerous lackadaisical attitude and the sooner the Cowboys get rid of him the better off they will be.

Continue reading "We gots to do better!"

Any true Cowboys fan had to see this Sunday’s disappointing loss coming from a mile away.  It was like double reverse psychology.  Everyone starts talking about how the game is a trap game at the beginning of the week, yet most everyone picked the Cowboys to win.  So naturally the Cowboys fell to the Packers and Tony Romo’s streak of November greatness came to a crashing halt. 

Roy Williams had his best game of the season and his worst game of the season at the same time.  He went over 100 yards for the first time as a Cowboy and scored a somewhat meaningful touchdown seeing as how the Cowboys had not been shut out since the Quincy Carter era exactly 6 years ago.  But a solid finger can be pointed at Roy when it comes to this loss.  He not only fumbled the ball, which led to Green Bay touchdown, but he dropped a critical third down pass.  Still, he is not the only one culpable in this defeat.

Continue reading "Letdown at Lambeau"

Roy E. Williams is sad.  He’s upset.  He’s frustrated.  Despite playing for a legitimate playoff team (which he hasn’t done…well, ever) he is upset about the chemistry between himself and quarterback Tony Romo. 

"It's just not even close," Williams said of his on-field rapport with the quarterback. "It's not even funny. Not even close."

Roy then goes on to insinuate that when Tony Romo throws the ball to the other receivers on the team the passes are on target, but when they are thrown his way they are not where they should be.  That’s just a shade away from claiming that Romo is drawing up plays in the sand with all of his other receivers and freezing him out.  Then he had this to say about Miles Austin’s recent success:

Continue reading "The Roy Williams Rant: Are you serious?"

This Sunday the Cowboys will return to Philadelphia in an attempt to try and avenge last season’s beating (hence the word crime) against the Philadelphia Eagles.  There is a lot of hype leading up to this game and it is well deserved.  The winner of this game will gain sole possession of the NFC East.  Both teams are playing extremely well at this juncture of the season.  And, via the embarrassing loss to Philly at the end of last year, the Eagles are currently the Cowboys biggest rival.  In fact, since 2003 there is only one team in the NFC that has more wins than the Cowboys and it is most conveniently those hated Eagles. 

So what should we expect in this game?  Well, contrary to many of the “experts” I do not expect this to be a shootout.  I think that both defenses will come to play and both offenses will kind of feel around for a bit.  The two teams will slug it out initially but there will definitely be big plays to be had.  The question is which team will make those big plays when they count?  I think this will be a hard fought, hard-hitting game where both teams end up scoring in the mid to low 20s.  I am too superstitious to actually pick a winner, but here are the keys to victory for the Cowboys.

Continue reading "Mid-Season NFC Championship Game?"

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..."

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"

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 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"

Tuesday evening hangover…

Here are some of my astute observations from the Cowboys’ Monday night victory against the Panthers:

     1. The Cowboys played a very gritty game.

They actually “out-toughed” the Panthers, which hasn’t happened since week 3 of last season against Green Bay.  Despite giving up a few plays in the passing game, the defense shut down a vaunted Carolina rushing attack and managed to keep DeAngelo Williams out of the endzone.  The offense managed to pound the rock at Carolina’s undersized front seven and take advantage of their depth at the running back position (Felix Jones and Tashard choice managed over 80 yards rushing a piece).  More importantly, Tony Romo showed toughness and focus, and did not make the critical mistake that could have swung this game in Carolina’s favor.

Continue reading "Tuesday Evening Hangover: Dallas Cowboys reveiw and other NFL news"