pblloyd's Blog

Well, one thing for me is obvious...the Dallas Cowboys are a very good, but very young, football team and they are nowhere near the best of the best in the NFL.  That honor goes to the Patriots and the Colts.  No doubt the Cowboys have nothing to hang their heads about when they fought New England pretty evenly through 3 quarters before running out of gas in the 4th in a 21-point loss.  There's no shame in losing to a team that has been there, done that.  Can the Cowboys reach that best of the best status before the year is done?  I think they can, but there are some things they need to work on first.  For me, if I were Coach Wade Phillips, I would be concerned about my pass defense and my 3rd-down defense.  DeMarcus Ware and Greg Ellis cannot be the only pass-rushers up front.  There must be some blitzing schemes and other people step up to put pressure on the quarterback.  Ellis and Ware can't do it all.  Also, they have to address their growing problems in the secondary, most notably their safeties, who got burned time and again by the precise routes of the Patriots receivers and the accuracy of Tom Brady.  Their safeties have got to improve their read-and-react aspects of their games.  They are getting to receivers too late and are paying the price.  And by the way, didn't they get burned almost the same way by Giants receiver Plaxico Burress in the season opener?  Burress had 3 touchdown catches.  Just some more food for thought.
And what about their 3rd-down defense?  The Patriots were 11 of 17 on 3rd down conversions and you can't keep giving great teams continuous opportunities for their offense to stay on the field to where they can put points on the board.  After watching the Minnesota game, I saw something else the Cowboys have to work on and that is taking care of the ball when they have it on offense.  The Vikings had 2 defensive returns for TDs (one was called back) and if you're going to be an elite team in the NFL, you must cut down or eliminate turnovers. The Cowboys are still my pick to represent the NFC in the Super Bowl and we will find out a lot more about them, especially in the next couple of weeks when they have to go to Philadelphia and then to New York to play a Giants team that is on a serious roll right now having won 5 in a row with their defense recording about 50 sacks (I'm just kidding but it seems like that many).  And let's not forget that Green Bay is on their schedule late in the season, too, along with a much-improved Washington team. I think as I close this blog entry I need to inform everyone that I am not the biggest of Cowboys fans.  I just think they're the best team in the NFC right now, barely edging out the Giants and Packers.