MAVS!

I'll write some more later today (I think) about the Mavs going into the season. For now, here's a piece on Dirk that I enjoyed. Hes a mystery off the court and he likes it that way but the article shares a little on his off the court life. I wasn't aware, or anyone else for that matter, that his dad was undergoing surgery during the GS series. This was by design as Dirk didn't want anyone to know.

Mavs waive DJ, sign herpes

Devastating news as DJ has always been a fave of mine. Best bench cheerleader around and I like his athleticism and gigantic biceps. They've signed Juwan Howard and his herpes to backup the 4 and 5 presumably. Its annoying to me cuz I've never liked Howard and I was looking forward to Brandon Bass getting a solid dose of minutes backing up Dirk. DJ was the only true 5 on the active roster besides Diop but can Howard even play the 5 anymore? Howard is also as soft as they come. This team is getting older by the second. In reality this doesn't affect much of anything, I'm just biased towards Didier Ilunga Mbenga.

JC is good, Robert Killebrew is not

Jamaal Charles has taken a lot of flak this year for being too much of an east-west runner, being too tentative, not being explosive, fumbling, etc. Personally, I have a lot of man love for JC because I think he is one of the more dynamic RBs that UT has had during my tenure as a fan. The only issue I think JC really has is the fumbilitis. I remember being amazed at JC as a true freshman for his ability to make guys miss, make cutbacks, and be upfield in an instant. He's been handicapped this year by a combination of a horrific O-line and terrible scheme, the O-line being the more prominent of the two issues. Yes, Nebraska has a terrible run D and they are bad football team. They made up for it by playing with nothing to lose and blitzing every play. They put the pressure on us and we had no answer for 3 quarters. Naturally it took us until the 4th to figure out how to attack it. Once Charles got to the edge by the blitzing defenders, it was him and a safety and he was gone. Longest play from scrimmage that we've had in a long time and by far the longest run play in a few years. For further edification about our hilarious game plan I direct you here.

And this note from the Star-Telegram:

Kindle, a sophomore, had a team-high eight tackles against Nebraska. In five games as the backup to Robert Killebrew, Kindle has three tackles for losses (TFL), three quarterback pressures and a pass breakup (PBU). In nine starts, Killebrew has no TFLs, no sacks, no interceptions, no forced fumbles, no fumble recoveries and no PBUs.

Killebrew is still listed as the starter this week against Okie State. Once you really look at the numbers its obvious why he should be.

Romo gets paid

Tony Romo is officialy the Cowboys franchise QB. ESPN reporting that he has inked a 6 year, 67.5 million extension. Can't find a link yet and naturally the DMN website is clueless. What a joke website for one of the largest papers in the country. Anyways, good news for Cowboys fans. Time for him to upgrade from the likes of Carrie Underwood and Sophia Bush to top tier hotness. I recommend Jessica Alba.

Updated: Here's a link from ESPN.

Tom Hicks opens up some bubbly

23.1 million off the Rangers books. Can we save this for Santana or Peavy and not Torii Hunter please?

Lateral madness

If you haven't seen it already... move over Stanford-Cal and Music City Miracle... Trinity University with the craziest game ending play I've ever seen.

Texas v. Nebraska

Why did I think Nebraska would be good this year? The Huskers roll into Austin in supremely hilarious disarray, which we've come to find out is what happens eventually when you entrust any sort of executive power to Bill Callahan. This team can't wait for the season to be over and I think they may actually welcome not having to play in front of their tractor lovin' home crowd so they don't have to bear the shame again of giving up 40 points at home. When a team turns on a coach as this team apparently has, they either spiral further into disarray or the players band together against the coaching staff and put together surprising efforts. Early returns are that the former is the case. Mack Brown is looking for win no. 100 as a Texas head coach and he should get it easily. Then again this is the same team that allowed Baylor to hang within a TD for much of the game. However, UT hasn't played at home in a month and they should be fired up for this one. 38-10.

Leonard Davis wants his change...

...And I suggest you give it to him.

Romo took out an interesting insurance policy this past offseason. That 150K premium is a doozy but hes gettin paid either way it looks like.

So the talk this week in the NFL is globalization. I'm not really sold on this whole idea as I think a large part of what makes the NFL wildly popular here is that its our sport. The rest of the world doesn't play it (well) nor do they understand it. So now Goodell is talking about expansion into London? Talk about home field advantage. For the Cowboys slant lets ask Jerry Jones what he thinks. Quoted from this NYT article:

The league faces a much harder sell to get the Dallas Cowboys — known for some reason as America’s Team — to play here, even once in a generation. The owner of the Cowboys, Jerry Jones, emerged from a private conference on sports globalization yesterday to insist that international games were fine for some teams. “It probably doesn’t fit us,” Jones quickly added. He said American football was based upon “my town against your town” rivalries, best played out in their home stadiums.

I'm gonna go ahead and agree that its a bad idea. Jerry certainly won't want to give up a home game. Also, props to the NFL for half assing their globalization strategy. What better way to bring your product to the good people of London than by sending a team with the worldwide commercial appeal of the Miami Dolphins.

Last, we have an extremely detailed look at the Cowboys uniforms from some weird lookin guy on ESPN Page 2.

Wednesday stuff

A few news items of note...

• Rangers 3rd base coach and organizational catching instructor Don Wakamatsu has left to become the bench coach for the hated A's. I guess its time to change our signs. Too bad for him cuz he'll miss out on the spiffy new team plane. In all seriousness its a key loss for the Rangers especially considering the amount of work Wak was probably going to put in this offseason with Salty and the smorgasbord of Rangers catching prospects. He was also a calm presence on the coaching staff compared to the fiery and sometimes insane Washington. They probably didn't mesh that well is my guess. I hope Wak enjoys the domineering Billy Beane as his boss.
  

• In more encouraging Ranger coaching news, the Mets will retain Howard Johnson as their hitting coach and pass on Rudy Jaramillo. It will cost the Rangers but chances are looking better that Rudy will stay on as hitting coach.
  

• J-Ho sprained his wrist last night but it appears to be minor. He's out for the first two games anyways cuz of suspension so that gives him time to heal up.
  

• A very interesting read on Tank Johnson from ESPN Mag which details the events of his arrest for gun possession and his friend's murder the next night. He has what the article terms an "obsession with guns". Apparently he carries around handwritten goals that are written in Chinese, which he learned in high school. This would mean Tank knows how to write more Chinese than I do... I'm not sure what to make of that. It also talks about how white people are afraid of him and deny him apartment leases.

Recapping Weekend Football

Two games, two similar tales. Turnovers and self inflicted wounds did the Horns and Cowboys in for the 1st half this weekend. Talent took over in the 2nd half. Texas pretty much takes it week by week in terms of whether they want to play well or not. For the most part, they played like crap. Thank God we played Baylor's spread offense. Those wide open intermediate routes, Texas LB's chasing receivers all over the field, and our apparent bend but don't break defense against the hapless Bears are going to be a problem when we play Tech. Tech also doesn't suffer from lack of talent and poor QB throws. Our offensive line looked awful again but the offense managed and would have been fine if it weren't for turnovers. Of course, like clockwork our defense returned a meaningless pick 6 late in the game to make it seem like we dominated the game and that our defense makes big plays. I don't want to be so negative about our team but I can't help it. This team is just flat out annoying.

Late in the 1st half the Cowboys entire season flashed before my eyes. We had just given up a fumble return for a TD and Romo limped off the field on one leg. The injury indeed hampered Romo in the 2nd half but we've got this backup RB named MBIII whos pretty good. Huge day for the special teams as McBriar repeatedly put the Vikings in bad field position, KO coverage contained AD (or AP, take your pick), and a TD return off of a blocked FG. D was good in containing Peterson but its somewhat easy when Tarvaris Jackson is the QB. 6 pass completions is flat out embarrassing. I think he threw downfield more than 15 yards just once. The D line is starting to look pretty good against the run and it should only get better with the addition of Tank. Ellis is starting to contribute along with backups like Stephen Bowen and Jason Hatcher. Hatcher has made more plays this year in backup duty than Marcus Spears has as a starter. This makes 3 sloppy games in a row for the Cowboys. I'm happy with 6-1 but the Cowboys can play a lot better. They have to or we could see a nightmare 2nd half akin to last year. We'll see what this team really is after the bye week as they go through the NFC East gauntlet @Philly, @NY, and then the Skins. Efforts like this past weekend won't get it done. 2-1 in that stretch would be great.

Short and Sweet

Goin to the game. 31-10 Da Boys. AD under 100. Tavaris Jackson will be hilarious. Romo carves em up.

Texas is painful to watch at times. More later.

Tony Romo gives Underwood the Heisman

Yes, that right folks... Tony Romo's powers aren't limited to the football field. The Jedi Master apparently has the ability to resist the wiles of the other sex and make them crumble before him. When the other person is Carrie Underwood, well thats a power to behold. The link was in the DMN Cowboys blog so you can stop before you try making a joke about how Albert peruses Entertainment Weekly's website. Here's the pertinent portion anyways:

Though Underwood seemed to be enjoying a blossoming relationship with the Dallas Cowboy earlier this year — he was her date to the ACM Awards and each flew to the other's side for their respective birthdays — she swears they were never a couple. ''At one point it seemed like that's where it was headed,'' she says, ''but point blank, he is about football. I don't know if it's that I'm not quite his type or whatever, but I don't think he's at the point in his life where he would be willing to sacrifice football. He hated so much that people thought that he was paying more attention to me and that was causing him to not do well.''

The force is strong with this one. Perhaps if Anakin had such abilities, then the Emperor never would have succeeded.

Duane Akina is either a liar or doesn't watch game tape

Spin city! I've done Akina a favor with the title of my post cuz the 3rd option would be that hes completely retarded. I've given him the benefit of the doubt and am assuming that our DC knows what football is. Thus, I can only come up two conclusions... Akina is either lying through his teeth or has never actually reviewed our game tapes. Please refer to the following Chip Brown article which discusses the need for our young LBs to be on the field. If you're too lazy to follow the jump then I've provided the quotes below for you. Perplexing to say the least: "The three older linebackers have won a national championship and played really well for us and done some great things," Brown said.

"Last year, we didn't have much help for them, so they could wear out easily. Right now, we're able to keep fresh people in the game. That's an advantage we have at Texas that a lot of people don't have."

Mack, contrary to popular belief, there are such thing as LBs who start and play the whole game. Please don't tell me our poor LB play last year was due to not having anyone behind them so they got tired. I'm gonna go ahead and blow a hole through that theory cuz those same LBs still suck this year. Try again.

Added Akina, "All six of them deserve to play. They're all playing well. The older ones have spilled a lot of blood for this program. And I'm one that maybe believes they should still be playing.

Here we go. They're seniors and they haven't failed their classes, gotten injured, or committed a crime so they deserve to start. We are now a DIII football program. And now perhaps the best gem:

"There's nothing on tape that says they should not. And yet the younger ones are playing well, too, and there's nothing on tape that says they should not be playing, either. That's why you see them rolling in and out."

??????????????????????? They haven't done anything wrong on tape? Aside from Derry being sealed off on every run play and not having any ability to go sideline to sideline, Bobino getting waxed on every blitz, and Killebrew simply doing nothing (except commit personal fouls)... I guess Duane is right. Theres nothing on tape that says they shouldn't start.

"Like a running back out of high school has problems with pass protection, young linebackers have trouble with pass drops," Brown said. "In high school they didn't worry about it. They were just attacking the ball. The discipline in pass drops takes them a little longer."

Thank God we have LBs that have been so effective in the passing game or else we would be forced to put in playmakers. Theres no sense in giving them in game experience. The handling of our LBs is comical at this point.

For further reading entertainment, I'll refer you to Scipio's Iowa State post-mortem. Solid and hilarious as usual including this gem: "Killebrew contributed 30 yards of personal fouls, making him Iowa State’s 2nd most productive player behind Scales." The truth hurts when it comes to our older LBs.

Tuesday Morning Coffee

Didn't see these Wade Phillips comments before today. I'd have to agree with Cowlisahw here that the thought process here is a little disturbing. Stop Sammy Morris and make Tom Brady beat you? Confusing.

Heres another item that is a little unnerving. I've been reading a lot of quotes from the team saying they hope to get a rematch with the Pats in the Super Bowl. Does this already assume that they'll be there? Thats how they sound. Long season, fellas.

Diop Diop has to step up this year while Damp is out. Avery says hes looking good so far and is pleasantly surprised by his work on the offensive end. I'd put Diop's grace on the offensive end somewhere between a 300 pound ballerina and Master P on Dancing with the Stars. As long as he can finish around the basket thats all we need.

Post Game

I said don't get into a shootout and thats what we did. Couldn't really avoid it though with the way our defense played on 3rd down. We were keeping pace but consistently behind. Then a couple bad breaks and the floodgates opened. If were gonna get into a high scoring affair with them then we pretty much had to play flawless to keep up. The two things that killed us... 3rd down and penalties. I think the Pats punted once. It was aggravating to get pressure on Brady only to have him find an open receiver just as the rush got there. They killed us softly with underneath crossing routes all day. Those methodical time eating drives where our D couldn't get off the field were what killed us more than the big plays.

Offensively we would have been much better if it weren't for shooting ourselves in the foot with penalties. Romo played pretty well although he didn't have enough possession time to make an impact. I barely remember our offense being on the field. Two biggest plays on offense today were the holding on 4th and short at midfield and the 3rd and goal from the 5. Perhaps a different game if we picked up the 4th down. If we continue to drive (which our offense wasn't having much problem doing when they weren't holding, false starting, or illegal shifting) then perhaps we tie the game. We had to keep pace and we fell off the pace on that drive. 60+ yards later we're down 14. But wait! Suddenly we're in the red zone thanks to Tyson Thompson. Two plays in the NFL that I hate more than any others... toss sweep and ah yes, the fade pattern. Especially fade patterns in the endzone when the field shrinks and the DB has less recovery distance to make. (As a side note the 3rd most hated play would be any screen the Cowboys have tried to run for the last 15 years since we fail miserably at it for whatever reason) So 3rd and 5, need the TD and what do we do... 1st lets throw to Sam Hurd, 2nd lets throw a fade. Terrible play call, terribly executed with a poor throw and a stumbling WR. Perhaps a PI but the thing with fade routes is that contact is inherent and the refs tend to not call PI on fades from what I've seen. So we choose to take the 3 points so we can stay within 2 scores cuz if we don't get a TD on 4th down then we're gonna be down... oh wait, thats right... 2 scores. I don't understand whats so hard about this? First of all, do you trust your defense to make 2 stops? Secondly, if the 4th down is unsuccessful Pats are backed up at their 5 where the playbook shrinks dramatically. Down 2 scores either way. That was the giveup right there and our exhausted defense proceeded to give up a demoralizing time killing drive. Just like every other Patriots drive, I'm sure it was filled with F-word inducing 3rd down conversions too.

In any case, what I took from the game is that the Pats are really good, but they aren't unbeatable and the Cowboys aren't that far off. They are definitely a notch below but a few plays here and there and this game was gonna be a close one. The defense will get better with the return of Anthony Henry and the addition of Tank Johnson. The offense will hopefully add Terry Glenn to the arsenal as well. We're 5-1 and that is just fine in the NFC. If you told me before the year that we would go 11-5 or 12-4 this year I would have taken that. That means 6-4 or 7-3 the rest of the way. That should put us in pretty good position for homefield in the NFC and the inside track to the Super Bowl.

P.S. DeMarcus Ware is a man.
P.P.S. TBS played FrankTV ads 14 times in the baseball game tonight. Mind-numbing.

Cowboys keys to the game

Wish I could have blogged more this week considering the big game this weekend. Just some thoughts as to what the Cowboys need to do to win tomorrow. So in somewhat order of importance... here are my "keys to the game":

1. Ball control for the Cowboys is absolutely crucial. Simple solution to not subjecting our defense to Brady/Moss too much is keeping them off the field. Duh, right? Think Indy last year and take a look at the TOP. This means our run game needs to wake up. We can't abandon the run early and we can't get into a shootout. Against Chicago we totally dropped the run game and gashed the middle of the field in the 2nd half. Thats ok cuz Rex Grossman can't scare kids on Halloween. I don't think this will be acceptable against NE. Methodical drives will pay off in the 2nd half.
2. Generate a rush by rushing 4. If the front 7 can generate a rush in a base package then we won't give Brady all day and we won't have to win one on one matchups in the secondary where the Patriots have definite talent advantages. Sellout blitzes will get you killed. Pats run a lot of quick passes which can take advantage of all out blitzes. This means DeMarcus Ware, this is your day. Hes got to win his matchup. If hes getting doubled all day, the other guys have to get it done then.
   
3. Win special teams. Special teams means field position. Goes hand in hand with the first point. Even if we don't score on a drive, as long as we move the ball and make NE go the distance of the field to score, then it will be ok. This means punt coverage needs to take care of business after a McBriar special. KO coverage needs to not blow like last week.
4. Get the ball to TO early. If we can keep TO interested he will be focused throughout the game and that will be huge. In terms of point #1, a 5 yard pass to TO is just as good as a 5 yard run.
5. Don't turn the ball over 6 times. Obviously...

Looking at the first two points it sounds like pretty basic football (hate to be so cliche) but we have to win the battle in the trenches. I read an article (which I can't find) that the Pats are vulnerable if you run left on them... so watch for that. I think the Cowboys can win. Ultimately, I'm concerned about our back 4. Remember, we still have Roy Williams back there and if he has to win a one on one battle with Ben Watson or a slot receiver (assuming Newman locks down one receiver and we double up Moss) then we might be cursing the fat one's name by the end of the day. Not really worried about us scoring points so I'm more concerned about us holding the ball. Our defense will have to get huge pressure on Brady to save our secondary. It'll be close...

Kobe?

So apparently there was some speculation on ESPN or ESPN radio about Mavs being hard after Kobe with Jet and J-Ho being involved. Doubt anything comes of it but I'll go ahead and say I'd be on board. I could care less about losing Jet. I love J-Ho and losing him would hurt but Kobe more than makes up for that. Kobe and Dirk would be able to work a lot of inside-out. Kobe/Dirk screen and roll would be death to the NBA. Starting lineup of Harris, Kobe, Hassell, Dirk, Diop with Stack as the 6th man is solid. Eddie Jones as another swingman and George backs up both forward positions. Bass backs up Dirk, Damp as backup C when healthy. When Devin sits, Kobe slides to point with Stack at SG. This solves the issue of Devin and Jet being a ridiculously small back court. It solves the roster clog we have at SG and SF and we add Kobe in the process. Less is more and when "less" is Kobe you have to love it.

Mavs/ Gil Lebreton does his best Skip Bayless impersonation

Didn't watch the Mavs last night as it was on HDNet only and because its the preseason. Heres the game story from the Star Telegram which focuses on Nick Fazekas trying to make the team. Odd that he doesn't talk to Avery much. Hes got size but quite the awkward looking player. Game story from DMN focuses on Devin Harris and his new full time role. Both articles mention that Stack started and Avery says hes looking at different combos. With Harris supposedly the full time PG it puts Jet in an interesting position. If he starts at SG we have a very small backcourt and theres already quite a logjam at the off guard. If hes the backup PG he stunts the growth of Harris not to mention there would be limited minutes. He'll probably waffle between backup PG minutes and SG minutes which makes the rotation tricky. It'll be interesting to see how it shakes out. Theres a reason every trade rumor in the off-season involved Jet.

Gil Lebreton is an idiot. He claims that Romo should have been benched and its disconcerting that the thought never crossed Phillips mind. His example is if Jacque Reeves had given up 3 TDs would he be given the same latitude? I have to believe hes just trying to stir the pot because if he needs someone to explain to him why that parallel makes no sense, then he must be sipping some of what his fellow columnist Grandpa Urine is having. One of the more idiotic articles I've ever read. On second thought, yeah hes right, Brad Johnson would have given us a better chance to win.

The Original 81

You can count on TO to spice up Cowboys-Patriots gameweek. Gotta love it but should he be trying to pump up Moss? You know the Original 81 won't be happy if he has another 3 catch 30 yard performance and gets upstaged by the other 81. This has to be one of the more anticipated regular season games of the last 10 years. TO's got one thing right, getcha popcorn ready folks.

Knee-jerk: Team of Destiny

Well how bout that game... but I guess in the NFL you take wins, especially on the road, and move on. Can we start team of destiny talk? Please? I understand we're 5 games into the year but I need to get real excited about something since UT football is gonna be a long year. Give props to the defense for giving up only 3 points despite being put in bad position several times by The Chosen One. Some sketchy tackling by the defense though. Amid all the madness that happened in the last couple minutes, heres a few plays in the game that were huge that were lost in the shuffle:

• The Bills going for the long field goal at the end of the 1st half, then the Cowboys marching 20 yards the other way for the FG to end the half. How bout that Nick Folk. I was thinking that kick was huge but it obviously paled in comparison to his combined 106 yards that he kicked with 1 second left. Don't forget about his onside kick either. Nice to have a low drama kicker who makes his kicks. The FG put us down 7 going into the half despite 4 picks. I felt pretty good about our chances.
  
• The Bills KO return for TD. It was like a UT-KState rewind. Until that return I still felt really good about the Cowboys winning the game. The Bills offense was doing nothing and their defense was looking gassed. It was looking like a Cowboys pattern game of slow 1st half and dominant 2nd half.... until that. KO coverage is officially a concern.
• Dick Jauron letting Trent Edwards throw across the field with the Bills in FG range. It would have been ballgame with the Bills up 11. After Romo fumbled, the Bills were proceeding down the field with a demoralizing game sealing drive. Pretty much needed a big defensive play to save us. So the Bills more or less ran a kindergarten playbook the whole game (a steady diet of dumpoffs and safety valve passes) and then with them in easy FG position, they run a route across the field. Even without Ware tipping it, I think Newman was in good position to pick that. Equally important was the fact that Newman was running on a gimp foot which allowed the Bills to catch him. Instead he gets caught and Romo throws a pick.
• Bills had another opportunity to seal the game when Terrence McGee dropped a pick on our last TD drive. Wouldn't have been Romo's fault since it went through MBIII's hands but it would have been an unreal 6 pick night for Romo. Lucky for the good guys, the ball game slipped through McGee's hands. God's team.

Then we get to the events at the end of the game. I hate the fade route in general. Low percentage play imo that requires an athletic play by the WR, good timing, and the CB is always in between the WR and the QB. The DB can easily faceguard, which is illegal but a tough penalty to call. Before the 2 point attempt I said please don't run a fade route. Well my prayer was not answered. Tough catch for TO to make. Speaking of TO, we saw shades of the ticking time bomb tonight.

Next, the Bill defensive play-calling has to be called in question for what they did with under 20 seconds left. They left the middle of the field open as they should have. They protected the sideline as they should have. They dropped their DB's back 15 yards... oops. It was like they ran prevent when they should have known that with 13 seconds and 7 seconds left there was nothing else we could run but 5-10 yard outs or RB dumps. We took the small chunks and it turned a 65 yarder into a 53 yarder. I was ready to take a 60 yarder with 7 seconds left and not risk losing the opportunity to kick a FG. Thank you Bills.

UT wins moral victory!

Despite still making several key mistakes, Texas played its most complete game of the year and yet lost by 7. I guess we've been reduced to moral victories this season. JC fumble was huge obviously. If Sweed would have come up with some balls that would have helped too. LB play was terrible once again and cost us a couple TDs. OU was pretty successful on runs to the edge getting the seal on some hapless LB. I don't understand what we're doing there and I'm tired of trying to figure it out. This is a rebuilding year and we need to do it right.

• Jared Norton looks better each game.
• Scott Derry looks worse each game.
• Our poor midget DBs played hard and played well for the most part. Can't do much on deep balls against 6-4 Malcolm Kelly when you're a midget.
  
• The intangibles that Colt displayed last year are not there this year. I'm beginning to lose more and more confidence each game.
• Has anyone coached JC on changing his grip to secure the ball better?
• Duane Akina looks overmatched. How many blitzes does he call that actually work?
• Our Dline is killing other teams but our LBs can never clean up.
• Where has the TE seam route been all year? We scored 2 TD's on that play. Conversely, our offense really wasn't that good on Saturday. We scored 14 points basically on one play.
• Our O-line plays with no passion. Colt gets smacked and they just stand around and don't bother helping him up. Tony Hills needs to stop getting so much praise cuz hes not that great.
• Quan Cosby is about as reliable as they come.

Limas Sweed done for the year

Self explanatory title. There were persistent rumors before the season that despite what Limas said about his wrist being 100%, the wrist injury was more serious than portrayed. Most rumors stated that it would be a lingering injury that he could either chose to play through or have season ending surgery. With an NFL career on the horizon, I assume this played a large part in Limas' decision to play through the injury. However, I think its obvious that the injury was affecting his play and with the current season being a lost cause, he probably decided to cut his losses. Hes a superior talent and hopefully this doesn't affect his NFL stock too much.

Tank Johnson

Good article in DMN yesterday about Terry 'Tank' Johnson. It offers some insight into his person and puts him in a different light. Normal people don't get arrested multiple times but I'm inclined to believe that he isn't a thug or into thug life/keepin it real like Pacman and Mike Vick. I think the Bears knee jerked when they released him since he never was arrested or charged with anything. His only crime was probably stupidity as he should have kept a low profile after his jail stint. I think this will end up being a great pickup for the Cowboys. The amount of visits from teammates while he was in jail says a lot.

As for tonight, I don't see how the Cowboys don't put a whoopin on the Bills. Buffalo will be severely overmatched talent wise. The only angles that provide them any chance are in intangibles such as it being a lookahead game for the Cowboys and it being the first MNF in Buffalo in a long time. Maybe some inspired play early on in the game by the Bills. Rookie QB and terrible pass D will be too much for them to overcome though. 31-14 Cowboys.

I'll probably blog about Texas-OU tonight during the game.

Texas offense too complicated... must be OU week

• Head coach Mack Brown said the Longhorns missed so many assignments offensively against the Wildcats that "we are going to have to go back and simplify some things."
  

• "We are asking our offense to do too much and we have to make it simpler,"
  

• "When you run the ball well, it takes pressure off the quarterback," Brown said. "That's what we need to do better."

You can set your watch to it. We're playing OU so its time to go into an offensive shell. We're gonna try and establish the run which we haven't been able to do all year against any opponent not sharing the same name as an Asian food staple. Good luck with that. Thats all you need to know about how the game is gonna go on Saturday. If you combine that with the questionable health of McCoy and our soft defense (Stoopsie will pick on our LBs all day), I'd recommend you start drinking early on Saturday. 35-13 OU. At least thats how I feel about it. I'm hoping to be shocked.

Friday

• A good objective article about recent UT legal troubles which points out that we're not exactly alone (like I've been saying). Theres some suggestion in the article that its carried over onto the field which I contend is not true. We're just not very good.
  

• Jesse Palmer aka the Bachelor, who looks like your typical Dallas Uptown d-bag, talks about how the Cowboys cheerleaders were distracting. This in lieu of the recent NFL crackdown on cheerleaders stretching in front of the visitors bench and locker room.
  

• Grandpa Urine claims the Mavs were "heavily involved" in Garnett talks this summer. Personally, I doubt it. I think the company line since the beginning of the summer was that we had a good team and we weren't gonna make any sweeping changes.
  

• Tim Cowlishaw thinks pitching isn't the overriding concern with the Rangers heading into the offseason. Its the hitting. I tend to agree with him as I feel that we've got several solid rotation candidates for next year. At this time last year we had Robinson Tejeda penciled in as the 3rd starter and question marks in the last two spots. I'll get into the Rangers more later.

Mavs Intrasqaud Scrimmage/Ugly BBall

Went to the Mavs Fan Jam which included an intrasquad scrimmage. Here are some thoughts of everyone that played. Take them with a grain of salt:

• JJ Barea- Lots of energy but probably too short to ever be really effective. Could be good in short spurts this year if he is really our backup PG. Listed at 6'0" which means I must be at least 6 feet tall too. Made a few long jumpers, pretty strong.
• Nick Fazekas-Good rebounder, good size, just about as big as Dirk. Good jump shot, stepped out to 20 feet. Slow as molasses, moves awkwardly, not that athletic.
• Devin Harris- As quick as ever and was attacking the rim with abandon which was scary at times since you don't really want to see him crashing to the floor in a scrimmage which he did several times. Made 1 or 2 treys.
• Jared Newson-Looked athletic, awful otherwise
  
• Dirk- Didn't play much, don't really need to tell you about his play. Chants of MVP were pretty loud when he was introduced.
• Jamal Sampson- apparently this guy has 5 years NBA experience but I've never heard of him
  
• Stack- Nothing notable other than a half court 3
  
• Mo Ager- can't shoot, doesn't know when to pass
• Brandon Bass- Strong, makes up being 6-8. Athletic and plays with fire down low battling for the ball. Potential to make a small impact this year. Needs to finish better, terrible at FT's
• Diop- Swatted some guys as there were some ugly one man assaults on the rim which he thwarted
• Darvin Ham- looked fat, actually had a couple throwdowns... training camp fodder anyways
• J-Ho- Dunno if he was high or what cuz it looked like he didn't care at all, just jacked up shots from anywhere and had some ugly drives to the rim
• Eddie Jones- good lookin shot, made several mid range jumpers and 3's, old
  
• Jet- nothing to report really, some good finishes on drives to the rim

Hassell, Damp, Mbenga, and George didn't play. I assume Damp and Mbenga were still rehabbing. George has a slight stress fracture in his left foot and had a boot on it. He was sporting a new look, the mini-hawk that apparently is becoming popular among young black men these days (see Anthony Spencer). Apparently George showed up to camp overweight and the stress fracture may be a result. I don't really care all that much for Devean George so whatever. That makes 18 total players and I assume Newson, Sampson, and Ham aren't making the roster so theres your 15 man roster.

Mavs Training Camp

Sorry to my small readership... been too busy to update. Don't have much time right now either. Mavs started training camp this week and here were Dirk's opening comments. Mostly about wanting to prove themselves this year which I think was the idea last year. I'm having trouble getting pumped for the season... yet. I attribute this to the fact that for this team nothing matters until the playoffs. It was the same thing last year and is the same again this year for different reasons. I'm sure as the season gets closer I'll start to get a real Mavs itch. In the meantime, here's awkward photos from media day!

Isaac Bruce doesn't keep his promises

The Cowboys did what they were supposed to do and it was great to see. A solid woodshedding of a bad team. Slow start for the offense again in the 1st half but the Jedi master got the offense going late in the half with his wild ass No Tony No, Yes Tony Yes! play. I'd say they were a little sluggish up till that point but Romo has single handedly re-energized this franchise and not surprisingly they took after his lead following that play. From then on, the Rams were toast. Defense was pretty good today but we should always point out the opponent. So lets just say they took care of business as well. DeMarcus Ware made Alex Barron little more than a blocking sled and imposed his will on the Rams. Thats the type of dominance I want to see from the D. Other notes....

• The dream is still alive... This is our country.... From the East coast to the West coast...
• Good for Patrick Crayton and good on Romo for finding him with the Rams no doubt focusing their coverage on TO and Witten
• I guess we should pat TO on the back for not complaining about his low impact game. Silly that its necessary to bring it up but its notable with him
• Another dominating 2nd half performance by the O-line.
• Anthony Henry's injury is worrisome. High ankle sprains can be nagging but early returns are that its not a serious one. Unfortunately we probably have to push Newman harder than we wanted to and we'll continue to see Jacque Reeves and his 10 yard cushions.
• Did I see Marcus Spears make a play???
• Jay Ratliff is causing his fair share of havoc
• Did anyone else see TO get on his horse and come out of nowhere on Crayton's long catch and run? Threw a block at the end that probably wouldn't have made a difference but it was good to see him bustin his ass on that play. Looked fast as hell.
• James and Ayodele have been solid.
• Didn't hear Roy Williams name at all today which at this point is just fine with me. Sad.
• The defense is coming together and that includes the return of Ellis with 1.5 sacks. He was on the field apparently with a new deal with some insurance for him in case hes not able to come back full strength from his Achilles tear. Time to take care of Romo next. The price is only going up.