Am I alone in my concerns about this Saturday night..?

time and romo was did well against them when they were blitzing a lot in philly. I think McDermot tried to confuse romo with zone and hoped he would press; they also probably thought that Samuel could handle Austin one-on-one but Austin was making plays on him. I think what Austin showed them led to the slants and witten having a good day against them. I think McDermot realized after the 1st half that the zone approach with coverage was not going to work; hanson could not cover crayton or witten.

I think that McDermot will have to go all out and live and die by the blitz; even if dallas repeatedly burns his blitz and is down 14-0 he will blitz every chance he gets until there is not time left in the game; it is the only card he has to play against dallas defense, because he secondary has holes and the middle is open for slot WR and TE to make plays. Dallas will be expecting the blitz early and often, but if the running game works as well as it did last sunday then that will help negate the blitz too. Dallas’ offense vs. iggles defense is going to decide the game, because their defense has nowhere to go but up, their offense will play better and score some points this time; but I think the defense will not get above 20 points especially if dallas has 40 minutes of TOP.

that keeps being mentioned, not only by the players and staff, but by the MSM is how different this team is from years past. How they are more committed to each other and how hungry they are. Just looking at the past three games is ample proof for me because it is contrary to their past history. Need more proof? OCC can provide all of the stats better than anyone I have ever known, but it’s the feeling of this team that gives me reason to believe. One thing I am sure of is that McDermott will throw the kitchen sink at Romo Saturday.

Okay, first off, we all know how this team can disappoint in the most critical of circumstances. That is the emotional aspect of why I’m worried about Saturday night.

Take out the emotion and three things make me feel good about the game:

1) The Cowboys DOMINATED the line of scrimmage, particularly on offense…our poor runs were going for 3 yards. As long as we continue to get that kind of push up front, their blitz may put more pressure on Romo and maybe stack up a few more runs BUT those 15 yard runs from Felix become 60 yards to the house. That slant to Austin for 20 yards becomes a TD.

2) We played nowhere near a perfect game on offense last week (drive killing penalties, missed FG, etc.) and still kicked their proverbial tail. We have room for improvement here…

3) Tony seems to have taken a huge quantum leap forward in awareness/ball security. If he doesn’t make major mistakes, then all that Philly has left is the threat of the big play, which our D has shut down effectively both games this year.

The best, and in my opinion, only, chance the Eagles have to win this game is to come out and punch our D in the mouth early, get up a couple of TD’s on big plays (or turnovers), and quiet the crowd. Here’s to scoring on our first drive and reminding them they’re in for another long night.

GO COWBOYS!!!!!

just doesn’t ring true with me.

More likely, I feel almost like the Eagles came into the game last week believing all the hype the national media had given them.
I could see Philly thinking “We always finish strong, and Dallas always fizzles. All we have to do is show up and they will fold like a house of cards…”

Well, maybe not that simple, but it sure seemed like Dallas was playing at a level of intensity that Reid and Co. couldn’t handle.

To me, all the pressure is on Philly. No one expected this level of performance from Dallas.

Is Dallas going to be overconfident this weekend, I don’t think so. Are they going to be riding the momentum from last weekend? I sure hope so.

Philadelphia is the one that should be in cold sweats this week.

Dallas has to get its 1st playoff win and it is a tough situation; the iggles are the team that has been a tough out and they have to be beaten a 3rd time to knock them out. That is a lot to have on your plate, no one will say after this game that if dallas wins it was against a scrub wildcard team that dallas beat; this victory is not only challenging but will provide vindication and confidence to win any playoff game they have this year.

The iggles have their past history dictacting the expectations on what is expected of them this year; they are the defending NFC champs, their coach does not lose opening playoff games, they always show up for the big games (they choke when they are favored) especially against dallas, they were embarrased and will play better. A lot of expectations are on this team to win, so they are under some pressure as well, especially if they get swept out of the playoffs by one of their most hated rivals after going on a 6 game winning streak (4 of 5 on the road) to end it with two straight losses to the boys will be a collosal failure to the season.

I’m concerned when they play anyone.

I guess I’m not concerned with overconfidence or anything like that. I think that if they lose it will be because they are out executed not because of overconfidence.

1. We simply dominated them on both lines.
2. For every reason last week’s game “woulda-coulda-shoulda” been closer, there’s a counter point … they missed a FG, so did we… they turned the ball over in the red zone, so did we… they missed a sure TD pass, so did we… all their “upside” potential from this weekend is no greater than our own.
3. We WANT it just as much … don’t think for a moment the Cowboys have forgotten the taste of 44-6. And don’t think for a moment they want to spend another off-season fretting about the Iggs…
4. It’s time … too many streaks that need to end eventually, and too many reasons this is the team to do it.
5. Finally: we’re simply a better football team, from top to bottom.

but how much more could they have done to give you confidence? Thats as well as we could’ve played overall

block
run
throw
catch
tackle
or do anything else to win or lose a football game.

Who was more “experienced,” Jim Kelly or Troy Aikman? The better teams win, period.

They didn’t blitz as much because they wanted to see if Dallas would over prepare for the blitz and then chuck the ball into coverage. They blitzed like crazy in the first game and lost. They tried to do it differently this game to see if it would make a difference. Teams study the last four games in prep so everything the Eagles didn’t do will still be reviewed and prepped. The Cowboys are better than the Eagles. Our lines will dominate theirs and we will win. My only concern is the fluke play. Otherwise, I believe we will beat them.

when all the good feeling of the last three weeks could be wiped away by a loss. But I keep thinking about Raf (or was it Dave’s) post concerning playoff teams Achilles heal—Dallas just might have Philly’s number this year or at least I am hoping.

Go out and do it. That’s all.

stated they got burned early when they blitzed on some MBIII runs and they backed out of it. His subsequent statements imply that he now feels that was a mistake.

I still contend the matchups have turned in our favor because of extensive injuries/substitutes on their O LIne and LB’s. Our QB pressure and run stuffing evidence of the former and our WR’s were getting past the first levels of pass defenders on slants and over the middle with regularity. I will admit when PHL did blitz we did not screen well for the most part in response. That needs to be tightened up if they’re going to blitz as much as everyone expects on SAT.

PHL always scares me – Reid overall is a good coach, but subject to brain cramps in pass/run balance and clock management. McNabb is completely capable of deliverable stunning performances – bad or good. More in our favor this season is their DB’s can be had(Dawkins is sorely missed), their running game is average at best.

One demon hanging over the Cowboys has been exorcised – the me-first, team second attitude that killed us last year. And with it, the ’can’t win in DEC/late season mantra’. Two ghosts remain – the Seattle slip and playoff fail of ‘07. Romo is haunted by the 1st, but is shedding that with each big game success. Phillips entire perception has been skewed by that Giants game, an almost ’unforgivable’ failure in the eyes of the DAL faithful. Until now.

as will I always be.. I’m a true blue Cowboy fan and I am concerned every week with every team. The Eagles can win the game Saturday if we don’t bring our ‘A’ game.

Go Cowboys!

what i heard was that dallas went to empty backfield with no rb or te to help block on alot of passing downs. this forced philly to show their coverage sooner. and that allowed romo to see whether it was zone or what.

Philly needs interceptions, fumbles, and general ineptitude on the Cowboys’ part to win this game. And I haven’t seen a whole lot of that lately.

Which was just about an even game, with one MAustin bomb the difference.
They really shut down the Cowboys O that game, and will go back to that gameplan.

Dallas does not show the ability to run against heavy blitzing usually, and the running game was the difference. I expect the Boys’ offense to struggle a lot more this time, like the earlier game.
Then the question becomes: Will they feel the pressure and tighten up, or remain calm and execute?

Still, as far as our D vs. their O, they have no running game, so while they probably will break through and score and hit some long gains, we should be able to hold them to 20 or less.

Dallas needs to prepare for a different team Saturday night or it could be another playoff nightmare for us.

Simple fact: teams that get destroyed by an opponent they know well, generally come back with a much different performance the next time around.

Too many fans on here are predicting a similar outcome to last week and I fear they might be overreacting to a crappy performance by Philly. Remember, this is an Andy reid coached team. they know how to turn up their level of play in the playoffs.