"Nobody is having any fun in this league."
True that.
Let's investigate.
In this particular NFL city, the center of nfl jersey
attention has been the quarterback who jetted off to New York on the off-day this week to hook up with his TV starlet squeeze, that and the fact he targeted one of his starting wide receivers just once in 35 passing attempts.
No not Dallas. T.O. and Jessica no longer are hot items here. Chicago, OK, and the Bears even won last Sunday.
Here are the first three paragraphs of the story in Thursday's most-respected Chicago Tribune:
Thankfully, nobody wasted any of Jay Cutler's weekly allotment of podium time Wednesday at Hales Hall asking him about his new favorite target.
And they said Cutler would ignore the tight end in Mike Martz's offense.
Seriously, if Cutler chose to jet to New York City to spend his off day with "The Hills" starlet Kristin Cavalla, question his fondness for reality-TV more than his time management. He's a young, single millionaire coming off a terrific game so this was a rendezvous relevant to TMZ more than the NFL.
I could not make this up. Somewhere Tony Room is laughing.
And that was followed with this quote from Cutler on why he would only complete one pass to Devin Hester in the opener: "If Devin would have gotten open, I would have thrown him the ball," and there was no tongue in cheek or a sense of sarcasm.
Whoop ... not exactly the Care Bears, 19-14 winners mind you in Week 1 over Detroit who arrive this weekend for Sunday's noon date with the Cowboys at Cowboys Stadium.
Then there is this: The Bears only converted one of four third-and-one or fourth-and-one plays, revisiting their shortcomings from the past two seasons when they picked up that one measly yard in those situations just 65.3 percent of the time, ranking them 18th - and by the way, just behind the 14th-ranked Cowboys (67.9 percent).
Ah, the one-game trend.
Or how 'bout in this other NFL city? One offensive lineman played through a foot injury. Two others returned after missing the entire preseason. And the quarterback was knocked down 10 times - eight by the same dude.
That would be in Indianapolis, the defending AFC champs run roughshod over by the Houston Texans and Mario Williams in the season opener.
Or how 'bout in this city: The starting QB already has gone down with a concussion and the starting center is out for the season.
That would be in Philadelphia.
And ... and... after losing the season opener, a disturbing trend is being exposed in this city, that this team under the current head coach has now started off seasons 1-3, 2-3, 2-3 and 0-1 in the past four years for a combined 5-10 record, yet another one of those disturbing one-game trends.
That would be San Diego, where the quarterback, Philip Rivers pleaded, "its one game out of 16. We can still get off to a fast start" after a series of penalties stalled drives and a lost fumble set up one of Kansas City's touchdowns as Nor Turner's squad went down 21-14 on Monday night at Arrowhead.
See what I mean?
Now not to find comfort in other people's misery, but the Cowboys are not alone heading into Week 2 of the NFL season. In fact they have the company of 15 as they face the Bears, who just happen to come waltzing into Cowboys Stadium with the league's No. 1 offense (463 total yards) and No. 2 defense (but 168 yards allowed), although, let's face it, they did play the Detroit Lions. And they have plenty of company with those 16 teams opening on the road, what with the visiting teams finishing Week 1 with a 4-12 record.
Welcome to the NFL, and no matter facetiously nicknamed the No Fun League, it really isn't since it's just no fun obviously when you lose, especially with those high expectations like a noose around the neck. And even when you win, well, the fun is fleeting since there's always the next game to worry about. Just think, while Cowboys fans are preoccupied this week with worries over Cutler and Matt Forte and Johnny Knox and Julius Peppers and Brian Ulcer and Tommie Harris, the Bears have their worries, too, like Demarks Ware, Anthony Spencer, Jay Ratliff, Mike Jenkins, Terence Newman, Tony Room, Miles Austin, Felix Jones, Jason Written and now Dees Bryant.
These 16-game marathons are just excruciating, no matter the record.
No, the Cowboys didn't beat the Redskins. Yes, they did give one away - both Dallas Cowboys jersey
raising the anxiety thermometer for Sunday. No, they were only one of three in the red zone, although one of those misses was an errant 34-yard field goal and the other red-zone was just three plays, the last of which a was penalty wiping out the winning touchdown on the last play of the game. So it wasn't like just abhorrent.
Yes, there were no takeaways by the defense. But for the third consecutive regular-season game, there were no touchdowns allowed, either. And for the third consecutive regular-season game there were no more than 250 yards allowed. And for the third consecutive game against the Redskins, just to be sure no one thinks Mike Shanahan is some offensive genius, the Washington's offense failed to score a touchdown on the Cowboys. And for the second time in the last three games against the Redskins, the Cowboys failed to score more than one touchdown and have not scored more than two in any of the past four meetings.
So as you see, in three of the last four games against the Redskins, no matter who their head coach has been or the starting quarterback or the defensive coordinator, the Cowboys have been one play away, one weird play like a fumble returned for a touchdown at the end of the half or a holding call on what could have been the game-ending winning touchdown, from losing.
And if you would like me to go back some more with these games against the Redskins, the Cowboys actually lost to them the two games before that, beat 'me by all of five the game before that and then for those with good memories lost at FedEx in '06 when Room drove the Cowboys in position for the winning field goal in a 19-19 game with mere seconds remaining, but instead there were the Redskins attempting and making the game-winning field goal with no time left on the clock after the Cowboys attempt was blocked and a facemask penalty was committed on the return to extend the game one more play. And Bill Parcels was coaching that team.
Now how yaw like 'deem trends?
Weird things just happen when these two teams get together. For like forever. Go ask the Redskins, they know, too. They haven't forgotten Thanksgiving of '74, losing a chance to clinch a playoff berth in the final 35 seconds thanks to some guy named Clint Longley. They haven't forgotten the Cowboys beating their 12-0 1991 team at RFK even after Troy Airman had been knocked out of the game in the third quarter. And for sure the 'Skins haven't forgotten becoming the only team in 1989 to lose to the 1-15 Cowboys, that taking place as late as Game 9 of the season, again at RFK.
Stuff happens, I swear, when these two get together.
"We played one game," Cowboys head coach Wade Phillips tried to emphasize the other day, "and I don't think there is any statistical analysis that you can say you're doing this bad or red zone, or you're doing this good - moving the ball - all those things. ... I just don't think you can say right now. If through five games we're not doing well in the red zone, if through five games were not doing something turnover-wise then ..."
This is what is so hard about opening games. Teams, but mostly fans, enthusiastically point toward that first game of the season, and do so for like four or five months, like as soon as the schedule comes out. And also the focus is on that first game almost as soon as training camp starts - at least the talk had been around here, the Redskins, the Redskins, and the Redskins.
And then you lose?
Oh my ... that's it. Cut Alex Barron. Cut David Buehler. Fire Jason Garrett. All after one game.
Expectations and anxiety walk hand in hand.
"The build up to that first game, there is so much work that is done, so much Chargers jersey
preparation, there is so much excitement, and when you lose that first game it's tough to deal with," says Cowboys linebacker Keith Brooking, a veteran of a few season-opening losses. "It can really drag you down and it's something that we focused on. We can't allow that to happen. It was a loss that we should have won, just to be frank with you. We didn't make the plays to do it. We made some really bad mistakes, and that hurt us trying to accomplish that goal.
"But at the end of the day, it's just 1/16th of our season."
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