Welcome to our weekly installment of The FanPost of the Week Awards. This has been a peculiar seven days: the Lions meltdown, with its ensuing expressions of fury and disappointment, was followed with a much-needed bye week (but no chance to alter the Detroit narrative with a new game). As a result, the FanPost pages haven't been as chock full of entries as in typical weeks. Luckily, while we haven't had the same quantity of posts, we have been gifted with several of the highest quality. In the end, therefore, this has proved to be a win-win: my job was made easier, and our readers get to enjoy the same quality at the top.
Lets take a look at these quality posts. First off is a very popular (it received more recs, 20, than any FP I can recall) and lengthy entry from White Wolf, who crafts an epic saga outlining the past 13 months of Cowboys games. In particular, Wolf wonders why, over that span, our favorite team has lost so many games that should have been victories. After a bit of venting, he expresses his approval of Jason Garrett--but reminds us that the RHG is essentially a rookie head coach, and, as such, will experience some growing pains. His conclusion, to my mind, is that we will all have to grow along with him...but that it will be worth it. Go here to read the post in its entirety...but plan to be there for a while; Wolfie threw a lotta words at us!
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As some of you may have realized, I love movies. In several of my posts, I have offered up movie references, and have always favored FPOTW candidates that do the same. My boy Chia Crack, for example, has a couple of Rabbies on his mantle for movie-themed posts ("Braveheart," for example). There were two (count'em: two!) posts this week that used film references to make their points; not surprisingly, I felt both needed to be recognized.
First up is Fivebigones, whose first-ever FanPost (he's been a member less than a week!) compares each of Romo's games this season to a different character from the WIzard of Oz. 49ers? Tin Man; Lions? Scarecrow. Nice. Continuing this theme, lets hope Rob Ryan's defense exposes Tom Brady as the "man behind the curtain" on Sunday afternoon. Nice first effort, bigones; keep on posting!
The next deserving cinema-centric entry was authored by one of our community's faves, TruBluToTheCore. In the spirit of Halloween, Blu has given us a FanPost, "Trick or Treat," that takes a look at what has been a monstrous first four games. But this hasn't gotten Blu down; he offers a reasonable assessment of where Dallas has been and where they will be going. The take-away from the roller-coaster that has been the early season? "Put a stake in it." Given all the hype and hoopla, I couldn't agree more; aim for the heart, y'all.
Speaking of heart, this week's winner, RomoCop, has given us an effort that is all heart. But he also has some interesting stats thrown in for god measure. RC's first order of business is to take down the members of the media who opine on the Cowboys without seemingly ever watching their games, speaking instead from hurts inflicted by teams of Cowboys past rather than offering any kind of objective analysis. Cop's case in point is the endless Romo saga, the narrative that he's a singular turnover machine. To contest this story, RC serves up a heapin' helpin' of contrary evidence--specifically the turnover totals of other top NFL signal callers.
And guess what? Romo has done a better job protecting the ball this season than a bunch of fellers named Vick, Rivers, Roethlisberger, Ryan, Freeman, Brady and Grossman. Not something you're likely to hear from the major media outlets. Are you listening, Marshall Faulk?
Go here to see RC's potent combo of passionate rant and juicy stats. In closing, I'll borrow the final words from his winning post:
GO COWBOYS!