Championship predictions

So after being wrong on all four of my predictions last week I was considering not making predictions this week, but I figure I'm due to be right by now. To review last week, I failed to recognize that Joe Flacco is a pretty mediocre playoff qb, at least against good defenses, and underestimated Pittsburgh's defense. I went against my gut feeling and picked the Patriots, which was the logical choice on paper. I assumed Atlanta's defense wasn't going to suck balls and that the Falcons would be able to keep it close and pull out the win. And I overthought the Chicago- Seattle game, underestimating a clearly superior Chicago team. So knowing what I know now lets see if I can get it right this week:

Green Bay (12-6) at Chicago (12-5):
The rubber matchup between the NFL's oldest rivals looks to favor the Green Bay Packers. You have Aaron Rodgers playing out of his mind, a terrific defense that has been forcing turnovers going up against Jay Cutler who played a pretty good game against Seattle, but who is inconsistent and led the Bears to 3 points the last time he faced the Pack. And while even now I don't have total faith in Cutler I do have faith that the combination of the miserable footing of Soldier field and da Bearsch defense will slow the Packers offense. To me the Packers rely on Aaron Rodgers to win and in the playoffs the quarterback can not carry you by himself to a Super Bowl championship. If you look at the best playoff performances by qbs, Joe Montana in '89, Troy Aikman in '92, and Steve Young in '94, all three had amazing teams, and solid running games. If you look at teams that rely on the qb, Peyton Manning, Dan Marino, Tom Brady, Kurt Warner, they all won super bowls only when their defense stepped up and make up for their poor play, and when they had to win by themselves, they lost. I think the Bears will shut down the run game and Aaron Rodgers will be decent, but not great. And while the Packer's defense has been great, I think it has been in large part because Rodgers has given them big leads, allowing them to play aggressively. And I think that Jay Cutler is beginning to become a better game manager, cutting down on turnovers like Romo did last year and he will take care of the ball and put up points. I think this is gonna be a low scoring, field position game, which is always to the benefit of Chicago with Devin Hester, and Chicago will win it.

Prediction: Chicago wins 23-17

New York Jets (13-5) at Pittsburgh (13-4):
Another rematch game here, one that the Jets won 22-17 a few weeks back. I really want to pick the Jets here, because they beat two great teams back to back and because I hate the Steelers, but I think this is gonna be different. Tying into what I was saying before about quarterbacks failing to win by themselves, the Patriots and Colts are two teams that fall into that category. The Patriots seemed to have a good defense, but really it seemed to be kind of a average defense that Belicheck was able to disguise and dress up during the regular season, that got exposed last week. So of course it came down to Brady, who really didn't have a run game to speak of (also dressed up by Belicheck) and the Jets planned well, and beat him. But the Steelers have a super bowl defense, without a doubt. And because of this fact Ben Rothlisberger is not going to have to press or force things to win. He will hand the ball off, and do what he does, make plays with his feet and with his arm. Its one thing to game plan against teams with passing games that rely on precision and route running, its another to game plan against a guy who stands in the pocket, shrugs off free blitzing linemen, and dances around until someone gets open. On the other side of the ball, the Jets have had success when they run the ball, and they won't be able to against the Steelers. So it will come down to Mark Sanchez. And while Sanchez has had success in the playoffs, he has never faced a defense like the Steelers and has never had to win a playoff game by himself. And if Joe Flacco can't beat the Steelers, no way Mark Sanchez does.

Prediction: Steelers win 20-6

Divisional round picks

So last week I went 2-2 with my predictions, coming pretty close in the score of the Baltimore game and not that close in the Green Bay game. I didn't know Matt Hasselback was going to start for Seattle so that may have changed my prediction a little in terms of the score, though I probably still would've pick New Orleans. And I underestimated the Jets running game against the Colts. Also looking back I realized my predictions were kind of lame and predictable, which saddened me. So this week I think I will go a little more for broke....

Seattle (8-9) at Chicago (11-5)

So once again Seattle is playing a team with a much better record and is expected to lose by double digits. Last week they were able to shock the defending super bowl champs, but it was in Seattle where the Seahawks have a huge advantage (its amazing how many false starts the crowd causes). Chicago has one of the best defenses in the NFL and finally has a pretty good looking offense and maybe their best quarterback since Sid Luckman. And by now you probably know Seattle's story. But I'm gonna go with Seattle even on the road and I will give you several reasons. The first is a simple mathematical equation: Matt Hasselback> Jay Cutler. I probably wouldn't have picked Seattle last week even if I knew Hasselback was playing, but I would've called it closer, because he is a good quarterback, one of the more underrated qbs of this era. And while he had a pretty bad regular season he looked about as good as I've seen any qb last week, and he has had success in the playoffs before. Jay Cutler on the other hand seems to be one of those quarterbacks that I will never believe in, no matter how good he seems at points, like Eli Manning. The guy I always compare him to is Jeff George, very talented, great arm, puts up good numbers, thinks he's the shit, but will never be as good as he or his fans think he will be. Also he's never played in a playoff game. But a big reason I like Seattle is because of their season trajectory. Now Seattle started off the season well (4-2) and then basically collapsed for the rest of the season (2-7). Now you might notice I didn't count the last game as part of the season, and thats because their game against the Rams was a playoff game for all intents and purposes: winner goes on, loser's out. But Seattle had the experience of being a bad team, THIS SEASON. They lost their last 3 games (before St Louis) by more than 2 touchdowns each, almost eliminating themselves from the playoffs. And you know a team of veterans like Hasselback, Walter Jones, Raheem Brock, and Lawer Milloy hate going through losing seasons. In fact I would argue they hate losing more than they love winning. Plus these are all guys who have been to the top and want to get back, so they suffer through basically a shitty season like they did and the last game of the season they have a chance to make the playoffs and turn a mediocre season into a success, and they have jumped at the chance. Its like the opposite of the 2007 Pats, who beat the shit out of everyone through like 10 games and then down the stretch were squeaking out every win against mediocre teams. By the time the playoffs came they were just begging for someone to beat them. I think Seattle will come out hungrier and pull off the win. Oh and they beat da bearsch during the regular season IN CHICAGO. Go figure.

Prediction: Seattle 20-13

Baltimore (12-4) at Pittsburgh (12-4)

Even though I don't know what will happen in the rest of the playoffs and which teams will end up playing, I will make the claim that this will be the best game of football in the 2011 NFL playoffs. These teams are so similar, so well matched its awesome. I think I would actually be disappointed if it didn't come down to the wire. You have two 12-4 teams with strong running games, young talented quarterbacks with playoff experience, and two of the best defenses in the NFL. Two teams that split the season series with each game being decided by a field goal. Now on paper the important matchup of quarterbacks seems to favor Pittsburgh. Rothlisberger has had a lot of success in the playoffs, and Flacco hasn't really done anything. Or at least he hadn't until last week. And that's the thing, I think the reason Baltimore can win this time is because Flacco has evolved as a passer, and also he has a plethora of receiving options, 3 solid receivers, a great receiving tight end in Todd Heap (who did not play in Pittsburgh's win over Baltimore), and one of the best receiving backs in the league in Ray Rice. Rothlisberger has a good set of receivers as well, and Mike Wallace's speed could be a deciding factor in the game. However if he's not a deep threat, he's kind of useless, and having a useless #2 receiving is not a good thing. In general I think both teams will be able to stop the run game so it will come down to which passing attack does better. And Baltimore is at the top of their game after cruising by KC, while Pittsburgh has been off for a week. I think Baltimore will get off to a lead early and hold of the Steelers.

Predictions: Baltimore 24-19

Green Bay (11-6) at Atlanta (13-3)
This is one is tough for me to call. Two teams that played each other early in the year, in Atlanta, in a game that Atlanta won by a field goal. But this is a different Packers team coming in. Fresh off a wild card victory in Philadelphia, the Packers have won 3 straight over 3 of the best teams in the NFC. If they beat Atlanta they'll probably have knocked off the 3 best teams in back to back to back weeks. The match-up between Matt Ryan and Aaron Rodgers is one I am looking forward to: two young quarterbacks that seem to be ready to take the next step to moving into the Brady, Brees, Manning talk. Part of me wants to pick the Packers: they are hot right now, Rodgers is on a roll, they have a good running back for the first time this season and their defense was good at containing Vick last week. But I will have to pick Atlanta for the simple reason that I like Matty Ice in the clutch more than Aaron Rodgers. Its not that Aaron Rodgers seems to have a problem in the clutch, but it just seems like he hasn't pulled out any particularly awesome victories in the 4th quarter while Matt Ryan did nothing but pull off awesome victories this season, including against the Packers. I foresee a similar result to the game these two teams played earlier this season.

Prediction: Atlanta: 30-28

New York (12-5) at New England (14-2)

This is the match-up with probably the most media induced intrigue and hype, despite the fact that I don't think it will be a good a football game as Pittsburgh and Baltimore. You've got the classic matchup of the good guys: The Bill Belicheck led drama-less Patriots, where every single player speaks Beli-talk, saying the most politically correct, cliche-ridden things every time up against the bad boy, Rex Ryan run Jets who outwardly hate the Patriots, and use every opportunity given by the media to emphasize that point. Unlike most people in New England I actually think there is a method behind Rex Ryan's madness and that he has his players under more control than one might think. I think all these attacks through the media are attempts to tear down the mystic of the Patriots. Saying its between himself and Belicheck takes some pressure off of Ryan's players. Antonio Cromartie calling Tom Brady an asshole is just a way of and bringing down an All-everything, superhero quarterback to just some fucking asshole who you want to beat. Of course there's no doubt the Patriots will use this a bulletin board material and will come out ready to whup the Jets worse than their last game, but the Jets will be ready, and they will not fear the mighty Patriots. The reason I thought Indianapolis would win last week was I didn't think the Jets could run the ball well enough to take pressure off Mark Sanchez. Well I was wrong, and while they might not have quite as much success this week, they will have some. But as much as I'd like to pick the Jets in this one I'm gonna have to go with the Patriots. While Antonio Cromartie is an All-pro shit talker, he's not that great a corner, and I can see Deion Branch having a field day on him. I think the Jets will do alright on offense but they'll have to shut Tom Brady down to win this one. They will probably do more of a blitzy defense than last week, and if they blitz and have Cromartie jam his man, I think they have a chance because Cromartie is good only in bump and run and everyone knows Wes Welker isn't gonna do shit on Revis island (1 reception 1 yard from Reggie Wayne, come now). In that case it would come down to the two tight ends, who are talented and mismatches but are not meant to be go to guys. But I really don't see they Jets shutting down the Pats passing attack, Brady's just too good at spreading it around and unlike the Colts the Pats have a solid running game. If the Jets win I'm gonna hate myself but I'll say:

Prediction: Patriots 28-20

Wild card weekend: predictions

So it is now playoff time, so it is time for some predictions for the first round. My prediction of the cowboys making the playoffs was a tad off, I was right that we'd play better, that the redskins would fail and the giants collapsing (though not the way I guessed) and off on the Eagles. And to be honest most of my predictions for NFL games tend to be off, whether during the playoffs, season or super bowl. But I'm still going to give my two cents just because I want to. So heres what I think about the early matchups:

New Orleans (11-5) at Seattle (7-9):
On paper this looks like an obvious one. You have the defending super bowl champion playing against the worst playoff team in NFL history (record wise but quite possibly talent wise too). This is one where I would love to pick an upset, the Saints lost their last game, they could be looking ahead to the Divisional round, and could take Seattle lightly, whereas Seattle probably realizes they are incredibly lucky just to be in the playoffs and is going to be playing loose and with nothing to lose. However I can't pick against Drew Brees against a team like Seattle. But I will say this, if Seattle manages to keep it close early on, their home field advantage could play a role. You could tell last week they fed off their fans, and if New Orleans doesn't put them away early they could be in for a dogfight. But all 9 of Seattle's losses have been by more than 15 points, including one to New Orleans. And I see this one going somewhat in the same direction, with the Saints jumping out to an early lead and the Seattle offense not being able to bring them back.

Prediction: Saints win 31-14


New York Jets (11-5) at Indianapolis (10-6):
The rematch of last year's AFC Championship game has a much different feel than last year's game. Last year the Jets came in win one of the most dominant defenses in the league and Peyton Manning came in after a typically awesome Peyton Manning year and leading a 14-2 Indianapolis squad. While record-wise the Jets are better this year and they do seem to have improved offensively, they are an inconsistent team and their are much more holes in their defense. On one hand they've had impressive victories early on against the Patriots (despite losing Darelle Revis) and a few weeks ago against the Steelers. But then there was the infamous shellacking to the Patriots the second time around and a loss to Chicago two weeks ago where the defense gave up 38 points. The Colts come in winners of 4 straight and as division champion, and Peyton with statistically another stellar season, but there are also more flaws in the 2010 addition of the Indy Colts. There last 4 games have all been close to teams like tennessee and oakland despite the fact that they have all been must wins. And while Peyton's main stats look solid, under the surface he has had a difficult year. While last year the colts had little running game, this year they had even less of it, with Peyton having to throw the ball 679 times, 13 short of the record, and over 42 times a game. Just by that you can see how it would be hard to win games, even with Peyton Manning, when the defense knows you will throw the ball that often. Early in the season Manning lost his leading receiver from last year (Dallas Clark) and he lost his number 3 receiver, Austin Collie for 7 games. Also, Manning's average yard per attempt was the lowest since his rookie year, and his average yard per completion was his lowest ever. While this many seem irrelevant, these number suggest that the Colts have had a harder time getting yardage when they throw the ball, which can be frustrating especially to a player as good as Manning who is used to picking yards in bunches when he puts the ball in the air. Because of the inconsistencies of both teams, it is hard to pick this one. The Colts are vulnerable on defense and Peyton Manning seems suddenly beatable. Plus there's the fact that all super bowl losers decline severely the next year (at least in the last 12 years or so). But the Jets just don't do it for me. Mark Sanchez still is an average quarterback at best, and their running game is pretty bad. Besides Joe McKnight's incredible performance in mop-up duty last week, they haven't had a 100 yard back since week 5. Plus Peyton really does seem to consistently dominate some teams or coordinators and suck against others, and Rex Ryan is one that he does well against. So as much as I don't want to, I will go with the Colts:

Prediction: Colts win 21-10

Baltimore Ravens (12-4) at Kansas City (10-6)
Here's a game that pits the new guys on the block Chiefs against the playoff regular Ravens. The Chief easily the most surprising team to make the playoffs in the AFC, winning the division with the NFL's top running attack, solid play from quarterback Matt Cassel and great production from receiver Dwayne Bowe. The Ravens come in with a more balanced team than last year, with 3rd year QB Joe Flacco starting to come into his own with a improved receiving core, a solid run game with ray rice and as usual a dominating defense. In this one I think its important to look at both teams schedules. Baltimore lost 4 games, 3 of which were to New England, Pittsburgh, and Atlanta (arguable the 3 best teams in the NFL) by a combination of 11 points. They also beat playoff teams New Orleans, New York, and Pittsburgh. Kansas City on the other hand, played only two playoff teams, losing to Indianapolis and defeating Seattle and finishing the season by getting crushed by Oakland 31-10 in a game that would've given them the 3 seed. I think the only way to beat the Ravens is to throw the ball on them, which I don't think the Chiefs will be able to do, because while Matt Cassel has had an impressive season, that has been against weaker opponents who haven't been able to stop the Chiefs running game. Baltimore will be able to hold the Chiefs running game and check and make Cassel beat them. And while the Chiefs defense is probably underrated, they will not be able to win a defensive struggle with the battle tested Ravens. But as with Seattle, it is important to take home field advantage into account, and once again, if the Chiefs can get out to a good start they will have a chance. But I just can't see Cassel picking apart the Ravens.

Prediction: Ravens win 24-7

Green Bay Packers (10-6) at Philadelphia Eagles (10-6)
This is probably the game I will be most interested in on wildcard weekend. It features two teams heading into the playoffs seemingly going in opposite directions, the Eagles losing two straight games to underachieving teams (the vikings and the COWBOYS YEE YEE), while the Packers come in having won two straight against quality opponents (the Giants and the Bears). And despite a slew of major injuries the Packers come into the playoffs as one of the hottest teams while the Eagles come in with a lot of question marks. The number one question mark has been the offensive line, which left Michael Vick and Kevin Kolb
to be pummeled the last two weeks. When these teams met in week one the Packers knocked out Kevin Kolb (which turned out pretty well for philly) and sacked Kolb and Vick 6 times. I see no reason why they shouldn't be able to get pressure on Vick this game. And while Vick may still be able to manufacture offense, I don't think he'll be able to keep up with the Packer's powerful offense which should have little problem scoring points against a Eagles defense that gives up 23 points a game.

Prediction: Packers win 35-24

The Cowboys actually won. Time to overreact.....

So the Jason Garrett era has begun and I would say its begun pretty well. We went from two of the saddest back to back performances in recent history, along with putting together the worst 3 game defensive stretch since 1960 aka our entrance into the league when we went 0-11-1 and were made up of literally the worst players in the league that no one wanted, to knocking off the streaking Giants in their own building. Before I explain how we are going to win the division, lets look at this win realistically. While our offense looked better than it has in a while, honestly the giants don't have much of a pass defense, and we obviously won't be able to pass on everyone like that. But one thing that was overlooked was the play of our offensive line. Kitna had all day to throw throughout the game and because of it he was able to exploit the average Giants secondary. If we can keep blocking like that we will continue to have success offensively. And of course it needs to be mentioned that Dezzy Dizzle is an incredibly disciplined, hard-working, and technically sound player. Oh wait that would be if he was white. Throw in whatever animalistic word you want to describe him, he's incredible. He was the only guy who seemed to care when we were slumping so its fitting that he would have his best game when we are finally getting back on track. Besides his ability to consistently make circus catches and locate the ball, his punt return ability scares punters so much that we are going to be getting +10 yards on every punt because they'd rather kick it short and out of bounds than deep where he can run it back. I think my favorite play of the whole game was on Miles Austin's touchdown where Dezzy was lined up left and had his guy beat on a fade, pulling the safety to his side where Miles could run a post right where he would normally be and make the play. He is just a nightmare to defenses. However on the other hand we had the defense, which, despite playing much more inspired football, actually making a few solid hits, was not great. And the reason for this are the same problems that have plagued us all year: shitty safety play, and little to no pass rush. The good thing is we are actually playing tough against the run again, Bradie James' stop of 4th down was epic, and our corners actually played very well despite the stats. But the reason Eli put up 370 some yards on us was, A. Because he had all day to throw and B. Because our safety's (but mostly Alan Ball) are useless. I was hoping our new defensive coordinator Paul Pasqualoni would add a little pass rush creativity or provide a spark in our d-line seeing as he was the defensive line coordinator, but no same predictable rush. If you watch teams like pittsburgh's defense you see linebackers constantly moving before the snap, while if you watch us, I don't think we ever do. If Garrett is still coaching after this year I really hope he brings in a better coordinator. I really can't say anything bad about our corners, they played tight coverage all day, even Orlando Scandrick made a nice breakup in the end zone and made a great flying tackle in the backfield. And Brian McCann, besides his amazing pick six, was making solid tackles and playing tight coverage too. However, I cannot say the same about Alan Ball. While his interception at the end was nice, he's still got to go. He has absolutely no range at all, and he is the feeblest hitter I've ever seen as a safety. There was one play where someone caught a pass on a post, on which Ball should've been helping, then got held up by the corner lining Ball up perfectly for an epic hit. Instead Ball throws a uninspired shoulder at the guy, which doesn't even knock him down. Then there was the touchdown to Nicks that got called back where Ball's terrible range once again left the corner on an island, and then he got stiff-armed to the ground allowing Nicks to walk into the end zone. On the season Alan ball has 1 pass broken up and before last night no picks. You know who else has 1 pass broken up? Jay Ratliff. I feel like its a problem when our starting safety is as effective as our nose tackle at breaking up passes.

But anyways, in this rare moment of glory, lets explore the possibility of making the playoffs. Obviously we would have to win out, which will be hard but not impossible, the toughest test will probably be the Colts in Indy but they are not nearly as explosive as they once were and if we have a little win streak going it would be entirely possible. But lets say we do win out, do we have a chance at the division title? I think we do. Right now the Giants are 6-3 and we own the tiebreaker, the deadskins are 4-4 and have the tiebreaker, and the shegles are 5-3 and we haven't played. Lets say the skins beat the eagles today making them both 5-4 (its possible they're coming off a bye). We beat the skins by more than 6 points giving us the tiebreaker and giving them 5 losses. They still have to play New York twice, at Tennesee, at jacksonville, vs Tampa and vs minnesota. Lets say they split NY and they'll probably beat Tennesee, although theres not guarentee of that. I think Jacksonville will be streaking and beat them at home and I think Tampa or Minnesota could also beat them. So that gives them 7 or 8 losses and us the tiebreaker. Now we are saying the eagles have lost to the skins and since we won out, beating them twice, they now have 6 losses and with us taking the tiebreaker. They still play the Giants twice, the vikings, the texans and at chicago. Pretending they lose tonight, they play NY at home next week in a must win game and beat the giants. They then go to Chicago and lets say they pull out a win there too. They have the Texans at home on 4 days rest, but they're looking ahead to us the week after because we just beat the New Orleans Saints, they put up a dud vs Houston and lose. Then they lose to us manage to beat the Giants and Vikings before losing to us again in the season finale and losing the division title to us, again. But what about the Giants you say? Lets just take a look at their season last year. They get out to a great start, beat us, Eli's the best quarterback ever, and they're the team to beat in the NFC. And then they slowly but surely unravel, culminating with the hilarious loss to the Panthers in the last game in Giants stadium. Can lightning strike twice? I think it can. Lets look at the specifics. The Giants opened up last year with a 5 game winning streak. Then they got embarrassed by the Saints. This year they had a 5 game winning streak before being embarrassed yesterday by us. Well and by their malfunctioning 1.6 billion dollar stadium. Right now they are flustered, Eli has a Wade Phillips look on his face and they are going into Philly next week. And remember Philly is pissed off because they lost to Washington today. They beat the Giants and now they are freaked out "is it going to happen again?" Yes it is, as Jacksonville comes into New York's joke of a stadium and beat the G-men putting them at 6-5. Then they play the skins at home where lets say they eke out a win. They go to Minnesota, a very losable game, but lets say they win again going to 8-5. They come back to NY again facing a pissed off philly team that just got raped by both texas teams and is now 1 game behind NY playing them in what has been established to be a joke of a stadium. They lose again dropping behind the eagles for the division lead. They then go to Green Bay, and by this point their spirit has been crushed, Tom Coughlin is on the hot seat, they are reliving the nightmare of last year and playing a good Green Bay team in Lambeau in December. They lose, and then, fully crushed, lose to the Deadskins in Washington to finish 8-8 again.

So maybe its not the most likely possibility. But if it happens, I'm a genius.

Wade Phillips is gone. Yay! Now what?

So the up and mainly down Wade Phillips era is officially over, with Jason Garrett taking over as head coach for now. As I assume most Cowboys fan are, I was extremely relieved initially when I heard the news in my Government class, with the parallel of a tumor being removed from a cancer patient coming to mind. However, while this is definitely a step in the right direction, I believe the problem has to be deeper than one bad coach. Jerry Jones said that there will be "changeS" as in plural, as in multiple changes, which leads me to hope he will cut a few players or tell Garrett to bench players, which he will do seeing as he is Jerry Jones' new bitch. This in itself is the problem with our team, Jerry Jones has too much input on what gets done. What Jerry Jones does is attract "stars", bring in stars, build players up to be stars, and pay them like stars all in an attempt to boost his investment. It started in '95 when he brought in Deion Sanders, who was a great player and helped us win a super bowl, but was also a main contributer to the 90s Cowboys downfall. Because Sanders was ridiculously talented enough to slack off at or not show up to practice and still perform well on the field, other less talented players began to follow him. And because they followed Sanders's lead their play deteriorated, and the team's play suffered. The problem I see right now is player's job security. It seems like every player who plays reasonably well for one season gets rewarded with a 6 or 7 year contract now. And while some have deserved it, others have either underachieved completely (Roy Williams) or started to decline after a few years (Marion Barber). As much as I dislike the New England Patriots I recognize their brilliance for how they run their team. Since their first super bowl, the Patriots have had a number of great players walk out in the offseason and sign with other teams for more money. And year after year the Pats come back with great teams, sometimes not as talented as others but always hungry teams, and teams that play together well. Its like in the first super bowl they won, SB 36 I believe, when the St Louis Rams players came out individually and the Patriots came out as a team, and then went on to beat the highly favored, blatantly more talented Rams. In the years after the Rams collapsed after their star players left, rebuilt a little and then collapsed again and are in the process of rebuilding while the Patriots went on to dominate the NFL. The 2010 Cowboys are like the Rams, only with a MUCH worse case of individualism. We are a team of "stars" at virtually every position, but "stars" with no urgency, discipline, or general will to win, so as a team we suck. In terms of players, we need to trade anyone who isn't part of the solution, stockpile draft picks and bring in a bunch of young guys who can push the complacent starters. As a Cowboys fan I was pissed at Nick Collins' hit on Roy Williams and hope he gets fined up the ass, but I also wished someone on our team would do something like that, just to show that were not happy about losing. If we are waiting until we play the Giants to start a fight, make a late hit, generally knock someone out I'm okay with that, but at this point I just want to see some sign of life. Maybe Wade's reaction of "what just happened?" whenever anything goes wrong has rubbed off on the team. I would personally like to see a coach show some emotion after some of the games we've played, and I don't think Garrett is the answer.

But to end on a positive note, lets review why Wade Phillips sucks, and why his firing will help the team. The obvious reason is the team doesn't respond well to his style of coaching, and there is no possible way a change can make us worse. Simply put, we were at rock bottom, and a coaching change can do nothing but help. One testament to Phillip's failure as a coach is how his team has come out after bye weeks. This year we had our one victory over Houston going into the bye. In what should have been the start of a winnings streak, we instead came out with probably the worst opening defensive performance I've ever seen against Tennessee as Vince Young effortlessly moved down the field by throwing up jump balls that were either caught or drew pass interferences every time. Or we can go back to the '07 playoffs when we had a extra week before playing the Giants, who had been winning on the strength of their defensive line, and yet Phillips could not come up with an answer, as the Giants D-line clobbered Romo all day and beat us 21-17. But I think the worst thing about Wade Phillips, and it has been specifically this season, is his defense and specifically its predictability. Defense, especially 3-4 defense, was supposed to be Phillip's speciality, which is why I wanted us to get him after Parcells left. What I heard was that Phillips was good at disguising blitzes, and could get pressure from different positions. While that was true his first two seasons when we got sacks from Jay Ratliff, Bradie JAmes, and Greg Ellis along with dware, who's gonna get 12+ sacks in any system he plays it. But this season it has been all on dware to create pressure. This year our blitzes are ridiculously telegraphed, we bring a bunch of guys to the line, we blitz. I'm pretty sure if I know its coming, a NFL quarterback will be able to read it (the exception being Jon Kitna who reads blitzes like Rain Man reads crossing signals). Also the secondary play has been atrocious, and maybe some of that should be put on Dave Campo, but some of it is definitely Wade's fault, specifically how close to the line the corners play. Last year Mike Jenkins developed into a terrific corner once he started playing bump and run coverage consistently. This year it seems like he's always 8-10 yards off the ball, which is okay sometimes, but it seemed like we did it every play against the packers even in 3rd and short situations and goal line situations. Wade simply lacked the ability to make in game adjustments to help us win. So I for one am very happy he's gone. But we're still a long way from being competitive.

Positive Zach

http://content.usatoday.com/communities/thehuddle/post/2010/10/cowboys-roy-williams-jon-kitna-is-just-as-good-as-tony-romo/1#uslPageReturn

So, its been a day after the most crippling injury in my time as a Cowboys fan, and I've now decided it is not time to give up on the season. This article, while obviously not true, did give me hope. It reminded me that despite our absolutely disgraceful play this season, no one has thrown in the towel (no one that matters at least) and none of the players have mouthed off about coaches or other players. And while Jon Kitna is obviously not as good as Romo, he is better than many give him credit for. While he looked shitty at first last night, as the game progressed he started to get into a bit of a rhythm and actual brought us back a little. In fact if not for our woeful defense we could have actually won. And throughout his career Kitna has done quite well despite playing for terrible teams. People forget, it was Kitna, not Carson Palmer, who brought the Bengals back to success after a decade of mediocrity. Then he managed to throw for 4,000 yards two years in a row for the pitiful Lions despite being sacked 114 times IN TWO SEASONS. And while our team responded terribly to Romo's injury, instead of rally around Kitna as I hoped, maybe after they regroup, some of the receivers develop a report, and realize Kitna is now their quarterback they will in fact respond positively. While I realize our team has sucked thus far, I will bring up several cases of teams succeeding after their starting qb went down. 1968, the Baltimore Colts lost Johnny U, Earl Morral stepped in and led them to a Super Bowl. 1972, the Miami Dolphins, again Earl Morral stepped in this time for Bob Griese and led the Fins to the only perfect season and a super bowl victory. And, more revelant and recently, 1991 for the Cowboys where Steve Beuerlein stepped in for Troy Aikman and rattled off 5 straight wins to get into the playoffs, and won the wildcard game versus Chicago. And while you might argue that in all these examples the team was actually good, I would argue that our team has the potential to be just as good. Then again, more often then not the injury to the starting quarterback ruins the team for the season. We will see which way it goes for us, obviously we have sucked so far and so it seems inconceivable that the injury to our starting quarterback could help us. But time will only tell.

Fines for hits in the NFL and Rodney Harrison

After this previous weekend, the NFL decided, most likely based on a trend but certainly punctuated by several particular plays over the weekend, to increase the punishments for "flagrant tackles." These punishments will be increased fines and suspensions. Obviously this has created quite a lot of controversy so I thought it would be a good topic to weigh in on. First of all I am pleased to say that these rule changes will not affect my beloved Dallas Cowboys in any way. This is because we seem to have already gotten the message that the purpose of football is to try not to hit the opposing team too hard. If we had anyone on our defense that actually was capable of "flagrantly" tackles someone, it might be an issue. In fact Wade's Cowboys have wisely chosen to follow the "don't wrap up when making a tackle", "don't hit the quarterback too hard or often", "make at least 10 penalties a game", "give up long returns on special teams", and "miss field goals in big situations" rules that the NFL has not yet implemented. So in a few weeks when they finally do make these logical rules, we will be unstoppable. Actually the only play who hasn't been following these rules is Demarcus Ware. So we should probably release him.

But anyways, in all seriousness this is a BS rule. On ESPN today Mark Schlereth ripped NFL, calling them hypocrites for making this rule to avoid big hits and yet selling dvds online about the NFL's biggest hits. I thought he was dead on, and my opinions are pretty much the same as what he said. It all comes down to money of course, the NFL is now a billion dollar industry and its premier players are investments, and it does whatever it can to protect its investments, no matter how much it compromises the integrity of the game. But one thing I would like to bring up is Rodney Harrison's take on this rule. Apparently Harrison said this last Sunday before the Sunday night game but I heard about it today on NFL.com. Harrison called out the NFL some of the vicious hits that took place that day, specifically the hit Dunta Robinson put on Desean Jackson, one of the best receivers in the NFL that knocked both players out of the game with concussions, stating that the league should increase the punishments for violent hits. Before I go into the insane irony of this situation, I will say that I am somewhat biased about Rodney Harrison. I didn't like him as a player, mainly because of a game between the Cowboys and Patriots in 2007 where every time Marion Barber stiffed armed him he whined to the referee and after the game bitched to the press that Barber was "punching players." This was true in fact, but for the same reason I think its ridiculous to ridicule that then, is the same reason I think it's ridiculous the NFL now. Rodney Harrison's ENTIRE CAREER was built upon dirty play, specifically vicious hits. He was twice named the NFL's dirtiet player, and was universally recognized as a hitting saftey. Now, Harrison seems imply that he has matured, mentioning that he has children who play football that he would hate to see get hit and not be able to get up. Okay Rodney, well if you're so sincere about being anti-hitting why don't you appologize to all the players you concussed back in the day, and returned maybe half of the salary you made playing because, while you were no Roy Williams at covering, your game was hitting people. That is why you made pro bowls, all-pros, why you may even make the hall of Fame. Hell, thats why you have the job you have now. If you removed "flagrant tackles" Rodney would be a decent saftey but no one special or noteworthy. Its like if Deacon Jones proclaimed that the NFL should outlaw helmet slapping three years after retiring, or Wilt Chamberlain endorsed the 3 second rule after retiring, or if Gaylord Perry said MLB should check for spitballs after retiring, etc. Don't go against the very aspect of the sport that made you famous. Now if Rodney were to speak out against "flagrant tackles" early in his career, or if someone like Troy Polamalu or Bob Sanders spoke out against it now I could accept that. Instead you have James Harrison saying he might retire in his prime because he can't play in such a pussy-whipped league (though not in those words). And though I still kind of hate James Harrison just because he undeservedly won the Defensive MVP in '08 over dware, I would respect that decision if he makes it. It would be the one decision in this whole situation motivated by love of football and not money.