Giants Do Dallas

The best weekend in football is upon us, the Conference Championships. Let's face it, the Super Bowl is usually a terrible game, and the high light of the evening is usually a snarky commercial that stars either some washed-up entertainer from the 70's, or a talking animal, and occasionally the the dumb best friend with stupid hair dating a hot chick because he uses a certain type of salsa. But I digress, let's recap this past weekend. I'll be doing each game in a separate post. Unless of course I get tired and lazy. Then I'll have my slave labor take time off from making designer wallets and fake NIKE's and step in for me.


Giants 21 Cowboys 17

The New York Giants are playing with house money from here on in. With two road wins, Tom Coughlin has proved that he truly has changed his coaching style, that he can coach this team, and more importantly has the team playing for him. Eli Manning has answered the inconsistency questions, and now has two wins under his belt. He's proved that he can lead a team on a high level, even without racking up the huge numbers.

The Giant Defense has also come through at big times. They exorcised the Jeff Garcia demons last week, and played big in the second half of the Dallas game. The secondary is vulnerable, but over the last two games they have been able to avoid giving up the big play. They are the epitome of a bend-don't-break defense.

For the season, their Quarterback finally came into his own and found his consistency. The young defense, along with a strong veteran presence, was able to get some traction and confidence, with a new defensive scheme under new Defensive Coordinator Steve Spagnuolo. After Tiki Barber retired there were some questions involving the running game, but Brandon Jacobs, Ahmad Bradshaw, and Derek Ward all showed they can contribute in big ways throughout a game. Regardless of what happens here on in, the Giants will be able to look back on this season as a successful one.

Perfect segue, the Dallas Cowboys on the other hand can only look back with disappointment. For most of the season they were the best team in the NFC, and with securing home field advantage, they had a clear path to the Super Bowl.

Bill Parcells put this Cowboy team together, and Wade Phillips was given the proverbial keys to the bus. All he had to do was not drive it off a cliff. In the early going Phillips was given a ton of credit for his lax attitude and that it led to the easy going, high level play of the Cowboys. It seems that loosey goosey style may have caught up with them towards the end of the season.

Tony Romo came into this league on fire, and as an undrafted free-agent he was able to play with no pressure and a lot of swagger. However, the second he signed that $60 million contract he became the franchise Quarterback of the Dallas Cowboys. Not the overachieving kid having fun, and playing or the love of the game. Parcells has a check list he gives to his players, specialized to their positions. The one he gives to all Quarterback says "Do Not Become The Star Quarterback", which is supposed to keep the QB's humble and within the game. This was something Romo had taped to his locker. A few publicity stunts and a washed up pop-star later, (who by the way will need to stay far away from Dallas for the time being), this is something he seemed to forget.

Who knows if that trip affected the attitude and play of the Cowboys, at the very least it didn't help. The NFL post-season, like MLB, is revered more than other professional sports because of the small percentage of teams that make it. If I'm a team leader on offense or defense, or really a player in general, the last thing I'm thinking about going into a hard fought BYE week is taking a trip out of the country. Again, I can't be sure that the free spirited approach by the head coach and it's QB helped lead the Cowboys to their late season missteps. But this will be the most famous trip to Cabo in the history of the city of Dallas until Romo leads them to a win in the post-season.

For now, I'm not even going to comment on Terrel Owens crying while he defended Romo. I can only point out that it might be the first time he ever used the word team in a sentence. TO had a dominant season and Romo has to lend some of his success to Owens, and I am sure he does, but where was he in the second half? The Cowboys played with a ton of swagger throughout the season. They did a lot of talking, and for the most part backed it up but it will be interesting to see the approach they take during the off-season.