The Dallas Cowboys Still Have an Uphill Battle in 2012

After another disappointing season in 2012, the Dallas Cowboys did something exceedingly rare, they used free agency to stock up on young talent that actually has an opportunity to improve. Cowboys fans appear to approve of the moves: almost 70% of the fans at The Landry Hat voted that the Cowboys would win the NFC East this season.

Unfortunately, those same fans seem oblivious to the fact that the Eagles, Giants and even the Redskins have a legitimate chance of competing with, if not conquering, the Cowboys.

In the 2011 offseason, the Eagles picked up the best cornerbacks in the league, one of the best defensive ends and another corner in Dominique Rodgers-Cromartie. As a result, many analysts picked the Eagles to be Super Bowl champions; the way those analysts forecast the 2011 season, it seemed like teams would be lucky to stay within 20 points of the “Dream Team”.

That dream never materialized. The Eagles showed a lack of chemistry, displayed a shocking inability to accomplish simple fundamentals-like actually wrapping up the ball carrier- and wallowed to an 8-8 record. They finished with 8 wins because they discovered how to play late in the season.

What should be concerning for the Cowboys is the fact that they discovered that ability at all,for when the Eagles started to play fundamentally sound, they were one of the best teams in the league; they obliterated the Cowboys in their second-to-last game 20-6. Of course, Tony Romo did not play in that loss, but considering what Stephen McGee had accomplished against the Cardinals, no one could have foreseen that McGee would look to be about on par with Jared Lorenzen or Tim Tebow.

Unfortunately, it doesn’t seem like Tony Romo would have made much of a difference,  since both the offense and the defense (at least in the first half) looked about as fired up  as Indianapolis. What the Eagles were the first ten games were a smoke screen-the Eagles of the last five games were the real Eagles, and there is no chance they won’t be better next year.

The Eagles could easily sweep the Cowboys on their way to the playoffs, and it actually seems likely that they will, given the Cowboys luck in December and patented ability to throw games away at the last minute. One would have to consider them the most likely candidate to win the division, if not the Super Bowl.

That being said, don’t forget the Giants. They haven’t had the flashiest off-season, signing ‘hand-me-downs’ like Isiah Stanback and Martellus Bennett, but they are still a solid team. If they get going in the second half of the season they could dispatch the Cowboys, but there isn’t a chance they will win the Super Bowl-none.

However, with Eli Manning, Victor Cruz and Osi Umenyiora, anything can happen, and the Giants always seem to play well against the Cowboys, so in a lose and go home game, the Giants would have to be the favorites by a lot.

Even so, they aren’t the team to look out for. That team is actually the Washington Redskins, who are the dark horse candidate (there simply isn’t another team for the job) for division champions. Robert Griffin III will fix the main hole in the roster, and they are just as solid, if not more so, than Dallas in many areas.

Quarterback? If Griffin lives up to the hype, he and Romo are almost a wash, with Romo having a slight lead. Wide Receiver? Dallas. Tight End? Chris Cooley and Fred Davis beat Jason Witten and John Phillips pretty handily. At other positions, Dallas may begin to pull away (save for safety). But the point is, saying that the Dallas Cowboys are the favorite, or that they are guaranteed to win the division, is the same trap that Cowboy fans get into every year.

It’s this cockiness that makes the Cowboys the Miami Heat of the NFL, and caused the public to question whether the Cowboys were still ‘America’s Team’. Thinking that the addition of one good cornerback, a backup linebacker, a mediocre left guard, plus this year’s draft picks is going to make the Cowboys 4-5 wins better is ludicrous, and it only serves to inflate already too high expectations.

With goals like that, Cowboy fans are going to be disappointed by more than a few blown leads, they’ll be disappointing by another season down the drain as Cowboys fans wonder where their guaranteed Super Bowl went.

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