The dreaded time out

How does the great Rob Ryan defense let up two touchdowns with a little over five-minutes to play? I’ll tell you how, by continuing to blitz with an injured secondary leaving little or no help over the top. It also did not help that DeMarcus Ware was offsides on what would have been a 2^nd and 22 instead of a 1^st and 5 that ended up being the game winning drive.

Both quarterbacks left it all on the field and neither deserved to lose, but Romo lost again even though he orchestrated another drive with no time outs and less than a minute to play to have the Cowboys tie the game up and send it into overtime. It looked like they had; much like last week when it looked like they won. Instead Tom Coughlin called a timeout as the game tying field goal sailed through the uprights. Like a bad dream the Giants blocked the second attempt and went on to win 37-34 and put the Cowboys on the playoff bubble, however the Cowboys play the Giants again on New Years Day, Tampa Bay this week and Philly at home on Christmas Eve. Things look good for them.

It’s yet another frustrating loss for the Cowboys who have lost all their games under Jason Garrett by an average of 3.3 points not including the Philly game from this season where the Cowboys lost by 27. I did not include that because that one loss this season was the total amount of points the Cowboys lost their eight other games under Garrett. That Philly loss was an anomaly for the ‘Boys under Garret, who has his team playing they way they need to win games. Romo has never looked better and has kept them in every game this season. If the last two weeks field goals had counted you could argue the Cowboys would be 9-4, instead of 7-6. Oh well, can’t go back and stop Garrett from taking an unnecessary time out or have the offensive line actually block Jason Pierre-Paul, a true defensive game changer for the Giants.

This game was everything you expected it to be, except for the Cowboys blowing a 12-point lead with only five minutes and some change to go.

Romo had the game won if he had just lofted a pass a little higher to Miles Austin that looked to be a touchdown as he was behind the defense, and probably would have sealed the Cowboys victory.

Winning three in a row is very doable with this team, especially since their offense is as healthy as it has been since the start of the season. The key is going to be the play of the defense.

Garrett needs to sit Ryan down and tell him to ease up on the blitzing because Eli Manning figured it out quickly because he’s a smart QB. He dropped further back and was able to buy time for his receivers to break open in the injured Cowboys secondary. If you go back and watch the game the Cowboys could have had eight sacks easily if Manning had stayed in a normal pocket, but he adjusted.

I imagine for a less seasoned quarterback such as Tampa Bay’s Josh Freeman will have trouble against the complex packages that Ryan will throw at him this coming Saturday and will lead to some turnovers.

The game that will be the most interesting will be the Philly game, since his defense looked ridiculously bad earlier this season in a 27-point loss. I imagine he will force Vick to make more decisions with coverage packages versus blitz packages that left the Cowboys venerable over the middle of the field the entire game. The last time the Eagles pasted the Cowboys the Cowboys came back and destroyed them two games in consecutive weeks at the end of the regular season and round one of the playoffs.

The Cowboys still control their own destiny and the Giants still have to deal with the Cowboys again at the end of the season as well as the Redskins and Jets. The Cowboys might be back in first next week as the Redskins beat the Giants once this season already.

One thing for sure, it’s good to see Romo living up to the billing, let’s go Cowboys.

I’ve seen this before…

It was déjà vu weekend for me in the world of football, and at this it didn’t even phase me because I’m sadly used to it. Let’s start with the Notre Dame/Michigan game.

I’ve been going to one Notre Dame game a year with my Dad for the last 32 years, so I’ve seen the National Championship team play, as well as the team that should have won the National Championship but got screwed in 1992. I was even at the Boston College game in 1992 when Notre Dame lost on a 49-yard field goal as time expired to a kicker who couldn’t kick a field goal for more than 35-yards in warm-ups. The National Championship went to Florida State, even though Florida State had lost to Notre Dame that season. Still makes no sense to me, but can’t got back in time. Needless to say, I have a lot invested in the Irish, so when they lost to Michigan again all I could do was shake my head in disgust and turn my thoughts elsewhere. I wasn’t even mad about because I kind of expected it.

When ND kept turning the ball over I felt even though the score read 24-7 that Michigan would stage a comeback. If can’t limit your mistakes you can’t win games. I was at the ND/Michigan in 2010 when the same thing happened. ND came back and took a late lead only to let Michigan score with very little time left on the clock. It was a great game, but totally deflating. When it happened again this year I wasn’t surprised or disappointed, I looked at the TV and muttered, “what new?”

The only new thing at Notre Dame since Brian Kelly took over is more gut-wrenching losses because the Irish have a good, competitive team, so they always lose by small margins. Falling to 0-2 has dashed BCS hopes, but they can still salvage the season starting with a win over Michigan State this weekend. I hope they rip off their heads and shit down the Spartans’ necks. I’m tired of losing close games let’s win some!

So we roll into the first Sunday of the NFL season, and I’m excited about the Cowboys chances this season. They got off to a great start against the New York Jets, but again turnovers cost them the game. I’m not sure which one was more crucial, Tony Romo’s fumble at the goal line or his interception that put the Jets in field goal range to win it. I’m going to go with the fumble, because if Romo holds onto the ball the Cowboys get at least a field goal, and may not have lost the game. Despite losing 27-24 the defense played well, keeping the Jets running game in check while mixing up looks to confuse Mark Sanchez.

The Cowboys excite me more than Notre Dame at the moment because they had an energy and swagger they had not exhibited in the last few seasons under Wade Philips. Part of it was the offense feeding off the dynamic play of the defense run by Rob Ryan. They held the Jets, a running team, to 45 yards rushing and 315 yards passing. The stifling run defense forced the Jets to pass more. Even the mighty Bears defense allowed 110 rushing yards on Sunday, but they won their game.

Tony Romo cruised along playing flawlessly until the 4^th quarter, but seeing Romo run an offense that called all the right plays against the last years best defense in the NFL was fun to watch. Romo, forced nothing until the pass in the 4^th quarter, which was totally unnecessary. He seems to have returned to form, which is a good sign for the Cowboys because they have a defense that is a game changer.

The fact that the Cowboys’ defense at one point had back-ups entirely playing in the secondary, and still kept a good Jets’ receiving corp. in check speaks volumes about Ryan’s defense.

I’ll stick with my prediction that the Cowboys will win the division and go 11-5, and let’s just say I’m happy I never finished up my college predictions because it would not be good right now.

In regards to the rest of the NFL, I’m 9 out of 14 against the spread this week in one confidence pool, but only 8 out of 14 straight up (Cowboys cost me.) I went with the Pats and Raiders this evening. Not a bad first week, especially if both teams win tonight.