Dallas Cowboys And The Annual Bye Week Hysterics
The Dallas Cowboys are 7-3 heading into the 2014 bye week, which is a fun change as head coach Jason Garrett has never been better than .500 prior to a bye. He’s never been worse than .500 either.
Three straight 8-8 seasons, and every year the team has broke even both before the bye and after. And folks say Garrett’s teams have a penchant for falling apart late in the year. What a bunch of malarkey. Everyone knows the Cowboys are just as average in crunch time as they are in September.
Things are different this year, and I don’t just mean the record. The Cowboys’ 31-17 win Sunday over the Jacksonville Jaguars marks the first time Dallas has won going into a bye since 2010.
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That, coupled with a strong win-loss record means the annual bye week hysterics will be largely positive this year. Here are some example headlines just two days into the goofiness:
Sports Day DFW: Tony Romo Returns, Proves Cowboys Are Legit Contender
I, too, was awed by that comfortable win against an overmatched opponent in a road game at a neutral site that was packed with screaming Cowboys fans…
Bleacher Report: Cowboys Proving To Be More Complete Contenders Than In Recent Years
I, too, saw that proof as the Cowboys beat a team with one win in its last 13 games. Made me forget all about getting spanked at home the week before by the NFC West-leading Arizona Cardinals.
In the ESPN Era of sporting news, folks have a hard time getting past the last thing they saw.
These are just two examples, but there’s more out there and there’s more to come in the next two weeks. In the ESPN era of sporting news, folks have a hard time getting past the last thing they saw. Fortunately for Cowboys fans, the win over an unimpressive Jacksonville team means a lot of positive coverage over the next couple of weeks.
And we’re due for that, since 2014 marks the first time in the Redball Era that the team has won going into a bye. Every other year, we’ve been tortured with two weeks of negativity before the next game action. Sparing Cowboys Nation another two weeks of moronic hysterics about the offensive playcalling was reason enough to identify the Jacksonville game as a “must win.”
These Cowboys were never going 15-1. They were always going to have adversity. It showed up in Week 8 in the form of a division loss at home and a starting signal caller with a broken back. It carried over to Week 9 when the backup QB laid a big fat turd in AT&T Stadium, almost single-handedly causing the team’s first losing streak of 2014.
But this Jacksonville game was never in doubt. The Cowboys were always going to stomp on the Jaguars. This win doesn’t really tell us anything we didn’t already know. We very much suspected, and wanted to believe, that this Cowboys team was for real after they throttled the New Orleans Saints 38-17 in Week 4. We knew this team was for real after they physically manhandled the defending Super Bowl champion Seattle Seahawks in Week 6.
The score in the Great Northwest was 30-23, but it was nowhere near that close. The Cowboys offense netted over 400 yards, and the defense held Seattle to just 206. The Cowboys offense ran 70 plays to the Seahawks 48. The Cowboys gained 7.2 yards per pass attempt to the Seahawks’ 4.2.
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The Cowboys went all Ralphie on the NFL’s Scut Farkus. So cool. The Redskins loss didn’t change that. The Redskins are always tough to beat. That’s a rule. The loss to the Cardinals meant even less, as the Cowboys would appear to have had that game in hand with moderately competent play from the quarterback position.
Yes, Kyle Orton is moderately competent. Looks like Captain Petulant Neckbeard cost the Cowboys a game in 2014. It doesn’t matter. The Cowboys have two heads-up games to go with their sole rival for the NFL East title. That’s where the 2014 season hinges. That’s where it’ll be won or lost – at Philadelphia in Week 15.
Yes, these Cowboys are for real, but their win over Jacksonville revealed little. Whether they’re 7-3 or 6-4, we already knew that Tony Romo is the toughest bastard in the NFL; we already knew that wide receiver Dez Bryant fights like a maniac for every inch of YAC he can muster; we already knew that running back DeMarco Murray is the most complete back in the league running behind a formidable offensive line.
We already knew that defensive coordinator Rod Marinelli has a crew of hungry dogs who pay little attention to injury attrition or pedigree in their quest to generate turnovers and get off the field on third down.
Enjoy the bye week hysterics, Cowboys fans. After the last three years, you’ve earned it. Just know that injuries and turnovers will have their say in how this season pans out. As such, your team may be for real, but you still have to cross your fingers for this stretch run.