I think that there is a fair balance of doom and gloom, realists, and all sunshine posters on this board. The fact is that the Cowboys have been struggling since the Green Bay win in 2007, and therefore you are going to have more posts that are critical of the team. They have been 14-12 since then, and play has often been sloppy and disjointed. Given their uneven production, it doesn’t seem unnatural to have more and more posts criticizing them.

Personally, I find it disturbing that questioning the team’s direction or individual players or coaches gets you branded a “hater.” Since we seem to have opposing view points on the matter, chances are that the balance is just about right.

There has been an unequal amount of pessimism relative to the team’s performance. If Dallas was 1-4 or worse, I would totally understand it, or if we’d been eliminated from playoff contention, I’d agree with most of it. But ever since the 1st loss of the season it seems a bit overtly negative around here. I’ve even read supportive comments from a Giants blogger, and a Eagles blogger in the last week, both saying (paraphrasing) “keep your chin up” and “the season is just getting started”. I’ve never seen that before. That certainly indicates even our foes think some guys are going a bit over the top with the doom and gloom predictions.

Legitimate criticism is fine, but I think it’s a shame when it becomes too depressing to read the comments because guys are slamming good players and predicting 8-8 or 7-9. This is a site for fans after all.

has been justified by poor play. Most posters know that it would be suicide to fire Wade at this point in the season, but how to you correct the seemingly constant errors and penalties that hold this team back from winning against better teams. Players play the game, but coaches supposedly prepare them. This team cannot afford to continue playing these sloppy games if they intend to be successful. I believe the offence will come together when Felix and RW return. I hope the defence will hold until Sensi returns. I don’t see a lot of “haters” as much a lot of real Cowboy fans just venting frustration.

but the fire Wade and Garrett stuff, wishing Jones would pass away or step down as GM, calling up McGee…all that stuff is really unrealistic. Even if we lost today, it is highly doubtful a coaching change would be made. The defense is as dependent on Wade as the offense is on Garrett.

Other than correcting the bonehead stuff, just a few tweaks could really improve this team. A play-making nickel LB would be nice—or at least a guy that can help limit 3rd-down yardage. Jason Williams? Keep Brooking in? Send Carp to see if Merriman has any leftover roids? Octavien? Buehler? Seriously, though…the poor play here can really hurt us down the stretch.

Now that Miles has helped establish some speed on the outside, somebody must become Romo’s possession guy at WR. Try Ogletree if Hurd is not gonna contribute. Work on getting Bennett being that guy. We have to extend drives.

Penalties? Okay, those offsides ones were becuz the defense was really amped. Let’s pretend they get a pass. But the offense is the one that is struggling, and like Raf said, we can’t run the ball when we’re backed up with a 1st and 15 or 2nd and 20 and expect to win games. I understand that Free is not experienced, but is it too much to ask to bring him in here and there? Perhaps it is, but it could give time for Flo to chill out a bit. He’s really not playing with his head.

When they play great – say so
When they play ok – say so
When they play crappy – say so

Just call it like it is

there’s no right or wrong way for fans emotionally invested in the team to react, but personally I do get tired (or just skip) reading the negative over-the-top knee-jerk reactions, and appreciate the posts that help put things in perspective.

what I see is that all aspects of the team have worked very well this season, but not all at the same time! And not all for a whole game. That’s what Romo alluded to in his post game interview, about “putting it all together” and how good they can be when they do. Even today, most of the team actually played quite well despite the adversity, and the problems were just in a few areas. Like Crayton and Flo, whose fumble and drive ending penalties nearly cost us the game. But ST was very good other than Crayton’s fumble, defense was very good other than the last drive (and the offsides), and the offense was very good overall, especially Austin of course and Choice on limited touches—we now have the #1 offense yardage-wise in the NFL with 420.4 yards per game.

our passing game was great vs Bucs and Chiefs, our running game was great against Giants and Panthers, our run D has been pretty good against everyone except the Bucs, and our pass D has been pretty good since the Giants, at least for 55 minutes of each game! Our special teams has been consistent throughout, and that really is a big factor, something we appreciate but which is underrated by outside/casual observers; having ST units playing consistently well all around can win you a game or two at least. And even with the penalties, in the first couple games we were among the least penalized teams. So we know that all phases can work relatively mistake-free. Now if they can getting them all working at the same time most of the time, they can still be a very good team this season. After a win, however close or ugly, it’s a lot easier to have some confidence that they might pull it all together and yet become what we all hoped they could be.