And The Greatest Lesson Learned About the Dallas Cowboys After Their First Win Is…????

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.