Don’t Mess With Texas Football

It’s no secret Texas has the best high school football in the country. ESPN.com agrees, kind of. They’ve seeded Texas number one in their Great State Debate bracket. The goal is to settle the debate of where the best high school football resides.  This one’s easy. Texas over Pennsylvania.

-M. Barrie

Mavs Media Day: Josh Howard Apologizes

Dallas Mavericks  basketball is back.  The Mavs held their annual media today at the AAC, posing for team pictures, and handling all of their media interviews. Which I’m sure they were thrilled about.

Mavs Team Photo

 

Eddie Jones And The Flash

New coach Rick Carlisle held his opening season press conference. But obviously the main event today was hearing from Josh Howard who had been in the news for the wrong reasons the past five-months. The latest, a YouTube video with him disrespecting the National Anthem.

Howard started his press conference by  saying, “I’m truly sorry for everyone I’ve offended.” The apology wasn’t written on paper, but it also wasn’t very long. He added, “it wasn’t me, and I’m really upset about it.”

If he is upset, and that wasn’t him, we better not hear another word out of him that’s negative. More over, he’d better keep his name out of the police blotter. Because as it is, he’s in danger of losing every Dallas Mavericks fan out there. One more incident he may lose his most important fans: Rick Carlisle and Mark Cuban.

-M.Barrie

Monday’s Valley Ranch Report

The locker room Monday morning at Valley Ranch was to be expected. It was a little quiet, most players avoided us, and the all of the talk surrounded how the Cowboys rebound from Sunday’s unexpected loss to the Redskins. For the most part it was good football speak. Players talked about how this challenges a team’s character, and how getting man handled up front on defense will open game plan’s for other teams to follow suit and that they have to let teams know it won’t happen again. Greg Ellis put it perfect when he talked about taking this personally, and relying on this teams confidence and talent to bounce back. Here are some other observations from Monday’s locker room.

• Patrick Crayton agreed that something like this may be good for them. Saying getting knocked on your butt may help bring out some of the mistakes they have been getting away with.
• Marcus Spears disagreed saying, “No such thing as a good loss.” But added you can learn from them, but you never say, “hey this loss really helped.”
• T.O. made a rare Monday appearance in the locker room, but didn’t speak to the media. In fact he sat back in his locker, and let his body language show that he was not in the best mood.
• Tank Johnson said he’d been reading about how the Cowboys got dominated and were physically beaten in every phase of the game. Tank said it had nothing to do with the Redskins, but everything to do with the Cowboys making mistakes.
• Wade Phillips took the blame for EVERYTHING. When peppered about the running game and not using Felix Jones, he kept saying that certain plays were checked out of. And finally after being frustrated with the line of questioning about the running game he answered, “we didn’t run the ball enough. Okay?”

-M. Barrie

This Loss Doesn’t Make Sense

I didn’t expect to see what I saw Sunday at Texas Stadium. The Washington Redskins came to town and physically dominated the Dallas Cowboys. In the process the Redskins served notice to the rest of the NFC East that they’ll fight for one of those 3-playoff spots the divsion will get. The score said 26-24, but in reality, the game wasn’t that close.

Some thoughts from Sunday’s game:

• The most dynamic player on the Cowboys roster is Felix Jones. He didn’t touch the ball all day.
• Marion Barber went from a career high in rushing yards to being irrelevant. That’s not good.
• Tony Romo seems a little out of sync. He’s either on or off. There’s no middle ground with him.
• Terence Newman gets some credit for making adjustments in the second half. Because the first two-quarters were about as bad as it gets.

-M. Barrie

Demarcus Ware Injured

Demarcus Ware was injured on the final play of the 3rd quarter. He’s being attended to on the sidelines, being checked for a concussion.

Romo’s Weekly Mistake

Tony Romo just made his weekly mistake. Romo was picked by Chris Horton right around the 50-yard line. The timing of this one may hurt the Cowboys. It happened at the end of the third quarter, giving the Redskins great field position to start the 4th quarter, and a three point lead.

Cowboys Defense Steps Up Again, Redskins Lead 20-17

This is a classic bend but don’t break effort by the Cowboys defense today. Somehow, as bad as they’ve (Terence Newman) played, the “D” has held the Redskins to two-consecutive field goals. Keeping the Cowboys in a position to win this thing.

Hello T.O., Hello Tie Ball Game, 17-17

I guess you can credit Anthony Spencer for getting the second half started right. After a rare kick return, the Cowboys used a 5-play 57-yard drive to tie the game at 17’s. Even more encouraging for the Cowboys three of the five plays went to T.O. Including the touchdown.

Cowboys Grab Points Before Half, 17-10

Just like the Philly game, the Cowboys managed to drive down the field just before the half and get points. Nick Folk tacked on a 35-yard field goal to cut the Redskins lead to 17-10 at the half.

Big Stop For Cowboys Defense

This thing could’ve gotten ugly had the Redskins punched in another td before halftime. But they didn’t, they held them to a field goal, and are down 17-7.