The Cowboys Can Beat the Patriots

Forget all the hoopla surrounding the Sunday afternoon showdown between the New England Patriots and the Dallas Cowboys at Texas Stadium. Forget all the talk that the AFC is the stronger division or that New England’s 5-0 is more impressive than the Cowboys’ 5-0 start. These are all things garnered by the media to make teams sound more impressive or unimpressive than they actually are. The fact is, both of these teams are 5-0, both of these teams have really strong offenses ranked first (New England) and second (Dallas) in points scored and first (Dallas) and second (New England) in total yards, and they both have great defenses.

Anyone can attempt to take away from Tony Romo and his dreadful performance against the Bills last week, but you can’t point out the bad with out the good. He still threw 300+ yards for a third straight game and for the 4th times this season which is more 300 yard games in a single season than any other Dallas Quarterback has accomplished. Romo also threw two more touch down passes in that dreadful game against the Bills and still drove the Cowboys down in the winding seconds of the ball game to set up Folk for a game winning field goal. Six turnovers is something I would love to live my entire life with out seeing in a single game again, but when it was all said and done the Cowboys still pulled off a win, and Romo still helped lead the Cowboys to that win.

Anyone can point out that the Bills game was closer than it should have been, that the Cowboys should have never had to rally at the end of the game for a come-from-behind win. The truth be told however, had Romo not thrown the two interceptions that lead to touch downs or let the kick returner return the ball for a touch down the Cowboys would have won the game 25 to 3. The fact of the matter is, and I must admit, those things all did happen but the Cowboys did what a great team should be able to do, they kept the game alive and gave themselves an opportunity to beat the Bills in a dramatic 4th Quarter victory. At the end of the season we won’t be looking at the point spreads but the record it’s self and right now the Cowboys are off to a great start.

I regress, however; I wasn’t meaning to talk about the Bills game but that seems to be the issue doesn’t it? The reason analysts don’t view the Cowboys as a legitimate threat to the Pats staying undefeated, because while the Pats have beaten all of their opponents by 17 or more points the Cowboys have struggled against a lesser opponent like the Bills? They, as well as many of us, are falling into the misconception that these games are played for stats, while in reality the stats are in fact the byproduct of the game. Teams don’t win because they threw for 300 plus yards nor do they lose solely on the fact that the QB threw 5 interceptions and choked one up as a costly fumble. Those things would be key stats at the end of a loss, it would definitely tell you why the Cowboys lost if they had lost but it didn’t happen. Why? Because the stats don’t determine the game, it’s what the teams do with their opportunities that determine the outcomes. The Cowboys played and won against a desperate Bills team, a team that was likely more desperate for a win this past Monday than they were when they played the Pats in week 3 which also happened to be played in New England of all places. Ultimately the Bills could only score three points on offense, and the Cowboys were ultimately able to do more with the opportunities they had.

This is why I believe the Cowboys can in fact beat the Patriots. The Pats do have some impressive numbers going into Dallas, so does Dallas for that matter, but those numbers and rankings can change in a matter of a single game. They aren’t forecasters they are merely saying what the team has done in past games. Up until last week Romo only had three interceptions in 4 games, after 5 games he has 8. Anything can happen. What stats don’t tell you is the emotional charge a team has. Yes, I know, the common belief is that emotional wins can set a team up for failure in the following week, but this wasn’t that kind of win. The kind of win the Cowboys had is more like a terminally ill patient being miraculously cured, giving a new found respect for life, a new realization of their own mortality, and the desire to not let the seemingly small things slip them by. That kind of win can give a team the boost it needs to beat an even better team. More so than any stat will ever do. In the infamous words of T.O., “Get your popcorn ready!” this promises to be a very good game between two equally matched and equally undefeated teams.

My prediction for this game, Cowboys win a nail biter 31 to 27.