Blog Posts For Tag: Cowboys

The NFL training camps are underway, so everyone whose baseball team has sunk to the bottom of the division or everyone whose baseball team is obviously on its last leg has a chance to obsess about a new team and dream up scenarios where they might actually put together a Super Bowl season (hey, the Cardinals did it last season so why can’t a club like the Raiders, right?).

Well, not so fast there St. Louis Ram’s diehard and Mr. Kansas City Chief. I do not care what you read about Marc Bulger returning to form or if Tom Cassel still has the scent of the New England Patriots. Read on and see which teams have a shot and which teams should pay more attention to their fantasy football teams, beginning with the NFC in this edition.

Not too long ago the Dallas Cowboys were beginning another promising era that could have brought yet another Super Bowl win to their storied history. The Arizona Cardinals were looking like they were going to be collecting veterans looking for a rest stop before officially retiring (their M.O. for the past decade). Now, after the Cardinals managed to get into the Super Bowl and play half way decently, everything is turned around in the Southwest.

Bucking the general downward trend of the economy, football, as an industry is expanding. Yes, in the next couple of years it looks like fans will have four more leagues to watch. Who knew that professional football would become a beacon for financial hope?

The final slate of NFL games is just an hour away and I am looking at the final three divisions up for grabs. Of these three, two of the postseason chases seem be bathed in pathetic mediocrity. Really, how could the Denver Broncos blow the lead in the AFC West? How could the Vikings fail to close out the NFC North when they have Adrian Peterson on their team?

I think the theme for this past weekend in the NFL was momentum. Teams with playoffs on their minds had a lot to gain and to lose this weekend. Some teams cemented their place at the top and others went along playing their way out of the playoffs. In these final weeks I have continued to be surprised by which teams have ended up as the Super Bowl favorites.

This week kicked off with an impressive win by the Indianapolis Colts. They clinched a playoff spot with a 31-24 win over the Jacksonville Jaguars. Peyton Manning returned to Manning Classic and completed 29 of 34 attempts for 364 yards and threw three touchdowns. For all the fuss over Marvin Harrison being out it really had no effect on the game. Reggie Wayne, Dallas Clark and Dominic Rhodes did plenty of damage. Rhodes did not do much on the ground, but when Peyton is on it matters much less that the Colts have no running game.

This week the NFL front office must be happy. Week 15’s slate of games ended with winners that are going to keep fans watching as two divisions are still far from settled and the wild card competition grew even more desperate.

Week 15 has already officially started. It started with the Bears outlasting the Saints in overtime in the battle of whose defense could be less effective down the stretch. Really, the most valuable players in that game had to be the turf for making any break away plays on the outside of the field impossible and the coin toss that kicked off the overtime. Whoever won that flip was going to take the ball down the field. It just so happened that the winner was the Bears. That and a huge pass interference make up call put the Bears in field goal range and ended the game.

Four weeks remain until the end of the NFL season and while half of the divisions already have clear champions (the NFC East, NFC West, AFC South, and AFC West) the remaining divisions are beginning the dog fight for first place.

Tennessee Titans (11-1) 47 – Detroit Lions (0-12) 10

I have one question, why does the NFL keep giving Detroit a spotlight game every year. The Lions have not had a winning record since 2000. Stop being an enabler. I understand that nobody saw the Titans as the best team in the AFC by Week 13, but still to put this marquee time slot in Detroit only proves to me that the NFL is an enabler. The game…well, the Titans ran, predictably, for nearly 300 yards and obviously trampled a city already hurting from the breakdown of the Big Three bailout.

Sometimes I look at the NFL’s slate of games and think they are kind of the like the typical dysfunctional family gathering. This season, the day looks no different.

I was sitting at home watching the first slate of games and monitoring my fantasy scores when I was simply struck by the scores running along the bottom of the screen. They were falling somewhere between Arena Football and the typical NFL week. Eight teams reached the 30s, two teams scored in the 40s, and one team reached the 50s. Call it a result of a pass happy league, call it inflated scores because of several defenses that went MIA, call it the NFL front office’s wet dream, or simply call it a scoring bonanza.

New York Jet (7-3) 34 – New England (6-4) 31

It was a battle of upstarts with two surprising starters in a game for the AFC East lead. Matt Cassel thought he would be sitting behind a legend in the making, but instead through for 400 yards in a losing effort for the resilient Patriots. Brett Favre was supposed to be a retired legend, but instead came back and found a home in New York. He threw fro 258 yards and two touchdowns and helped lead the Jets to victory, while Jay Feely’s 34 yard field goal won the game in overtime.

The Rascal Flatts may have just finished touring this year, but they have not finished promoting their fifth album, Still Feels Good, which they released in September 2007. They have announced 20 more shows in 2009, with the grand expecting to come to 25 shows.

What strikes me is that the tour is extending into its third calendar year. Why would they begin a third calendar year on tour? What this means to me is that Joe Don Rooney, Gary LeVox, and Jay DeMarcus must really must have pissed off their wives. Two of these women are former beauty queens, and one of those was the Playmate of the Year in 2005.
 

These women must be very, very angry or very, very expensive to keep. I am not sure, but I think it is the former.

Of course, the Rascal Flatts are compensating by having

Jessica Simpson

as their opening act. Not many people would mind watching from the sidelines as she strut her stuff for her stage show. I think Dallas football fans cannot wait for this tour to start.

They bought Cowboys tickets thinking they were going to be in the Super Bowl not wavering on the edge of missing the playoffs in a loaded NFC East division. Fans are convinced that Simpson alone is the reason for Tony Romo’s departure from the “Future NFL Legend Club”.

The sooner she “concentrates” on music the sooner they believe he will realize that Terrell Owens has beat his corner and the safety is trying to make up 20 yards to stop him from getting an easy path to the end zone.

I’m surprised that fans did not just arrange her tour for her, in Malaysia, and buy up all the tickets, so she thought she would have a sold out performance somewhere. She, of course cannot carry a major tour by herself, unless they had really cheap concert tickets.

The “crossover artist” label is a nice way of saying she could not sex it up enough to be a pop star. So now she has “returned to her roots” as a simple country girl. My other theory is that she realized that being a pop star meant she would have to be knocked up by a short emo kid like Ashlee Simpson did.

Indianapolis Colts 31 – Baltimore Ravens 3

Peyton Manning and Marvin Harrison woke up from a four game slump to light up a very good Ravens defense. The Colts defense woke up as well, stopping the run and pressuring rookie Joe Flacco into throwing three picks.

Minnesota Vikings 12 – Detroit Lions 10

A game that was supposed to feature an offensive by the Vikings was more about Minnesota’s defense than the Adrian Peterson and the offense. The ineptitude of the Vikes led to a raucous crowd to begin chanting “Fire Childress.”

New Orleans Saints 34 – Oakland Raiders 3

Drew Brees continues to burn teams despite having a less than stellar (and healthy) receiving core to throw to. The Raiders were easy prey as they tried to soldier through another disappointing season.

New York Jets 26 – Cincinnati 14

The Jets looked like they were playing with a hang over, but they still controlled the game leaving the Bengals winless after six painful weeks. Thomas Jones had a career day, scoring three times in a game for the first time.

Atlanta Falcons 22 – Chicago Bears 20

After three slow quarters the game came alive in the fourth quarter with each team making impressive drives toward the end, but the Falcons had the ball last and let Jason Elam make up for an earlier miss in the fourth with a 48 yarder.

Tampa Bay Bucs 27 – Carolina Panthers 3

Jeff Garcia made a strong statement to win the starting job back with a sold 15 of 20, 173 yards, 1 touchdown performance. The win ties them for the division lead with the Panthers.

St. Louis Rams 19 – Washington Redskins 17

The Redskins lose after four impressive consecutive wins that announced their arrival as a contender. The Rams give interim Head Coach Jim Haslett a victory in his first game that also ended St. Louis’s eight-game losing streak.

Houston Texans 29 – Miami Dolphins 28

The Texans and Dolphins tripped over themselves in an entertaining game that saw plenty of picks and fumbles. The game looked more like a neighborhood football game than an NFL affair.

Jacksonville Jaguars 24 – Denver Broncos 17

The Jaguars won a game with another strong running game, this time by Maurice Jones-Drew. The Broncos vaunted passing game only produced 192 yards and as Jay Cutler only completed 21 of 37 passes.

Philadelphia Eagles 40 – San Francisco 49ers 26

The shootout of the weekend took place in San Fran this week as neither team played very good defense. The 49ers actually won the battle of the clock, but with three turnovers to the Eagles one, the game was out of their control.

Green Bay Packers 27 – Seattle Seahawks 17

The Hasselbeck-less Seahawks sputtered on offense, only gaining 177 yards. Aaron Rodgers looked in control as the running game again was a disappointment. The Packers remain the in the middle of a muddled NFC North that could see anybody but the Lions advance.

Arizona Cardinals 30 – Dallas Cowboys 24 (OT)

The Arizona Cardinals are apparently for real. After years of being the Washington Generals to the Cowboys’ Harlem Globetrotters, the Cardinals won in overtime off a blocked punt return.

San Diego Chargers 30 – New England Patriots 10

The Chargers reasserted themselves after a shocking loss to the Miami Dolphins in Week 5. Philip Rivers averages 11.3 yards a throw on route to his three touchdown night. The Patriots struggled against the first real opponents since Week 2.

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