Prediction: Cowboys Go 11-5 in 2009

thought we’d go 10-6 …. but I like your reasoning. Great write up.

But I say 10-6

For all the reasons you listed here, I see the Cowboys living up to last season’s hype – and establishing themselves as the premier team in the NFC. Maybe just maybe the Eagles hang with us, but I think the Giants offense slips more than their Defense gains.

I like our schedule a TON, and think we can go 4-2 in the division. I would not be surprised to see this team back in the 12-13 win range.

But our coaching still scares me, except for special teams and tight ends.

Let’s hope Sensabaugh can plug that hole, and he won’t have any further off-field trouble. One would think we could plug that gaping hole over the deep middle, finally, after five years.

Let’s hope our aging and thin offensive line will be healthier this year than last—otherwise we’ve got problems.

Let’s hope Ratliff doesn’t wear down, and Ware stays healthy, and the young guys can pump up our special teams.

Let’s hope shipping off our best offensive player because of alleged personality problems doesn’t drag down the point production, and the question marks we have about Roy and Miles come up positive.

And let’s hope Romo can control the impulsive turnovers—although I’ve got my doubts.

I’m still wary of this team, mainly because of the coaching. I’m going with 8-8.

I agree with much of the write-up, except I think the Rams game and Eagles games were total team failures. If the offensive line plays to it’s potentia and we avoid the injury bug, this could be a great season. Wade calling the shots with competent SS play and the potential of this offense could lead to a super bowl run.

A. Defense causes more game changing plays.
         1. Wade is involved more
          2. Better safety play
          3. Ware has more freedom becuase of 1 and 2.
B. Less mistakes by Romo
          1. Defense takes pressure off by cause TO
           2. ST gives better field position
           3. Run more this year.
C. The Eagles Giants and Redskins all got worse.
           1. Mcnabb and Westbrook are a year older and injury prone.
            2. Giants Offense needs a Plax. If they dont find a replacement then bad Eli is back
            3. Skins try to trade Campbell that cant be good for his morale or chemistry.

so C is a little biased but i firmly believe in points A and B thats why we will go 14-2

Mark it down

I’d say 10-6 tops, 9-7 a possibility, and either way a battle to get in the playoffs, because the NFC is much tougher than a few years ago.

They could even go 11-5 and miss the playoffs.
Whatever we think, they’d better bring it every week, and for all 16 weeks.

I’d love to be more optimistic, but those last 2 games were most awful things I’ve ever seen from a Cowboys team. They’ll need to prove to me they’re winners and have guts, pride, heart, and poise under pressure.

They’ll need to prove it to themselves, too, because no matter what they say, that ending to a season is fresh in their minds.

“We had injuries.
But we ALMOST won against Arizona and Pitts.!”

There are many teams that can play that excuse game.

I agree in principle that the Cowboys are about as talented as all of the playoff teams from last year. the difference between them is in the mind and hearrt. but I can’t just assume that’ll change until it happens.

After the last game with the eagles I had a list of things in my mind the team should do in the offseason to turn this thing around . So far all those things have been done. The thing Realist Larry said about heart and mind hits the nail on the head with the 2 things this team lacked last year. The talent is in place, a gameplan is in action to bolster the defense and prevent the offensive turnovers. But come Sept it has to be executed. And then executed each and every week and then into the playoffs. No more Dec letdowns, No more come from behind defeats. If it happens this season it would be great, but unfortunately we won’t really know until Jan ’10.

The Giants lost their best receiver and their defensive guru. Spagnuola is a huge loss.

The Eagles are banking on rookies, and they didn’t get the rooks they wanted.

The Redskins weren’t that good to begin with.

Our offensive line is our big question mark. Our second biggest question mark is conditioning.

Wade will improve the defense, and I believe Garrett will be much better this year. He’s learning on the run.

I know Wade is the Heach Coach, but I can see this team sticking with Wade on defense and Garrett on offense, without placing emphasis on the HC job. “If” we can get into and win in the playoffs.

12-4. The rookies on this team make a difference by mid-season.

They have made some moves in the right direction in the offseason (which isn’t over yet). On talent alone I’ll wager 11-5. Of course the point is moot if the season even starts to appear as it did last year. And by that I mean injuries. Dismiss them all you want and mention that every team plays with them. Well, not every team plays with injuries to key personnel (QB, Certain OL positions, RBs) during the season and comes out unscathed. If this team stays healthy, I think they can win 11 this year.

11-5 or 10-6 and a playoff spot. All I can say is they better get it done this year.
The way I look at it is we have already missed opportunities to achieve the last 3 seasons. These playoff windows don’t last very long.
The 2006 season, should have had at least one playoff win at least to build on for the next season.
In 2007 the table was set and the Midgets came in and caught fire.
In 2008, yeah we had a chance to make the playoffs, but as banged up and dysfunctional as this team became, we would have been lucky to win a playoff game.
In 2009, this team has a better defense than the 2007 squad, and if the emphasis on offense is shifted to more 2 TE sets and pounding the ball with our RB’s, I think 10 wins is a conservative estimate.

I think we go 11-5 easily if healthy, I feel the defense and ST should be much better.

As long as Romo is under center, I’ll never be worried about the offense, we’ll score points.

The pragmatist in me, sadly, just doesn’t think it will happen that way. The Cowboys got off to an outstanding 12-1 start to usher in the Phillips/Garrett era but they’ve since slid back into mediocrity. In the 20 games they’ve played (including the playoffs) since that start they’ve gone 10-10. Three out of the past four seasons the team has finished 9-7 and I know that injuries played there part in last season’s mediocre finish but the pattern of inconsistency is hard to ignore. Every team in the league has injuries of one type of another throughout the course of a season but it’s the better coached teams that seem to survive those.

The difference in talent level from one team to another is very marginal and when key injuries occur it falls on the coaching staff to devise a game-plan that better utilizes the remaining players and I unfortunately have very little faith in the current coaching staff’s ability to do so.

I am however a fan of the recent converting of Phillips into an HC/DC hybrid. I think his greatest attributes are in the designing of and calling of the defensive plays and not in playing the role of a loosely involved manager. I’m hopeful that this cunning change plus the addition of Decamillis as the ST Coach will give the Cowboys a much stronger coaching staff in 2009.

I was not very impressed with the Cowboys’ offensive playbook last year. One can only hope that Garrett has a few wrinkles to throw into it this year to help make that side of the ball much less predictable. Most scary is that over the past two seasons the Cowboys point production has dropped from a near 24 points per game average to just a meager 13 in the months of December and January. This tells me that as the season wears on opposing D-Coordinators are figuring Garret out and that he is not counter adjusting. Perhaps these past two seasons have been great learning experiences for him and we’ll see a more innovative Garrett in 2009.

Garrret had the formula for success. Then he just stopped using it. I hope that my cowboys prove me wrong, but until they show me something, i can’t give them higher than 10-6. i hope i’m wrong. i would love to see my team finally win a playoff game. Now that my rockets lost to the damn dirty lakers, i have only football season to look forward to. GO BIG BLUE!

That is all.