Pacman Back At Practice

The prodigal son returns. Maybe this time, he'll be a model citizen. Probably not. Personally, I'd rather have the other Jones back. Felix. Cross your fingers, Cowboy fans.

My Favorite WR Returns Home

The Cowboys, a few hours after it lost Adam Jones for a minimum of four games, acquired Roy Williams from the Detroit Lions for a first, third and sixth round pick in the 2009 NFL Draft. A little bit of a high price but a necessary evil considering the coverages that teams have been throwing them to neutralize Terrell Owens. This gives the Cowboys a legitimate #2 wide receiver and an inability to double or triple cover TO.

Update: Mat McBriar is officially out for the season as the Cowboys have put him on the IR.

Pacman Jones Suspended Indefinitely

Well, we thought it would be coming. Goodell has suspended Adam Jones indefinitely for his violation of the Personal Conduct Policy. Add this to the list below.

Cowboys Season In Jeopardy

If Romo doesn't play in the next three weeks, Dallas' season might be over. Consider the next three opponents, St. Louis, Tampa Bay and the New York Giants. The Giants game is a loss. The Tampa game is at home so it helps but I see us losing that game as well. The only game that I have the Cowboys favored in is the St. Louis game. That puts us at 5-4 record at the bye week.

In the NFC, I have NY Giants winning the East and the Arizona Cardinals winning the West. That leaves Washington (4-2), Philadelphia (3-3), Green Bay (3-3), Chicago (3-3), Minnesota (3-3), Tampa Bay (4-2), Carolina (4-2), Atlanta (4-2) and New Orleans (3-3) fighting Dallas for the other four playoff slots. And we can only get a wild card.

Other reasons I don't think we'll make the playoffs. We can't rely on the defense. Terence Newman, remember, is also out for a month. Our defense, as highly touted as they are, has allowed 8 more points than the Saints' defense. I have serious doubts on whether or not our defense can carry us to wins. Brad Johnson? Everyone says he's capable, but the fact remains that he's about a 75 rating QB. We're struggling to beat opponents with a 100+ rating QB. Add to that, Felix Jones is out a month. Our most dangerous weapon besides TO.

Oh, and by the way, Mat McBriar is out for 8-9 weeks and Sam Hurd is out 6-8 weeks. At the beginning of the season, people were talking about missing the playoffs at 11-5 given the strong NFC East. We might have four of those five losses at the bye week. And then Romo has to win seven games in a row to put us at 12-4.

Start "Em or Sit 'Em

Start Em:

Ryan Grant, RB vs Seattle Seahawks, He's looking like last year's back again and against Seattle EVERYONE is looking spectacular.

JaMarcus Russell, QB vs New Orleans Saints, Gus Frerotte put up 222 yards against this defense. I'm thinking Russell has some success as well.

Any Jet or Bengal, This game might turn into last year's Bengals vs Browns game. Brett Favre and Carson Palmer vs suspect defenses. The ability and the will to score a LOT of points.

Sit 'Em:

Michael Turner, RB vs Chicago Bears, I know you can't and I probably won't either but he's been very average against the better defenses. If you have a back with a better ceiling, I would consider sitting Turner for this week.

Joseph Addai, RB vs Baltimore Ravens, Addai seems to be picking up his game lately but he and Manning don't look like last year's version....yet. But it won't be this week. Against a very good Baltimore squad.

DeAngelo Williams or Jonathan Stewart, RB vs Tampa Bay Buccaneers, It'll be a tough game for the running backs from Carolina. One will get the yards and the other one will get in the end zone, but i don't think you're looking for 6 points from either one of them.

Waiver Wire Work

Kyle Orton, QB, Chicago Bears - I know you want to laugh but he's posted more fantasy points than Warner, Cutler and Romo the past three weeks under traditional scoring.

Greg Camarillo, WR, Miami Dolphins - He leads the team in targets and he scored the first TD by a WR for the Dolphins. With Ronnie Brown looking like the back he should be, it's creating some room for Pennington and the WRs.

Mike Walker, WR, Jacksonville Jaguars - He's quickly becoming a favorite target for David Garrard. He does have a caution flag on him due to a MCL injury. But if he's good to go, he's worth a look.

Dallas Cowboys vs Washington Redskins, Week Four

Ok, I know officiating is part of the game and the Cowboys didn't exactly look very good yesterday but the missed calls were atrocious. The face mask on Adam Jones, the pass inteference no call on Terrell Owens, the false start by the Redskins and the 12 men on the field call to change a 50 yd field goal into a 30 yard field goal and taking an extra 2+ minutes off the clock. It felt like a screw job. Just saying. Those were all really horrible calls. Adam almost got his neck broken, the false start by the Redskins was a full second before the snap of the ball and the 12 men Troy and Joe couldn't find looking at two different replays.

The 12 men on the field call. I don't know if that's reviewable, but Aikman said it was reviewable and Wade Phillips had the red flag out. If it was reviewable, Wade Phillips made a huge mistake not throwing the flag. I know the arguments against reviewing. We only had two timeouts at that point. If we burn one with a bad challenge, we only have one timeout left to stop the clock. Either way, if the Redskins hit a field goal, it was going to come down to an onside kick anyway. Wouldn't you rather take the chance and make the Redskins hit a 50 yard field goal. If they miss, it's only one possession with 5 minutes to go. Timeouts become mute at that point.

Despite all that, the defense didn't do it's job yesterday. The secondary looked terrible as Santana Moss, once again, tore it apart. The defense did step it up and stopped them on some key possessions and the 12 men on the field call didn't help matters. But, overall, we couldn't stop Clinton Portis or Santa and it hurt us a lot.

The offense didn't exactly shine either. Marion Barber only got 8 carries and Felix Jones didn't get a carry at all. One thing that bothers me about Garrett is that he gets too impatient sometimes. Why did he shut down the run and become so one-dimensional? I realize it's only his second year as a coordinator so there's some learning curve to be had. But, we need to utilize every weapon we have and Barber/Jones is a major asset to the offense.