The Cowboys are buying the company line; it's a brand new season. Of course they are, what else can you do? There's no way they can defend their play over the last month. But I'm with them, it's the playoffs, anything can happen.
If simple belief isn't enough, Glenn calls on a higher power.
"Maybe God put us in this position to see how we persevered through this whole thing at the end and go to the playoffs," cornerback Aaron Glenn said. "We have some things going on, some turmoil in the locker room, but we're in the playoffs and the thing is, we have another opportunity."
Turmoil in the locker room? Don't tell Parcells that, he hasn't heard anything about it. He must not watch the news.
Bradie James chimes in on the playoffs.
Hope, belief, prayers...do you believe in miracles? Oy, this definitely isn't the way you want to enter the playoffs, but one win in the playoffs changes everything. If you can pull it together for one game and win, suddenly your confidence is sky high.
Romo is preparing for this game by looking at some history, and he's not going to a museum as Parcells suggested to anybody who wanted to look at history. Romo plans to imitate Joe Cool:
Romo will return on Saturday to Qwest Field, where nearly five months ago he played the entire game against the Seahawks, completing 19 of 25 passes for 235 yards and confirming Parcells' belief that he'd made considerable strides in his third off-season.
"Individually that was every bit as important as any game I've probably played in," Romo said. "For us it's a situation of just not turning the ball over really. Not making a mistake and just doing what we do best."
Romo reiterates one last time:
"Probably my No. 1 focus is not turning it over this game and throughout the playoffs," he said.
JJT takes a look at Romo in detail. It's a good read. But the numbers at the bottom of the article capture the story with Romo.
65.3: percent accuracy (second in the NFL)
8.61: yards per attempt (leads the NFL)
95.1: passer rating (fifth in the NFL)
The bad
3: lost fumbles
5: straight games with an interception
3.9: INT percentage is among the worst in the league
For most of a game Romo is very good, look at his accuracy number. But for a few plays in a game, he's costing the Cowboys, and nothing hurts a team worse than turnovers. If Romo can fix this one part of his game, then Dallas stands a chance against anybody, even with our defense.
JJT looks back at some history, even though Parcells said not to. He looks at the key plays of 2006 for the Cowboys.