Cowboys FanPost Of The Week: Play By Play, Times Three

Wow. Its clearly time to return to the once-a-week edition of our FanPost Awards. To go back through the FanPost pages to the last time I doled out some much-coveted "Rabbies," I had to cover four pages worth of posts, roughly double what we've been seeing for a two week period throughout the offseason. Clearly, everybody is excited about the return of football, and the start of actual games--some folks so much so that they couldn't help posting multiple times. With that in mind, this edition of the FPOTW will highlight some members of our community who have acted much like Rob Ryan's defense: they presented multiple looks.

The list of multiple posters is extensive, and perched at the very top is the man we used to know as Pineywoods and now sports the name of Tom Ryle, front page writer. Everybody join me in shedding a tear at the departure of Piney's FP insight and humor--and an awestruck moment of silence at his ridiculous productivity of late--while gathering for a rousing welcoming cheer at his richly-deserved transformation. Other multiple posters of note in recent weeks are Feeling Blue and Silver (thoughts on the Cowboys cuts and keeps, and a terrific tongue-in-cheek therapy session for Cowboys fans); Specific, who gave us posts on running by committee, Tashard Choice, and some optimistic statistical predictions; and Admiral Dallas, who shared some lucid thoughts on a couple of subjects--the Cowboys offseason moves and who will make the 53--that we've all been writing about, albeit not with as much clarity.

More FanPost goodness after the jump...

Before moving on to this week's nominees, I would be remiss not to mention a couple of members who may have authored only one post, but more than made up for the lack of quantity by crafting pieces of the highest quality. I'm talking about guys like demarcus94, who gave us a detailed post-game analysis of the Cowboys roster, noting who hurt and who helped themselves in the game. IamIronman!!! threw his hat into the ring with a terrific take on the story of the 2011 Dallas defense. In the lead-in, he claims that the mini-novella is not his style, but I think he acquits himself rather well. Great stuff, both of you!

Another poster who uses the lead-in to pooh-pooh his work is Scout06, who loses his FanPost cherry with not one, but three terrific efforts. In the first, he offers a thoughtful meditation on the right side of the Cowboys' O-line; next, he piggybacks on Specific's running back posts with a reasoned analysis of which backs will make the final roster; lastly, he offers a front-page worthy breakdown of the first defensive series against the Broncos (and, yes, breakdown, is the key word there, Mr. Sensabaugh). We look forward to more from you, Scout; stop apologizin' and get a-writin', boy!

Our first runner-up is a long-time poster and frequent contributor to the comments sections. I'm talking about the man who inspired the front page writers' BOTB draft, the estimable TK19. In the past couple of weeks, he's given us a shrewd analysis of Ryan's defense (replete with phallic humor), gave us compelling reasons to put the 2010 season in the rearview mirror, and (revisiting a popular post from last year) concocted a list of "show-Me" players for the upcoming season. Keep up the good work, TK!

And on to our winner: over the past few seasons, the offensive line has been Dallas' bugaboo; they have struggled to draft and/ or develop good young linemen, have been plagued by age, knuckleheadedness and inconsistency. We in Cowboys Nation have waited for the inevitable OL makeover--and are all a bit astonished that it seems to have happened almost in a single draft. In the past few days, Musiccitynorm took a closer look at each of the youngsters who have revamped the Dallas O-line, offering a detailed, play-by-play analysis of the fine work of Tyron Smith, David Arkin and Phil Costa against Denver. The takeaway? The kids are alright, especially Smith. After reading MCN's wisdom, there's only one thing I got left to say: hey, Norm! what about Billy Nagy? I kid, sir: really excellent work!

More FanPost goodness in one weeks time, as we will be resuming our regularly scheduled weekly programming. Until then, congrats to Norm and all of this week's top posters!