Another Loss

If you're a Cowboys fan, today feels less like Christmas eve and more like the day after a funeral. The Giants buried the Cowboys yesterday, winning comfortably 35-14, and while the playoffs are not out of the question, the Cowboys now occupy the cellar of the NFC East and are looking at needing to win five out of the remaining seven games to even make the playoffs, and that stretch includes games against the Redkins, the Eagles, the Giants, Pittsburgh and Baltimore, any or all of those games being potential losses given how the team looks now. Clearly, whatever ailed this team going into last year's playoffs has not been cured by the off-season, or by convincing wins at the outset of this season. Things got so bad yesterday that Brad Johnson, who you may recall won a freaking Super Bowl with the Buccaneers, was pulled in favor of third-stringer Brooks Bollinger (to sadly predictable effect.) A defense which secured the win last week with a spectacular fourth down stand despite numerous injuries, was was effective at slowing down Manning but couldn't stop the run. Overall, the Giants looked like Super Bowl champions, and the Cowboys looked like a team that will be lucky to finish .500. At the beginning of the season the only real question seemed to be whether this team could succeed in the playoffs like it has in the regular season. Now we are forced to wonder whether they will even make the playoffs at all, and it's hard to imagine the fury and disappointment that will follow any such failing.