Nick Eatman is the author of his third book, the recently published ***Friday, Saturday, Sunday in Texas**, a chronicle of three football teams on three levels in Texas, from high school to college to the Cowboys. *
ARLINGTON, Texas – In his first team meeting taking over as head coach, Herman Boone storms in, finds a smiling Petey Jones with his hand in the air, basically berates him for the cheesy grin, and then questions his player for saying "Football is fun."
He then sarcastically warns all of the Titans players about how much "fun" they will have during the upcoming season.
OK, so that was a scene from Remember the Titans, which happens to be one of my favorite movies of all time, but I'm not really sure even Denzel Washington's character could've derailed what's happening here in Dallas.
By my count, rookie Dak Prescott said the word "fun" at least five times in his postgame press conference after Thursday's impressive 31-26 win over the Redskins.
Let's be honest here – who isn't having fun with this team? All right, Kirk Cousins, you can put your hand down. We get it that the opponents aren't too happy watching this Cowboys team, especially when they've taken the "L" twice now this year.
But other than that, Dallas is providing good times for everyone.
The players are having a blast. The ones on the team last year have to love the overhaul they're seeing. And the rookies probably have heard plenty about the 4-12 debacle from last season and have to feel like they're a big part in this year's turnaround.
And for the most part, these rookies would be right with that assessment.
[embeddedad0]Prescott and Ezekiel Elliott are basically taking over the NFL right in front of our eyes. We can say that's a bit premature, but it's happening. Watching them stand there on the field after this win and accept the game-day award was just another example how much fun this entire league is having with these two rookies.
Obviously, it's not just these two guys. This 10-game winning streak has been a team effort, but Prescott and Elliott are clearly the two guys front and center of this fun-show.
Thursday's game was just another example of it.
What's fun is knowing what you're going to get from this team. If I had just $1 for every time I've heard anyone call this inconsistent … I'd definitely have a big bank of cash to buy some Christmas presents this year. Consistency has been a problem for this franchise each and every year.
Too many times we've seen this team look completely different in consecutive weeks.
Now we know exactly what we're getting with this team. Sure, they mix up the score here and there. And one week it's Terrance Williams making plays and the next week it's Cole Beasley or Brice Butler.
But for the most part, we know what we're getting. This offensive line will be dominant. Elliott will be a beast and Prescott is going to make a few nice plays early on, then will get better as the game progresses, and before you know it, you've got another turnover-less outing with him making plays with his arm and legs.
As cheesy as this might sound, this 2016 team is a football team you can count on.
They're going to be prepared early in the game – evident by the fact that they've scored on the first drive of the game seven of 11 times this year.
They're going to rally to the ball on defense. Even though this game was rather tough for the secondary, I thought the defense helped the Cowboys win on Thursday. How about all the times they forced field goal attempts instead of yielding touchdowns? That was the difference in the game.
I've been waiting for this team to struggle. I've been waiting for guys like Dak and Zeke to hit this proverbial rookie wall. I've been waiting for some defensive coordinator to figure them out by now.
And maybe that will happen at some point here in December. But I don't think the Cowboys aren't worried about it right now.
They're simply having too much fun.
