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Taylor: Houston's inferiority continues; Cowboys best in Texas
01:31 AM CDT on Monday, September 27, 2010
HOUSTON – We know these Cowboys always seemingly play their best football when they’re in crisis mode.
Column by JEAN-JACQUES TAYLOR / The Dallas Morning News | jjtaylor@dallasnews.com
Jean-Jacques Taylor
Archive | Bio | E-mail
We've seen it time and time again.
Remember last season's win over then-unbeaten New Orleans? That was the game they had no chance to win – but they did.
Easily.
So we shouldn't be surprised at all that these Cowboys turned in their best performance of the season Sunday, smacking around Houston, 27-13, at Reliant Stadium to win the Texas Super Bowl.
The loss ensures that the Texans' inferiority complex as it relates to professional football will remain intact. If Houston couldn't beat Dallas now, thus claiming the title of Texas' best professional football team, then when?
After all, the Cowboys will rarely be more vulnerable than after losing their first two games, and the Texans will rarely feel better about themselves than after winning their first two games.
Oh well.
Dallas' domination was so thorough, Cowboys fans felt comfortable enough to start chanting, "Let's Go Cowboys! Let's Go Cowboys!" midway through the fourth quarter.
That's pretty impressive, considering the week began with a players-only meeting and ended with Jerry Jones giving Wade Phillips and kicker David Buehler the dreaded vote of confidence.
"We won, so the meeting worked," Phillips said with a smirk.
Actually, the Cowboys won because the leaders on this team finally seized control of it. They implored every player to practice harder. And prepare harder. And play harder.
That hasn't always been the case.
A sense of entitlement had infected the locker room. Too many players had forgotten just how hard it is to win in the NFL. There's only a sliver of difference between most NFL teams.
Before the game, several of the team's captains spoke, but so did Marcus Spears and Andre Gurode.
"I don't talk a lot, but I was taught that if you have something on your mind, you should say it," Gurode said. "It wasn't planned.
"Guys were talking to each other this week. We said everyone had to do whatever they needed to do to get ready, whether it was watching more film or studying more."
The Cowboys must take the same approach against Tennessee in two weeks. And every opponent after that.
Proper preparation, focus and commitment don't guarantee wins, but they do guarantee this team will play to its talent level.
When that happens, this team is among the league's best; when it doesn't happen, it's capable of losing to inferior teams such as Washington and Chicago.
The Cowboys remain flawed. They still committed too many pre-snap penalties, making the game harder than it should've been, and you wonder if they really have confidence in Buehler based on a couple of fourth-down gambles.
But Tony Romo played like Tony Romo instead of a Tony Romo imposter, passing for 284 yards with two touchdowns, and much-maligned Roy Williams had 117 yards receiving and two touchdowns.
The defense held Houston's offense, averaging 440.5 yards and 32 points, to a pair of field goals before yielding a garbage-time TD. Andre Johnson caught just four passes for 64 yards, and the Cowboys claimed their first three turnovers of the season.
Even Buehler made field goals of 49 and 40 yards.
These Cowboys played with desperation and urgency. They knew only three of 102 teams that started a season 0-3 had made the playoffs since 1990, and they didn't seem interested in trying to become the fourth.
Starting 0-3 and entering the bye week would've generated a week of doom and gloom, dire predictions on sports talk radio and hundreds of e-mails about Phillips' eventual successor.
"We had a great week or preparation and practice. We had a great scheme from Wade," Bradie James said. "He gets a lot of criticism, but he should get credit for getting his team ready to play. The changes he made this week worked."
Now, we'll see if the Cowboys can duplicate their performance in two weeks, because there won't be a week-long crisis to help them focus.
01:31 AM CDT on Monday, September 27, 2010
HOUSTON – We know these Cowboys always seemingly play their best football when they’re in crisis mode.
Column by JEAN-JACQUES TAYLOR / The Dallas Morning News | jjtaylor@dallasnews.com
Jean-Jacques Taylor
Archive | Bio | E-mail
We've seen it time and time again.
Remember last season's win over then-unbeaten New Orleans? That was the game they had no chance to win – but they did.
Easily.
So we shouldn't be surprised at all that these Cowboys turned in their best performance of the season Sunday, smacking around Houston, 27-13, at Reliant Stadium to win the Texas Super Bowl.
The loss ensures that the Texans' inferiority complex as it relates to professional football will remain intact. If Houston couldn't beat Dallas now, thus claiming the title of Texas' best professional football team, then when?
After all, the Cowboys will rarely be more vulnerable than after losing their first two games, and the Texans will rarely feel better about themselves than after winning their first two games.
Oh well.
Dallas' domination was so thorough, Cowboys fans felt comfortable enough to start chanting, "Let's Go Cowboys! Let's Go Cowboys!" midway through the fourth quarter.
That's pretty impressive, considering the week began with a players-only meeting and ended with Jerry Jones giving Wade Phillips and kicker David Buehler the dreaded vote of confidence.
"We won, so the meeting worked," Phillips said with a smirk.
Actually, the Cowboys won because the leaders on this team finally seized control of it. They implored every player to practice harder. And prepare harder. And play harder.
That hasn't always been the case.
A sense of entitlement had infected the locker room. Too many players had forgotten just how hard it is to win in the NFL. There's only a sliver of difference between most NFL teams.
Before the game, several of the team's captains spoke, but so did Marcus Spears and Andre Gurode.
"I don't talk a lot, but I was taught that if you have something on your mind, you should say it," Gurode said. "It wasn't planned.
"Guys were talking to each other this week. We said everyone had to do whatever they needed to do to get ready, whether it was watching more film or studying more."
The Cowboys must take the same approach against Tennessee in two weeks. And every opponent after that.
Proper preparation, focus and commitment don't guarantee wins, but they do guarantee this team will play to its talent level.
When that happens, this team is among the league's best; when it doesn't happen, it's capable of losing to inferior teams such as Washington and Chicago.
The Cowboys remain flawed. They still committed too many pre-snap penalties, making the game harder than it should've been, and you wonder if they really have confidence in Buehler based on a couple of fourth-down gambles.
But Tony Romo played like Tony Romo instead of a Tony Romo imposter, passing for 284 yards with two touchdowns, and much-maligned Roy Williams had 117 yards receiving and two touchdowns.
The defense held Houston's offense, averaging 440.5 yards and 32 points, to a pair of field goals before yielding a garbage-time TD. Andre Johnson caught just four passes for 64 yards, and the Cowboys claimed their first three turnovers of the season.
Even Buehler made field goals of 49 and 40 yards.
These Cowboys played with desperation and urgency. They knew only three of 102 teams that started a season 0-3 had made the playoffs since 1990, and they didn't seem interested in trying to become the fourth.
Starting 0-3 and entering the bye week would've generated a week of doom and gloom, dire predictions on sports talk radio and hundreds of e-mails about Phillips' eventual successor.
"We had a great week or preparation and practice. We had a great scheme from Wade," Bradie James said. "He gets a lot of criticism, but he should get credit for getting his team ready to play. The changes he made this week worked."
Now, we'll see if the Cowboys can duplicate their performance in two weeks, because there won't be a week-long crisis to help them focus.