Blogs like a girl

My BCS Standings -- Blame Championship Series

Blame, blame, blame and then assess a little more blame.
Blame everybody. Blame anybody.
Welcome to life after a collossal collapse of a playoff loss by your Dallas Cowboys. Everybody is looking for a "why" and nobody is sacred. Nor should anybody be after what we witnessed Sunday. In our weekly blogcast, Mr. Randy called this "a gutless pig collapse". This is a favorite term of his and normally "gutless" scares me away from dropping that label on teams. I had a hard time arguing with this assesment on Tuesday.
"Why" has been harder to come by, with so many candidates.
So I decided, college-football style and with your help, to rank blame candidates according to what we think most cost this team. This is my initial Blame Championship Series poll.

1. Coach Wade. He insisted nothing was wrong for a month. He was wrong. This failure to both note and correct said problem earns him the top spot.
2. Pat Crayton. Note to Pat, never, never, never quit on the route. Ever.
3. Casual approach to December troubles. Anybody who was paying attention saw this Cowboys team nosediving in December. Yet, for some inexplicable reason, much of Valley Ranch pretended this was a negative media conspiracy rather than real life. Maybe, they thought they could turn whatever was off come playoff time. They couldn't. This is what ultimately did them in.
4. Jacques Reeves and Roy Willy. You do not have to be a football genius to know what led every playbook of Cowboys opponents. The play was called: When JR and RW are on the field, go after them.
5. Conservative play calling. The Cowboys had won this year by flinging the ball all over the place. So why exactly did The Redheaded Genius go Ann Coulter-conservative in the playoff game?
6. Bill Parcells. He was why the Cowboys struggled in December, right? Seems I heard a lot of players and many media types saying this. So obviously he had his Jedi Mind Trick working from Miami.
7. Lack of discipline. Playoff games are all about who makes the fewest mistakes. And for some reason, this Cowboys team blinked first in this regard. Costing themselves an NFC Championship berth by failing to play smart football.
8. The offensive line. Oh my were they bad.

Your list may look different. You may be like the guy who emailed me blaming Terry Glenn. (Please do not be like that guy. Please.) Or maybe you blame Jessica or Romo or all of the assistant coaches interviewing for jobs or Jerry Jones. It is your right.
Just post your Top 5 Blame rankings and I'll compile a final poll.

Sign No. 457 This Cowboys Team Has Gone Hollywood

Always amusing when soulful crooner and Jess-ex, John Mayer, jumps in bloggy style on who Cowboy fans need to be blaming after Sunday's choke-artist loss to NYG. And, yes, that's Mayer carrying Jess on what I hope is a different beach vacation.

He's disappointed in Cowboys fans for blaming Jessica Simpson for Romo's woes despite all evidence suggesting he played pretty OK in this playoff game.
Mayer's blog begins Dear Dallas and Surrounding Areas:

"I have never known anyone to have more pride in their home state and their upbringing in it than Jessica Simpson has in Texas. I don't really follow sports, but I have played some of my biggest and best concerts in your state, and having witnessed how dynamic the spirit there is, I'm betting emotions are running high right about now. All witty barbs, blogs, and fashion policing aside, that girl loves Texas more than you know. It's one of her most defining traits as a person. So please don't try and take that away from her. (You probably wouldn't be able to, but it's less work for all involved.)"

Apparently, Mayer lacks basic sports IQ and fails to read Blogs Like A Girl because everybody, or almost everybody, is so over blaming Jessica. Anybody who watched Sunday's game realized Romo could have gone to Cabo with Big Bill, Vince Lombardi, The Redheaded Genius and a playbook and it might not have helped the Cowboys.
Everything was off.
So Jessica is off the hook but don't forget my BCS -- Blame Championship Standings -- will be released later today with all of y'all having a chance to submit your Top 5 blames for Sunday's choke job.

In Defense Of Bradie James

Cowboys linebacker Bradie James stepped into a mess Monday.
He went after us, your friendly neighborhood media types, and many of my good friends took him to task for said gaffe.

His "offending" quote was:

It's up to you guys to sell papers and to those other things and be negative. I thought from a media standpoint, we had a lot of local guys who were going against us, and we didn't understand that."

Just in case my "In Defense Of Bradie James" title failed to convey this, I have no problem with what Bradie said. I do not believe he was not trying to say the media was why the team lost to the Giants. He was being honest, saying kind of what T.O. said just without tears, about how Romo-Jess coverage had bothered them. Because, despite what many players and coaches say, they read.
Should Bradie have gone there? Probably not.
In black and white, without context, his comments sound a little like a Coach Wade excuse.

Therein lies my bigger problem with this Bradie backlash. He was at least out there, with his heart breaking on his sleeve, emotional, trying to answer questions that really have no answers because he understands that Cowboy fan want to know what went wrong. And yet we bash him for speaking his mind and I'm including everybody in this. I heard my favorite 3-6 sports-talk host cracking on Bradie a little during the Football Firing Line on Monday.
In reality, players like Bradie, Jason Witten, Greg Ellis, Pat Cratyon and a few assorted others deserve credit for speaking. You don't think PCrayton wanted to duck? He knew what was coming and he hung in anyway because that's what stand-up guys do.

Bonus points for Tony Romo and T.O. and Terence Newman and Marcus Spears and Leonard Davis, players who spoke after Sunday's game rather than gutlessly ducking what everybody knew were hard questions. This lead comes from Owners Jones, always willing to be face a firing squad of microphones. He understands accountability to fans.

If anybody deserves bashing for Monday, it was the guys who hid in the training room, leaving their teammates to answer for their screw ups. Yes, I'm talking to Roy Willy and Marion Barber and Andre Gurode, Ken Hamlin, Anthony, Henry, Julius Jones, DeMarcus Ware, Flozell Adams and on and on. So I have a really hard time having a problem with what Bradie said when so many said nothing.

 

The Dilemma

By now, everybody has joined ESPNTV's Ed Werder in reporting Baltimore is asking Jason Garrett to choose.
Here or there.
Them or us.
Right now or possibly later.
Of course, by doing so, your friendly, underachieving Ravens also have forced Owner Jones to choose as well. He responded resolutely when I talked to him Sunday in an emotionally charged aftermath of another Cowboys playoff failure. Coach Wade stays, he said, and to suggest otherwise was foolish. He provided himself with zero wiggle room, no caveats, no reminders that opinions change.
And no he has a choice, too:

Option 1: Keep Coach Wade. Let JG walk. And possibly be coach-less if Coach Wade fails again in playoff time next season.
Option 2: Fire Coach Wade. Hire JG.
Option 3: Keep Coach Wade. And hope like hell a truckload of cash, a wink-wink, nod-nod promise that he replaces Coach Wade and The Star keep JG in Texas.

I am torn between Options 1 and 2.
Just a brief explainer on why Option 3 is no-go in my mind. I hate "The Promise" to a coach on so many levels, namely what happens if Dallas gags again next season and JG has another "ish" play-calling day? Do you go back on your word? Or do you keep a guy who faith has been lost in? Nor does this even talk about what a joke this kind of deal makes of The Rooney Rule. And, of course, this sets up an almost weekly game of how long until JG replaces Coach Wade. After an ugly loss in Week 1? After a four-game losing streak? After a Super Bowl victory?

No, Owner Jones needs to decide and, if he's anything like me, he's torn.
Letting the redheaded genius go is the height of stupidity. Dallas has a young, up-and-coming coach who is a big reason why this team was 13-3. Owner Jones was smart enough to pry him from Miami and to let him go now, to watch another team benefit from him seems like such a gamble.

As I type this, though, I see Coach Wade and he's asking "What about me?"
Do I really deserve Cam Cameron treatment? After 13 victories?
And so as many questions as I have about whether he's capable of winning a Super Bowl for this team, whether he has enough butt kicker in him, firing his butt after this season seems a little unfair.

Of course, I will not rip Owner Jones too much if he does. I'm just glad I am not him. This is a very difficult decision with every Option having flaws.

Your turn: Advise Jerry. Which option do you think is the right one?
   

Monday Musings -- Part II

Late-night sometime-funnyman Jay Leno devoted a little sliver of his monologue Monday to cracking on QB Tony Romo and his latest playoff misfortune.

Actually, playing footage of T.O.'s crying defense of Romo drew Leno's biggest laugh. If somewhat unintientionally. He explained T.O. had been defending Romo from accusations that his Mexican tryst with Jessica Simpson had hindered his performance.

"I've got footage of their vacation in Mexico," he joked, flashing to scenes from of a cheesy 1950s Gidgette-type beach flick featuring a goofy dancing dude with blonde eye candy.

It's official. Romo is a punchline.

And get ready, Tony, because Leno is just the beginning.

He is about to find what life under the microscope is like, what going from The Next Roger to Tony Romeo is like, what being kicked in the man-parts is like.

Until about 12 seconds ago, Romo had been a universal feel-good story: a Cowboy fan favorite as well as media darling because of how much playing football seemed to mean to him and how good he was at making this game look easy.

And as an added bonus, he helped this Cowboys team win. A lot.

His happy train screeched to a halt Sunday when he lost his second straight playoff game as a starter.

What happened a year ago in Seattle was hardly an indictment of his QBing skills, an unlucky bounce really. And this season's loss to NYG had many culprits with Romo being way down in the blame-game rankings.

BTW, I will release how I voted in the blame-game poll Wednesday. And Romo is nowhere near my No. 1.
I am pretty much alone on this. By Monday, Romo had become a favorite punching bag of many local media types as well as national sports blog joke fodder and a welcome break from Britney for celebugossip blogs.

Even Eva Longoria jumped in with a little bit of advice for Tony and Jess.

Is this fair to Romo? Hardly.

He actually played a fairly decent game in Sunday's loss. He had his ugly moments, most notably his final pass where he had time yet forced the ball to a blanketed Terry Glenn. Mostly, though, he had zero second-half protection and spent Sunday's crucial moments battling frustration and blitzing Giants and awful drops and a player quitting on a route and abysmal penalties.

I'd also argue that doubt about whether his mind is right with ball is misplaced. Anybody who knows Romo, even tangentially, understands how badly this kid wants to be good and how hard he works to be so.

"Tony's personality, if you don't really know him, you might say he's not putting everything in, he's worried about other things, he's a celebrity quarterback and all," his best friend and tight end Jason Witten said. "But that's the furthest from the truth. More than anybody I've been around, Tony had the competitiveness to win and want to win and he has the ability to put everybody else in positions to be successful."

He brought some of this on himself, though, and that is not a criticism of his bye-weekend vacation or blaming Jessica for 21-17 to NYG. This is just a byproduct of a famous person dating a famous-er person and creating a famous-est couple requiring name smooshing like happened with Bennifer.

Is this Jessomo?

Or Jomo? Or Tessica?

Who cares? Nobody would except the Cowboys did not win a game they absolutely should have seeing as they were the better and healthier team, and they were playing at home. Aikman summarized Romo's dilemma perfectly when he noted during the broadcast: "If they do not go on to win this game, he has opened himself up to a lot of criticism."

Romo has lost a little of his accumulated goodwill with many Cowboys fans who feel like he's become more interested in being famous than winning a Super Bowl. They are used to Aikman who seemed to burn with a singular focus until he had a ring which then led to his famous-dating days.

Romo, of course, has a right to his private life.

He can date whoever, wherever. He just has to realize by his very public doings during his bye weekend
by putting himself out there he has added pressure to his already laden shoulders.

It wasn't wrong. It just was not smart.

And I blame Coach Wade for this a little. Sometimes the job of the coach is to save players from themselves. He probably needed to tell Romo that, while reality is reality, he probably does not want to create a perception that his mind is on anything except football.

Especially not a publicity hungry starlet.

He realizes this, I think. He seemed to tip his hand a little Sunday with his postgame remarks. He noted that he did not live with regrets and he's comfortable in his skin yet his word choice suggested he may choose differently if presented with such public plans next time.

He said "when I made the choice in those things, I felt like I was making a good decision."

I believe he really did think he was doing the right thing. It might have been, if they had won.

"I told you this was going to happen," Coach Wade said Monday. "If you lose, it's something like that. If you win, it wouldn't have been."

They did not win. And as usually happens, a lot of eyes turn to the quarterback. He is supposed to be the leader of the team and thereby held to a higher standard. He, along with the coach, is the guy everybody talks about when a team fails to win playoff games.

And it only gets harder from here for Romo.

Every year he doesn't win, the questions build about if he can, getting louder and louder until doubt itself becomes another thing he has to overcome. Just ask Coach Wade or Peyton Manning or John Elway. The monkey just shows up one day and everybody starts asking about him and wondering if the guy really can win the big one.

I have no doubt Romo can. And will.

What is frustrating is this year was set up perfectly for him and the Cowboys, with the bye and home-field and this is why the disappointment was so much worse than a year ago and why everybody is looking for reasons why this happened.

"It's been kind of bad luck for him that he can't win the big game," Witten said. "I don't think it's to that point with Tony. Obviously, he's put a lot of pressure on himself to like he has to be a leader and get us over the hump but I don't think that he feels like he can't win a playoff game."

And if Leno's perception comes to be seen as reality, the joke is he is too busy fawning over Jessica to care anyway.

Monday Musings -- Part I

So much for December not meaning anything.

This team had been in a long, slow, gradual decline ever since Green Bay. And while plenty of time remains for postmortems and autopsies. My trusty reporter's notebook was working overtime Sunday with problems I saw and reasons why this Cowboys team gagged away another playoff opportunity.

Let’s start with a sliver of good news: Chances of the redheaded genius leaving for another NFL job probably decreased, exponentially with every snap Sunday. If he’s even asked. Doubt certainly has surfaced after his performance against NYG.
Jason Garrett inexplicably turned into Bill Parcells.

Speaking of Big Bill: A few Cowboy players very obviously owe him an apology.
He was blamed for anything and everything, including global warming and a lack of Cowboy playoff victories. And when he bolted, everything supposedly was fixed.
Sunday basically debunked a popular offseason myth that his hard-driving style being what held this team back in Decembers past and in playoff games.

Tread carefully: The Barbarian had a really impressive game Sunday, gaining tough and physical yards as he owned the first half. It is the kind of running that leads to silliness like calling him feature-back material.
He lacks the breakaway speed necessary, the wiggle the great ones all possess and his style is prone to wearing down. In a season. And in a game. Just look at his Sunday numbers:
* First half: 16 carries, 100 yards.
* Second half: 11 carries, 29 yards.
What everybody learned is Barber is not nearly as dominating when he’s not a fresh set of legs going against an exhausted defense. Nor should his missed block be ignored. Obviously, he’s back and a big player. He just has to be part of a tandem.

From the “Tell Us What You Really Think” files: Giants players obviously took umbrage to Patrick Crayton’s trash talk and T.O.’s repeated use of that stupid popcorn line.
So defensive end Michael Strahan taught them a lesson in how to really do trash talk.
“We hope T.O. has his popcorn ready,” he said. “Maybe him and Crayton can sit in his home theater and watch us next week.”
Not to be outdone, Giants running back Brandon Jacobs also took shots at his big-mouthed nemesis, Patrick Crayton. He had been talking all week, all season really, including a few pointed jabs at Jacobs. He responded with his
“The Cowboys are a great football team,” he said. “They might have had a chance to win if Patrick Crayton didn't drop the two key passes. There was a lot of talk. But it’s over with. We won the game. They're chillin’ and we're going to Green Bay next week."
Unfortunately, for Crayton, he has to just shut up and take this. He has zero room to talk after his game that included a huge drop and giving up on a route, the Cowboys second-to-last play.

Why football is not hockey: Captain means something in hockey. It means when the worst happens, when a team loses unexpectedly, said players steps up and talks.
None of the Cowboys captains talked Sunday. Nor were they alone.
Too many players took the gutless way out and left a few stand-up guys to answer for what happened. Terence Newman, Tony Romo, T.O. and a few others had to handle everything. And that is not fair.
Crayton needs to be especially shame-faced since he talked all week and had plenty of explaining to do for his drop and for quitting on that second-to-last route.

See ya, Jacques Reeves: Can you take Roy Willy with you?
All kidding aside, this is a serious issue for this team. What to do with Roy, not Reeves. He really is gone. Roy. His money makes cutting him unlikely.It is not so easy with
His almost complete transformation into a non-factor makes him untradeable. He had a tackle Sunday, one, in limited duty. He has been the pink elephant in the room all season.

Adding insult to injury: Antonio Cromartie, the Chargers cornerback who was causing fits for Peyton Manning while Reeves and Co. were getting torched, was taken with the No. 19 pick in 2006.
Or with the pick right after the Cowboys took Bobby Carpenter.

Miss you, Bruce DeHaven: The Cowboys special teams were garbage Sunday, except for kicker Nick Folk and punter Mat McBriar, two players who basically took care of themselves.

Lies and statistics: Nobody loves stats more than Coach Wade. He has a statistical rebuttal for every criticism for his team, all year. So he had to love Sunday’s Giants game where the Cowboys dominated every stat except the final score.
Stats were good offensively.
Stats were pretty good defensively.
The problem was the Cowboys just were not that good. Period.

The exception: The Cowboys have scored four touchdowns in the last sixteen quarters. Talk about the stat that made the difference.

Housekeeping notes: Look for further Monday Musings, especially Romo-related later ones, this afternoon as well as my Page 2 column in Tuesday's paper. Lots of good locker room stuff, as well as Coach Wade, to come.

Monday Musings

I try not to be purposefully controversial in this space. I always hated those columnists growing up, the ones who said the opposite of what everybody knew to be true not because they believed it but rather to be unique.

So I truly mean this when I say: Don't underestimate the Giants.

Reading my esteemed Star-Telecolleague, Charean's offering, this a.m., had me thinking I had watched a different game than her and apparently everybody else. Popular opinion seems to be landing an Eli Manning-led Giants team rather than say 'Skin or Buc' was a fortuitous bounce, a layup drill into the NFC Championship game.

Coach Wade even floated possibly holding T.O. against NYG in preparation for a possible NFC Championship game, like a date with Green Bay is a foregone conclusion.

Say what?

Let's forgo another long, tedious debate on Cowboys and December and whether this team is indeed rolling into playoff time or stumbling. Instead, let's spend a minute on NYG and specifically the other Manning. He looked good to me Sunday, surprisingly good actually, especially when compared to Todd "Oh, That's Why I Sat For So Long" Collins and Jeff "Never Won Squat" Garcia. Obviously, in light of where he had been drafted and what N.Y. gave up to land him, Eli came with bigger expectations than Tweedle Bum and Tweedle Bummer.

And Eli failed all of them. Or he had been until Sunday.

He had been basically been written off, including by yours truly, as a JAG, Just A Guy, after losing to Dallas in November and very rarely do road playoff teams win with JAGs as QBs. Winning playoff games period with such QBs is crazy talk, the Trent Dilfer exception notwithstanding.

And all of this sounds really good for Cowboys chances on Sunday except Eli did not play like a JAG in Tampa. In fact, I daresay he looked a little Phil Simms-ish against a very good Bucs defense, underwhelming raw numbers yet an impressive enough game to free himself from N.Y. media buzzards at least until he reverts to disappointing form in Dallas.

Anybody banking on early or easy capitulation by New York or Eli is sadly mistaken, despite what is being sold locally and by Vegas oddsmakers this morning.

Not many Cowboy players showed for locker room time Monday. Those who did, though, say this Giants team bares very little resemblance to the one they saw in November and Eli's resurrection is Reason 1 behind this turnaround. In fact, linebacker DeMarcus Ware's exact words were "Not at all" followed by a lot of Eli love.

And, unlike certain "What me, worry? We're 13-3" voices at Valley Ranch, players admitted this team was not playing its best in December. As Ware noted, however, how a team is plays in January is what matters. And how this team plays against Eli has a huge bearing on how they play period.

A couple of Cowboys coaches said you usually get a good idea what kind of game you are going to get from the other Manning by how he handles the first two series. If he is nervous or off early, it has a tendency to lead to a funk that lasts all game. Whereas if Eli has a little success early, he tends to build on this.

And if this happens, this is not a Giants team to be taken lightly.

 

As Tony Romo Turns

Seeing as for many of you PopSugar.com may not be a bookmarked web address, as it is with me, you may have missed details from Cowboys QB Tony Romo's big weekend with Jessica Simpson.
In LA.

For a birthday party.

Walking in with JSimp.

Notice that blond walking ahead of him, ready to go up the stairs, that is Simpson and all reports are that she is in love. Remember, of course, Romo apparently spent a late Thanksgiving with the Simpson clan.

Unfortunately or luckily, depending on your perspective, the lovebirds are not going to be able to spend as much time together with the Cowboys playing weekend games from here on out and that whole little playoff thing likely to take up some of his time.

Of course, I think this definitely vaults Romo ahead of Pats QB Tom Brady in terms of ability to land starlets. Thoughts?

Live From The Alamodome, Part III

In 15 minutes of football, I

* heard at least 10 people go Wizard of Oz on me, saying: "Mizzou, you're not playing Kansas any more." Obviously. And if Kansas ends up playing OU in a fraudulent Fiesta Bowl*, I have an ugly feeling for my Jayhawk friends and spouse.

* watched OU rack up six penalties. Six. Mizzou was the Big 12 virgin and supposed to be prone to such problems, not Oklahoma. Of course, from my vantage, I'm guessing such shenanigans are over because The Stooper just chewed the butts of guilty Sooner and a few innocent bystanders.

* wondered what happened to the Mizzou offense. They are better than this. I know OU's defense is good but this is certainly not the Chase Daniel I have seen all year.

* complained about how loooong TV timeouts are. They absolutely destroy the flow  of a game.

Question Of The Day: The T.O. Edition

This is not to bash T.O. for his inexcusable bobble that led to an interception in the end zone. That has been handled here and probably 1,000 other places that I am too lazy to look up.

It was a stupidly bad play by T.O.
He also had seven catches for 156 yards and a touchdown Thursday.

This dichotomy leads to the inevitable brain squeeze of which portion of his performance sticks in your brain, the screw ups or the dominance. Again. I am leaning toward his dominance but I probably could be swayed by a good argument.

Your turn: Which part of T.O.'s Pack performance stands out to you?