I know you're right, but I think I would hope for the best with a 48 game sample size that screams run the ball and try to keep Romo on the bench rather than give up another 400 yards passing and pray we win the shootout.
Hey guys. Wondering if you could please post the espn insider: http://insider.espn.go.com/nfl/scou...der.espn.go.com/nfl/scouting?gameId=300926034 Thanks
let's not underestimate the cowboys. remember last season when they faced the undefeated saints. At that time the girls also weren't playing well but went to NO and beat them.
Drew Litton/ESPN.com The Texans can settle, for now, who's the better team in the state. He's still got the best stadium in sports. And his team's unis are pretty cool, too. He's still got the Ring of Honor and the history made by the iconic figures who've coached and played there. He's still got the star. And he's still got the Dallas Cowboys cheerleaders. But Jerry Jones, for the first time ever, no longer has the baddest NFL team in the state of Texas. That would be the Houston Texans. That's right, the eyes of Texas are not upon the Boys. The team named for the state now owns the state. Or at least bragging rights. Cowboys-Texans Houston has always had an inferiority complex based on its lack of non-chain restaurants and the 610 loop to nowhere. There is reportedly something called the Governor's Cup that is on the line each time the Texans and Cowboys play in the preseason, but no one has seen it in years. Matt Mosley » • Wojciechowski: Early NFL verdicts • Dilfer: Houston has heart • Kuharsky: Belief, Butler, battle • Full coverage: ESPNDallas And those rights will be stamped, validated and deep-fried when the 2-0 Texans put a whuppin' on the 0-2 Cowboys in Sunday's shootout at Reliant Stadium. That sound you hear? It would be Jerry Jones' head exploding. Early-season NFL encounters don't usually mean much more than a W or an L. Even at 0-3, a team can recover and reach the playoffs, though it's only happened five times in league history ('81 Jets, '82 Buccaneers, '92 Chargers '95 Lions and '98 Bills). By contrast, 3-0 teams are almost shoo-ins. Since the league expanded to 12 playoff teams in 1990, more than 75 percent of the 3-0s qualified for the after-party. But enough of sterile data. Neither of these teams is thinking about the playoffs right now. Nor are their fans. Especially Cowboys fans, who are pretty much shell-shocked after going into the season thinking not only that the playoffs were a given (Dallas has qualified three of the past four years, though they've won only two of their past nine playoff games) but also that these Boys might become the first team in NFL history to play in a Super Bowl in their own home stadium. Now, even though (disclaimer alert!) I grew up a Cowboys fan myself, I'm quietly chuckling at the prospect that the Texas team in the Super Bowl just might be the baby-brother-upstart Texans. [+] EnlargeRafael Suanes/US Presswire Mario Williams and the Texans beat the Redskins. The Cowboys did not. Cue another Jerry Jones explosion. The Texans faithful have been waiting for this since 1995 when Houston Oilers owner Bud Adams said he was taking his team to Nashville in three years. But fans were so disgusted they stopped showing up. Because so few did, they disturbed the players on the field, who could often hear them chatting (not cheering) in the stands. It was so bad that Adams was allowed out of his lease a year early and the Oilers were gone. In 2002, the Texans were born without expectations. That gradually changed as the pieces that now anchor this team where cobbled together. Houston native Gary Kubiak, then the offensive coordinator of the Denver Broncos, was hired as head coach after the 2005 season. A few months later, the Texans made jaws drop when, armed with the top pick in the draft, they passed on then-Heisman winner Reggie Bush and Texas quarterback Vince Young (the Heisman runner-up and national champion) for Mario Williams, a defensive end from North Carolina State, who played outside college football's spotlight (in the ACC) for a team that finished an abysmal 3-9. That move (even more so than the acquisition of quarterback Matt Schaub in a trade with Atlanta a year later) was the Texans' do-or-die moment. Now baby brother is doin' it. And it's no fluke. The Texans have stunned Indianapolis and staged a dramatic comeback on the road against Washington. Though Cowboys wide receiver Miles Austin gets more ink (and better celebrity dates), the Texans have the state's best wide receiver in Andre Johnson. And while the Boys have a trio of serviceable running backs (Felix Jones, Marion Barber and Tashard Choice), Jerry Jones would trade them all for Arian Foster, the best back you've never heard of. Undrafted (yes, undrafted), the second-year runner from Tennessee burst out of the gate with 231 yards against the Colts and now leads the league in rushing at this nascent stage with 300 yards. Meanwhile, the Boys are all but shooting blanks on both sides of the ball. In losses to Washington and Chicago. Dallas has scored only one offensive touchdown per game and failed to cause a turnover. To paraphrase a former coach: "Congratulations, Cowboys, you've scored one more touchdown than a bunch of dead men!" Head coach Wade Phillips is sitting on the hottest seat in all of sports. But fingers are also pointing toward Dallas offensive coordinator Jason Garrett, once deemed the head-coach-in-waiting. Now, not so much. Quarterback Tony Romo has thrown an arm-straining 98 passes and handed the ball off to one of the main backs only 40 times. And those three backs have rushed for only 132 yards combined, less than half Foster's total. Mommas, don't let your babies grow up to be cowboys. Willie Nelson didn't originally mean Cowboys, but these days... One Texan by birth finds it all very amusing. Dan Jenkins, the legendary golf writer and observer of all things Texas, is more of a college football fan, but one can't live in Texas and not have an opinion on the Cowboys and this apparent changing of the guard. Bob Levey/Getty Images DeMeco Ryans and the Texans have produced excitement this season. The Cowboys have not."Most people in Texas are college football fans. There are more UT fans by far than Dallas Cowboy fans," he told me from his home in Fort Worth. "More [Texas A&M] Aggies and now more [TCU] Frogs. College football will always be king down here. But I'm kinda tickled by what happened the first two games. What makes you hate the Dallas Cowboys is the media. I don't need to read 12 stories a day on them, and we get stories on them every day of the year. "Plus, every year they're gonna win the Super Bowl. Every year! They lose couple of games and now everyone wants 'em dead." Though he's no Cowboys fan, Jenkins credits Jones for the Boys' success, and particularly for building the team's state-of-the-art $1.3 billion stadium. "It's incredible," he said. But now Jenkins says Jones has to reconstruct his team. "He's gonna have to make some changes," Jenkins said. "Throw out all the coaches, or whatever. And face up to the fact that Romo's not the guy. He's not [Don] Meredith. He's not [Roger] Staubach. And he's sure as hell not [Troy] Aikman. "And hell, they don't have a running back. They don't have a stud." If Jones can survive this weekend in Houston, Jenkins thinks the owner will do what's necessary to at least attempt to regain supremacy in his own state: "He's certainly not stupid. He's certainly stubborn, but they all are."
Meh. When teams go up by a couple of scores and are trying to preserve the lead, they run more and throw less in an effort to run the clock out. And when you're already behind, you throw it more when trying to catch up quickly. With that in mind, it makes a lot of sense that teams run more when they win and throw more when they lose. In week 1, Peyton threw 57 passes and the Colts only rushed 10 times because they were behind the whole game. In week 2 when they were ahead the whole game, Peyton only threw 26 passes and they rushed it 43 times. If we go ahead by a couple of scores, we're going to run it more. If we fall behind by a couple of scores, we're going to throw it more. The number of passes and rushes in wins or losses isn't what determines the result, it's more a result of whether a team was playing from ahead or behind.
http://sports.espn.go.com/dallas/nfl/columns/story?columnist=mosley_matt&id=5606754 Face it: Houston has inferiority complex IRVING, Texas -- Like it or not, the Houston Texans are still looking for validation that only comes with playoff success. They opened Reliant Stadium with great fanfare and a win over the Dallas Cowboys in 2002. But No. 1 overall pick David Carr was ultimately a bust and the organization traded for a Falcons quarterback who had languished behind Michael Vick. Houston has always had an inferiority complex to Dallas based on its lack of non-chain restaurants and the 610 loop to nowhere. There's reportedly something called the Governor's Cup that is on the line each time the Texans and Cowboys play in the preseason, but no one's seen it in years. On Wednesday, I asked Cowboys rookie Dez Bryant if he was familiar with the Governor's Cup. The Lufkin, Texas, native responded with a blank stare and then resumed telling me why Oklahoma State was going to beat Texas in Austin this season. I then asked Martellus Bennett, a Houston native, what he thought about this storied rivalry that features a game every four years. "I'm a Houstonian, but I didn't grow up rooting for certain teams," Bennett said. "But I've always been a fan of [Texans receiver] Andre Johnson, so maybe that counts for something." On a dry erase board outside the locker room, Bennett has requested 20 tickets to the sold-out game for friends and family. He said he had to represent "S.W.A.T.," which stands for Southwest Alief Texas, Bennett's old stomping grounds. He plans to invite 16 of his teammates to his mother's house for red beans and rice Saturday night, but Miles Austin will be left off the list. "I won't let Miles go because my little sister likes him," Bennett told me. "She wanted to know if he broke up with Kim Kardashian the other night, so I put her on the phone with him." Cowboys fans don't really distinguish the Texans from any other AFC team. This is the most important game of the season based on the fact an 0-3 record would be nearly impossible to overcome and likely cause Wade Phillips to tell more random stories about Hank Stram and Jack Buck during news conferences. At 2-0, the Texans can afford to lose this game and still be in the thick of the AFC South race. But that's not something linebacker DeMeco Ryans wants to hear right now. He apparently became sick of all the questions about the Cowboys and wanted local reporters to focus on his team. I wish I had the audio to go along with this quote because it might have some Herm Edwards "we play to win the game" quality. Asked if there was any extra energy on the sideline when the Texans are playing the Cowboys, Ryans said: "Nope. I'm not getting all pumped up just because it's the Cowboys and this and that. It's about the Texans; it's not about the Cowboys. A lot of people try to make a big deal about the Cowboys coming in here and this and that. Well, what about us? What about our team? What about the Texans? I'm not worried about the Cowboys." The Cowboys will face one of the most "enhanced" organizations in the league Sunday afternoon. Left tackle Duane Brown trotted out the tried and true "didn't read the label" excuse for his violation of the league's policy on performance-enhancing drugs (PEDs) and linebacker Brian Cushing apparently worked out so hard that it caused a female fertility drug to show up in his bloodstream. As far as we know, he's not showing yet. This is one of the reasons I avoid weightlifting in general. I've always suspected that the military press could open the door for HCG. Hopefully Texans fans will realize I'm just needling them a bit. Have a pleasant afternoon.
I live in L.A. and the game is actually going to be broadcasted in my area... this Sunday has taken on a whole new level of meaning for me. And fear. Intense, shaking fear. I hate being emotionally involved.
I still believe that this is a game that will won in the trenches on both sides be cause the keys to victory will lie with which team can generate or repel pressure the best. I also feel that the Texans struggled last week because they really don't see that type of defense a lot in the AFC South while it is the norm for the NFC East. I expect the Cowboys to be ready to throw the same types of blitz package at the Texans if they cannot generate pressure with their base defense. As you may recall from my previous posts, I'm not a fan of the ZBS system primarily because of the use of smaller linemen which leaves them vulnerable to a more physical defense like the Cowboys' (when they are playing well). Wade is very good at running this type of pressure defense to devastating effect and unlike the previous two weeks, I fully expect the Cowboys to be focused and not play with their collective heads up their behinds.
Articles like this is what makes me wish the texans kick their ass. It may not be a rivalry amongst player but it sure is amongst fans. espcially houston's cowboy fans. I hate to say this but I wish the cowboys were 2-0 as well. but i guess being 0-2 makes it just if not more interesting
Lol at the article with us being an "enhanced" organization. I hope Bernard Pollard give a real hurting on Tony Romo real bad ^russel peters quote for those that dont know
this is way too personal for me :grin: i want to forward him this thread...but then again, i really don't. honestly, he's one of the funniest, nicest guys you'd ever hope to meet. absolutely the funniest guy in the room, every time. he's a dallas homer through and through...the flip side of the coin of a houston homer like me.
That may be, however, I'm not just speaking out of knee-jerk reaction. I've read Mosley columns for years. No offense, but he sucks.
i can't be objective, honestly. i like the guy way too much. but i certainly don't blame you guys for hating on him for this article, in particular. he heard it from me, yesterday.
Jerry can't save his season by firing Wade Phillips at this point. Damage done. You needed a coach with the mental capacity above elementary school level running camp and preseason. Now you've got a sloppy, disorganized, lackadaisical, unprepared squad fumbling around on the field. There's no fixing that mid-season. Mid-season changes only work if the issue is motivation or if the team quit on the current coach. At this point, he may as well just promote Garrett, let him fail too, fire him in January and make a push for Cowher (assuming he can swallow his pride and bring in a coach that demands team authority and autonomy). Evan
