Undefeated No More

Kind of like last week's game vs Buffalo, I don't really know where to start here. I'm not going to rehash the Dallas/NE game play by play as I did last week as it would depress me too much. However, the Patriots have done the exact same thing to every opponent they have played this season. I was just hoping Dallas would keep it a bit closer.

Dallas needed to play almost a perfect game to have a chance to win and they played far from perfect. The thing that was driving me insane this afternoon was the MASSIVE amount of penalties Dallas committed. They were the kind of penalties that kill their own drives or keep the opponents drive going. Dallas had 100+ yds in penalties while NE only have about 40-50 yds in penalties. I know of twice Dallas gave NE a first down b/c Dallas encroached when NE had a 3rd down and 5 yds or less. And then there was the holing penalty that Kosier committed which negated a nice run by Barber on a 3rd down conversion. Dallas is the most penalized team in the league. If they want to go to the Superbowl, they definitely need address that. A lot of the penalties are just a matter of not staying focused and/or lack of concentration. Dallas couldn't get out of their own way much of the time today.

However, Dallas did not "go quietly into that good night" without putting up a fight. At one point Dallas was down 14-0 and then went up 24-21 in the 3rd quarter. But the offensive machine that is New England just drove right down the field. Just as I said in my previous post, New England has entirely too many weapons to cover at the same time. They kind of remind me of the early - mid 90's Cowboys team although I definitely think those Cowboys teams would put a hurtin' on this New England team (New England doesn't have the offensive line or defense Dallas had back then). But for right now, New England is the best in the NFL. I don't think they will go undefeated...I don't think that will ever happen again. But I'm not sure where they will loose either. Their best chance to loose is to Indy in a few weeks but I guess we will see.

Dallas played pretty well, even with all the penalties they committed, on both sides of the ball. The offense, as usual, got going a bit late but when they did, NE was having a hard time dealing with all their weapons. Romo had a pretty good day, Witten was more productive than I thought he would be and we finally saw a little something out of Julius Jones. Marion Barber ran hard like usual...I love watching that guy run the ball. However, TO Owens didn't have the game I thought he would have. I actually thought he would have the type of game Randy Moss had for NE...but I was wrong. He needs to step up his game and do it now...not later but now.

The defense just couldn't hold up under the assault of the NE offense. They did play well for a while but with Anthony Henry out, Dallas really had no answer for the plethora of receivers NE threw at them. And you could really see Dallas' defense wilting during the last drive NE had. They just looked disinterested in stopping NE. Roy Williams had a couple nice plays but also had a couple bone-headed plays as well. I swear someone needs to teach that guy how to TACKLE, which involves wrapping up and making sure the opponent is on the ground. How many times have we all seen Roy just lay his shoulder into someone while looking for the big SportsCenter highlight. Absolutely ridiculous at this level.

I'll tell you where I think Dallas lost the game. NE had just gone up by 14 and Tyson Thompson took the ensuing kickoff back 70+ yds. Dallas put together a few good plays after that to get down to the 5. Finally with a 4th goal at the 5, down 2 scores, Wade decides to kick a field goal. That is where Dallas lost the game. That decision, in my opinion, sucked the air right out of the team and the stadium...you could hear it on tv. My wife, who normally doesn't watch football games with me was watching then and said the decision didn't make sense to her either. That field goal put Dallas down by 11...they were still down 2 touch downs regardless. I know it's easy to look back with hindsight but I was telling Wade right then he should go for the touch down. If Dallas gets the touchdown, the crowd is energized, the team is energized and NE has it's work cut out for it. If Dallas doesn't get the touch down, they are still down 2 scores so the field goal doesn't make any sense to me at that point.

I had a friend at church today trying to convince me Dallas was going to win. I asked him to convince me of that and he pointed to Monday night's win (vs. Buffalo) asking me if I expected that to happen. And then he said "you've just got to have faith." Well, sorry Carlos but I told you exactly what was going to happen...and it came to fruition (but I do applaud your faith). But, big picture wise, Dallas is still the best team in a weak NFC. This game doesn't change my opinion of them. I mentioned before that I didn't trust the defense and they somewhat proved me right although they played better than I expected. The loss stings a little but doesn't hurt because I think Dallas is going to beat Minnesota next week, get healthy during the bye week and come out guns blazing for the 2nd half of the season. I still think they have the inside track to home field advantage in the NFC. Lets just hope if they do go to the Superbowl that they don't play New England.