The Cowboys are one of five undefeated teams left in the NFL. Over in the AFC, the recent powers continue to shine as the Colts, Patriots and Steelers are all 3-0. In the NFC, Dallas and Green Bay are the last two standing. That’s so 90’s. Leading the NFC’s elite, we have Favre and Son of Favre.
The big worry now seems to be overconfidence. At least that was one theme of the Wade Phillips’ press conference. Wade made a point that the season is only 19% over, and the next 81% means everything. The Cowboys have been studious in their preparations, as testified by the flight attendants on the Cowboys plane to Chicago. Phillips relayed that they were astounded that the Dallas players were actually studying the whole time to Chicago. North Dallas Forty, where have you gone? It’s all good in Wade’s World, the players are studying, the team is winning and T.O. is still under alien control and romping around the NFL like he owns it. Off the field, he no longer just loves him some him; he loves him some Tony Romo, Jason Garrett, the defense, and long walks on the beach. It’s all too good to be true.
Another theme of Wade’s press conference was don’t call him Mr. Fix It, at least not in ridicule. Hey, I’m clean Wade, I never said a thing. But why, when everything is going lovely, Wade chose to bring that up and mix-it-up with the media is a mystery; unless he saw Mike Gundy from Oklahoma State and got inspired.
Back to overconfidence, Tony Romo takes a pragmatic approach.
"It's still pretty early right - we know that," quarterback Tony Romo said at his locker Monday afternoon. "We've still got a lot of work to do. But all you can do right now is win the next one. So far, that's what we've done. That's really all you can do. At the end of the day, you just hope you've won enough to do something."
While taking notes on the film review – which I’ll put up tomorrow – I noticed MB3 returned to the closer role in a big way. Of course JJ got knocked silly so he was sidelined, but on the last TD drive, MB3 ran the ball eight straight times. Here’s Romo on Barber:
"He just gets it done in the fourth quarter," said Romo of Barber. "You know he's going to be strong at the end. And that's what happened. He was able to break that long one when they were tired. That's the advantage of (having a running back rotation)."
Hey, JJ played well also. Too bad they keep calling back his best plays back because of penalties.
Here are five stats that help show why Dallas is 3-0.
- Anthony Henry leads the league with 4 interceptions.
- Marion Barber is tied for first for most TD’s in the NFL with five.
- Tony Romo is tied for third in the NFL with a 119.8 QB rating.
- Dallas turnover margin at +7.
- Dallas leads the league in scoring at 38.7 points/game.
There are plenty of others, too.
Feel free to use this as a MNF open thread - a little on the late side - or to comment on the above post.