unhealthy for any sort of team to engage in such an emotional roller-coaster. This ain't Six Flags. Just put your head down and play, then look up at the end and see where you are. Because if you start looking around too early, the magnitude of the situation, good or bad, just might become overwhelming. See the Eagles starting off with this Super Bowl or bust banner hanging over their heads or, for that matter, the unsuspecting San Francisco 49ers starting out with less than a snowball's chance here in July of qualifying for the playoffs.
Just worry about today, and for the Dallas Cowboys, that means the Cardinals, the Cardinals, the Cardinals.
And for those now susceptible to prematurely counting chickens, let me, and not ever meaning to be a party pooper, give you something to ponder before you automatically put that eighth marker in the win column:
The Cowboys have given up, as a team and not just the defense, 129 points in five road games. Do that math. That's 25.8 points a game. The fewest they have given up is the 20 at New England, and even that wasn't good enough, losing by four. And get this: Take out that performance, with now 24 points the fewest given up in the other four road games, and the average balloons to 27.25.
You know what that means?
The Cowboys have needed like 27 to 30 points to win road games. And thus far, they have only won two of the five, at San Francisco and at Washington, needing 27 both times, including a Dan Bailey field goal in overtime in each to win.
And I know there have been interceptions and that blocked punt for a touchdown against the Jets on the road, but here, of the 21 touchdowns Cowboys opponents have scored against their defense in 11 games, 14 have been tallied in five road games, double the home total scored in six.
"No way," an unsuspecting Marcus Spears said when given those road numbers, points and touchdowns. "That's got to stop."
You betcha, and, uh, last time I checked, the Cowboys are leaving at 3 p.m. Saturday for Phoenix, where they have lost three of the past four times – last year by one, mostly thanks to two interceptions being returned for touchdowns, and the time before by six (2008) when the first blocked punt returned for a touchdown in NFL overtime history won that game.
So chill, just temper all these microwaved conclusions being drawn prematurely, yes, even after 11 games, just as you should have after the first five or the first seven. There are still five games to go, a lifetime in NFL years.
This NFL is all about today, and let yesterday and tomorrow be.
Right Jason?
