Time for the Film Review. I'll start with the offense, the defense will come later today.

Caveat: For those of you out there who don't think we should be criticizing or micro-analyzing the Cowboys performance on Sunday, I'd advise you to read no further. Because I will be doing that. I have no reservations about evaluating the Cowboys based on what I see and will report both the good and bad without prejudice. It's something this particular blog has always been based on and that will continue. It is part of the job for me, so I hope you will indulge that belief. And yes, I will be critical of Tony Romo where I believe it's justified.

QB - Tony Romo is still performing at a high level. When it comes to wins and losses, he's still getting the job done. But I don't think he's been as sharp over the last few weeks as he's been in the past. For example, on the first drive after the Greg Ellis INT, he had an opportunity to hit Martellus Bennett for a TD. Bennett wasn't wide-open, but he was in single coverage and if Romo leads him right he makes the catch. Instead, Romo led him just a bit too far and it was incomplete and Romo was not under pressure on the play. He also overthrew a wide-open Deon Anderson, threw a bad pass to Tony Curtis, forced one to Jason Witten on the sidelines when he had both Marion Barber and Tony Curtis totally uncovered short, and threw poorly to Patrick Crayton. On these plays he wasn't under pressure as the Cowboys protection was very solid in the first half. Later in the game, he threw short to Patrick Crayton (who dropped it) but if Romo led him deeper it probably is a TD. Now, he was getting some pressure then, as he was on bad throws to Witten and Terrell Owens. He also chose to throw to Witten short of the marker on third down on a play when he was under no pressure and could have waited to see if someone uncovered downfield. A lot of these were plays that in the past he had no trouble making, but was off just enough in the game to make it much harder on the Cowboys offense. Then there was the INT where I don't think he ever saw the linebacker and the fumble.

Now, I've done my Romo bashing. On the positive side, he dropped a beautiful pass into Witten's hands and connected with him several other times to convert third downs. He also led Owens perfectly for the long TD, threw a strike to wide-open Witten for a TD and  managed to pick up a crucial third down running the ball. The TD at the end of the game was pretty lucky, but Austin probably should have caught the ball anyway. In the end though, he led us to scores when we needed it most and Dallas won the game. But it was not even close to one of his better efforts.

RB - Marion Barber had a good game but a lot of the credit goes to the offensive line that was opening some massive holes early in the game. Barber was running hard, but left some yards on the field by not picking up some of the holes and cut-back lanes and occasionally going east-west when he should have gone north-south. He also put the ball on the turf. But he was excellent in blitz pick-up, I counted three great blocks and when he did get into the open he turned in some good gains. A solid game from him. Felix Jones was sublime. His speed to the corner is undeniable, including his TD run where he got some good blocks and a couple of other pitch plays where he simply blew past the outside contain of the defense. I also got him down for a nice block in pass protection. The kid can play.

WR - Well, they weren't very involved in the game. Terrell Owens has the one big pass play for the TD. On two other plays he had nice blocks in the run game but Romo stayed with Witten as the main target. Patrick Crayton had one drop on a long pass but showed great awareness to catch the TD at the end of the game. He also had a nice block on T.O.'s TD. Miles Austin was largely unnoticed except for the miss at the end of the game. Sam Hurd had a great seal block on Felix's TD run but nothing else.

TE - Jason Witten was our most effective pass catcher in the game converting three third downs, catching a TD and a long pass for around 30 yards. Surprisingly, he had a little trouble in the run game, he did turn in several nice blocks, but whiffed twice that blew up plays and had a poor block on another run. Tony Curtis and Martellus Bennett were mainly used as blockers.

FB - The addition of Deon Anderson in the run game shouldn't be overlooked. I saw him blow up defenders at least three different times and contributed to blocks on a few other runs. He also had a very nice blitz pickup. He's part of the reason the run game got back on track.

OL - Flozell Adams had a great game. The Cowboys were actually able to run to the left better than they have in a long time in this game and Flo was part of the reason. I counted five running plays where he won the battle and it wasn't even close. He was blowing guys off the line and sealing the edge. He also saved MB3's bacon by jumping on his fumble. I only saw one play in pass protection where he was solidly beaten. Cory Procter still is not the force when he pulls that Kyle Kosier is. On T.O.'s end-around he totally missed his man and had to hold him, the refs somehow missed it. He also had some trouble getting to the second level and hitting the linebacker. He wasn't that bad in pass protection though and did provide some run blocks. Andre Gurode was solid except for a silly late-hit penalty. Leonard Davis had some good moments and was pretty solid in pass protection, but he had three plays in the run game where I saw something I rarely see, him getting knocked backwards into the backfield. It wasn't his best day in that department. Marc Colombo didn't have one his better days either. He had three plays where his pass protection gave way and caused pressure on Romo and despite the block he threw on Felix's TD, he had a couple of other plays where he just wasn't effective on run blocks. I've seen him play better. For the most part though, the entire line did a good job opening holes in the run game, but Flozell was great. In the first half, the pass protection was good, in the second half they had some serious breakdowns. Montrae Holland got one series and was average.

I finished charting the Film Review for the game against the Bengals but won't have time to write it up until later today/tonight. Look for it then.

In other news, the dominant theme of everybody writing about the Cowboys after Sunday's game is how good are the Cowboys really, are expectations too high and when is a win good enough? It seems that everybody has an opinion. Even the players seem kind of split on this issue. For instance, here's Bradie James:

"I come in here on a Monday, I'm trying to enjoy our win, and people come in here beating us up," James said, referring to the media. "Really, it's tough. Right now, we know, with us having so many expectations, the only people we can really make happy are the people in this locker room. That's it. And I'm happy.

Then there's DeMarcus Ware:

"A win is a win, which is good, but you can't be satisfied with the way we won," said outside linebacker DeMarcus Ware, who recorded another sack Sunday and now has one in the last eight games, dating back to last season. "There's a lot of stuff we need to work on."

I guess it depends on your personality. Some fans are happy anytime we win and see it as the ultimate goal for that week. Kind of the survive and advance theory. Plus, the team is 4-1 and that's pretty dang good. The other side sees the win as a good thing but focuses on the overall growth of the team and how well they're playing. Are they getting better or regressing? And how does this look for the team's chances down the road? It's an interesting debate. And by the way, I don't think the two sides are mutually exclusive. As I said before, the reality is more complex than just a "right or wrong" way of thinking.

Todd Archer looks at the statistical side of things, here.

Tim Cowlishaw examines Wade Phillips' role in the whole thing. 

Mac Engel goes with the Pros and Cons method. 

On the injury front, Terence Newman's injury is a mystery right now and may be a lingering problem. Kyle Kosier isn't ready yet and Roy Williams is getting closer, but don't expect him to play this week. Stephen Bowen was inactive last week as was Pat Watkins. I guess we'll know a little more when Wade talks to the media on Wednesday.

Simple open thread for some Monday Night Football action.

Saints and Vikings get it on tonight.

This thread is open.

Usually I just let Wade Phillips' press conferences speak for themselves. But today's PC was kind of funny, long and an example of 20 different ways to say the same thing. The press was relentless in trying to get Wade to say something negative about the game or the team and Wade wasn't having any of it. So instead of re-capping every question with the same answers, I'm just going to highlight some things.

These are summaries of Wade's words.

Tank Johnson forcing the fumble was a big play. Amazed at how Tony Romo can have not one of his best games but hits the TD to Terrell Owens then makes an 80-yard drive to close out the game. Would have liked the team to close out the game earlier but it didn't work out that way. We had a bunch of special teams plays and most of them were good, but three were really bad and that makes it look like we had a bad day. They ran a different blocking scheme on kick returns than we saw on film. Our punts and punt coverage were really good. And on our punt returns we had good blocking but we let a couple of balls hit the ground. Sometime soon Pac is going to make a ply for us in the return game.

We went for it on fourth-down because that was in the decision-making area as far as FG's and we thought we had a play that could make it. Sam Hurd made a great block and Marc Colombo got into the outside guy and let Felix Jones make the play. If they were in a defense where we thought it wouldn't work we would have called a timeout and kicked the FG. We had thought that out before the game and Jason Garrett was ready with the play-call.

I liked the mental toughness to finish the game. Last week we didn't get it done this week we did. It doesn't matter who the opponent is, it's about us and our mental toughness. I'm not harder on the team than they are on themselves. It's important to them and if it's not important to certain players we'll get on them.

The fumble before the half gave them life, we were up 17-3 and we need to hold on to the ball there because we get it back after halftime. That was big for the Bengals.

I talk to them all the time about urgency and not to listen what other people say about the teams we're playing. We have leaders on this team, some vocal and some not, who came through in this game.

I am going to defend the players when they are attacked by the media, I don't feel we need to discuss all the mistakes in the media. I don't use the press to motivate players. I talk to them about the things they need to work on behind close doors and not to the press. If you tell the press things it all comes out that this isn't good enough or this player is doing well enough and that's stuff I don't want. They know what I want from them.

We talk about not turning over the ball all the time and try to correct it.

Each game is different. Sometimes you win by passing, sometimes by running. We just try to be consistent in all those areas and get better at them and feel we have the confidence to do either.

We got some pressure in the pass rush but Palmer was getting rid of the ball quickly. They only had one pass over 20-yards and that's what we like to have. Only got 5 yards per attempt, they threw shorter passes. At the end when he had to hold the ball they got to him.

Don't know anything about Terrell crying on the sidelines, don't even know if it happened. I talked to Terrell today and he seemed normal to me. I care about all my players and if there was a problem I would help them. You guys reported it but I don't know anything about it. He had a big play and gave tremendous effort all game. They doubled him a lot like most teams do. But that helps us in the running game when they concentrate on pass defense and doubling him. Sometimes he's the primary on a play but when everybody is going over to his side the QB can't stay with the read that long and has to go somewhere else.

We'll have to wait and see on Terence Newman. They are running a test today, it may be something other than his groin.

Orlando Scandrick had a pretty good game in coverage.

(When asked about Jerry Jones being on the sideline): I like the owner, he's a great owner and GM. (laughter) I don't think it hurts if he's there. If I though it hurt I would say something. He's being positive, he's encouraging people to help the team win.

Kyle Kosier will not be back this week. Roy Williams may practice some but he won't play this week.

Welcome to a conflicted edition of What They're Saying. In the broad sense, I'm happy we won, but not particularly happy with the way we played. Sometimes we get caught up in having a black-and-white view of things, where something is either this, or it's that, with no in-between. Human beings are quite capable of holding two opposing views in their head at one time. In an effort not to seem wishy-washy, we occasionally place all our eggs in one basket, even though we know that's blocking out part of the story. For instance, I can love having Tony Romo as our QB, but I can also hate the turnovers and inconsistent play during games. I can love T.O.'s big-play ability but I can hate the way he constantly draws attention to himself (and he's no longer the pod-person of last year, but much more emotionally complex this year). I can love the record Wade Phillips has put up as a head coach, but I can hate the laissez-fare attitude he projects and the sometimes uninspired football his team plays. These things are possible and we'll see them in this edition of What They're Saying.

Let's start with Tony Romo. We're used to Romo playing it cool in interviews with an aw-shucks attitude that belies his competitive fire. Rarely does he seem ruffled after the game but his comments after the maddeningly close win on Sunday show a hint of frustration. For example, when asked about limiting his turnovers that include a string of eight straight games. 

"You wish you could, but you're just not going to see 11 defensive players on every play," he said. "If you never turn the ball over as a quarterback, you probably aren't going to be that good. There's no way you are going to make plays sometimes if you don't trust it and let it go."

There's truth in that. Risk-takers tend to be the stars in sports. The belief in your abilities is one of the things that allow a talented player to go beyond the norm. We might as well stamp "Take the good with the bad" on Romo's forehead. But the constant questioning does seem to be getting under what is a very thick-skin. 

"During the game, you always want things to be perfect," said quarterback Tony Romo, who threw three touchdown passes for the third time this season. "I don't know what standard everybody wants it to be. We want to get every first down and score every time we touch the ball. Is it unrealistic? Probably, but we're going to strive for that. Are we disappointed or something? I mean all we can do is work as hard as we can. What else can we do?"

The inflated expectations for this Cowboys team has set a very high standard. Rightly or wrongly, a team with this much talent is expected to put away a 0-4 team with much less difficulty that the Cowboys did on Sunday. Part of that difficulty was the two turnovers and some passes that were far off target. After getting up 17-0, the Cowboys faltered.

"You get up 17-0 with a chance to put a team away, and you can't do that," tight end Jason Witten said. "You have to learn from that."

I think that's what the point is, not that the Cowboys didn't win the exact way we wanted. But that the Cowboys clearly showed they are a far superior team early and still managed to let an out-manned Bengals team stay in the game. Romo is taking the long-view.

"You don't get crowned champions for being the best looking team right now," Romo said. "You just keep continuing to get better and keep stacking up wins."

You don't, but champions tend to keep their foot on the neck of an inferior opponent and don't let up. Sure it's early in the season but the excuse of not peaking now but later in the season is a weak one. It's a post-game rationalization that doesn't hold up. Why? Well, the general point is true, you want to peak in the playoffs. But just because you're not peaking now doesn't guarantee you'll peak later. Somehow it's just assumed when it's clearly not the case. It might happen, but there is no correlation that it will happen. Jerry Jones gets the fact that you need to deliver the knockout punch when you have an opponent staggered.

"I was so disappointed and upset that we didn't go up 24-3," Jerry said. "We dwelled on not getting the 24-3 lead a little too much and forgot how much football was left."

On the other hand, we did win the game and the Cowboys are 4-1. Generally, anytime a team is 4-1, the fan-base would be ecstatic. So there is something to be said about the unrealistically high expectations that have been placed on this team. I've fallen prey to that as have a lot of the media. But I think the Cowboys themselves have been a part of that too, and when reality doesn't match the expectations, people get defensive. Such as when Wade Phillips was asked about his team "stinking" after they got up 17 points. 

"'You stink', I mean, jeez," Phillips said a little while later. "I didn't think it was that bad. People want you to make excuses for winning. I don't make excuses for losing."

Agreed, the Cowboys didn't stink after getting the lead. They did make plays later in the game that allowed them to get to 31 points and to win the game. Still, even Wade realizes there seemed to be a letdown after the excellent opening play of the Cowboys.

"I think it's a concern anytime you are up 17 points and somebody gets back in the game," Phillips said. "But they didn't get back enough to win. That's the big thing."

I guess a win is a win. You don't get style points on your record like you do in college football rankings.

Click the link below, there's plenty more of What They're Saying.

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Dallas Cowboys 31 - Cincinnati Bengals 22

Well, what can you say? At least we won the game. Lots of problems still with this Cowboys team but we won, so I can't be too mad.

I don't have time to write anything up in detail tonight. So I'll just put up this thread for discussion of the win.

Quick thoughts.

Nice job in the running game for Dallas. For an offense that wasn't clicking all the way, we still put up 31 points.

The Cowboys defense forced some field goals, so that was nice.

The Cowboys pass rush was non-existent until the very last drive by the Bengals.

Our secondary still needs work.

Felix Jones looked fantastic and should be ready for more touches going forward.

Tony Romo is still looking a little sketchy, he needs to straighten his game out. Sure he put up the TD's but those turnovers need to stop.

T.O. didn't get a lot of passes his way, but he made it count.

A "good job" to Greg Ellis for getting an INT and to Tank Johnson for causing a fumble and to Anthony Spencer for recovering it.

And thank you Patrick Crayton for catching that last TD pass. We really needed that.

The thread is open.

New open thread for the Cowboys/Bengals game.

Open Thread

Dallas Cowboys vs. Cincinnati Bengals
Sunday, Oct 5th, 2008
4:15 PM EST, TV: CBS
Texas Stadium - Irving, TX

You can see a map of the areas of the country where CBS will broadcast the game, here. On DirecTV Sunday Ticket, the game is on channel 713.

My prediction: Dallas 31 - Cincinnati 13

Weather Forecast
Mostly Sunny
86 degrees
Wind 18 mph

This is an open thread for game chat.

Open thread to discuss the early games this Sunday.

I admit, for a game against an 0-4 team, I'm pretty pumped about watching our Cowboys play the Bengals. I want to see Dallas come out and re-establish their dominance. I'm very interested in getting the running game going again and seeing the defense turn in a shut-down performance.

But in the meantime, feel free to discuss the early games, or the upcoming Cowboys game, in this thread.

Oy vey. We already had problems in the secondary. I commented on it in this post. Then Tuna Helper discussed the need for Keith Davis to step up in this post. Now we get the news that Terence Newman is questionable for the game Sunday with a recurrence of the groin injury that dogged him in the preseason.

This game could be a lot more interesting than we initially thought. If Newman can't go, Mike Jenkins will be forced into the nickel corner role and Orlando Scandrick will get some playing time when we go dime. When you throw in the problems at safety, this could a real test. Of course, some stellar work from the defensive line and outside linebackers DeMarcus Ware and Greg Ellis could help alleviate that problem.

Hat tip to Mullin for posting the news on Newman. 

Brad Johnson in tights? That's an image I can do without. But after losing a bet to T.O., Brad had to pay up by wearing some T.O. gear for practice on Friday. But what I really like is Brad Johnson's comments about Owens.

"He's great to work with," Johnson said. "I've been with great receivers before from Keyshawn [Johnson] to Cris Carter, Irving Fryar, and the list goes on. T.O. is great to work with, an extremely hard worker who gets along with everybody in the locker room. He's fun to be with, and you appreciate when you play with guys like that."

Ha! Way to take a subtle back-handed shot at Sheshawn and Carter, two guys who have lost their minds with hate for T.O. Nice job, Brad.

Now here are some comments about Owens I don't like.

"He's a terrific playmaker, and we want to get him the ball," [Jerry] Jones said Friday morning on his radio show KTCK/1310 The Ticket. "We'll overly try to get him the ball. There's no question about that. We should. It ought to open things up for other places on the offense."

Uh, no. I have no problem with trying to get T.O. the ball, he is a playmaker. But when you start talking like you're going to force to him, that's just dumb. Take what you get in the flow of the offense and don't forget to run the ball. Jerry, I love ya guy, but stay out of the game plans, please.