The Boys aren't there yet.

For a while in the 3rdQ I actually thought we had a good chance.

Random thoughts:

Some questionable ref calls, mainly that PI on Watkins, sure looked like he had position and Moss ran into him. Should have been offensive PI.

Didn't understand the FG attempt late in the game. You could almost sense the entire team deflate after that.

NE is a classless team. The last TD proved it. Just take a knee and run out the clock. I still like Brady, but why would you do that? Also, Harrison is a whiny bitch, I wish Barber would have ripped his damn head off.

Up until today, I was merely tired of hearing about the almighty Pats. But count me as an official Pats hater now.

I feel bad for Minnesota, as I heard Patrick Crayton just say "call us the purple people eaters"

On to my point...

Come 4th quarter our defense had to be EXHAUSTED.  They let them control the clock and keep their offense on the field.  Good game up until that point.  I also agree with everyone though, A couple of questionable calls, should've went for the TD, all in all though we were out played.  Our defense did ok...sounds strange since we let up 48 points, we just have to stop letting big plays and 3rd down conversions.

Random thought, when will we see Stanback, put him in 4 wide sets

That last TD didn't matter and the boys still lost the game. If the Cowboys didn't want another score on the board they should have stoped them. But damn, Barber seemed alot more beastlier in this game than in the last couple.

I was hoping we'd win, and I was really hoping our defense would have been more competitive.  In one sense it was, as we sacked Brady as many times today as he'd been sacked all year.

And around the third quarter, I was feeling pretty good.  New England's defense was getting large doses of the same medicine that their offense was administering to us.  Romo was starting to hit the tight spots, Barber had tacklers literally back on their heels, and the injuries to Watson and Morris had me wondering if that was simply because we were more physical.

You've got to give the Patriots credit.  They took our best shot, and it was a pretty darn good one, regrouped and brushed us aside.  Officiating was not a factor in this game, and that last touchdown was just good solid football, I didn't see any malicious intent.

The encouraging things are, we should be getting better with time, Minnesota is next on our schedule and they have an awful pass defense, and we get a bye the week after that, before our schedule gets really interesting.  We lost to a very talented, well-coached, experienced team.  Their experience showed down the stretch, and we simply couldn't match it.

I'm still not convinced the Patriots have a free pass to the Super Bowl, but the are clearly better than I originally thought.

By the way, for those that missed it, this was an underwhelming second half.  Going into the game, I thought these two teams were the next best in the conference behind us.  Favre didn't do much of anything in the second half, working one decent drive into field goal range.  The Redskins self-destructed badly in the wet weather, with two critical fumbles.  One was returned for a TD, the other led to a missed short field goal.

One of the reasons I didn't feel quite so bad at the end of our game, was the lackluster play of these two teams.

finally comes back to bite us...this undisciplined team couldn't possibly have expected to beat the best team in the NFL committing as many penalties as it does every single week!  I know, I know, Parcells' teams committed way too many penalites too, but I for one don't give a crap how you stop it, JUST ELIMINATE HALF OF THEM AND WE'VE GOT OURSELVES A FOOTBALL TEAM!!!

CAN'T WAIT FOR THE GARRETT ERA TO START!!!  How long does it take "Take it Easy in the Shade" Wade to figure out why he's never won anything???  

Here's a clue: Stop worrying about everybody's feelings and stop trying to be everbody's friend!!!!!!!!!!!

Last year, when we lost to the Saints, I was devastated for 2 reasons:  one, we were up early, and two, I was terrified that terminal weaknesses in the defense had been exposed.

As to the first, in this game, the slow start by the offense effectively left our D out to dry and resulted in a 14-0 hole, which we were able to climb out of momentarily.  The D managed to consistently get the Pats to 3rd down the entire game, and I think if they had not been worn so much in the first quarter, maybe we could have gotten a few more stops.   Obviously, the slow starts are a problem.  As many have observed, this probably has a lot to do with our tendency to just run JJ up the middle on the first and second plays of the game.  JJ played well today, but not on those plays, because the defense knew what was coming.  A little variety will go a long way to fix that problem.

As for the second, this game didn't expose anything we didn't know other than that Romo and co. can drive the ball and score on what is allegedly the best defense in the league.  The Pats present a unique problem in terms of coverage since they have 3 very fast and very good wideouts, and we knew that, with Henry out, stopping that would be a challenge.  The Boys still executed the game plan of forcing Stallworth and Welker to beat us, and unfortunately, they did.  But, it's not like we were exposed defensively in a way that other teams can exploit.  No other team except perhaps the Colts has the offensive personnel to cause those problems, and defensively we will be better prepared in terms of manpower and experience to stop it next time we see such a threat.  If anything, I think we might have exposed some holes in the Pats D.

.....but it was painfully obvious to me this evening that the Cowboys have superior depth to almost every team in the NFL at every position except at defensive back.

Aaron Glenn was old, but he was a playmaker.  However, I'd love to see all the "release JuJu, draft McFadden" talk go away (and frankly, with the way Cleveland is playing, it doesn't look like it's going to happen anyway) and start thinking about picking up some serious talent at the cornerback/safety positions.

Look at the Texas DBs that have made such a great impact as rookies:  Michael Huff, Michael Griffin, and Aaron Ross.  How much good would a round one line-up of guys like DeJuan Tribble, Tom Zbikowski, Terrell Thomas, or Mike Jenkins do for us?

We've done such an outstanding job stockpiling at other positions, why not in the secondary???

That said, Go Cowboys, we're still in the driver's seat.