Miles Austin Tochdown Celebration |
A Victorious Tony Rom |
by Ryan Bush
A flair for exaggeration and overreaction has contaminated
Cowboy-lovers across this great land in the wake of what amounts to a generally
unexpected season-opening victory against the reigning Super Bowl Champs, New York Giants. It’s known as CowboyMania. A more infectious disease has never been
acknowledged in the psychiatric community.
From a 24-17 game that can be boiled down to a handful of
toss-up plays, the Cowboys walked away with a newfound respect from fans and
dissidents alike. Monday morning
quarterbacks no longer see a Cowboys team that crumbles near closing time, but
a group of something special that has yet to be determined, or maybe even
realized.
What’s different about these Cowboys? Truly, the question of the week, though the
significance of it has been diminished somewhat after so many disturbingly
empty answers have been put forth lately. Saying the Cowboys are a championship team after a victory
that could have easily swung the other way is a learned exercise in futility
around Cowboy Nation. No team has been
better at teasing the public in recent seasons than the Dallas
Cowboys. Too bad so few realize this.
Proclaiming Tony Romo as a “much-matured quarterback” reeks
of an overreaction disorder. True, Romo
was brilliant against Big Blue, but it wasn’t the first time he’s been. And saying that Rob Ryan’s defense was
“significantly improved” from last year’s unit is only stating an obvious fact that
even Ray Charles couldn’t have missed.
What we learned from this victory is that Brandon Carr is a
significant upgrade from Terence Newman and that Morris Claiborne is a solid
player who will only get better with experience. Barry Church is more mobile than predecessor
Abram Elam,
and Bruce Carter is able to stop stretch plays with far better effectiveness
than Keith Brooking.
In hindsight, the game had many similar storylines to Dallas’ 2005 season-opening contest against San Diego. The Cowboys proved to be penalty-prone in
each. Just like Romo faced a
first-and-30 situation in the fourth quarter, Bledsoe found himself backed up
on his own 8-yard line in the second quarter after four penalties in five plays
left the offense in another and-forever position. Kevin Ogletree is the out-of-nowhere hero at
wide receiver currently, just like Patrick Crayton’s 89-yard, one touchdown
performance made him then. A year after
finishing 6-10 with multiple double-digit losses with an atrocious defense, the
2005 bunch had mettle enough to win on the road against a good San Diego team. And only eight months after being throttled
by seventeen points against these same Giants on the same turf, this group of
Cowboys calmly, and collectively, beat what is still considered to be a great
team in their own backyard.
Yet, for all of that, the intangible evidence garnered from
Wednesday’s win was probably the more encouraging sign that Garrett’s team is
heading in the right direction.
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