Dallas Cowboys: Ready to Take the Next Step?

After coming up short last season(not making the playoffs), by losing to the Washington Redskins in the last game of the 2012-13 season, the Dallas Cowboys(5-4) are picked to win the NFC East this season. A division with the Philadelphia Eagles(4-5), who are coming off a 4-12 season and have new head coach, Chip Kelly and they have to learn his new offense. The Washington Redskins(3-5), who's last years first round and number 2 overall pick, Robert Griffin III is coming off of a devastating leg injury and doesn't appear to be himself thus far this season, and their defense is still not really good. Also, the New York Giants(2-6), this team has started off looking the worst it ever has under coach, Tom Coughlin, they started off this season 0-5 and can't really hope to be in any type of division championship conversation or playoffs for that matter.

  Realistically speaking, the Dallas Cowboys have the proper tools in hand to win this season, Tony Romo has looked like Tony Romo has been looking the past several seasons. Through nine games, he has 20 touchdown passes, 6 interceptions, 2,553 passing yards, and has a passer rating of 100.0. He gets criticized a lot by critics because they say he doesn't have the "clutch factor", but Romo has played just as good as any other quarterback the past several seasons. However, their defense was always could really have been to blame for some of their short coming. Receiver, Dez Bryant is becoming the player that Dallas fans believed that he would be and he is really making the number 88 (Michael Irvin's old number) really come to life and showing that he deserves to wear it. Right now I would label Bryant as a top 5 receiver in the NFL, with already 8 TD's (3rd in the league), 51 receptions, and 705 receiving yards, and these numbers should only continue to improve as the season progresses as him an Romo continue to build a better chemistry through every game. However, after losing to the Detroit Lions in week 8, Bryant got a lot of scrutiny for being vocal on the sidelines after only having three receptions, two of which were for touchdowns. Reporters and analyst were saying things like "he needs to mature" and "his attitude is what's going to hold him back from progressing in this league". However, I see it as a young man wanting to win games and get everyone else on the sidelines emotionally involved in the game as he was. I do believe that his past issues may have led to some comments and reactions that Dez received but I don't believe that he is cancerous to this team in any way.

The Cowboys offense is being consistent thus far, they seem to have found their "mojo". DeMarco Murray if he can find a way to stay healthy for the rest of this season, seems to be the answer to their running back situation, he's missed sometime already this season but when he has played has been very productive overall, he's averaging 4.8 yards per carry and has 3 touchdowns. The main area of concern for me would be their defense. I know, this year they went out and they got defensive specialist, Monty Kiffin, well, I haven't been very impressed. This defense gave up 51 points to the Broncos. Peyton Manning is great and has great talent but when you put up 48 points as an offense and you're winning that game until the very end and you sit and watch Manning pick apart the defense, there has to be some type of frustration or emotional dissatisfaction with Monty and that defense, whether it's by the offense, Jerry Jones or fans. Or when you're playing against Detroit and you give up 329 receiving yards to Calvin Johnson! I know it's Megatron, but 329 yards to one player, really? and on top of that already horrific performance by the secondary, you lose on the last drive. With under a minute and you watch Matt Stafford this time, march right down the field and get his team to the one yard line, catch your defense "off guard" and calls his own number on a fake spike ball and scores the game winning touchdown. I hope that Monty can correct these issues on the defense by the end of the season, because both Philadelphia and Washington seem to be improving every week.

 If Dallas wants to prove to everyone that they can compete in the NFC and take it to the next level, which would be the playoffs (first step), they really need to continue to play offensively like they have been so far on the season, and someone needs to call Monty Kiffin and let him know that pre-season is over and we are half of the way through the regular season already. So, he might want to start having the defense cover somebody. Romo has convinced me that he is not the downfall of the franchise, but he is instead the glue to the offense, if the defense could catch up to speed, I believe this team could be one to compete into January, but we still have two months or so to see if they can correct some of their overall team mistakes. If Romo gets this team to the playoffs, he might be able to finally get his name cleared from the non-clutch list by analysts and media personalities everywhere. So, Dallas fans I have one word for you........... BELIEVE!