What a Bummer

What an absolute kick to the nads. I was the only one out of all my friends (who I discussed the game with) that legitimately thought Dallas would win on Sunday. I really did. I thought they would need to play a low scoring, defensive style game in order to win and for 3 1/2 quarters, they did that. And then, that dreaded ending to a close game happenend when Romo overthrew a pass to Witten, deep in their own end of the field, which ended up getting picked off and run back for the game winning score by Pittsburgh. Holy cow.

Offensively, they were good in spots, but overall not all that great. I will say this...Tashard Choice was awesome in fill in duty for Marion Barber. Choice ran for 88 yards in his first NFL start, the most against Pittsburgh all season, and had 166 total yards. Those stats would have been awesome no matter who they were playing but especially playing Pittsuburgh. Romo, coming off successive 300-yard games, was decent at times and below average at times as he ended the day 19-of-36 for 210 yards, 1 TD and three interceptions. In fact, he and Big Ben Roethlisberger had very similar stats as Big Ben was 17 of 33 for 204 and 1 TD. The glaring difference between the two (and the difference in the game) was that Roethlisberger didn't turn the ball over.

Defensively though, the Cowboys were outstanding to say the least. They did everything asked of them and more. Through 3 quarters of play, the Steelers only had 89 yards of offense. It was by far the best defensive effort I've seen all year. Pittsburgh has one of the league's best running games and the Cowboys answered the bell nearly everytime and really had the game well in hand until midway through the 4th quarter. That goal line stand on 4th down was a thing of absolute beauty and at that time, I really thought that was the game...I thought Dallas would walk away with the "W". It was a championship level defensive performance and one that everyone around here has been waiting for. It's just a shame that effort was wasted. I say wasted in that the team walked away with a loss, which is really all that matters. But my hope is that the defense can look squarely in the eye of their opposition in the next 3 games and know they can go toe to toe with them on every play.

I will say that Pac Man, in his first game back from his suspension, played decent on defense as he broke up a couple of passes thrown his way. So I give him props for that. My question is this: what is doing when he returns punts? Aside from the VERY POOR decison to try to field a punt at the 5 YARD LINE (which he muffed but then recovered) all I see is a bunch of juking left and right and he even sometimes looses yardage too. Here's a hint Pac Man...run north and south, NOT east and west. You are NOT Deion who could afford to do that because there was always the possibility of the punt return going for big yardage or a touchdown. And that is what I've heard about Pac Man but until I see it, he is just another guy. And to be honest, I trust Crayton to return punts more than Pac Man.

I'm sure Romo will take a lot of heat this week and he rightfully should. I love the guy's playmaking ability, and I understand playmaking is risky by it's very nature, but Romo has got to be smarter in situations like Sunday where he threw the interception that was returned for a touchdown. The Cowboys didn't need to score at that point because the score was tied. He didn't need to force anything. Dallas could have punted the ball away and with the time left (probably around 40 seconds or so), the Steelers would have had to move the ball to get in field goal range...which would have had to be closer than normal because of the cold weather. But Romo chose to take a risk and it ended up hurting the team. Only time will tell how bad it hurt the team. I think Romo is a great QB but until he starts performing better in December/playoffs, his reputation will be "one that can't win the big one" as Petyon Mannings was.

The weather didn’t help during yet another December disappointment for Dallas, which is 17-29 in the month since 1996. I still think (and maybe it's just blind hope) that Dallas will end the month of December 3-1. And to make the playoffs, they will have to because it looks like Tampa Bay, which Dallas holds the tie breaker over, will get to 11 wins and will get 1 of the 2 Wild Cards. So that leave a gaggle of other teams, some of which will get to 10-6, vying for the last Wild Card spot. And Dallas won't hold tie breakers over many of those teams. So, to definately get into the playoffs, the Cowboys must run the table and win all three of their last games. If they continue to play defense like they did this past weekend, I think that is entirely possible. With 2 of the last 3 games at home, where there should be agreeable weather, if they don't win out there is going to be hell to pay.

If Dallas can win their remaining games and streak into the playoffs, I see Sunday's loss as the type of loss the Giants had when the lost to the Patriots last year. That loss gave NY all kinds of confidence because they lost in the last few minutes of the game proving that they could go toe to toe with New England. And that loss eventually propelled the Giants to the Super Bowl...and everyone knows the rest of the story.