Die Hard Cowboys Fan

Dallas News: JJT is taking up the cause to return Julius Jones and Marion Barber to the roles they had a year ago. Taylor says Barber is the starter now, based on how he is treated after the first series of the game, and last year Barber was the 3rd down back. Maybe JJT isn’t very good with numbers. Barber averages 5.1 yards per carry and Jones averages 3.9 yards per carry. Taylor writes poetically about lying eyes and manipulating the truth, when all he has to do is evaluate who has been the more successful runner. Barber. For the past two years, not just a handful of games.

Albert Breer says spotty kick coverage hasn’t hurt the Cowboys yet, but it will if they don’t fix it soon and maybe this week against the Jets.

JJT says all QBs tell you they throw the ball to the open receiver, but Romo actually does it. And Taylor has a mailbag up.

Q. Do teams design specific plays for specific role players?
Ami Heda, Maplewood, N.J.
TAYLOR: Absolutely. Marion Barber is a role player, and the Cowboys have runs designed for him. Just like the plays that put Sam Hurd and Patrick Crayton in position to succeed.

What is this, blast Barber day? Yeah, he’s a role player. A role player averaging 5.1 per carry, who would be in the Pro Bowl if he had more opportunities.

Q. With T.O. playing at such a high level, will the Cowboys look to extend his contract? He will be 34 next season but, when motivated, clearly is one of the best at his position.
Kevin, Kalamazoo, Mich.
TAYLOR: I don’t think the Cowboys will try to extend him in the off-season. I think they would do as they did Romo, which is see how he performs in the off-season, the preseason and the first part of the regular season and then give him another two- or three-year deal. He keeps himself in fantastic shape, but at that age you never know when the injuries will start to creep up, so you have to be careful. That said, I think the Cowboys will eventually extend his deal and he’ll stay in Dallas.

I think they will before camp next year. We’ll see.

Calvin Watkins says Patrick Crayton may miss the Jets game. Julius and Thomas Jones are having a Thanksgiving Day rematch. T.O. was NFC Player of the Week.

Rick Gosselin says the Jets are going to try to establish a running game on Thursday. Good luck. That is the area the Cowboys are best at.

Calvin Watkins focuses on Leon Washington.

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My season projections:

Here are the various NFC East teams along with their remaining opponents.

Cowboys: (currently 9-1)

Jets

Redskins

The Packers are the only team that I think could legitimately beat the Cowboys from this group. No doubt, you never know that might happen in a rivalry game (Eagles/Redskins), but we should be able to handle the other teams with ease. I think we are better than the Pack, too. But they are a good team. My projection: We go either 15-1 or 14-2, for the best record in Cowboys regular season history. Either way, they have the #1 seed in the NFC and make it to the Super Bowl where they will meet up with the Steelers for the 4th time in Super Bowl history, evening the series at two apiece. (Yeah, that’s right. The Patriots get beat in the playoffs. Mark it down.)

Eagles: (currently 5-5)

Patriots

Bills

It is entirely possible that the Eagles don’t win another game until the next to the last week of the season. It isn’t unimaginable that they lose out and end at 5-11. But I will throw them a bone and say they will beat the Saints. Projection: 6-10. End of the McNabb era.

Giants: (currently 7-3)

Vikings

With the exception of the Patriots, the Giants are better than all of the other teams left on their schedule. They should win those. However, again, they have a couple of rivalry games, so who knows. I won’t assume that the Patriots are resting anyone on the last game of the season (which could happen if they lose before then), so no way the Giants win that one. Say they split the rivalry games. Projection: 11-5. 1st Wildcard, make it to the championship game where they are whipped by Dallas for the third time this year.

Redskins: (currently 5-5)

Buccaneers

Cowboys

The Redskins are a decent team. Not really good, but decent. They are going to be playing mostly other decent teams. They are all about the same caliber, except the Giants and Cowboys. I think they have a hard time beating the Bucs and Bills, but take the Bears and Vikings. They lose to both the Cowboys and Giants. Projection: 7-9. Were they in the NFC South, NFC West or AFC West, they would have won the division, but since they are not, Joe Gibbs starts working on his shuffle board skills.

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Goose says the Packers have a better defense “plain and simple.”

The Cowboys give up 3.6 yards per rush. The Packers give up 3.9 yards per rush.

The Cowboys hold opposing QB’s to a 73.5 passer rating and 6.4 yds/attempt with 14 INT’s. The Packers hold opposing QB’s to a 79.8 passer rating and 6.9 yds/attempt with 9 INT’s.

The Packers defense has benefitted (in defensive rankings) because Cowboys’ opponents have faced some large deficits forcing them to pass more and accumulate more yardage.

It’s not plain and it’s not simple.

Thanks for Michael.

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Rick Gosselin is picking the Packers to face the Patriots in the Super Bowl. Those Dallas Morning News guys just don’t learn, do they?

Actually, I have a pretty hard time saying anything negative about Goose because I believe he was pretty instrumental in making this happen.

So I’ll just say that I disagree and leave it at that.

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Wade Phillips said in his press conference today that Patrick Crayton is probably out against the Jets. He suffered an ankle sprain at the end of game on Sunday. No word if it is a high or low sprain. Phillips said if it wasn’t such a short week, Crayton may have been able to play.

Sam Hurd will step into the starting position replacing Crayton and I expect a big game out of him this week. Miles Austin will be the number three receiver. Terence Newman will return punts. And Isaiah Stanback has a good chance to be active this week.

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His reputation is deserved. He has criminal arrests, felony charges brought against him (I think all were dropped to misdemeanor) and he defyingly admits to smoking pot since he came into the league.

Even though T.O. got under my skin a lot before he came to the Cowboys, I still said it then: No one works harder on the field and Owens has never had any problems off the field. Yet, he still gets lumped in with some of the worst characters. I’ve never seen one of these on T.O.

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about the double standard used on T.O. and Randy Moss. I mean, how come Randy is now a model teammate while T.O. is just an explosion waiting to happen?

Yeah, T.O. carried a Sharpie in his sock. Yeah, he disrespected the star in Texas Stadium. Yeah, he had disputes with coaches and teammates.

But he NEVER quit playing - NEVER! Say what you want about him, hate him or love him, but the dude plays hard. He gives everything he has every play.

The same cannot be said for Randy Moss. He is the guy who also had squabbles with coaches and teammates. He is the guy who mooned fans and squirted officials. Most importantly, he is the guy who only played when he wanted. He took plays off and said so. I mean, really, where was he the last two years? I know the records say Oakland, but he was just going through the motions. It has always been reported that he holds a grudge against the Cowboys for not selecting him in the draft, but last time I checked 2/3 of the NFL passed on him in that draft, because of potential character issues. All I know about that is that Greg Ellis (the guy we chose that year) is still on the Cowboys and is an integral part of our defense, while Moss is on his third team. Say what you want, but I think we are getting more bang for our choice than the Vikings are on theirs.

So this year, both of them have new settings and new attitudes. Moss seems to be a great teammate and is definitely still a talented receiver. But T.O. is the same. But Moss is given a pass, while T.O. is held up to scrutiny. Figures.

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Jenni Croft was a Dallas Cowboys Cheerleader from 2002-2005

She was also a dancer for the Miami Heat and Phoenix Suns

She was recently a finalist on the reality show “The Bachelor”

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Dallas News: Todd Archer looks back on Romo’s performance on Thanksgiving last year. A year later, Romo remains the talk of the town.

Calvin Watkins says the Cowboys are concerned about the secondary. And the running game. T.O. took a shot back at Terrry Bradshaw yesterday (which you can hear in the audio files above).

Frank Luksa says Paul Pasqualoni was the MVP on Sunday.

A look ahead to the Jets on Thursday.

Albert Breer has his weekly game analysis up.

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I haven’t mentioned it yet, but one thing I really enjoyed on Fox’s pregame telecast was Jimmy Johnson’s comments about Wade Phillips.

In the Grumpy Old Coaches segment, Jimmy and Barry both said they felt what Wade Phillips did with the letter-signing last week was a great move. Wade is putting the responsibility in the hands of the players and that is where it should be.

Then in the regular commentary segment, Jimmy said one person with the Cowboys who should be getting more credit is Wade Phillips. Everyone raves about Tony Romo, Jason Garrett and Terrell Owens but Wade Phillips is the head coach and he is doing a fantastic job.

I think Jimmy recognized his comment last week came out differently than he intended it to be. Everyone (Me too. Me especially.) immediately assumed he was questioning Wade Phillips coaching style, saying it wouldn’t work. And it sure seemed that way.

But I think what he really meant is that sometimes people have to held accountable and that is true in any style of coaching. It can’t be cake and ice cream all the time and I don’t think that is the case.

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