Beware of the wounded animal
On paper... you have two teams headed in opposite directions. Dallas has won their last three, the Giants have lost their last three. You have Tony Romo, on fire and improving every week... racking up MVP-type numbers along the way. Then you Eli Manning, struggling and seeming to lose confidence with every pass in a downward spiral. Dallas fans with Superbowl aspirations while Giant fans are demanding their coaches head on a platter. So it should be a "gimme"... right?
Well, as a sports fan, I can't count the number of times that I have been soooo confident going into a game, only to have a huge let-down come gameday. I find myself screaming at the TV... "How could this happen? How did we get beat by THEM?"
It's just the reality of today's NFL. As Cowboy fans, we can look ahead at our remaining schedule and drool at the possibility of "winning-out." But the fact of the matter is, there are upsets every week where a team that shouldn't win... does.
I really hope that Bill Parcells has his team ready Sunday. This is a huge game that could propel us to the playoffs, or let a desperate team back into the hunt.
- S
posted by Shawn @ 9:36 PM
2 comments
2 Comments:
You are SO right!
I seem to remember a mid-season game many years ago in which a fill-in QB named Elvis guided the underdog Niners to a victory over the Cowboys. It still burns my butt...
I don't worry too much about the "wounded dog" fighting (biting?) harder. Instead I worry about the possibiltiy that some players may take the game too lightly, prepare less than 100% mentally, and slack-off a bit during play. It's too easy to relax when you're overflowing with newfound confidence.
Two things to keep in mind:
• Despite his brilliance thus far, Romo has less than a half-season of experience for his career.
• Also, I can't help but remember how well things appeared at this point in the season last year, when we suddenly folded up like a bunch of wet tacos.
From Yahoo! Sports
(http://sports.yahoo.com/nfl/news?slug=ap-cowboys-samebutdifferent&prov=ap&type=lgns)
Maybe this will help to allay our collective fear:
"Guys are just focused more, not to say last year we weren't," defensive end Marcus Spears said. "I think the magnitude of what we can do now and how we can set ourselves up in the future and hopefully getting into the playoffs, I think it's important and it's prevalent. The air is thick right now."
"We had our chances up there last year," coach Bill Parcells said. "We just didn't make enough plays that day. I think this is a different team...(the team is) doing a whole lot of things better at this point in time this year than it was last year," Parcells said.
"It's almost like guys are smelling it," cornerback Aaron Glenn said. "Last year, it was almost like, `Wow' that we're in it. This year, all the guys expect to be in it. That's different, expecting it than when it jumps on you like `Wow.' It's a different confidence."
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