What Just Happened?

I don't know where to start, I really don't. I truly feel ill. I don't know which is a bigger let down...the Mavs choking it away, as a #1 seed, to Golden State last spring or Dallas losing tonight, as a #1 seed, to the Giants. I will say this...Tony Romo going off to Mexico had not a damn thing to do with the reason Dallas' season is now over and ANYONE who says so is a freaking moron, period. I know I might hear that this week (and it will make me crazy every time I hear it) but I will try to block that out. Romo's play was NOT what got Dallas beat. The thing that got Dallas beat was the biggest strength of the team coming into the game today...the offensive line. I have absolutely no idea what happened to the offensive line and every one of them is going to have 6 months to think about how they let the game get away. The reason Dallas lost starts there...and ends there in my opinion.

In the second quarter, the Cowboys, had a 10 minute drive where they completed 3rd down conversion after 3rd down conversion. Romo was looking sharp, Barber was running with fury and the offensive line was doing a what they normally do...beating up the defensive line of the opposition. Very little, if any, pressure was getting to Romo. In 3 consecutive series, Dallas scored a TD, a TD and a field goal.

But in the second half the offensive line, for whatever reason, stopped playing with the fire they had all season. They started letting guys through to get to Romo. And the Giants were getting to Romo without blitzing linebackers or defensive backs...they were getting to Romo with their defensive line. Romo was running for his life and just didn't have the time he had in the first half. The huge holes that were there for Barber in the first half were no longer there in the second half. How many penalties were made that shouldn't have been. And how many more freaking false starts must we endure from Flozell Adams?!?!?!?!? Holy crap...pull your freaking head out!!! But he wasn't the only one with mental breakdowns.

Leonard Davis (which was a HUGE signing in the off season, both literally and figuratively) has played very well all year and is going to Pro Bowl because of it. But the penalty he had in the 3rd quarter when he hit Strahan late, which nullified a Cowboys 1st down, was where the game turned. From there, Dallas had to punt from deep in the own territory and the Giants got a 25 yd return from R.W. McQuarters. The Giants ended up getting the go ahead TD on that drive.

Objectively, Dallas did not play their best football in December. Through their first 12 games, Dallas averaged scoring 33 pts and allowing 20 points. The final four games, Dallas averaged scoring 15 pts and allowing 19 points...and that was the game we say tonight. The Giants, on the flip side, were probably playing some of their best football during the past 3 games and they played well enough to beat Dallas.

But Dallas has no one to blame but themselves for losing. New York's defense was far from healthy. The Giants already had two starters out (Madison and Dockery) and ended up losing Aaron Ross in the 3rd quarter. So New York was playing with a defensive secondary basically held together with duct tape and chicken wire. And Dallas' high powered offense (with Terrell Owens, Jason Witten, Marion Barber, and Terry Glenn) couldn't take advantage of it. Just sickening...absolutely sickening. Give all the credit in the world to the Giants because it appeared they wanted it more than Dallas. That's probably not true...but that's what it looked like at the end of the game. New York played harder in the second half and took the game away from Dallas, not that Dallas did anything to really prevent it.

Dallas IS the better team...no doubt in my mind about it. They just are. But they didn't play like it tonight. They played a home game against a team, in the New York Giants, which was not as healthy, after a full 2 weeks of rest and only managed 17 points. That is just...unfathomable. Dallas now becomes the 1st #1 seeded team, since 1990, to lose in the divisional round of the playoffs. Oh, and Dallas STILL hasn't won a playoff game since 1997. Un-freaking-believable.

This is such a bitter pill to swallow, a bitter, bitter pill. I honestly thought Dallas would be in the Super Bowl...I really did. And now we have until next September to see if the team can bounce back and take that next step. I think Romo is going to need to go a little farther than Cabo to get over this one.