Disappointment. That is the emotion of many Cowboys' fans after the poor performance against the Seattle Seahawks. The Cowboys were riding high after an emotional win against the New York Giants, but they couldn't carry over that performance into the game against the Seahawks.
It was a difficult game to watch because the Cowboys made a lot of mistakes that made it easier for the Seahawks to take control of the game. Not only were there mistakes, it looked like the Cowboys were just beaten in almost every aspect of the game. The Cowboys were never able to get into a rhythm on offense, while the Seahawks found it with their running game.
The NFL is such a difficult league. We know that on any given Sunday anything can happen, but a loss like the one yesterday leaves a bitter taste in your mouth.
Now Jason Garrett and company finally get to come home to Texas and play on their home turf.
Take the jump for more...
I won't go too far into detail about the Seahawks game. For the most part, we knew that this was going to be a close football game because of the home-field advantage the Seahawks have at CenturyLink Field. The Seahawks also had a good gameplan in place and they executed better. I think we should give some credit to Pete Carroll and the Seattle organization. It's simple, they just played better football than us.
The loss wouldn't have been as bad if it were a closer game, but once the third quarter started, Dallas never really got back into the game.
We should probably follow the 24 hour rule here. Let's soak in what happened and learn from it, but let's also not fret on it too much and move on. Jason Garrett wants to move on from the poor performance, but he also wants to learn from it.
"You have to move on," Garrett said. "Just like we put victories behind us, you have to put this one behind us, but before you do that, we have to go evaluate it. We have to go through the right process. We’ll do that tomorrow. We have to look ourselves in the mirror, and take accountability for it and move forward."
The Cowboys missed out on a chance to improve their record to 2-0, which would have put them in a tie for first place in the NFC East. Fortunately for the Cowboys, the Redskins couldn't keep their lead on the St. Louis Rams and fell to 1-1. The Eagles managed another late comeback and improved to 2-0. The Giants also rallied to comeback and beat the Buccaneers after Eli Manning threw for a career high 510 yards.
It's still very early in the season and the Cowboys aren't forced into a hole yet. Nobody has taken control of the NFC East. This is going to be a very difficult division to win this year. Anyone in the NFC East could come out on top, but each team also has their flaws.
This won't be an easy game for the Cowboys because the Tampa Bay Bucaneers are a young and talented team. I watched them play the Giants on Sunday, and there certain areas of the game that they do well, but there are also some major flaws on defense that Tony Romo can expose.
Jason Witten may not have had a great game against the Seahawks, but he isn't blaming it on a lack of focus.
"Our focus is we’ve got to play better football," Witten said. "The bottom line is we didn’t play good enough. We didn’t execute good enough, regardless of the reason. We got to execute plays better and drives and games."
"Guys are playing hard and doing all that stuff.We know what we’re doing. We just didn’t execute it well enough, ultimately. It’s not about ‘Were you too high or were you too low?’ We got our tail kicked. That’s what this game is about."
Witten is spot on about needing to make plays and execute better. If the Cowboys come out and execute to the best of their ability, then we will see the team we saw in New York for the opening game. The loss to the Seahawks isn't going to derail our season, but it's probably going to give the team a little bit of a wake up call.
This is a game that the Cowboys need to win, but it's not a must win-situation yet. The NFL is a league where it's important to get off on a good start, but it's more about how you finish. I expect to see the Cowboys come out firing this Sunday and perform at a much higher level. This team is far too talented to not show up and give it everything they have.
So I ask you, BTB nation, how do you feel about the upcoming game?