Sign up or login to track your favorite teams

Sign Up for Bleacher Report

As a registered user you can subscribe to your favorite teams, post comments, write your own articles, and much more.

You must register in order for that functionality to work!








Validating sign up form ...

Bleacher Report articles are written by fans like you

Do you want to cover your favorite sports, teams, and leagues?

Processing writing preferences ...

Great, , you're signed up!

i.e. Big 10, LeBron James, USC Football

Selected Tags:

Logging in ...

With a convincing victory over The Green Bay Packers on Sunday night, The Dallas Cowboys moved to 3-0 on the season and have passed every test presented to them with flying silver and blue colors...

The Only Team That Can Beat The Dallas Cowboys

by Devon Jeffreys (Contributor)

9

133 reads

Opinion

September 22, 2008


With a convincing victory over The Green Bay Packers on Sunday night, The Dallas Cowboys moved to 3-0 on the season and have passed every test presented to them with flying silver and blue colors.

I’m here to tell you that there is only one team that can beat the Cowboys this season.

No, not the defending Super Bowl Champion New York Giants, whom Tony Romo shredded last regular season to the tone of 592 yards and eight touchdowns in two meetings.

No not the Philadelphia Eagles who hung with the Cowboys through what Romo called an “old country western shootout,” but eventually fell behind and couldn’t catch up.

Not even the Denver Broncos who seem to rule the roost in the AFC so far this season.

The only team that can beat the Cowboys is the Dallas Cowboys.

I’m not saying the Cowboys are going to finish 16-0, then streak through the playoffs and do what the Patriots couldn’t finish last year. I don’t expect that. The season is far too long and the competition far too tough to expect perfection.

What I’m contending is the Cowboys are their own worst enemy. We’re all thrilled with their 3-0 start and I can’t pick a team off the schedule that, on paper, I believe can beat this team as currently constructed. But they can beat themselves and they’ve shown signs of it in the first few weeks.

It’s Romo throwing a red zone interception.

Romo makes, by my count, 1-2 potentially devastating mistakes per game. So far he’s showed the moxie to lead the team through his own caused adversity but that could flip in the blink of an eye or drop of a snap.

It’s would be tacklers not finishing what they started.

Is there anything more irritating to watch as a fan than a team that doesn’t tackle well?
Time after time against the Packers, and previously against the Eagles, the team would have a player, be it the quarterback, running back or a receiver, stopped for lost or short yardage. But a failure to wrap up tackles, instead attempting to bounce off or flail at the player, would result in a big gain or a key conversion.

I’ll grant you this. Donovan McNabb and Aaron Rodgers are both slippery quarterbacks. But that’s the way half the league is these days. Jason Campbell next week will be no different. And Eli Manning proved how slimy he is on the Tyree play in the Super Bowl. Dallas defenders need to capitalize on more of these opportunities or eventually they’re going to get burned badly.

I need to see hard-nosed monster tackling on every play before I believe this team has that killer instinct needed to survive in January. They let teams hang around for too long. And what about the secondary? No interceptions through three? Here’s hoping they’re saving their picks for when we need them most.

Don’t get me wrong, I’m thrilled with the way the team has performed this season. It doesn’t get any better than 3-0 through three, but there’s still a lot of work to be done. This team has the talent to do great things. The only thing standing in their way is a mirror.

Track this Article on My B/R
Flag This Article
Share This Article

9 comments Last one added 9 months ago — Leave a Comment

  1. ...

    See you in Philly on 12-28-08, you'll get your answer then.

    Edit Comment Cancel

    ...

    Reply
    Great Comment (
    0
    )
    ...
  2. ...

    Yeah you seem to forget the only team who can get pressure on romo through the last two years is the gianst.. Man..the cowboys will have an amazing season.. But at the record of 12-4. They'll lose to the giants once, the redskins once, the steelers, and in the season finale, the philadelphia eagles

    Edit Comment Cancel

    ...

    Reply
    Great Comment (
    0
    )
    ...
    • ...

      You seam to forget that those Giants teams had Osi and Strahan on the ends...If you think its the same Giants D, you're mistaken.

      Edit Comment Cancel

      ...

      Reply
      Great Comment (
      0
      )
      ...
  3. ...

    So they can only beat themselves, but they don't know how to tackle? Sounds like an excuse for a defense that's not all that good. They seemed play fairly well against the Pack, a good sign for Cowboys fans, but that defense can't give up the kind of points and yardage they did against Philly and expect to get past the first round of the playoffs. The Eagles aren't the only team in the league that can score. There will be others.

    Redskins/Cowboys, let the fun begin!

    Edit Comment Cancel

    ...

    Reply
    Great Comment (
    0
    )
    ...
    • ...

      By not being able to tackle, they would be beating themselves...was that not perfectly clear?

      Edit Comment Cancel

      ...

      Reply
      Great Comment (
      0
      )
      ...
    • ...

      Well, by claiming they can only beat themselves, and all they need to do is tackle better, I guess the same can be said for about 10 other teams in the league, they only beat themselves.

      So there ya go, it's that simple. I send letters to each of these teams let them know you've got the simple answer to ALL their woes. Just tackle better.

      Edit Comment Cancel

      ...

      Reply
      Great Comment (
      0
      )
      ...
  4. ...

    Yeah all every team has to do is not throw interceptions or fumble or miss tackles and not miss blocks and we should have 32 16-0 teams by the end of the season

    Edit Comment Cancel

    ...

    Reply
    Great Comment (
    0
    )
    ...
  5. ...

    Maybe you guys need to take Jimmy Kimmel's advice and purchase NFL Sunday Ticket so you can see ALL the games and stop talking out of your asses. My point in this post was that, right now, the Cowboys are THE best team in football (I'm not the only one who believes that either) and if they play complete games, and wrap up their tackles, FOOTBALL 101, they will remain that way into the playoffs.

    10 other teams? Really? I just talked about the Cowboys. This post had nothing to do with other teams, except talking about the teams the Cowboys play and how the Cowboys can OR HAVE attacked those teams. Other teams have other problems. The Patriots have an awful quarterback. The Colts have had injuries and their players have looked slow, etc.

    I wasn't trying to reinvent the wheel with this post and diagnose the cure to fixing every team. I have watched three Dallas Cowboys games and I commented on what I saw in THOSE games. It's pretty straight and simple and it's not like I'm the only one who feels this way.

    But go ahead and send those letters. If you could hand deliver them to every team, that would be even better. Thanks.

    Edit Comment Cancel

    ...

    Reply
    Great Comment (
    0
    )
    ...
  6. ...

    Maybe you guys need to take Jimmy Kimmel's advice and purchase NFL Sunday Ticket so you can see ALL the games and stop talking out of your asses. My point in this post was that, right now, the Cowboys are THE best team in football (I'm not the only one who believes that either) and if they play complete games, and wrap up their tackles, FOOTBALL 101, they will remain that way into the playoffs.

    10 other teams? Really? I just talked about the Cowboys. This post had nothing to do with other teams, except talking about the teams the Cowboys play and how the Cowboys can OR HAVE attacked those teams. Other teams have other problems. The Patriots have an awful quarterback. The Colts have had injuries and their players have looked slow, etc.

    I wasn't trying to reinvent the wheel with this post and diagnose the cure to fixing every team. I have watched three Dallas Cowboys games and I commented on what I saw in THOSE games. It's pretty straight and simple and it's not like I'm the only one who feels this way.

    But go ahead and send those letters. If you could hand deliver them to every team, that would be even better. Thanks.

    Edit Comment Cancel

    ...

    Reply
    Great Comment (
    0
    )
    ...

Leave a Comment

  • You must register to post a comment.

  • Want to write for Bleacher Report

    We are a community of fans who write about sports. And we're growing.

    Learn More and Sign Up »



    Certain photos copyright © 2009 by Getty Images.
    Any commercial use or distribution without the express written consent of Getty Images is strictly prohibited.