2008 Woodie Awards
Tales From Midseason
Andrew Mashas
Issue date: 11/9/06 Section: sports
If you put money on Washington, Detroit, or Miami while you were in Vegas this week, I guess the millions would just pour in. Each caused huge upsets in their own way, and each had a huge impact on the season for the teams they beat. Each team they beat will probably make it to the playoffs, although I'm not really sure if Dallas will though, but their outlook on the rest of the season are totally different. The midway point to the NFL season has brought up a lot of questions. Which teams should be playing better? Which teams are playing better than expected? And which playoff shoe-ins won't even see a field in January?
First there's the crazy finish with the Dallas and Washington game. Now, Dallas was supposed to enter this game and basically show the NFC that they were a force to be reckoned with. Tony Romo should have been the guy to send them into the playoffs, T.O. finally had a quarterback who wanted to make him the big receiver, and Mike Wanderjedt was supposed to relieve them of the kicking problems that they had last year. However, one "suicide" attempt, a high-profiled quarterback switch, and three straight division losses later, the Cowboys stand at 4-4 and are tying to get into a groove to savor their season. And they need to do so before it's too late. Lucky for them they play in the NFC, which is pretty bad. It is fortunate there are only 5 teams that are over .500 in the NFC. However, the loss to Washington, that should never have occurred, triggered 3 straight division losses. It also gave Washington new hope and a reason to live for the rest of the season. Joe Gibbs' teams are famous for having better second halves, and if Philadelphia can turn it around and start winning again then I think Dallas will really be in trouble. They thought that Tony Romo was going to give them reason to coast through the rest of the season on the really easy teams, and Washington was supposed to be an easy win. Now, it's not like Dallas played poorly, it was literally that one facemask mistake that put the tally in the loss column. However, it has to be demoralizing to the team to think that the reason they don't have a winning record is because of one penalty.
First there's the crazy finish with the Dallas and Washington game. Now, Dallas was supposed to enter this game and basically show the NFC that they were a force to be reckoned with. Tony Romo should have been the guy to send them into the playoffs, T.O. finally had a quarterback who wanted to make him the big receiver, and Mike Wanderjedt was supposed to relieve them of the kicking problems that they had last year. However, one "suicide" attempt, a high-profiled quarterback switch, and three straight division losses later, the Cowboys stand at 4-4 and are tying to get into a groove to savor their season. And they need to do so before it's too late. Lucky for them they play in the NFC, which is pretty bad. It is fortunate there are only 5 teams that are over .500 in the NFC. However, the loss to Washington, that should never have occurred, triggered 3 straight division losses. It also gave Washington new hope and a reason to live for the rest of the season. Joe Gibbs' teams are famous for having better second halves, and if Philadelphia can turn it around and start winning again then I think Dallas will really be in trouble. They thought that Tony Romo was going to give them reason to coast through the rest of the season on the really easy teams, and Washington was supposed to be an easy win. Now, it's not like Dallas played poorly, it was literally that one facemask mistake that put the tally in the loss column. However, it has to be demoralizing to the team to think that the reason they don't have a winning record is because of one penalty.