Season Begins with a Win

The Dallas Cowboys opened the season at Cleveland yesterday, and dominated the Browns winning 28-10. Alas I didn't get to actually see much of that game except the 4th, when most of the excitement was already over. But watching the recording later I was very impressed by Barber, Jones, Witten, T.O. and even Crayton (who's a fine player when he talks less.) And Romo of course, who is playing at about the highest level a quarterback can in the NFL. So all in all, a good start and with the injury to Brady likely to remove another roadblock to a championship, the season is shaping up very nicely. At least in Week 1. Week 2 may be slightly different, as the Cowboys will make their 69th appearance on Monday Night Football against an Eagles team that absolutely destroyed St. Louis yesterday. That will be a hell of a game my friends.

The U.S. Men's soccer team also got a win in Havana on Saturday, racking up six points total in the qualifying group they're in and giving themselves an excellent head start on making it to the next round with two victories on the road. The game wasn't pretty and coach Bob Bradley is still struggling to find players who can turn in consistent performances in key positions, but a win on the road is a win and as there's still two years between now and the next World Cup, still some time to find all the right pieces.

FC Dallas didn't play this weekend but they did play last Thursday, losing a "must-win" game at home to Colorado and demonstrating for something like the 10th year in a row that an inability to completely concentrate on defense can cost you a game. FC Dallas has fallen to next to last in the standings as the win permitted Colorado to leap-frog over them and at present they would fail to qualify for a playoff spot. With seven games left there's still plenty of time to undo that, but backwards movement in the standings in September is usually not a sign on imminent post-season success.