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Some notes about the game tomorrow:

* The biggest concern surrounding the Cowboys this week focuses on whether we will see a letdown. With all of the upsets in college today, it would not be a complete shock for an 0-3 team to beat a 3-0 team. This is from DallasCowboys.com:

While the facing the ailing St. Louis Rams on Sunday may seem like an automatic win for the Cowboys, they know better than to look past this game. Despite drastic underproduction and several injuries to key offensive personnel, the Rams’ offense is still dangerous and hungry to prove it’s not as bad as the winless record, leading Rams receiver Isaac Bruce earlier in the week to boldly guarantee a victory at Texas Stadium. In order to extend their record to 4-0, the Cowboys will have to guard against listening to their egos, media and fans, and prepare to play as if they still were the underdogs they were against Chicago last Sunday.

* Jean-Jacques Taylor says that Dallas needs to dominate this week. If Dallas gets early turnovers, I can see this happening pretty easily.

* DC.com had a good feature about Jason Witten, who is off to the best start of his career.

* Prediction from Mickey Spagnola:

And the score . . . now I’m wondering when the last time anyone thought the Cowboys were 13-point favorites? But as beat up as the Rams are, and as seemingly mature as these Cowboys seem to be, that might not be that far fetched. How about Cowboys 27, Rams 17.

Videos

Here are a couple of video previews that are worth watching:

First, from CBS:

And second, here is the preview of tomorrow’s game from the NFL:

Accuscore

I have a much better understanding of Accuscore now. In the site’s 10,000 simulations of the game, the Cowboys won 85% of them. Pretty good odds. Ninety-five percent of the site’s users picked the Cowboys to win as well.

Pigskin Pick’em

The Cowboys are a 12 1/2 point favorite in Pigskin Pick’em, but 67% of users have picked the Cowboys against the spread.

I have only taken four underdogs this week. I’m not sure why.

Milestone in Passing, Rushing, and Receiving

Back in July, I posed the following trivia question and answer:

[Question:]

In which game (year and opponent) did the Cowboys first have a 300-yard passer, a 100-yard rusher, and a 100-yard receiver?

The answer:

Dallas had several games with multiple 100-yard receivers but did not have the trifecta until the 52-10 win over Houston on Dec. 20, 1970.

Craig Morton went 13 of 17 for 349 yards and 5 touchdowns. Bob Hayes caught six passes for 187 yards. Duane Thomas had 115 yards rushing.

The Triplets– Troy Aikman, Emmitt Smith, and Michael Irvin– accomplished this feat twice during the ten years they were together. Here are those two games:

October 8, 1995: Dallas 34, Green Bay 24

Smith: 106 rushing yards; Irvin: 150 receiving yards; Aikman: 316 passing yards.

September 22, 1999: Dallas 41, Washington 35

Smith: 109 rushing yards; Irvin: 122 receiving yards; Aikman: 362 passing yards.

Rocket Ismail, who caught the game-winning touchdown in overtime, also had 149 yards receiving.

Add a fourth entry to this list: September 23, 2007, when Tony Romo, Terrell Owens, and Marion Barber achieved this feat.

A History of 3-0 Starts

The Cowboys have started with a 3-0 record in fourteen seasons, including 2007. Here is a look at how the Cowboys have finished thirteen previous times:

Statistical Rankings

The Cowboys are near the top of the NFL in nearly every significant offensive category. The only big concern involves the penalties. Here is a look at these rankings.

Offense (NFL rank in parenthesis)

Yards per Game: 420.3 (2)
Yards per Play: 6.9 (1)
1st Downs per Game: 20.3 (6t)
3rd Downs Made: 15 (20)
3rd Downs Attempted: 38 (22)
4th Downs Made: 4 (1)
4th Downs Attempted: 5 (2)
Penalties: 30 (32)
Penalty Yards: 256 (32)
Time of Possession: 98:21 (6)
Fumbles: 2 (2t)
Fumbles Lost: 1 (2t)

Defense

Points per Game: 21.7 (18)
Yards per Game: 337.0 (21)
Yards per Play: 5.3 (20)
1st Downs per Game: 19.2 (22t)
3rd Downs Made: 18 (18t)
3rd Downs Attempted: 38 (9t)
4th Downs Made: 0 (1t)
4th Downs Attempted: 4 (3t)
Penalties: 16 (17t)
Penalty Yards: 130 (16)
Time of Possession: 81:39 (5)
Fumbles: 6 (7t)
Fumbles Lost: 2 (19t)

Individual

I will have more on individual stats next week, but here are a few notes:

* Tony Romo is tied for third in the NFL with a 111.9 passer rating. He is sixth in passing yards per game with 286.7.
* Marion Barber is tied for the league lead in touchdowns with five. He ranks twelfth in the NFL in rushing with 256 yards.
* Julius Jones ranks 34 in the NFL with 124 rushing yards.
* Terrell Owens ranks fourth in the NFL with 329 yards on 16 receptions.

Pigskin Pick’em: 8/16

I improved with Pick’em this week, but I still can’t break .500. Arizona and Green Bay came through this week, but my picks of Detroit and San Francisco weren’t so bright. Same with New Orleans. Dallas is now 3-0 against the spread.

Fantasy Football: Thurman’s Thieves (2-1)

I should be much happier about my fantasy results this week. However, my quarterback play has become comical.

I had a pretty big lead heading into Monday night’s New Orleans-Tennessee game. I had Drew Brees and Marques Colston, while my opponent was left only with Tennessee linebacker Keith Bulluck. No way I could give up a 15-point lead? Sure! Bulluck picked off three of Brees’ passes. Brees ended up with -0.1 points. I escaped with a 7.9 point win, but Brees has to get better.

New Orleans has a bye this week, which leaves me with Matt Leinart and Derek Anderson. It’s a cold day in hell, but I have to start Anderson.

The church sign graphic seems to be good luck, so I am sticking with it for another week. This week we will test our luck with Assembly of God.

A couple of news items before the previews:

* Terence Newman could see action on Sunday. According to the team’s website, “This time all signs point toward that decision being a favorable one for the Cowboys’ defense even though the veteran cornerback still is listed as questionable on Friday’s injury report.”
* Head coach Wade Phillips announced the four captains: quarterback Tony Romo, tight end Jason Witten, linebacker Bradie James and special teamer Keith Davis.

I need also to give special thanks to Cowboy Blog for featuring my site today. His has been around about a year longer than mine. Two notes of interest:

(1) He has given me a new tagline for this blog: “Filled with stuff that you wanted to know that you didn’t even know that you wanted to know.”
(2) None of the participants in his online poll listed the Cowboys as the most surprising 2-0 team.

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Accuscore

For the first time this season, Accuscore picked the Cowboys’ opponent to win. This week, the site gives Chicago a 51% advantage. Still don’t have any idea what this means.

Pigskin Pick’em

Chicago is a 3 1/2 point favorite over Dallas in Pigskin Pick’em. Of those playing with a spread, 65% picked Dallas.

Apparently, more people think that Chicago will win by a field goal, because only 51% of those playing the non-spread version picked the Cowboys to win over the Bears.

Having performed below expectations, I have no confidence in my picks for this week. I went with more underdogs than normal, including Dallas (shocking, I know).

Other Previews

Here are a few other previews of Sunday night’s game:

* Mickey Spagnola took Dallas to win.

And the score . . . the safe thing to do would be to play the percentages since they scream the Bears will win at home, but for the life of me I can’t see the Bears’ offense scoring enough points even if their defense shuts down the Cowboys’ offense . . . so out-on-a-limb Cowboys 23, Bears 17 (some of that Hester).

* The crew at NBC, which will broadcast the game on Sunday, think that Dallas will win. Click here or on the image below.

* Here is the Associated Press preview.
* And lastly, here is the DallasCowboys.com preview.

Here are ten questions about the Cowboys’ 45-35 win over the Giants on Sunday.

Make your own Quiz!

I thought that perhaps we would have heard the last of “The Botch” after the win, but… of course not. Here is Tony Kornheiser leading off his commentary by mentioning that play. Again.

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You’ve probably heard that Dallas lost Jason Ferguson for the year. Mickey Spagnola provides some perspective, however:

The Cowboys will receive no injury sympathy around the league for losing nose tackle Jason Ferguson for the season in the season opener. In the opening week, the Bears lost two starters for the season, safety Mike Brown and defensive tackle Dusty Dvoracek, who was starting for the suspended and then released Tank Johnson. The Redskins lost offensive tackle Jon Jansen for the season. St. Louis lost starting tackle Orlando Pace for the season. Miami lost starting safety Yeremiah Bell for the season. And look at the Giants, with Osi Umenyiora, Brandon Jacobs and Eli Manning all expected to miss time.

The injury to receiver Terry Glenn has dominated the Cowboys’ news this week, for obvious reasons. Although Dallas has some talent in other receivers, including Patrick Crayton and Sam Hurd, none have Glenn’s experience or big-play ability.

Former Patriots’ receiver Reche Caldwell has reportedly expressed interest in coming to Dallas. This is from SI’s FanNation:

The agent for WR Reche Caldwell contacted the Cowboys yesterday. Caldwell led Patriots’ receivers with 760 yards and four TDs last season but was cut after New England significantly upgraded its WR corps. Wade Phillips should know Caldwell well. The Chargers drafted Caldwell with their second-round pick in 2002, and he had four mostly mediocre seasons in San Diego. But he left a much better impression on Phillips the last time they met. Caldwell had seven catches for 80 yards and a TD in the Patriots’ playoff win over the Chargers. Caldwell isn’t considered a great deep threat, but he had a 49-yard catch to set up New England’s winning field goal.

At least coach Wade Phillips has the right attitude. He says the team won’t whine about its injuries. On the other hand, I may whine about my prediction from the other day:

And in all honesty, a loss in the opener is really inexcusable unless all of the injured players (Terry Glenn, Terence Newman, Greg Ellis) end up missing the game.

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Several of us really wanted Dallas to take a receiver early in the draft. It is possible that Isaiah Stanback could contribute this year, but I will continue to watch some other players that Dallas could have taken in the first three rounds:

Dwayne Bowe (Kansas City, 23rd)
Robert Meachem (New Orleans, 27th)
Craig Davis (San Diego, 30th)
Anthony Gonzalez (Indianapolis, 32rd)
Sidney Rice (Minnesota, 44th)
Dwayne Jarrett (Carolina, 45th)
Steve Smith (N.Y. Giants, 51st)
Jacoby Jones (Houston, 73rd)
Yamon Figures (Baltimore, 74th)
Laurent Robinson (Atlanta, 75th)
Jason Hill (San Francisco, 76th)
James Jones (Green Bay, 78th)
Mike Walker (Jacksonville, 79th)
Paul Williams (Tennessee, 80th)
Johnnie Lee Higgins (Oakland, 99th)

Dallas Cowboys vs. New York Giants
Sunday, September 9
7:15 p.m. CDT
Texas Stadium
Television: NBC
Radio: Dallas Cowboys Radio Network (click here to find a station)
Spread (BetUS): Dallas favored by 6.
Over/Under: 44

The injury situation is the primary topic of conversation for the Cowboys this week. The Cowboys learned that receiver Terry Glenn will miss at least the first two weeks of the season, meaning that Patrick Crayton will get the start and that Sam Hurd will be the third receiver.

The news is slightly better for cornerback Terence Newman, who will likely gut it out and play against the Giants, but he won’t be 100%. The news goes south again with respect to linebackers Greg Ellis and Kevin Burnett. Ellis apparently can’t lift his heel and will miss as much as half of the season, according to reports. Burnett is 50-50 for the Giants game.

For the Giants, Michael Strahan is reportedly ready to play. Cornerback Sam Madison is also eager to play, but he is still trying to recover from a hamstring injury.

I am suddenly (and stupidly) in the business of promoting the NFL’s website, but the video section there has quite a bit to offer. I have seen clips of Phyllis George’s interview with Roger Staubach in 1975, but I had never seen the entire interview. This is now available on the NFL’s site:

The highlights:

* Staubach discusses a 15-yard unsportsmanlike conduct penalty called against him in a 1975 game at Washington. Staubach threw a punch at long-time Washington cornerback Pat Fischer after the Dallas quarterback threw an interception. The Redskins went on to win 30-24 in overtime.
* “It’s a dog-eat-dog world . . . You can’t be a nice guy on the football field.”
* Staubach talks about being labeled a “square” for buying a station wagon instead of a sports car after Dallas won the Super Bowl in 1971.
* His famous comment about enjoying sex as much as Joe Namath. Although I am not sure what happened after the interview with Phyllis, I am pretty sure that Staubach has never tried to kiss Suzy Kolber.

Denver Broncos vs. Dallas Cowboys
Saturday, August 18
7 p.m. CDT
Texas Stadium
Television: Blue Star Media
Radio: Dallas Cowboys Radio Network (click here to find a station)
Spread: Dallas favored by 5
Over/Under: 35 1/2

The Cowboys play their second and final home preseason game on Saturday against the Denver Broncos. According to the Dallas Morning News, starters are expected to play the entire first half. If nothing else, that should be good news for those looking at that over/under.

One of the more interesting aspects of this game is the comparison of the two young quarterbacks: Tony Romo and Jay Cutler. Both of them looked sharp in their preseason openers last week. Although the NFL copyright hounds have been earning their $350 an hour to remove NFL highlights from YouTube, at least the new NFL.com has some nice features. The videos there are actually very good quality. We can’t embed them, but at least we can make it look like we are:

Here is a link to highlights of Romo in last week’s win over the Colts:

And to compare, here are Cutler’s highlights from last Monday’s game between Denver and San Francisco:

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Some other news:

* Did you hear that Cowboys wide receiver Terrell Owens showed up late for practice? He did, by twenty minutes.
* Nick Eatman has a good piece about Cowboys cornerback Terence Newman wanting not only to become equal to Champ Bailey, but also to become better than the Denver cornerback.
* Hail to the Deadskins has a piece about this week’s game, including a prediction that the Cowboys and Broncos will meet in the Super Bowl. That is interesting. The odds of the Cowboys winning the NFC Championship are about 6 to 1. Denver’s odds are 12 to 1. The odds that either team wins the Super Bowl are about 20 to 1. I think it is bad luck to bet on the Cowboys, but I only need to look back at this post come February to realize that I could have made a pretty good return should both teams end up in Arizona.

Here’s a short lesson in choosing a hosting company for your blog. Consider these two options:

Hosting Company #1
Fee: $47.20 annually
Disk space: 300 Megabytes
Data transfer: 15 GB/month
Max domains: 3
Email accounts: 20
Down time experience: The site went down at least a couple of times per month. Moreover, the site seemed to go down most frequently when I actually had pretty good traffic. For instance, I had about 2,000 visitors last year on the day when Deadspin linked to my Dallas Cowboys Christmas video. It would have been about 3,000 had the site not continued to go down all day.

Hosting Company #2
Fee: $71.40 annually
Disk space: 300 GB
Data Transfer: 3,000 GB/month
Max domains: Unlimited
Email accounts: Unlimited
Downtime: I have a few periods of downtime, but no more than 10 minutes or so.

I also decided to go with a new format, because as my wife said, the old one looked like it was trying to cater to a teenaged crowd. And when you are including posts with stats and trivia from the 1970s, it probably isn’t a good idea to try to cater to a teenaged crowd. Anyway…

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A few stories in brief:

* Brad Sham has a good piece about new cornerback Joey Thomas’ second chance. Thomas was a second-round pick by Green Bay in 2004 but was released midway through the following season. He was out of football in 2006 before Dallas signed him in January.
* According to Calvin Watkins, Julius Jones is out to prove that he is an elite back. I tend to think he will prove that is a valuable back, but I’ve been very wrong before.
* I’ve been concerned all off-season about the Cowboys’ lack of depth at wide receiver (though, of course, Dallas has some raw talent there). However, the bigger concern may be the lack of depth at nose tackle, given that Jason Ferguson is the team’s only experienced player.
* According to the Fort Worth Star-Telegram, Terence Newman has been practicing at wide receiver.
* And lastly, you’ve probably seen the story that former Cowboys coach Barry Switzer is joining Fox to spar with Jimmy Johnson during the pregame show. If only Hall of Fame voters liked former Cowboys the way that Fox does…

The Cowboys had a solid effort in a 23-10 win over Indianapolis during their first preseason game this evening. Below are some notes about the game.

First Half

Dallas had two long drives in the first half, both resulting a field goals. Tony Romo went 9 of 10 for 91 yards during those drives. Brad Johnson led the Cowboys on a drive near the end of the first half, but the drive stalled after Johnson lost 13 yards on a botched play. Dallas led 6-3 at halftime.

Second Half

Keith Davis made a nice pick off of a tipped Jim Sorgi pass, returning it 41 yards for a touchdown in the third quarter.

Rookie quarterback Matt Moore completed his first three passes of the preseason for 58 yards. Each of those passes were to second-year tight end Tony Curtis. Tyson Thompson had a two-yard touchdown in the third quarter to give Dallas a 20-3 lead.

Cornerback Joey Thomas, who has been mentioned as solid player in training camp, made a nice pick in the end zone on a long pass by quarterback Josh Betts.

Misc. Notes

* Offensive coordinator Jason Garrett was on the sideline instead of the pressbox. Maybe that means nothing, but it was good to see how he interacted with Romo prior to the game.

* Also good to see Tyson Thompson returning kickoffs after he missed much of last season.

* The starters at tackle were rookie Doug Free and Pat McQuistan.

* Most of the regulars touched the ball in the first two drives, including Julius Jones, Terrell Owens, Patrick Crayton, Sam Hurd, Jason Witten, Marion Barber, and Anthony Fasano.

* Leonard Davis looked versatile, getting off the ball while pulling on at least one of the plays.

* Fasano had three nice catches in the second Dallas drive that ran into the second quarter. He later dropped a pass that he shouldn’t have, trying to make a sliding catch at the end of the second quarter

* Romo continues to show good field vision.

* The defense showed different looks, but did not produce that much pressure.

* The secondary looked a bit shaky on a few plays. However, Anthony Henry made a nice play near the goalline on the Colts’ first drive.

* The defense, led by Bradie James, had a nice play to stop the Colts on a fourth-and-one in the second quarter.

* Personally, I thought Jones looked a little better than Barber, at least at the start of the game. Jones got off the ball very well on several runs in the opening drive. Barber looked good on the last drive of the first half, but it was against backups for the most part.

* Minor point, but Akin Ayodele wore #51, which was Al Singleton’s number for the past several years. Ayodele’s website still shows #50, though.

Three items that had me scratching my head:

* Gatorade ran the commercial with Bill Parcells in a toll booth, asking whether Gatorade is in you. Wasn’t that great when Parcells was still the coach, and even worse since he isn’t.

* Although Leonard Davis looked pretty good, Troy Aikman had no business comparing him to Larry Allen.

* Mat McBriar holds the ball with his left hand, even with a right-footed kicker

Noteworthy Stats:

Romo: 10-11, 93 yards, 0 TD, 0 Int.
Moore: 7-9, 88 yards, 0 TD, 0 Int.

Barber: 12 att., 48 yards.
Thompson: 11 att., 34 yards, 1 TD.
Jones: 6 att., 22 yards.

Fasano: 3 rec., 43 yards.
Owens: 1 rec., 8 yards.
Curtis: 3 rec., 58 yards.

Technorati Tags: Tony Romo, Brad Johnson, Tony Curtis, Tyson Thompson, Joey Thomas, Jason Garrett, Tyson Thompson, Doug Free, Pat McQuistan, Julius Jones, Terrell Owens, Patrick Crayton, Sam Hurd, Jason Witten, Marion Barber, Anthony Fasano, Anthony Henry, Troy Aikman, Larry Allen

Indianapolis Colts vs. Dallas Cowboys
7 p.m. CDT
Texas Stadium
Television: Fox
Radio: Dallas Cowboys Radio Network (click here to find a station)
Spread: Dallas favored by 4 1/2
Over/Under: 34

Key players out for Dallas: S Ken Hamlin, WR Terry Glenn, T Flozell Adams, T Marc Columbo.

Key players out for Indianapolis: S Bob Sanders, LB Keith O’Neil, DB Brannon Condren, and DE Bo Schobel.

Rob Phillips of DallasCowboys.com ran a piece about what to look for in Thursday’s preseason game between Dallas and Indianapolis.  These include:

(1) The battle for the kicking job between Martin Gramatica and rookie Nick Folk;
(2) The battle for playing time at running back between Julius Jones and Marion Barber;
(3) The performances of backups at both right and left tackle;
(4) The performances of backups at wide receiver;
(5) The performances of backups at nose tackle;
(6) The unveiling of Wade Phillips’ 3-4 scheme.

See also: Cowboys’ New Coach To Debut vs. Super Bowl Champs in Preseason Game (Yahoo)

DallasCowboys.com GameDay

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Know Your Opponent

For more on the Colts, check out:

Notes on the Colts’ Offense (Stampede Blue)

Notes on the Colts’ Defense (Stampede Blue)

Colts Couch Crew (MVN)

SportProjections.com, which provides previews of the seasons for each of the major sports, has published its preview of the NFC East, including posts on each of the four teams. Various independent bloggers served as writers, including one who has this thing for trivia that interests almost nobody…

Three of the four writers (including your’s truly) have the teams finishing in this order:

1. Philadelphia (preview by the blogger at Inside the Iggles)
2. Dallas (preview by that blogger at Know Your Dallas Cowboys)
3. Washington (previewed by the blogger at Hogs Haven)
4. N.Y. Giants (previewed by the blogger at MVN-Giants).

The Giants’ writer had the G-Men winning the division, of course. As for my prediction, here is why I would not put Dallas on top:

2007 Projected Record: 10-6

2007 Season Projection Summary:

Although Dallas has enough talent on paper to do better than 10 wins, the team has had trouble with underachievement in the past several years. No Dallas team has won more than 10 games since the Cowboys’ last Super Bowl team in 1995. Although this should be a team on the rise, and even though Dallas has a favorable schedule, the Cowboys will probably split games with division rivals. Dallas plays two of its first three on the road, including visits to Miami and Chicago. Home games against St. Louis and New England will probably be tough, as may another home game against Minnesota. Around Thanksgiving, Dallas plays three straight home games, which could be very beneficial. However, the Cowboys close the season with three of four on the road, including games at Carolina and Washington.

Although Romo shouldered some of the blame for the team’s performance down the stretch in 2006, he continually showed why he is the team’s future at quarterback. In the playoff loss to Seattle, he put his team in position to win (at least playing quarterback and not as a kick holder), and that is the best you can expect from a young quarterback in a pressure situation. The running game with both Jones and Barber is solid, and the offensive line should be in better shape than it has been in years. The receiving corps is talented, but having receivers in their mid-30s, with no other proven performers backing them up, is a bit of a gamble. Tight end Jason Witten is one of the best in the NFC, and the team’s second tight end, Anthony Fasano, has shown improvement.

Phillips is probably on a short leash, with the team expecting him to revive the defense. He has been a solid head coach in the past but has never won more than 11 games in a season and never won a playoff game in his stops at Denver and Buffalo. Much of his success may depend on how first-year offensive coordinator Jason Garrett, a former Dallas quarterback, runs the offense.

I am also trying to avoid getting burned as I did last season, when I was dead certain that Dallas would go 11-5 and make it to the NFC Championship game. I will say, though, that I think a playoff win is very possible. Or perhaps I am just hoping…?