(Insert deep breath and count backwards from 10 to 0)

I have to remind myself as I cool off from this past Sunday’s calamity that I predicted a few weeks ago that the Giants would win. My thought at the time was that the Giants, would sweep Dallas, the Eagles would sweep NY and the Cowboys would sweep Philly. I further speculated that whichever one of those three teams dropped one to the Redskins would be the odd man out. It's already too late for that team to be the Eagles as they have swept Washington but the Redskins still have two, very interesting, back to back home games against the Giants and Cowboys. Let us hope that it's the Giants that lose at FedEx field and not the boys (though I can tell you that the Cowboys will be the team they are more up for). 

The Cowboys road-record is an average 3-3 thus far and I'd be more than happy to see them continue this .500 trend through the remainder of season and finish 4-4 on the road; (which would mean a win at either New Orleans or Washington) providing of course that they win out at home, (fishing the year7-1 at the new stadium). This would leave Dallas 11-5 at season’s end and anything shy of that won't get it done.  Most seasons, 10-6 seems to be the magic mark but this year appears to be a buck of that trend. I think it's reasonable to assume that both the Giants and the Packers are capable of finishing at least 10-6 and the Cowboys would lose tie-breakers to both of those teams.  It’s therefore imperative that the Cowboys at least hold serve at home for the remainder of the season; which brings us to the Chargers this Sunday.

The Chargers come to town with a ¾ defense.  The Cowboys offense has struggled mightily against ¾ teams over the past few seasons, will this continue this Sunday?  The Chargers offense is too explosive for the Cowboys’ offense to get off to a slow start or to struggle scoring.  If the defense tackles like it did last Sunday the Cowboys’ O will need to score a lot of points to pull off a win.

Has the Cowboys’ defense been exposed or was last Sunday an apparition?   Has it simply been bad offenses until now making this defense appear better than it is?  Are the leagues more explosive units about to make the Dallas D look below average? Before the Giants game the Cowboys had snuck their way into the top 3 in scoring defense but then came Sunday’s 31 point explosion.  Maybe it’s just the Giants who for some reason matchup really well against Dallas this year.  They have averaged 32 points a game in their two contests against Dallas while the Cowboys have surrendered a stingy average of 14.9 points per game against everyone else on their schedule thus far.

I really think the Cowboy season is on the line this Sunday.  If they lose, they will, most likely, no longer control their own destiny.