GAME DAY THREAD!!! GO COWBOYS!! DIVISIONAL PLAYOFFS!

[Dr.Zoidberg]

BLOGFISH
'Welcome To Dallas. Welcome To Choke City.'

The 2005-06 Dallas Stars were a highly-seeded, heavily favored division champion. … that lost a shocker in the first round of the NHL Playoffs.

The 2006-07 Dallas Mavericks were a highly-seeded, heavily-favored conference champion. … that lost a shocker in the first round of the NBA Playoffs.

And now, the 2007-08 Dallas Cowboys are a highly-seedly, heavily-favored conference champion. … that lost a shocker in the first round of the NFL Playoffs.

Taking nothing away from the respective excellence of the Colorado Avalanche, the Golden State Warriors and the New York Giants, but. … we just might be cursed. Doomed. Damned.

Fate has done it to us in three consecutive years. With all three franchises that matter. After three of the most brilliant regular seasons possible. Those Stars were 53-23-6, the second-best record in the sport. These Cowboys were 13-3, the second-best record in the sport. Those Mavericks were 67-15, the best record in the sport.

Three years. Three franchises. Three wondrous regular seasons. Followed by three epic upset failures.

It pains me to say this because I get great pleasure from covering and/or rooting for the Stars, Cowboys and Mavs. It pains me to say this because I enjoy my homerism. It pains me to say this, because the concept I believe in is that the best team (on that day, anyway) ALWAYS wins.

But the evidence keeps rolling in.

We just might be Choke City.

1038pm jan 13 2008

Link


TO THE BEACH
By Mike Fisher -- DB.com


It made for a cute-‘n’-snarky New York-generated storyline: The Cowboys’ identity is based on guys who sleep in Michael Jacksonesque oxygen beds, guys who bask in the arrogant glory of being “America’s Team,’’ guys who almost spent the week on the Physically-Unable-To-Perform list because they were busy digging the beach sand from their butt cracks.

It's "an All-Pro Team vs. an All-Joe Team," said New York’s Antonio Pierce as his way of previewing Sunday’s Giants-at-Cowboys playoff game.


Agreed teammate Osi Umenyiora: “To be honest with you, it (bothers the Giants) because I'm not sure that they have that many better players than we do."

Well, sorry, New York. … but Dallas DOES have that many players better than you.

But, sorry, Dallas. … New York performed better than you, advancing to the NFC Championship Game with a 21-17 upset win Sunday at Texas Stadium.

“We thought this was two evenly-matched teams,’’ said Dallas quarterback Tony Romo, now the face of the top love-‘em-or-hate-‘em franchise in sports.

“But we thought we were a little better.’’

There is no way to establish that there was any adverse effect on this game resulting from the headline-grabbing activities of Romo and Owens and the ‘Boys, or coach Wade Phillips’ oh-fer postseason history, or Dallas’ now-annual December dropoff.

Terrell Owens wept as he tried to explain that to the media after the game.

“We came up short today, but we’re still a team,’’ he said, becoming teary-eyed as the discussion turned to Romo and his much-publicized decision to spent some off-days in Cancun with Jessica Simpson. “You guys can point the finger at him, you can talk about the vacation, and if you do that it’s really unfair, really unfair.

“That’s my teammate, that’s my quarterback, and if you guys do that it’s unfair.

It’s unfair. We lost as a team. We lost as a team. … We didn’t execute. We knew to win this game we had to put some points on the board and we didn’t do that.’’

Owens is correct. It is most logical to suggest that the Giants showed up for the second half. And that the Cowboys did not.

Of course, that logical approach won’t keep people from wondering about how the hell this happened. … and we will wonder it FOREVER.

“I don’t (have) regrets,’’ said a despondent Romo, who handled his media session with great class. “I won’t be hearing about it because I don’t read or listen (to the media), that’s just the way I operate. … But it’s going to be a tough week. … and I’ll take the blame.’’

It took two-and-a-half games, but New York finally found a way to bother Romo; in two previous meetings, he’d been sacked a total of two times, but in the second half of this game, he carried around New York pass-rushers like they were 270-pound fanny packs. New York found a solution to Owens, who had zero second-half catches despite running routes against Giant second-teamers. (“He got doubled a lot at the end,’’ Romo said.) And New York found a solution to Marion Barber, the freshly-minted starter who rushed for 101 in the first half but joined his offensive line by fading in the second.

Result? Dallas scores three points in the final two quarters.

And now? Romo has appeared in two career playoff games. He ended his first by fumbling a probable game-winning snap. He ended this one with a bad interception. Phillips is 0-4 as a playoff coach, this time a loser as a home-field 7.5-point favorite. Dallas is the first NFC No. 1 seed to lose an opening game since the present structure began in 1990, and has now gone since 1996 without winning a playoff game.

Yet. …

The Cowboys outgained NY 336 to 230. They out-possessed 36:30 to 23:30. They limited the Giants to three scores. And they had the ball in Giants territory, poised for the game-winning TD, TWICE in the final four minutes.

But, as Phillips said, “we didn’t play well enough. And we didn’t coach well enough.’’

The critics this week got a lot of mileage out of Romessica, of T.O.’s unorthodox behavior and the Cowboys’ overall glitz. It’s funny that nobody seemed to notice the opponent’s pastimes. QB Eli Manning is now busying himself peddling Oreos. Defensive end Michael Strahan seems to allow himself to be interviewed by Pam Oliver 24 hours a day. (If Strahan would’ve spent as much time with his missus as he spends blabbering to Pam, he might have avoided that pricy divorce.) And isn’t this the same Giants squad that birthed obnoxious attention hog Tiki Barber?

That may be the best evidence in support of the argument that silly storylines really don’t matter – because the Giants have plenty of silly storylines themselves, and THEY somehow won. The essence of the Cowboys isn’t about who Romo and Witten double-date, any more than the essence of the Giants is about what Manning double-stuffs.

But it’s over now. The Giants have a pass to go to the NFC Championship Game in Green Bay. And the whole of America’s Team can go to bed. Or to the beach.

821pm jan 13 2008

Link

[Underdog]

LEAVE ROMO ALONE!!!


(I never thought I'd see TO crying in defense of his quarterback, of all people...)

[Flacolaco]

Originally Posted by u2sarajevo

I just can't take much more of this as a Dallas sport fan.

It's just killing me. I pour my heart into caring for a team and get that heart broken all the damn time.

All the time.

I don't even want to care anymore.

I was re-reading the entire GDT. What a roller coaster.

But u2 summed it up for the Dallas sports fan.

[Tokey41]

I'm not a Cowboys fan but was really hoping to see another Cowboys/Packers game, I was shocked that the Giants pulled this one off.

Ah well, guess it will be Green Bay who gets decimated by New England. I think it will be a much more compelling Superbowl than New England and Dallas anyway (for people outside of Dallas that is), with the Pats being portrayed as the evil unstoppable juggernaut going against the legendary Brett Farve making one final run at the championship. Thats the stuff of fairytales, except the heroes don't usually get decimated by the juggernaut. Just telling it like it is...

[rabbitproof]

http://abcnews.go.com/Sports/story?id=4132194&page=1

Haha. Silly.

[sike]

my sports pants are so impotent right now...I've just got no taste for sports right now...

freakin LOST needs to come back