Dallas Cowboys: A dirty team?

Last year, Brett Favre was in the middle of a butt-kickin'. It was beautiful.

I was sitting at a bar near downtown Sacramento. Your normal everyday dive bar. Rednecks, college guys, working guys, girls from around the neighbor and ... me. Everybody was real cool. Too busy talking and gettin' drunk to care about anyone else. I love those kinds of bars.

So I'm enjoying a nice glass of Hennessy (my favorite drink BTW) and although I had a final the next day I was feeling really good. We were up 27-10. Patrick Crayton had scored a touchdown. MB3 ran over Al Harris on one play. Then T.O. got matched up with A.J. Hawk on another play. Ha ha ha! Silly rabbits! Tricks are for kids! T.O. does the famous popcorn-grabbing celebration. The bartender is kinda cute so I'm T-Pain flirting a lil' bit and she's flirting back. Good times man. Good times.

Then Aaron Rodgers comes in the game. And he's brillant.

He's scrambling for first downs. He hits Greg Jennings, who we absolutely can't cover, and he jukes and jives for first down after first down. The next thing I know it's 27-24. Bartender, I need another drink. Hennessey and Red Bull please. Crunk juice. I want to be drunk yet alert in case I need to play in traffic if we blow this game.

Witten's clutch catches and Folk's clutch leg saves the day. But I came away with a deep respect for Rodgers.

This time the 'Boys say they'll be ready.

I certainly hope so.

Hmmm. Dan Daly of the crazy Washington Times says the Cowboys were dirty for the facemask penalties they received and the other facemask grabs they weren't called for.

Essentially he's saying we tried to take out Brian Westbrook.

So by all means, Cowboys, put out a contract on Westbrook. Grab him by the facemask - once, twice, thrice - and make no apologies for it.

Number one, the founder of the Times, is, shall we say, a little different.

Number two, I'll admit that we had some facemask penalties that were ridiculous. We also had some penalties that weren't called. I'll give you that (but the Eagles had a few penalties that weren't called either -- Henry's faux pass interference, blatant holding on the second Westbrook TD, etc.).

At the end of the day, there's no evidence that it was a coordinated attack to take Westbrook out the game. If it was, that sure worked out well. HE HAD THREE TOUCHDOWNS! Awesome plan Wade.

I think this is the difference between correlation and causation. I think the argument can be made that Dallas played a penalty-riddled and sloppy-tackling game against the Eagles. We were a team that grabbed first instead of squaring up and making the sure tackle. That's what I saw (moreso against the Eagles than the Browns). I saw defenders grabbing and holding on. Not players grabbing and twisting and trying to hurt someone.

Daly has no evidence to support this theory. There's no causation. No comments after the game. No accusations by the player who was the subject of this so-called conspiracy. No history of this kind of behavior within the organization. Nothing. Daly does the leg work for these accusations but it's devoid of reason. Saying these facemasks were part of a coordinated act by an entire team is like saying Donovan McNabb threw the game because he had an unforced error in a critical time during the game despite the fact that he played excellent in all other phases and in all other parts of the game. There's no evidence to support that. Just inferences.

So, in honor of Daly, I think we should mock him thoroughly. Are you related to that guy from Wings? Do you see conspiracies in everything? Are you part of the "Paul is Dead" Society? Are you reading my thoughts right now? Are Scanners real?

Shout out to Baked Potato Soup and his fanpost here.

Al Harris is an excellent corner but he's been like overcooked toast when facing T.O.

I'm very pleased with Zach Thomas. Twenty tackles in two games. Good stuff.

Two games into the season, Thomas looks every bit like a seven-time Pro Bowler. He played the past 12 seasons in Miami before joining the Cowboys in the off-season amid questions about lingering concussion issues and a decline in his performance.

He leads the Cowboys with 20 tackles despite playing primarily on first and second downs, with Kevin Burnett replacing him on passing downs. And he is also delivering bone-crushing hits, putting to rest any concerns about the head injury that had him contemplating retirement in the off-season.

"I hope so," Thomas said, when asked about him putting to rest the preseason concerns. "I just know there is a reason I am still playing. I have a lot of pride and my play hasn’t dropped. I feel better than ever. I just know I can still run around and have fun and make plays. That’s the reason I am here."

I like that Martellus Bennett. He showed some moves in Monday's game. I think he might be turning the page on the "Hard Knocks" persona and settling into a contributing role. I hope so. We need him.

Bennett flashed his considerable athleticism Monday night with a 20-yard catch-and-run in the Cowboys' 41-37 win over Philadelphia, and Phillips has praised Bennett's willingness to grasp the offense and make an impact on special teams.

"He's come a long way," Phillips said. "He does have a good attitude about wanting to do well. He's a player that wants to do well and he understands when you tell him how do things or keep with him on things like (tight ends coach) John (Garrett) does, how important it is.

"He's worked at it and he knows what it takes to play pro football. And I don't think he did at first. He's the youngest player on our team, I think."

The second youngest, actually. Rookie running back Felix Jones, 21, has Bennett beat by two months.