Most problems have a cure: maybe this team needs a doctor?

The human body is a marvelous mechanism.  It adapts to change to improve the efficiency of operation.

Most people have at one time or another experienced this.  A basic example is exercise.  If an individual begins to stress his or her body with exercise, the body dedicates resources to better cope with the demands of the activity: that is why lifting weights leads to increased muscle mass.

The adaptations the human body initiates, however, are not all positive. When one aspect of the body is not operating correctly, the body compensates around the limitation to complete whatever activity would be otherwise limited.  This frequently leads to injury due to overuse of an area not biomechanically designed for the stress it is enduring.

The spine is a perfect example of injuries due to compensatory mechanisms in the body.  Every vertebra in the spine is influenced by the adjacent vertebrae.  When a limitation exists with one vertebral junction, it throws all of the other vertebrae out of whack: somewhat like the weakest link in a chain.

Despite being a rugged structure that can usually withstand a lifetime of wear and tear, the spine breaks down when not functioning correctly.

Just like my favorite team: the Dallas Cowboys.

What I witnessed yesterday at a little over 5,280 feet above sea level was the breakdown of a team that has the components to be successful when everything is functioning adequately.  It truly was a pain in the back (very lower area of the back) to watch, but understandable.

Some breakdowns have been present for years.  Like the person with back pain that keeps doing the same thing repeatedly, yet expects the pain to stop, facets of the Cowboys showed little change from what has doomed them since 2007.

The backbone of the offense is the offensive line.  It was once again unable to stop a blitzing team effectively.  While I believe that the sack that led to the fumble was on Romo (he needed to account for Hill coming from the edge, albeit the blind side), the other sacks and pressures had a lot to do with breakdowns in protection from the offensive line.

Since Romo was not comfortable in the pocket, his accuracy suffered.  This is not an excuse, but rather a conclusion based on an observation of the events.  Furthermore, the receivers did not adapt to the pressure, despite Sherman telling them to make their breaks sharper and faster (kudos to the Fox team for getting that on film).

Tony, trying to make a play, incorrectly adapted by holding onto the ball in the pocket for extended periods several times, exacerbating the inadequacies of the offensive line.  Subsequently, the lack of communication between the receivers and the quarterback became evident.  Just as Steve Smith of Carolina gift-wrapped a win for Dallas on Monday night, Miles Austin delivered for the Broncos.

Now Miles was not the only receiver to make a mistake, but his was the only mistake that led to an interception.  Again, I am not glossing over the accountability that Tony Romo had in the mauling at Mile High.  For those needing to assign blame, however, there was plenty of blame to go around.

Once again, a defense that was rugged for the majority of the game broke like an osteoporotic bone in the last few minutes of the game: ceding 10 points and victory.  DeMarcus Ware continues to go without a sack this season, even though he would have registered half of a sack, had it not been for Anthony Spencer’s facemask personal foul in the fourth quarter.

The defense continues to drop passes that hit their hands, over-pursue or get sealed-off on cut-back runs (see Baltimore in 2008), and play poorly for about five minutes per game: generally at the end of a half or the end of the game.  Eventually the body accommodates to dysfunction.  Hopefully, this is not the case with this edition of the Cowboys.

Injuries were also huge factor in determining the winner of this latest contest.  For a while in the fourth quarter, Dallas had Watkins playing strong safety, Choice as the sole running back, and Sam Hurd playing in place of Roy Williams.  Had Cory Procter needed to play, this would have been roughly the same team that flamed out to finish the 2008 season, sans a loud-mouthed receiver.

The lack of quality depth on this team has been another issue that has existed since 1995.  This makes adapting to the loss of personnel even harder for the Dallas Cowboys.  Unfortunately, injuries will continue to force this team to adapt as the year progresses.

The coaches are not helping with the changes faced week in and week out by this team…yet.  It may be a circumstance where the patient is refusing care, in that players are just not listening to the advise (see the Sherman example) provided by the coaches.  It may be a situation that necessitates different coaches: I do not know and will let much more sage football savants make that conclusion.

But there is also a bigger picture.  Jimmy Johnson had a golden nugget of observation in the Fox pre-game show.  He noted that the Cowboys are a team in transition with respect to their identity.  No longer are these Cowboys the high-flying acrobatic show that has been present since the arrival of Jason Garrett as offensive coordinator.  These Cowboys are more of a pay-per-view boxing match that actually goes 15 rounds.  There will not be as many eye-popping big plays with this team as in the past, and plenty of ugliness in the ring.

An organism as wonderfully engineered as the human body takes approximately eight weeks to adapt to a change.  Why would anyone expect a football team to adapt to an entirely new identity in just two or three weeks?  To their credit, the New York Giants knew this when they upset Dallas in the playoffs.  The Cowboys thrived off of the big play in 2007.  The Giants realized that if they stopped the big plays and made Dallas grind, the Cowboys would be unable to adapt fully in such a short amount of time, and that breakdowns would occur.

The Broncos game reminded me a great deal of the Giants playoff loss.  Denver, to their credit, had a great defensive game plan that the Cowboys will now need to find a way to defeat.  Not many teams will be able to execute this game plan due to limitations with personnel, but Dallas will see facets of this plan nevertheless.  Instead of being eliminated from the playoffs, however, the Cowboys have time to adapt after this latest loss.