Dallas Cowboys Faced With Winless Season (Bud View)

My name’s Bud Fisher, and if you haven’t read my articles before, you’re in for a good one here. I’ve been known to do a little excess with things that have “Bud” in the name, which has lead me to some opinions that some people have a problem with, and this one might be one of them. I’m going to hold to my opinion unless somebody can sober me up to their line of thinking.

Enjoy the Bud View.

Jerry Jones thought his team was going to be playing the Super Bowl on his home field come February, and some analysts were agreeing with the possibility (prior to the pre-season). Now here we are in Week 3 of the NFL season, and not only is that NOT going to happen, but at this point the Dallas Cowboys are facing the very real possibility of having a winless season.

You heard me right, 0 wins, 16 losses.

Wade Phillips looking pathetic

No, I’m not joking about this. I’m deadly serious.

The Cowboys didn’t look very good in the pre-season. Their offense under wunderkind Jason Garrett was supposed to be good, but they sputtered before the season began. Then the Cowboys lost in the opener against the Redskins, with their offensive line looking bad and irresponsible, and Miles Austin basically carrying the team on their backs. Even then he only got them 7 points. The Cowboys were pathetic on third-down conversions and only scraped together 103 yard rushing against a team who was still adjusting to its new 3-4 defense.

Another week, another loss, this time to the Chicago Bears, who should’ve lost to the Detroit Lions in the opening week if it weren’t for a stupid rule about not letting go of a touchdown pass as you’re getting up off the ground after making a score.

Now the Dallas Cowboys are going to lose their third straight as they face the powerhouse Houston Texans this week.

After that, the Cowboys have their bye week, at which time they have two options:

1 – Get rid of Wade Phillips and bring in a new coach.

2 – Keep Wade Phillips and prepare for the rest of their games.

If you’ve heard Jerry Jones talk about Wade Phillips, you know that option 1 isn’t going to happen. He confirmed it this week. He loves Wade Puppet… I mean Wade Phillips. Wade manages the team the way that Jerry Jones would want it run, and when Jerry decides it’s time to put Wade out to pasture, he’s bringing in his wunderkind Jason Garrett, the current offensive coordinator, head coach in waiting, but he can’t do that now.

Garrett doesn’t look like a hotshot right now, so Jerry isn’t going to place the burdon of Head Coaching responsibility on his shoulders here after a terrible start. And if he were to do that, who would take the reigns of the offense? Maybe Tono Romo would be willing to be a Player/Coordinator and not only quarterback the team, but he could call the plays too, right? Wrong. Tony has his mind split between being a high profile NFL QB / trying to be a semi-pro golfer / finding a hot girlfriend to keep him warm after week 17 since he won’t be in the playoffs.

The rest of the Cowboys schedule shows that they’re going to have a tough time if they don’t want to go winless in 2010.

The Tennessee Titans are going to run all over the Cowboys. Don’t be surprised if Chris Johnson gets 250 yards rushing on them and Vince Young gets a couple of touchdowns throwing the ball, maybe one on a QB keeper. We all know how much success Vince Young has had in the state of Texas in the past, and he’s only going to continue building on that.

Then the Cowboys go up to Minnesota to play the Vikings, and by Week 6 Brett Favre will have the team clicking on all cylinders, and Adrian Peterson is going to be looking to match what Chris Johnson did the week before to the Cowboys. He might get as many yards as CJ did against the Cowboys, but Brett Favre is going to lead the offense to scoring with the receivers.

The New York Giants are going to come to Dallas in Week 7 and put the screws to the Cowboys. The Giants beat a good Carolina Panthers team in week 1, and although they stumbled against the Colts, the Giants are going to have Eli Manning hitting up his awesome receivers all over the place, while Bradshaw and Ware are going to demoralize the Cowboys defense.

If Dallas wants to avoid a winless season, their best bet is in Week 8 on Halloween when the Jacksonville Jaguars come to town, but that line of thinking is going to be the sinking of the Cowboys. They think they’re just going to roll all over the Jaguars, but David Garrard, Maurice Jones-Drew and Mike Sims-Walker are going to give the Dallas fans a Trick, not a Treat, in that game.

There’s no way that Dallas is going to win on the road as they visit Green Bay in Week 9. Any notion that this match up might’ve been the NFC Championship game preview should just be thrown out the window, because nothing could be further from the truth, as the Cowboys are definitely going to end up in the cellar of the NFC East.

By Week 10, Miles Austin is going to be tired of trying to carry the Cowboys, and when the road trip continues up to New York, the Giants are going to demoralize them again.

In Week 11, the players are going to think it’s finally time to get a notch in the Win column, but the Detroit Lions coming to town on Thanksgiving isn’t going to end up with anything other than the Cowboys looking like turkeys as Matthew Stafford is rejuvinated and leads Calvin Johnson, Nate Burleson, Brandon Pettigrew and potential NFL MVP Jahvid Best to a huge win down in Big D, proving that the Lions are the better Thanksgiving Day Team that year.

Demoralized is the term you have to use after losing to the Detroit Lions on Thanksgiving, and then Week 12 brings the reigning Super Bowl Champion New Orleans Saints, and there’s no way that the Cowboys are going to be able to win that game regardless of the fact that it’s hosted in Dallas.

The home stand ends and the Cowboys take the 0-12 record up to Indianapolis, where they may as well forfeit against Peyton Manning and the Colts. While the Colts might be a little banged up early in the season, they’ll be primed and ready to whup Dallas at that point, and Peyton Manning is going to look a little embarrassed after the game as his team posts record numbers against the Cowboys.

Week 14 brings the Eagles down to Big D, and whether it’s Kevin Kolb or Michael Vick, the Cowboys don’t stand a chance. Have you seen Philly’s receivers? Jackson is a phenom and Maclin knows how to get the job done. Brent Celek is a really good tight end, and then their running back McCoy? At that point the Eagles defense should be performing well, too.

So what happens after the Cowboys start with 14 straight losses? They host the Washington Redskins, whose 3-4 defense will be clicking at that point and the offense will be thriving. This game will reignite the rivalry between the two as Dallas will get chippy as they’re trying not to lose the divisional game for the second time in a season and the Redskins will punch them in the mouth – maybe even literally so!

The Arizona Cardinals are not a great football team, but when the Cowboys visit them in Week 16, they’re going to be good enough to beat Dallas. The wide receivers are decent, they’ve got three pretty decent running backs, and by that point the Cardinals defense will look like they did towards the end of last season.

In the final week of the regular season, the day after New Years Day, the Cowboys have to travel to the hostile environment of Philadelphia, where once again the Eagles are going to crush them with their superior players on both sides of the ball. It wouldn’t be surprising if Miles Austin started asking for a trade at that point, looking towards the off-season.

There are a few winnable games on the Cowboys schedule, but it’s very likely that the Dallas Cowboys are going to be in for a win-less season this year. It’s all in thanks to Jerry Jones and his good pal Wade Phillips.