Dallas Cowboys vs Chicago Bears

Week 2 Nothing New

More drive killing mistakes, more missed field goals… but hey, at least they took a knee before the half this time.

People want to say that preseason games are meaningless but I don’t buy it. Everything Dallas did poorly in the preseason has carried over. The offense couldn’t score then and they can’t score now. With as much talent as they have at the skill positions how do you manage only two touchdowns in two games?

What’s so frustrating is for the second straight week the Cowboys dominated the stats across the board. They had more total yards, more first downs and more time of possession. But for the second straight week, they also had more turnovers and more penalties. It seems, at least for now, that he Cowboys have mastered the art of shooting themselves in the foot (no offense Plaxico Burress).

Jason Garrett all but abandoned the running game for the second week in a row, forcing Tony Romo to throw 51 times. Marion Barber ran for 27 yards on five carries in the first quarter and then he got only four more carries for 4 yards the rest of the game. You would think with Marc Columbo and Kyle Kosier back, Dallas would’ve stayed with the running game longer.

Can we blame Jason Garret? He surely deserves some of the blame but you can’t pin it all on him this time. Veteran players were making uncharacteristic mistakes. Miles Austin and Jason Witten failed to make catches after the ball hit their hands, both ended up in the hands of Bears corner DJ Moore. Roy Williams lost a fumble late in the game (even though I thought his forward progress was stopped) and veteran linemen committed untimely offensive penalties. Bottom line, this is an undisciplined team.

As for David Buehler and the missed field goals… I never had faith in Buehler to be the guy taking the kick with the game on the line. He’s got a monster leg but he’s never going to be Morten Anderson. He’s not a guy you get rid of though. He’s a terrific kick off specialist and he’s not afraid to get in there and make tackles. But for crying out loud, YOU’RE THE DALLAS COWBOYS!! HOW CAN YOU NOT HAVE SOMEONE WHO CAN MAKE A 40-YARD FIELD GOAL INDOORS!!

So now the hill the Cowboys have to climb gets steeper. Jason Witten, Mike Jenkins and Dez Bryant all left the game in the 4th quarter with injuries. We shall see if those injuries are serious this week.

Since 1990 only 13 percent of teams starting 0-2 have made the playoffs. One of those teams was the ’93 Cowboys who went on to win the Super Bowl. First things first, the Cowboys travel to 2-0 Houston next week and the Texans love nothing more than taking down Big D.

Blake out.