Dallas Cowboys: Beyond the Distractions

The Dallas Cowboys are favored by Las Vegas odds-makers and several football pundits to win the Lombardi Trophy this year. But before Jerry Jones can start making room in his trophy case, Wade Phillips is going to need to address some key issues on his football team.

We can—and will—talk until we are blue in the face about the emotional status of Terrell Owens. We can plan Tony and Jessica's wedding and honeymoon. If we're lucky, we'll even get some footage.

These things are distractions.

If the Cowboys want to win in January, they will need to do three things: take better care of the football, run the ball consistently, and make more plays in the defensive backfield.

Butterfingers

The Cowboys have fumbled the football nine times this season. That's more than Detroit's six and Houston's eight. The Cowboys are tied with the terrible Bengals in this statistic.

Tony Romo isn't doing the team any favors by averaging over one interception per game on top of that.

The Cowboys have enough offensive firepower to overcome turnovers, but that's no reason for them to try to lead the league in fumbles and win the Super Bowl in the same year. Choose a goal.

Cowboys fans know the price of costly fumbles in January all too well.

Work on the problem now, please, Mr. Phillips.

Stuffed

When the Cowboys have run the ball well this year, they have looked unstoppable. When the running game struggles, the team struggles with it. They rushed the ball only 11 times for 45 yards in their loss to Washington.

Clinton Portis walked all over the defense for 121 yards. If the Cowboys allow other teams to control the clock on them, it will bite them come playoff time.

If the rushing attack can't close games out, we're going to see more blown leads in big D. And no new trophies.

Toast

The Dallas Cowboys' defense has produced one interception this season. The one lonely pick was by Greg Ellis, a defensive lineman.

While producing no interceptions, the secondary has allowed 50+ yard completions to Santana Moss, Donald Driver, and DeSean Jackson. If they continue to get burned like this, it will be a short playoff run indeed.

Now What?

When you put it all together, you have a team that is susceptible to the big play, careless with the football, and runs the ball well every other week.

The Cowboys are going to need to play better than that if they expect to bring home any hardware this season.