In professional bull riding a rider has 8 seconds to stay on top of a bull as it broncs up and down, back and forth, to and fro all the while trying to throw said rider off its back. Last nights Dallas Cowboy's game was kind of like a bull ride only it lasted one second less and was broken down into two rides. The first one lasting four seconds and the second one lasting three seconds and these were the leading characters in each one: Wade Phillips (Dallas Head Coach), Jason Garrett (Dallas Offensive Coordinator), Alex Barron (Boys Right Tackle), Tony Romo (Boys QB), Miles Austin (Boys WR), Mike Shanahan (Washington Head Coach), and Brian Orakpo (Skins Outside Linebacker).
Each short ride found the 'Boys getting thrown off the bull, but in different ways. The first throw-off-the-bull lasted four seconds and went like this...Jason Garrett (w/Wade Phillips not arguing it nor Romo) simply called a pretty stupid, obsolete play when there really was no need for it. As things went awry with it, perhaps Romo should have called an audible or just thrown the ball away. My gosh there were just four petty seconds left to play in the first half of the game, which was pretty boring and saw the respective defensive lines play way better than either offensive lines, what in the world possessed Garrett and Phillips to go for that play instead of taking a knee and settling for being down just three points. Just three points. That is not a bad point spread to be down by after playing 30 minutes of football. Take a knee, go into the locker for half-time and re-group. Nope, not our Dallas O-staff. Garrett calls the awful play which goes bad almost immediately...Romo barely gets the ball out of his own hands, the receiver barely catches it then fumbles the ball which the Redskin's player then recovers and runs into their end-zone for a quickie touchdown. Washington goes into their locker room now ahead by 10 points. The only true touchdown they would score the entire night. McNabb not at all impressive the entire first half nor the rest of the game. He and his O-line never contributed to their score at all, but then McNabb was not the player or QB whom was supposed to shine tonight. Tonight that responsibility fell on our QB, Tony Romo, and his O-line. Our offense sucked and let us Dallas fans down. Instead of Dallas going into half-time with points on the board, or just down by three points, they instead helped the Skins add to their lead. For certain a momentum switching moment and perhaps even a game deciding blunder indicative of what would come our way in the final two quarters of play for Dallas.
The end of the game, which I have dubbed the second half of the 7 second bull-ride was just as painful to watch. This time it was neither the fault of Romo, Garrett or Phillips, it was the fault of one Alex Barron (#71) whom does not know how to block to save his life. Barron the player who Dallas took this year and added to their O-line, the very player who just happened to lead the league in most penalties last year (7) when he was a St. Louis Ram. Barron needs to learn how to tackle properly. Since when did a bear-hug and a neck choke constitute any kind of tackling in the world of football! It never has. You tackle straight on and rely on force, strength, and intelligent reaction to lead you towards a proper tackle especially in a dire situation such as this one. Some say that had Barron not tackled Brian Orakpo that Romo surely would have been sacked. Maybe so - maybe not. Had Barron just tackled properly I believe Romo would have been okay. After all, Romo was already scrambling and had found his way from Orakpo and into a safe position -as safe as possible- on the field to throw that pass into the hands of Miles Austin. A game-winning throw/catch! One that would've, should've, could've been had it not been for one Barron and his bumbling football antics!
Yes, this game was boring and fell short of the kind of performance Dallas should have had. But let's not completely overlook Mike Shanahan's coaching guise and abilities. The man is a genius at the coaching helm. No small potatoes and Dallas should have been ready for him and his team. The expectations at the QB position, as I stated above, for an outstanding game fell upon Romo, and though he led some outstanding drives, Romo was simlpy not up to par at all the entire 60 seconds of this game. The Skin's coaching staff not so much better than that of Dallas, but they did hold their own a whole lot better this night especially on the side of their defensive skills. Dallas kicked themselves in the back-side...Washington did not beat them.
Dallas is fully capable of winning its division as most sport's pundits have been saying and I totally agree. Dallas now needs to really re-group after this lousy game and go back to playing sound football...football 101. Leave the gimmicky plays to teams with less experience and less talent. Or if Dallas is really gonna make that kind of play, leave it for when Dallas really needs to score and is down by a signifcant point spread - not for when Dallas is down by just three points going into half-time. It made Dallas look like a high school team rather than the professional team with championship-caliber skills. And for Pete's sake, learn to block properly, hold onto the ball and please-please-please figure out a way to cut back on all those stupid penalties. Let's lead the league in things more positive NOT in penalties incurred.
Next week sees our Dallas Cowboys play versus the Chi-town Bears. Let's be ready because the Bears are not going to be an easy win even if Dallas is playing in their own back-yard, per se. The Skins were supposed to be an easy victory for Dallas and we now know how that prediction turned out. Dallas is way better than this. The combined seven seconds of last night's game were grueling for Dallas fans to watch indeed. Next time a Dallas game winds down with three seconds or four seconds or however many seconds it may be and they find themselves playing catch up, let's hope they remember tonight's game and are smarter. Worker smarter - not harder and this especially goes to Barron - that he refrain from trying to rip off the head of any player going forward.
the one and only Pat Summitt (Lady Vols).
