1. Another squeaker--note that it's 9 in a row, and that the prior record was 6. Please stop talking abut parity and realize that these Cowboys have a weird Jekyll/ Hyde syndrome, where every week a new player tries to give away the game (Costa, Ogletree) and some heroes save it. Some things we can predict--that Witten will make plays, that Ware is a beast, that the Redskins are cheaters. Others we can't--will Bailey be the hero or the goat? Will Spence stop the drive or give up the game-winning play? Will the Yugglies impress or make rookie mistakes? And yes, I think the "luck" factor is at play--in 9 close games, we are 5-4, which means the next close one will probably go against us.

2. That said, we seem to be turning something around. The teamwork. The leadership from Romo. The legitimate attempt to identify holes (such as our lack of a functioning fullback) and then go out there and plug them. It's because of that culture that I don't expect to see Costa keep making these same mistakes. They'll be corrected, or he'll be benched, or something.

3. That said, the one mistake that I don't see this team correcting is its inability to win in short-yardage situations. Imagine that the other team has 1st and goal on our 2 yard line--we know they're going to punch it in. Imagine that we have 1st and goal on their 2 yard line--we don't know that we can punch it in. I think this is JG's Achilles' heel, and that he has shown in his play-calling (for several years) and in his personnel decisions (for the past several months) that he is incapable of addressing it.

4. Here's my solution: a limited-responsibility offensive coordinator. Someone who isn't working on 99 things at once, as a head coach always must be, but who is solely focused on fixing two or three things that are clearly broken: goal-line performance, playing to protect the lead, getting our running game moving. Someone whose job it is, in a few carefully defined moments, to turn to the red-headed genius and say, "I'm better at this than you are, and I've prepared the team to face it, so please step back and let us execute."

Here's hoping we squeak out the next win against the Lions!