The Dallas Cowboys are 4-1 for the first time in six years. If they had not made so many mistakes, they’d be 5-0.
They have tied a franchise record for largest comeback (down 24 against the Rams), and Tony Romo made JJ Watt look like overly aggressive high school player as he sidestepped the pass rusher and threw a touchdown bomb to Terence Williams.
This Dallas team is playing out of its mind and beyond what they should be doing. And that’s exactly why so many Cowboys fans are bracing themselves for the other shoe to drop.
Since 2010, Cowboys fans have saw a football soap opera. All that’s missing is the plastic DD nurse, some putrid acting, and a gun-toting lunatic. It begins with a team fresh off a playoff win and an 11-5 season starting their season 1-6 before a Monday Night showdown with the Green Bay Packers.
After being thoroughly shattered like fallen China from the Empire State Building with a 45-7 score, Jerry Jones didn’t wait till the ink was dry on the pink slip to announce that Wade Phillips was out and Jason Garrett was in. The team went through a profound culture change. They went 5-3 to end the season and the three losses came by margins of 3, 3, and 1 point(s) respectively.
Garrett reminded me of a quote Greg Buttle said about Bill Parcells, “That’s [his] trademark. We will have a chance to win,” and it fit Garrett like a glove.
Because that season started out 1-7 but ended 6-10, the fans felt butterflies about the future. Surely the team will get more talent, Romo will come back, and those games they lose by a field goal margin will turn into victories. Cowboys are coming back baby. That was the rough draft of the 2011 NFL season script for Big D faithful.
Three years later, three back-to-back 8-8 seasons later, and three consecutive week 17 playoff chances later, the Cowboys have had the same finale storyline. Win and get in the bracket or lose and go home.
All three were losses with the pie sliced evenly; a different division rival ending an up-and-down season over the last three years. It became easy to mock the Cowboys when they kept fulfilling the ‘So close yet so far’ paradigm.
It also became easy to not get excited about the season. To not get one’s hopes up. To pay less attention because who wants that kind of pain? As a society, we go to sports to escape the heartbreak of life. After those three games, some fans would’ve smiled at open heart surgery.
So rest of the world, you can go ahead and smile or frown at the Cowboys 4-1 record. You can go ahead and point out the overtime win. Go ahead and note the impressive highlights. Don’t forget that the offensive line has improved to where Romo isn’t a football version of Rocky’s meat bag.
Here’s what I’ll note. This team has had difficulties in the month of December. They blow up in December and their season becomes lost. This is December’s lineup for 2014:
Dec 4: @Chicago (Thursday Night Football)
Dec 14: @Philadelphia
Dec 21: Indianapolis
Dec 28: @Washington
Oh goody! We have three games on the road in cold weather cities and a division rivalry match-up to end the season yet again.
The script is set up. So far, the Cowboys are doing great. Hey, they may even stun us all and go 9-1 into the bye week. That’d be awesome to say the least. But until they aren’t set up in a loser goes home scenario in week 17 or until they win that situation and send the Redskins home, don’t expect a lot of Dallas fans to be excited.
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