Cowboys Corner

Eagles Will Know Their Fate by Kickoff

With the NFL/TV suits moving the start of Sunday's Cowboys/Eagles game to 3:15 p.m. CT, the Eagles will know by the time they start whether they have a chance to actually make the playoffs.
The Bucs play the Raiders at noon in Tampa. If the Bucs win, as is expected, the Eagles are eliminated from postseason contention.
The question is if the Eagles are eliminated before the game will they actually care to put up a fight against the Cowboys? Will Eagles coach Andy Reid pull the quick trigger on Donovan McNabb so he can see Kevin Kolb?
The safe answer is to assume the Eagles will care, and McNabb will play.
The last the Cowboys were in a similar position to this was the regular-season finale of the 2005 season. Entering the day, the Cowboys needed this, that or something else to happen to have a shot. None of it did, and by the time the Cowboys took the field to play a mediocre Rams team they were mentally not into the game and lost 20-10.
If the Bucs win and the Eagles are out by kickoff, the Cowboys have to give the Eagles a reason to quit. That usually is a 10-point deficit at the half.

- Mac Engel

Cowboys-Eagles game moved

The Cowboys-Eagles game on Sunday has been moved from noon to 3:15 p.m. Fox. Dallas needs a victory to earn a wild card berth. Philly needs a victory and some help to earn a berth.

- Rick Herrin

Choice, A One-Man Team

Even though there are playmakers galore on the Cowboys, it's rookie Tashard Choice who has become the focal point the past few weeks.
That says a lot about Choice, which is good.
It also says a lot about Jason Witten, Terrell Owens, Martellus Bennett, Patrick Crayton, Roy Williams, which isn't good.
Here are Choice's last three games:
at Pitt: 23 carries, 88 yards; 5 rec., 78 yards
vs. Giants: 9 carries, 91 yards; 4 rec., 52 yards. 1 TD
vs. Ravens: 17 carries, 90 yards; 7 rec., 25 yards, 1 TD

- Mac Engel

Barber Not 100 Percent ... Not that it matters

Marion Barber tried to play tonight, but it's becoming apparent that rookie Tashard Choice is doing so well the Cowboys offense doesn't miss Barber in the least.
Barber had two carries against the Ravens for 0 yards. He also had one catch for seven yards.
In the last two games, he has 10 carries for two yards. He remains slowed by a dislocated toe ... we think. 
This is hard to imagine, but in Barber's first season as the starter he will not do as well as when he was the backup.
Last season, Barber rushed for 975 yards on 204 carries. What was once a given - he would rush for 1,000 yards - is now seemingly unrealistic. Barber has rushed for 872 yards on 235 carries for a 3.7 yards per rush average this season.

- Mac Engel 

Cowboys-Ravens recap

When Wade Takes the Credit

Credit Tom Orsborne of the San Antonio Express News when he asked Wade Phillips after the game what happened on the two long touchdown runs and whether it was Wade who had called the defenses on both plays.
"Yeah," Phillips said.
Since Phillips made a point of saying he was calling the defenses now, and in doing so received the credit for the turnaround, he will no doubt get roasted for this unique collapse.
"We had every gap filled," Wade said. "We missed a tackle on one of them."
(Actually, your team missed several tackles.)
"We should have had other people there," he said. "We did some run blitzes throughout the game and hit them in the backfield. I've never seen that happen in a ball game."
Wade likes to take the positives from things, so that's a positive - he saw something he had never seen before.

- Mac Engel

The Ravens were Iowa State

The Ravens may be a pro football team, but they are not above using some high school tactics to motivate the players.
First, it was well known that Cowboys offensive coordinator Jason Garrett did not accept the Ravens' head-coaching job offer last season. (How many job offers will JG get this offseason?)
Then there was a rumor floating around that the Cowboys requested the Ravens to close out Texas Stadium. That sounds like asking to play Iowa State in the Homecoming game. What is closer to the truth is that the Cowboys did not want to play a division opponent in the Texas Stadium finale. Whatever the case, the Ravens heard what they wanted to hear and applied it accordingly.
"There was a lot of politics in this game. So it was 10 times more fun for us to win this game," Ravens linebacker Terrell Suggs said. "There was a coach on their side who was offered this job and declined it. We heard that those guys personally requested us as their homecoming opponent for their party. we wanted to be party crashers. we hope they enjoy their parade, their ceremony."
On Garrett, "He said one of the reasons he didn't take the job was because we didn't have men of character. At least that was the rumor. We all knew it. But we were kind of reminded of it."

- Mac Engel

Do You Believe It?

Tony Romo said one of the problems the Cowboys had on Saturday was that they could not figure out what to do against the Ravens defense until the first three quarters were already over.
"We eventually kind of got to see what they were doing, at least in the blocking scheme," Romo said. "I think we had a little bit of trouble recognizing who was a linebacker, who was a d-linemen and getting on the same page but we will go back and look at the film and correct that."
Romo said if the Ravens were a team that the Cowboys faced more than once in a great while they may have been able to do more against them quicker. (If that is the case, then how did the Ravens do it?)
These are convenient answers, but I'm not sure they are completely believable.
The Cowboys didn't begin to move the ball until they were down 19-10 about six minutes to go in the game. At that point, the Ravens were OK with allowing some of the underneath stuff.
Maybe Romo is 100 percent right, but given what transpired there are some reasons to believe other things led to the Cowboys' offensive struggles.

- Mac Engel

Earth to Tony

When asked if the Cowboys team is aware of the expectations that surround this team and whether it is burdened by them Tony Romo said, "The expectations are what (the media) write our expectations are. We have our own goals and our own set what we started out to do."
It's a safe bet that making the playoffs is not something the evil media established as the gold standard for the Cowboys. The man who signs Romo's checks has pretty high expectations too, and it's not just a wildcard berth.
Jerry Jones said after the Cowboys defeated the 49ers in November, "The only thing I’m focused on is getting to the playoffs. It would really kill me on a personal basis and every fan just as much if we have this team this makeup of this team and don’t get in the playoffs.
That would be one of the big disappointments. I think this team has a chance of getting in the playoffs and beating some pretty good teams."
Romo is no dummy, and he likes to tell the evil media how its job ... which is fair, given we tell him how to do his. But in his bid to be above the gossip he can sound a bit like a lecturer and sometimes the best route is just to say what his boss said.

- Mac Engel

Ken Hamlin Speaks

Cowboys safety Ken Hamlin usually reads from the Crash Davis school of handling the media, which is to say nothing at all. But give Hamlin some credit - he had a wretched game tonight and he faced the media.
It was Hamlin who was one of the tacklers who missed on Willis McGahee's feet during his 77-yard touchdown run that extended the Ravens' lead in the fourth quarter.
It was Hamlin who missed on recovering a fumble deep in Cowboys' territory when he had his hands on the ball.
And it was Hamlin who got stiffed-armed by Ravens fullback Le'Ron McClain all the way to the ground on his 82-yard touchdown run.
"I play free safety; there's no one else behind me, so of course I know that," Hamlin said. "I know I need to make a play, and I didn't. ... I didn't play a good game. I didn't hold my weight. With our offense doing what they did, scoring there at the end, we've got to make a stop and give them the ball back."
He continued with the verbal flogging.
"I'm shouldering the blame. I don't mind it. I feel like I had my opportunities to make plays to give us another opportunity to go out there and I didn't live up to that. I am definitely disappointed in myself, disappointed in my play, and I'll be hard on myself about this game."

- Mac Engel