Sirius Radio Viagra Commercial

According to my research — I’ve spent about 15-minutes on this — there’s only one quarterback in the history of the NFL who started for the same team for as many consecutive seasons as Tony Romo without winning a single divisional playoff game.
Romo has been in Dallas for 13 seasons, the starting quarterback for the Cowboys the last eleven of those seasons — ten if you don’t count 2016 because he actually never played a down. Regardless of how you count this past year for him, he stands with only one other quarterback in league history in the category of longevity-plus-playoff-failure.
Danny White was the starter for eight years in Dallas and led the Cowboys to three straight NFC Championship Games. By the way, only five of those years was full time — he split starts with Gary Hogeboom and Steve Pelluer his last three seasons — because White couldn’t get the team to the Super Bowl. Don Meredith was under center for seven consecutive seasons and took Dallas to two NFL league championship games. But he was run out of town because he couldn’t win the big one. Romo hasn’t even won a medium-sized one! But, as we figured out a long time ago, Jerry Wayne is making plenty of money and seems to be perfectly fine with a mediocre team.
Jim Hart played nine years for the Cardinals and never won a playoff game. Matt Stafford just completed his eighth year in Detroit without a playoff victory. Philip Rivers has been in San Diego for eleven years, but he’s taken the Chargers to an AFC Championship Game.
Archie Manning is the only guy I can find who played for the same team as long as Romo played for Dallas without a divisional playoff victory. Manning started for ten seasons in New Orleans, never once qualifying for the playoffs.
Help me. Is there somebody I’m missing? Is Romo’s situation truly this rare?
I’m not blaming Tony Romo exclusively. It’s not all his fault that he’s the first quarterback in the past thirty-one years and only the second in NFL history to play ten years for one team and never win a divisional playoff game. A lot of this is on Jerry.
Jerry Wayne in the Hall of Fame.
This post is about the weekend election of Jerry Wayne into the once-proud Professional Football Hall of Fame. I’ll add a few observations from last night’s Super Bowl at the end.
So Jerry Wayne is in the Hall of Fame.
I need to take a shower. And brush my teeth. And gargle. Twice.
Enshrining the Cowboys’ owner with the immortals in Canton values making money and turning a profit over winning football games and capturing championships. Jerry was elected solely on his ability to multiply cash. And it’s sickening.
Give Jethro all the credit in the world for buying the Cowboys for 140-million dollars in 1989 and turning them into the world’s most valuable sports franchise at four-billion-plus-dollars today. But at the same time, recognize that Jerry has driven one of the NFL’s marquee franchises into a 21-years-and-counting streak of complete irrelevance on the field. Honor Jerry Wayne for sticking it to the networks and raising the annual revenue the league takes in on television contracts to 44.5-billion dollars. But, keep in mind that the Cowboys have not won a divisional round playoff game since Toy Story was released as Pixar’s very first full-length animated movie. Sure, praise Jerry for sticking with Pepsi and wearing Nike and going with Miller Lite and putting on Papa John’s pajamas to revolutionize the way the NFL does marketing agreements and stadium deals. But don’t forget that he fired Jimmy Johnson for winning back-to-back to Super Bowls and hired Barry Switzer. And Dave Campo.
Yes, for more than two decades Jerry Wayne has made the NFL and all its team owners more money than they could have ever possibly dreamed. Jerry is a genius when it comes to making money. When it comes to stadium revenue, team marketing, club sponsorships, labor negotiations, and TV contracts, there’s no stopping Jerry Wayne. He’s going to win those games every time.
At the expense of his team on the football field. Every time.
The timing’s good for Jerry, huh? I wonder if Jerry had been eligible last year, when the Cowboys were 4-12, if he would have received the votes. What if his name didn’t appear on the ballot until next season when Dallas will be playing a bunch of division winners on its schedule instead of this year’s cellar dwellers? Would he still be elected?
Jerry has demonstrated over and over that making money is a whole lot more important to him than winning championships. He proves it every year. He’s fond of saying that nobody ever really owns the Cowboys; one only takes care of them for a while before passing them on. When that day comes, the Cowboys will be richer in the bank than when he first took over, but in far worse shape on the field.
The Hall of Fame inducted Tex Schramm and Tom Landry for building a dynastic team that posted 20-straight winning seasons, went to Super Bowls, won championships, and captured America’s heart with its dramatic performances of grace and power on the field. Now the Hall of Fame has inducted Jerry Wayne for making a whole lot of money for the NFL owners. The fact that he’s destroyed the on-field product in the process doesn’t seem to matter.
All credit to Brady and Belichick and the Patriots’ D. Let’s recognize that coming from 25-points down to win the Super Bowl is a monumental achievement. Let’s acknowledge that holding the wild Falcons’ offense to zero points over the final nineteen minutes is an incredible accomplishment. But let’s never forget that Atlanta cost themselves the trophy. They gave it away.
I don’t pretend to know all that happens on the field and on the sidelines, in and in-between the huddles, in the headsets, and player-to-player. I know it must all happen extremely fast. But coaches and quarterbacks do things all the time that make no sense.
For example, at the end of the game-winning drive in overtime, after the pass interference in the end zone, on first and goal at the one yard line, why did Tom Brady throw a fade route to the corner? It was nearly picked off! One more half-a-step and the linebacker intercepts and the Falcons get the ball at the 25! Atlanta’s defense has been on the field for more than 40-minutes. They’re clearly exhausted, they’re on their heels, they’ve got nothing left. Just run it up the middle and win the game. Just run the ball. They did that on second down. But because they attempted a pass on first down, they almost didn’t get the chance.
Back to the Falcons choking away the game.
Atlanta’s up by eight points and they’re at the New England 22-yard-line with 4:40 to play in the game. That’s a 39-yard field goal to go up two scores. If you run the ball straight up the gut three times in a row, then kick the points, you’re got an eleven-point lead with less than two minutes to play. The only thing you absolutely cannot do is go backwards 23 yards!
So they lose one yard on the first run. And then they panic. Ryan attempts a pass and he’s trapped for a 13-yard sack. Then another pass play with a ten yard holding penalty. Then the punt. Then the loss. If they run the ball, they win the game. Instead, they tried passing. And they lost. They went for the mile when an inch would have won the championship.
Like Pete Carroll and the Seahawks two years ago. Just run the ball and win the game.
Don’t give me what we heard from the Atlanta coaches and players last night: “That’s not our offense. We’re always looking to move the ball downfield and score points. We weren’t trying to squeak out a three-point win, we’re trying to play our style, play our game.”
Knowing how to close out a game, how to milk the clock and kick a championship clinching field goal, should probably be added somewhere next year in the Falcons’ playbook.
For my money, with a nod to Turbo Tax’s Humpty Dumpty and T-Mobile’s Martha Stewart and Snoop Dogg ads, my three favorite commercials from last night were Skittles, Busch Beer, and the Intel ad featuring Tom Brady. When he snatched that dropped pancake off the floor and away from his dog…
Remember When?
Remember watching the Cowboys together the last time they were in the Super Bowl?
Some Finish!
They never quit. They never gave up. They never stopped fighting. They suffered more than a couple of major physical and mental breakdowns on both sides of the ball — substitution penalty, defensive holding, clocking the ball on that last drive — and they were playing one of the greatest 4th quarter quarterbacks in league history, but the Cowboys never threw in the towel. Give ’em that.
When Green Bay went up 21-3 early in the 2nd quarter, it looked like the rout I figured it to be. Rodgers was having his way with the Dallas secondary and the whole Cowboys defense was already worn out. Down by 18, Dallas couldn’t run Ezekiel Elliott like they needed to and the offense, which was going to be the only hope against the Packers, was reduced to one dimension. Even after Dak Prescott marched the Cowboys down the field and hit Dez Bryant with a touchdown that made it 21-10, Rodgers answered right back in a way that would have sunk most other Cowboys teams.
But the Cowboys kept fighting. I’ll give ’em that.
What a wild finish to the most entertaining playoff game of the Divisional Round weekend. A combined 24 points scored in the 4th quarter by the Packer and Cowboys, including three field goals of more than 50-yards in the final 93-seconds. Dallas scored 18 points in the 4th quarter to erase a 15-point deficit. But it was Rodgers hitting Jared Cook on 3rd and 20 with a 35-yard pass down the very edge of the left sideline that doomed Dallas to another epic failure on the playoff stage. That astonishing pass and catch set up the 51-yard field goal that won the game as time expired — that’s the play we’ll see on the highlights over and over again until Green Bay gets knocked out or wins the Super Bowl. But I think it was the play before that clinched it for the Packers.
How did Rodgers hang on to the ball on the Jeff Heath sack.
Heath blitzed from Rodgers’ blind side and blasted the Packers quarterback, tomahawking his right arm to knock the ball free. Rodgers didn’t see him coming — he had no idea he was about to be hammered. He didn’t see Heath, he didn’t feel Heath, he didn’t sense it coming at all. And in the instant before Heath made contact, I jumped off the couch, threw my arms over my head and screamed in agony: “No! No! No!”
I just assumed Rodgers fumbled. No quarterback in the league survives that kind of sack without losing the ball. It was impossible. It never occurred to me that Rodgers would hold on to it. He fumbles there and, if the Cowboys recover, they’re on the Green Bay 32-yard line and Bailey wins it with a field goal. Automatic. Heath becomes the improbable hero and the Cowboys win the game.
I’ll never know how Rodgers did not fumble that ball. It’s beyond my comprehension. But he calmly gets up, calls the timeout, hits Cook with another play-of-the-day pass, and watches calmly as Crosby hits the game-winner. Green Bay travels to Atlanta for another NFC Championship Game and the Cowboys still have not won a Divisional playoff game in 21-years. And counting.
Let me make two observations about the Cowboys and be done for the day.
One, it looks like the Cowboys have something really good in Prescott. Maybe. You can get in trouble for anointing a legend before his sophomore year is complete. Dak is a rookie playing the easiest schedule in the league with zero expectations. If you’re one of the few Cowboys fans who hasn’t purchased a Dak jersey yet, you might hold off until the end of this upcoming season. Everybody’s got film on Prescott now and the expectations are high and next year’s schedule will be against division winners, not cellar dwellers. Having said that, this team really responds to Dak. They follow him, they believe in him. The defense plays better after Prescott does something exciting, the line blocks better because he doesn’t get sacked or throw interceptions, the receivers jump higher, the coaches coach better. It all snowballs in really fun ways around Dak Prescott. For now.
Second, you can look at Dallas and see reflections of 1991. It was that season, Emmitt Smith’s second with the team, that you sensed something really special was building. The Cowboys — really young, really dynamic, fun personalities, unique talent, and top picks at three key offensive positions — won a playoff game that year for the first time in nine seasons and then got obliterated in the Division Round. But it felt like something great was happening. The core players were in place, the chemistry was perfect, the next level was just around the corner. Sure enough, Dallas won the next two Super Bowls and made it look fairly easy.
There are a few similarities between this team and that one. With one glaring difference: This team is coached by Jason Garrett and that one was coached by Jimmy Johnson. That team was put together by Johnson and Lacewell and this one is run by Jones and Jones. So, yeah. There’s really no reason to be optimistic.
If you’re a Cowboys fan, this surprise 13-3 season, the number one seed in the conference, and an exciting loss in the Division Playoff is probably as good as it’s going to get.
Green Bay 23, Dallas 17.
The Dallas Cowboys, owners of the best regular season record in the NFC and the top seed in the playoffs, will not win their Divisional Playoff game this Sunday against the Packers. It seems almost impossible to me. I know Dallas routed Green Bay at Lambeau Field earlier this season. I know Jordy Nelson has two broken ribs and a collapsed lung and Ty Montgomery’s knee is held together by duct tape and bailing wire. I know the Cowboys are healthy and rested and playing at home. Here are a few other things I know:
Jason Garrett is the Cowboys coach . Garrett is not known for making in-game adjustments. He’s incapable of changing things on the fly. If the Packers show Dak Prescott any kind of defensive set he hasn’t seen before, Garrett will be no help.
Dak Prescott is the Cowboys quarterback. Yes, he’s in the running for NFL Rookie of the Year. Yes, he’s made all Cowboys fans forget Tony Romo and every other Dallas signal caller since Troy Aikman. But he’s a rookie. Prescott is a rookie. There have been 50 Super Bowls. One hundred starting Super Bowl quarterbacks. Not one single rookie. This is not a regular season game. This is the Divisional round of the postseason against a Packers team that knows how to peak at the right time — Green Bay streaked to the Super Bowl as a sixth seed just six years ago. Dak is smart. I love that Dak seems to never throw interceptions and never take sacks. But another reason for his wild success this year is that he has about seven minutes to sit back in the pocket and throw. Prescott never really has to check down to his second or third read. He locks his eyes and his body on that primary receiver and just waits for him to come open. He won’t have that luxury Sunday. Clay Matthews, Julius Peppers, and Nick Perry will be joined by blitzing nickel backs and safeties and linebackers to insure that Dak is rushed into checking away from his number one target and making quicker decisions and quick throws.
Aaron Rodgers is the Packers quarterback . I don’t need to say much here. Rodgers has willed Green Bay to seven straight wins and he is always at his best after Christmas. Never mind that Nelson won’t play. When Jordy went down at the beginning of the second quarter against the Giants last week, Rodgers went on to throw for 330 yards and four touchdowns and score 38 points against a defense that’s a whole lot better than what he’ll face at AT&T Stadium.
Green Bay has momentum. The Packers have won seven straight games in seven straight weeks. The Cowboys have lost two of their last four games, the starters haven’t played a real game together in almost three weeks, and Dallas is averaging only 21 points in their past five games.
Jerry Wayne is the Cowboys owner. Since Jones fired Jimmy Johnson for winning back-to-back Super Bowls, the owner has made it clear that winning Super Bowls is not his top priority. Consider the evidence: the Dallas Cowboys have not won a divisional round playoff game since the 1995 season. That’s twenty-one years of postseason irrelevance. How everyone expects that to suddenly change with a rookie quarterback, a rookie running back, a prima donna receiver, an average defense, and an overmatched coach is beyond me. I know, I know: They went 13-3! Don’t forget they played a last place schedule this year, the easiest schedule in the NFL. Coming off that 4-12 fiasco and losing Romo in the preseason meant the slate was easy and the expectations were zero. No pressure. They beat a lot of really bad teams. The Packers are a really good team. This is not mid-October. And the football gods are not going to let Jerry Wayne grin his way to a conference championship game.
The strategy for both teams is going to be to control the ball to keep the other team’s offense off the field. Ezekiel Elliott ran wild at Lambeau earlier in the season. And that’s going to be the Cowboys’ only shot this Sunday. Of course, Green Bay will follow the Giants’ blueprint and do everything to contain Elliott and force Prescott to beat them. And he might. Green Bay’s corners were leaving New York’s receivers open all day in the Wild Card round and, but for a dozen dropped balls, we might be talking about Eli Manning today instead of Aaron Rodgers. New York’s defensive secondary is far superior to the Packers’. However, I think they’ll get enough pressure on Prescott up front to negate the weakness.
It’ll be a low-scoring game. Lots of running. Maybe fifteen punts. Under three hours. Green Bay will take it 23-17. And Jimmy Johnson will purse his lips, clap his hands four times, and giggle quietly to himself.
8-1 With a Bullet.
Since the day Jerry Wayne’s gargantuan ego caused him to fire his back-to-back Super Bowl winning coach and replace him with Barry Switzer, I’ve lived by the mantra, “If you can’t say anything ugly about the Cowboys, don’t say anything at all.”
Allow me to break from this blog’s tradition for just one day and, in the words of that fired coach, say, “How ’bout them Cowboys?!”
I don’t get it. I thought God hated the Cowboys what with the devil himself owning the team. I’m still expecting some awful and delicious thing to go horribly wrong in a way that rips the gut out of this team and its fans like never before. Surely some incredibly unforeseen tragedy awaits.
Or, maybe not. This team has been gifted with two unbelievably talented and unflappable rookies in two really critical roles and this train is not just rolling, it’s gaining speed with every week.
Look at Dak. He’s really only had two rough quarters this entire season. Against Philadelphia, the Eagles blitzed him and hit him and knocked him down and sacked him more than he’d been harassed all year. And for the second and third quarters, he looked a little overwhelmed. A little. But then he figured it out and he’s been super hot ever since. In his first two or three games I had two criticisms of his passing: he threw behind his receivers and he never went deep. Well, you can fix throwing behind receivers — that’s a timing thing — and he’s done that. Throwing deep? Yeah, he’s doing that, too, with a super soft touch that receivers absolutely love. Reading blitzes? Seeing the field? Scrambling to throw? Prescott’s got all of it. And he’s gained the respect and confidence of everybody in that Cowboys locker room.
Look at Elliott. Yesterday Troy Aikman compared him to Emmitt Smith in the way he makes that first tackler miss. Troy would know. And he’s not given to much hyperbole. I trust that. The part of Elliott’s game that reminds me of Emmitt is the way he uses his hands while he’s running to knock away the arms and hands of those would-be tacklers. Have you noticed that? He instinctively slaps their hands away just like Smith; it’s beautiful. He sees the field, he waits on his blocks, he picks up blitzing linebackers, he catches the ball out of the backfield, and he’s got a turbo-charged next gear that takes your breath away. I’m not a fan of his halter tops, but Zeke looks like a great running back.
The whole rest of the team, and maybe the entire franchise, is feeding off the success of these two surprising rookies. The defense is playing with more confidence and energy. The special teams are making spectacular plays every week. Jason Garrett’s game management and play calling seem to be less conservative; he seems to have more confidence in Prescott than he ever had in Romo.
Now, honestly, I’ve tried to make excuses all along during this incredible start. The Cowboys are playing a last place schedule, the easiest slate of games in the league. But I can’t get away from the fact that it’s very hard to get wins in the NFL. Even against bad teams, it’s tough to win. But the Cowboys are beating the good teams — a November win in Pittsburgh is massive any year — and making the bad teams look like the JV. In a league that is structured to produce 8-8 teams, the Cowboys have won eight in a row.
Yes, they’re on a roll. Yeah, they’re fun to watch. And… wait for it… I’ve read more than a couple of national and regional writers today who are using the words “Cowboys” and “Super Bowl” in the same sentence.
I’ve watched almost every snap of almost every Cowboys game since the day Jerry Wayne fired Johnson and took over full control of the franchise. We’ve all been conditioned to expect something unexpected, something horribly unexplainable, to go foul at the absolute worst time and rip the guts out of this team and its fans. A season-ending injury. A bone-headed coach’s decision. A bye-week arrest. Five turnovers in a division home game. A botched snap on a game-winning field goal. A video-reversed referee’s call on a diving catch. Something. Most fans push those dark dreads aside, ignoring the inevitable, foaming at the mouth, getting Super Bowl tattoos before Black Friday.
That makes it all the more delicious when the whole thing comes crashing down. The shock. The horror. The wailing and gnashing of teeth.
Me? I’m expecting it. This team hasn’t won a single divisional playoff game in more than 20 years. Are two rookies going to change that? I don’t believe so, not yet.