Tony Romo (left) and the Cowboys will have to drastically reduce their mistakes if they have any hope of turning this season around, and it all starts tonight against the N.Y. Giants. (AP Photo/Andy King)For the second consecutive week the Dallas Cowboys (1-4) come into a must-win contest. This time, it's the NFC East division leading New York Giants (4-2) visiting Cowboys Stadium on Monday Night Football.
"I'm not worried about division [teams] or anything else," Cowboys' safety Gerald Sensabaugh. "We've just got to control ourselves and play and win."
Unfortunately for the Cowboys, controlling themselves has been the problem. Dallas continues to look like an unbalanced and undisciplined football team. These things must change going forward if these Cowboys have any realistic hope of becoming the sixth team since 1990 to make the playoffs after starting the season 1-4.
"As a competitor and an athlete, you're always going forward and trying to get better and improve and trying to turn it around when you get in those situations," Cowboys' quarterback Tony Romo said. "All I know how to do is to work hard and keep your head down and go forward."
Looking at the stats so far this season for the Cowboys can be misleading, as this should be a much better football team, record-wise. Dallas comes into the game leading in the NFL in total defense by over 180 total yards, but are 20th in the league in points allowed per game (22.2). The Cowboys are also third in the NFL in passing yards per game, but are only 18th in points per contest at 20.8.
A large reason for these discrepancies is the well-documented fact that the Cowboys simply do not make sound decisions during the course of the game. From the head coach, to the offensive coordinator and on down to the players; this has not been a very intelligent team on the football field so far this season.
If Dallas does fail to get a victory tonight, only one team in the Super Bowl era has ever come back to make the playoffs after a 1-5 start. According to STATS LLC, the Cincinnati Bengals made history in 1970, making the postseason after starting the season 1-5. Whats worse is that every other team in the NFC East has four wins, and Dallas has a tough road ahead to leap frog these teams en route to a playoff spot.
The good news for the Cowboys is that the Giants (along with the rest of the NFL aside from the Pittsburgh Steelers) aren't all that great either. N.Y. comes into the game as winners of three straight, but were blown out in back-to-back contests by a combined 43 points in the two games before that.
"We were just finding ways to lose games, having turnovers at costly times, penalties at costly times that were making it tough to win games," Giants' quarterback Eli Manning said. "We just had to get back to playing better football, working on certain things and being conscious of what we're doing and trying to play smarter football."
The first part of Manning's statement sounds a lot like the state of disarray these Cowboys are in right now. Only one game this season (Sept. 26 against the Houston Texans) have the Cowboys played a smart and well-rounded football game and it's difficult to see them doing it again tonight against New York.
Prediction:
The Giants have won three straight games (dominating Chicago, Houston, and Detroit) and nothing the Cowboys have done in the last few weeks of the season convinces me that they have what it takes to take down this division rival - even at home. As usual, there will be at least four to five REALLY stupid things the Cowboys will do doing the course of the game and, as usual, Dallas will be close at the end but still fall short. The Cowboys haven't lost a game by more than seven points all season, and that trend will continue tonight.
Giants 23 Cowboys 20
(Portions of this article were taken from The Associated Press)
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