NFL – Dallas Cowboys have their first feel-good game of the season

The Dallas Cowboys made a few changes during the week. And it seemed as if that made all the difference. First, they got rid of head coach Wade Phillips, who had managed to bring the Cowboys to its second worst ever season start. At 7-1 and after 5 consecutive losses, it was time to make a change. And that’s when we must give it up for interim head coach Jason Garret. And that’s the start of the second change of the week. Garret managed to turn around this team and guide it to a very significant 33-20 victory in the road against the New York Giants.

On February 8, 2007, the Dallas Cowboys’ owner, Jerry Jones, announced that Wade Phillips was coming to Dallas to become the new Head Coach. That year the Dallas Cowboys lost in the first playoffs game. On January 9th  2010, Wade Phillips lead the Cowboys to their first playoffs victory in the last 12 years. The Cowboys defeated the Philadelphia Eagles in the wild card round, thus earning Phillips’ first playoffs win.

Wade Phillips was expected to bring this team up and into another winning season. But he couldn’t.  A 45-7 lost at Green Bay was enough to set off the panic alarm at Jerry Jones’ office and Wade Phillips was fired.

Jerry Jones is well aware that this is not a complete makeover. There is still a very significant amount of work to be done with the team.  At 7-2, the Cowboys are still somewhat of a disappointment, and even though for the first time in a very long while the Cowboys played like a top-notch team, this latest win is no omen of better things to come.

Let’s be realistic with the expectations we can set upon this team. Yes, they defeated the Giants at home, and yes, they broke their 5 consecutive defeats streak, and sure, the Cowboys ended Eli Manninig’s and Co. 5 consecutive win record. But, if you kept a close eye at what happened in the previous  8 games, you can’t help but to notices that removing Wade Phillips was nothing but cleaning up the top of a iceberg.

Jon Kitna was 13 of 22 for 327 yards, three touchdown passes, one interception and one heck of a game. Kitna was able to complete a 13 yard touchdown passes for Dez Bryant, 71 yard pass to Felix Jones and a 24 yard missile to Miles Austin. In other words, Jon Kitna finally gave up a good game while replacing the injured Tony Romo.

Eli Manning had a good game, but it was just not enough to keep the Cowboys from taking over. Manning completed 33 of 48 for 373 yards, but the two interceptions he suffered, particularly the last one of the fourth period, took away the little chances the Giants had to make an impressive comeback in the fourth quarter.

The sun was finally shinning a bit for Jon Kitna. Depsite the two blackouts in the new 1.6$ billion stadium which deleayed the game for eleven minutes and left over 80,000 fans in complete darkness for a couple of seconds, Kitna won his first game as a starter since 2007. Thats what the NFL is all about.

NFL – The Dallas Cowboys are not making the cut

This NFL season has been a complete and utter disaster for the Dallas Cowboys. The team has been struggling in each and every aspect of the game. No matter where or how you look at the Dallas Cowboys, this team is having one season to forget. The last debacle came at the legendary Lambeau Field, this Sunday night, while the Green Bay Packers manhandled the Dallas Cowboys in their 45-7 crushing of what was already a very ill and under-par team.

Jerry Jones, the 68-year-old owner of the Dallas Cowboys since 1989, had seen some ups and downs throughout his years as the team’s general manager. But this season promises to take the No. 1 spot when it comes to rankings the Cowboys’ failure. Sure, Jones is one of those guys -actually, he is one of the few owners who is in a day-to-day basis- involved with his team. Even more, he is known to eventually even go down to the sidelines and work from within.

Jones was there when the Dallas Cowboys won its Super Bowl in 1993. But things have not been so sweet since then. This season, for instance, The Cowboy have only defeated the Houston Texas at Houston, in week three. But Washington, Chicago, Tennessee, Minnesota, the New York Giants, Jacksonville and most recently, the Green Bay Packers, have all managed to defeat the Cowboys. Matter of fact, the last two games have been lost by double digit margins.

Now the Dallas Cowboys head coach, Wade Phillips, could be working his way around the last minutes at his job. Had Wade Phillips managed to lose by 7 points against the Packers, heck by 12 points even, this would be a whole different story. And yet when you put this whole thing into perspective, the team is just not working so well.  Here is the funny thing. At the beginning of the season, Wade Phillips had a team that could have made it to the off-season and once there, win a couple of games.

Last season, the Cowboys went on to a decent 11-5 record and even went on to win the first game of the playoffs. We are talking about a team that won its first playoff game in more then a decade. So, this time around, it was only logical if you would expect the team to at least be close in the chase for a spot in the playoffs. Keep in mind that the team that at the beginning of the season was going for a Super Bowl bet, is now probably going to end up with a top 3 pick in next year’s NFL draft.

There are too many issues with this team right now.  They are really struggling in defense. When it comes to rushing yards the team has averaged 75.6 managing to hit the  31st best record in the league. And they have allowed over 129 rushing yards and are ranked 24th in the nation. The bottom line is that the season is already two months old and whether the Dallas Cowboys decide to stick with Wade Phillips and see what happens from there on, or decide to make a very drastic change and replace its coaches, you have to realize that its not a matter of who’s in the coach spot. The organization is in trouble. Like Jones himself said when asked who could he lay his finger and blame for what happened this season: there are not enough fingers to point out what has gone wrong. He couldn’t be more accurate in his diagnosis.

NFL – Chicago Bears defeat Dallas Cowboys

by Stephen Lars on Sep.23, 2010, under Football, Sports News

The Dallas Cowboy are having some serious issues. Cowboys head coach Wade Phillips and the offensive coordinator Jason Garret were blaming each other for the very unsuccessful offensive play that cost them the win last week against the Washington Redskins. Don’t mind Tony Romo’s 282 passing yards. At the end, in the last play and only 6 points under, the Cowboys had a chance to win it. Romo completed a pass to Roy Williams who was open in the end zone. But there was a yellow flag. There was a holding on Alex Barron. Washington could finally celebrate.

This time around, neither Garret nor Wade Phillips had too many to blame. The team is not working, the game plans are week, and let’s face it, the Chicago Bears were able to brake pass the Cowboys defense like if it was a knife into butter. Wade’s defense had nothing to against the Bears, and that cost him the 27-10 loss against the Chicago Bears.

Let’s put this into perspective. The Cowboys defense had not allowed a single touchdown in three-consecutive regular season games. Jay Cutler, the Bears touchdown, had some issues at the beginning of the game. He certainly was found running for dear life when, early in the game, Cowboys’ linebackers DaMarcus Ware and Anthony Spencer had a chance to rough him up a little. As if that was not enough troubles for the Bear’s offensive, the left tackle, Chris Williams was injured in the first quarter.

Now, here is the thing that is a bit upsetting for the Cowboys fans. The 45th annual edition of the NFL championship game, the Super Bowl XLV will be held in the Dallas Cowboys’ stadium in Arlington Texas. But, those local fans are probably not going to be cheering for the home team, as the Cowboys are not playing as they are expected to. At least not if they are really hoping to make it to the post-season, and then keep on with some rhythm into the conference finals and the Super Bowl.

Now, the Cowboys were a 3.5 favorite against the Washington Redskins. And hoping that the team would make use of their hometown advantage and play much harder against the Chicago Cubs, they once again were the favorite against the Bears. The sporstbook industry had set the handicap at -7 points in the spread. Now, this time around, it seems inevitable that they have to go out there and bring a victory. Now, considering their below par performance, thing have changed around for next week when it comes to betting in the NFL.

As of press time, on their next match against the Houston Texans, the Dallas Cowboys are