No one expected the Dallas Cowboys to get into the playoffs this year. We were all thinking maybe 7-9 or even 6-10 for the 2014 season. The Dallas Cowboys went 12-4 and won 1 playoff game-which is 1 more playoff win then they have had in recent memory.
The local sports talk shows continue to bemoan the fact that Tony Romo and Jason Witten are seeing the prime of their careers slide by without making a trip to the Super Bowl. Tony and Jason are the two biggest stars of the past ten years or so. It has been lamented many times that owner Jerry Jones has never had the skill that Coach/GM Jimmy Johnson had when it came to getting quality players. So Tony and Jason have had to suffer lo these many years with a supporting cast of losers with no chance at all of winning the Big Game. But this year looked a little different.
Dez Bryant and DeMarco Murry came on strong this year, taking some of the pressure off of Tony Romo’s shoulders. Maybe if Tony didn’t have to win every game single-handedly, the Dallas Cowboys would have a shot. Sure enough DeMarco Murry set all kinds of records this year and Dez Bryant was there when they needed him. Tony Romo continues to set just about every team record the Cowboys have, except the ones for Playoff wins. Die hard fans of Tony will say that all he needs are the right pieces around him, Tony haters will continue to say that he’s a choker in the big games. But this year at least, I can’t blame Romo for the team’s lose in the second round of the playoffs. They just weren’t good enough, even though they were a lot better than anyone expected.
There were a couple of calls by Referees that could be argued about. One put the Cowboys in the second round and one knocked them out of the second round. Of course, one play doesn’t decide a game, but it seemed to make everyone on the losing side feel better to say it did. In the Glory Days, the Cowboys would run up the score by twenty or thirty points and then protect the lead. This team always seems to be one snap away from winning or losing. But maybe that’s just the NFL these days.
I can’t get too worked up about the Dallas Cowboys any more. Jerry Jones isn’t leaving and it looks like Jason Garrett and Tony Romo will be there till the end of time as well.
Maybe those last ten or fifteen pieces will fall into place next year….
