over Miami, Chicago, St. Louis and the Jets distorting reality a tad.
Now it would be foolish to suggest the Cowboys weren't good enough to defeat the Giants. They were, their 12 Pro Bowl players notwithstanding. And as Phillips said, still somewhat smarting from the loss, "After looking at the tape I certainly felt the best team lost the game."
But as always is the case in the playoffs, your weaknesses always get exposed.
There has been no secret all season long the Cowboys were a third cornerback shy. So who did the Giants pick on most of the game? Yep, Jacques Reeves, just as New England exposed Reeves and Nate Jones for what they were, playing three wides that day almost exclusively. Why, I didn't even know Terence Newman played Sunday.
All season long teams worked diligently to get Roy Williams in pass coverage. The Giants were the ones to establish this trend. They had no loss of memory on Sunday, be it Jeremy Shockey at tight end or some Kevin Boss.
Because during that vital 46-second drill, who did the Giants throw at? That would be Reeves, who also was nailed for a 15-yard facemask penalty.
All season long the Cowboys struggled to cover kicks. Shocking that deficiency would raise its ugly head in the playoffs.
Oh, and one more thing: Depth at wide receiver. With a healthy Terrell Owens the Cowboys were able to hide that deficiency caused by Terry Glenn's season-long absence. But without him, the Cowboys were exposed, and believe me, they didn't have near enough of Owens on Sunday, and same with Glenn.
So what happened? The Giants exposed that deficiency, too. I mean, did you realize Sam Hurd played receiver in this game? Miles Austin a play or three? And even Patrick Crayton didn't have his best game, dropping the one third-down pass and then admittedly hesitating during the middle of his go route on the Cowboys' next-to-last play to cost them the probable game-winning touchdown when Romo barely overthrew him in the end zone.
Nothing the Cowboys presented the Giants discouraged them from blitzing that second half. They just kept attacking and attacking.
Now if you believe in tangible stuff, there is a grocery bag full of reasons why the Cowboys did not win this game, but namely playing better competition and having season-long deficiencies exposed. That's what generally gets you beat this time of year. Happens all the time.
"It didn't cross my mind this would be our last game," Witten said.
Didn't cross hardly anyone's mind around here, simply adding to the universal disappointment.
