You have been invited to join The Landry Hat’s Survival Pool @ Yahoo! Sports.  At present there isn’t a prize for winning, but we are working on remedying that.  Maybe you will be the winner of a gently used tube of toothpaste… or get ready to drive fast with your very own used copy of Need for Speed for the original Xbox!  Of course, a black and white printed certificate of achievement will accompany your prize.  (There will not be a participation prize).  Frame it, hang it, display it in you den.  Whatever it is, it is proof that for one season, you knew more than your fellow Landry Hat frequenters.

In order to join the group, just go to Survival Football, and click the “Join a Group” button. From there, enter the following information…

Group ID#: 4592
Password: quincy

1. Dez Bryant: Bryant will not play in this game. Our curiosity will not be sated until week one of the regular season. We may see him on the sideline burning to get into the game. I had my initial reservations about the Cowboys drafting Bryant, but I’ve grown to like his attitude. Other than players on the roster bubble, how many really want to play in the fourth game of a meaningless pre-season.

2. Ogletree v. Hurd: It is unlikely we will keep both players on the roster. Only 10 months ago, some fans were projecting Ogletree to displace Roy Williams as the starter. Now he may not make the team. On the other side of the coin, Hurd is a substantial contributor to special teams, a good character guy, can play all the WR’ing positions, and he may soon find himself looking for a new home. This is a better problem to have than choosing between two mediocre players. My vote is to keep Hurd. With a lockout on the horizon, many teams are building to win this year. I like Ogletree in the long run, but Hurd in the here and now.

3. 5th corner:  The dime corner may not be played by a corner at all.  The Cowboys staff may use safeties to cover 4th/5th WR’s.  Nonetheless, injuries may force the Cowboys to play a 5th corner in nickel packages.  It is a passing league and WR’s at the bottom of the depth chart are more talented their their counterparts a generation ago.

4. How many starters will play?  The Miami Dolphins were not satisfied with their performance against Atlanta in their 3rd pre-season game and will consequently play many of their starters.  The Cowboys will take a similar approach and will play some of their starters, but will hold back key contributors like Tony Romo.  Obviously injury is a primary concern.  If the Cowboys play Leonard Davis who then sustains an injury, the offensive line would be even more in shambles than it presently is.  Wade Phillips has not indicated which starters will play, or for how long.  Fans will breathe a sigh of relief once the last starter is off the field (unless it is Roy Williams).

5. Will the Dolphins game plan to make the Cowboys look foolish? I don’t believe this to be the case, but if the Dolphins management harbors ill will towards the Cowboys’s management, they may game plan to make every effort to dominate the Cowboys which will only amplify the alarm bells ringing in Dallas.  The Dolphins (as previously indicated) intend to play their starters.  The game could quickly get out of hand.  The game could be lopsided without any malicious intent by the Dolphins, so this question won’t have an answer.

6. Is McGee a long term solution at backup QB? McGee was drafted in 2009 in the fourth round. The buzz around him initially was that he could run the wildcat offense considering his athletic prowess. Fast forward 1.5 years and you do notice McGee’s athleticism, but he is not even a poor man’s Mike Vick. If McGee expects to have a long term future with the Cowboys, he needs to earn that spot as a classic drop back QB. Proving he can handle that role begins tonight when he starts against the Dolphins.

7. Will Parcells return to the house he built (but Jerry Jones designed and paid for it). Jones admitted while in an inebriated state that he brought in Bill Parcells to bring some excitement back to the team. While The Parcells lead Cowboys made the playoffs twice, they did not make it passed the first round. Nonetheless, Parcells is in a similar position as Jimmy Johnson was. Parcells will receive a lion’s share of the credit for constructing the foundation of this team.  Maybe in a few years, Parcells will again follow Johnson’s lead and join a reality TV show.  Parcells’s presence on The Jersey Shore would certainly pique my interest considering he is the ultimate Jersey boy, next to Bruce Springsteen.

So what is there to look forward to?  First of all, the Cowboys do not play the Chargers this year unless both teams make it to the Super Bowl.  When the Cowboys played the Chargers in 2009, the Chargers offense cut through the Dallas defense like a hot knife through margarine.  It wasn’t pretty.  Save for two turnovers by the Chargers while in the redzone, a similar story was playing out two weeks ago.

The Texans played poorly against the New Orleans Saints the week prior to their match-up with the Cowboys.  The Texans “starters” were outscored 28 to 10 in the first half of the contest.  Their rushing defense was exposed and the team was embarrassed.  One week later the Texans starters were noticeably more intense than the Dallas starters.  While the third game of the pre-season is a dress rehearsal for the regular season, the two teams were playing two decidedly different games.  The Texans played to win the game, and the Cowboys played to win the game in week three of the regular season.  The Cowboys offense was incredibly vanilla, but they still managed two drives deep into Houston’s territory.  The Cowboys weren’t going to tip their hand and show the Texans their game plan for week three.

Fortunately their week three match-up is less than a month away, September 26.  The Cowboys will still have the taste of this loss in their mouth.  The Cowboys will match, if not exceed the intensity of the Texans.  The mental mistakes will be eliminated (or at least reduced) and the Cowboys offensive line will once again be whole.

The teams will be the same, the location will be the same, but expect a different outcome in the all Texas re-match.