Arguably the toughest part of the Cowboys schedule is right around the corner with Dallas playing at Philadelphia, at New York, and then come home to face Washington. Three divisional games would be tough enough, but the first two being away games makes it even more difficult.

While it would be great to win all three, I will be happy if we get through this stretch of games with two wins. Philadelphia always plays us tough, especially in Philly, and New York in New York is the toughest game left on our schedule until we hit the playoffs. But Washington at home is looking a little easier after Redskins CB Carlos Rogers was placed on IR following the Patriots game.

We should be able to take Philadelphia because they simply aren’t as good of a team this year. McNabb is still dangerous, though, and Westbrook is one of the best running back in football. But, even if they can manage to do some damage to our getting-healthier-all-the-time defense, I don’t think the Eagles can outscore our offense.

Washington was a team I was worried about because of their secondary, which was arguably the best in the NFL until the Carlos Rogers injury. They still have two great safeties, and Shawn Springs and Fred Smoot are no slouches. But, unless Washington can turn their offense around, they shouldn’t be a major obstacle.

Oh, I skipped New York, huh? Just saving the best for last. We opened the season against New York without Terence Newman and Greg Ellis, and New York was missing Michael Strahan and Osi Umenyiora. With both teams missing some of their top defensive players, it became a shoot out.

The story should be a little different when we meet them in New York. The Giants have one of the most dominating defensive lines in football, so you can bet that they’ll be coming after Romo. And, with a healthy Ellis and a defense that seems to play better each week as they grasp the nuances of the Phillips 3-4, Dallas will put some pressure on Eli.

The key to the game will be Romo’s feet. The teams match up well, each having a good defensive that can pressure the quarterback, solid running backs, and a good passing game. But what the Giants don’t have is a mobile quarterback that can avoid the rush.

But Romo’s feet will have their own battle to contend with: The Giant fans. It will be T-Ro’s big toe against home field advantage in a fight that might decide who’s on top of the NFC East.

It should be interesting, and unless Romo’s partying with Brittany Spears over the weekend has left him too distracted, I’ll have to give the edge to his big toe.

The early reports are that the Cowboys will announce tomorrow that they have signed Tony Romo to a six-year $67 million dollar contract including around $30 million in guaranteed money. This would mean the six wins Romo has led the Cowboys to in the past seven games amounted to around 19 million dollars.

That’s right, 19 million, or just over 3 million per win.

Matt Shaub signed a six-year 48 million dollar contract with the Houston Texans this off-season. Tony Romo was often compared to Shaub by the media as far as estimating the type of contract he might receive from the Cowboys had he signed before the season started.

But Jerry Jones decided to take a wait-and-see approach after searching for a quarterback ever since Troy Aikman was forced into retirement. And, after shelling out money to the likes of Quincy Carter, Chad Hutchinson, and Drew Henson, it was probably a good decision, though in the end it was a costly one.

In this instance, Jerry Jones is having the last laugh. Shelling out almost seventy million is a small price to pay if Romo continues to play like he has over the first seven weeks of this season or — crazy thought — plays even better. Remember, this is Romo’s first full year as a starter. Hopefully, he’ll only get better.

I try to be a good Cowboys fan and always root against the Eagles, Giants and Redskins except when they play each other at which time I root against the team with the better record. Essentially, I root for the Cowboys to be in better position to win the division.

But I have to admit this Patriots vs. Redskins game has me a little torn.

On one hand, it is the Redskins, and I don’t root against them just because it is good for the Cowboys. I really enjoy rooting against the Redskins. In fact, about the only thing better than rooting against the Redskins is rooting against the Eagles.

On the other hand, I am getting sick and tired of hearing how wonderful the Patriots are and how they might go undefeated. Yeah, they are pretty good, I think that is a given. But their media coverage is reminding me of how the media drooled over USC, some even mentioning that they might be the best collage team ever, the result of which pretty much gave the Heisman to Reggie Bush.

The weeks leading up to the national championship I was thinking: Texas has a good shot at beating them. In fact, I thought it was pretty simple that Texas had a slight edge. They had a better defense. And while USC’s offense was good, Vince Young could match it, so the battle must come down to which defense made a crucial stop. Oddly enough, it did come down to the Texas defense making that final stop.

Now New England has taken over as the media darling with whispers of being perhaps the best team ever.

Am I the only one in America who thinks they are overrated?

Sure, their offense is good. It’s very good, and easily one of the best of all time. They could even shatter a couple of records. But, I am not sold on their defense. The one thing I came away from after the Dallas game was that, if they meet again in the Super Bowl, the Cowboys can beat them. New England didn’t stop our offense, penalties did.

One area New England seems weak in is run defense. They are 13th in the NFL in total rushing yards allowed, but 24th when you rank them by yards per carry. They are giving up a whopping 4.4 yards per carry. That’s not very good.

Is the high average a product of getting ahead in the score early and then playing the pass more than the run? Or, are they benefiting by getting ahead early and thus no one is exploiting their weakness against the run?

Tough to say, but I will say that Julius Jones and Marion Barber didn’t seem to have too many problems running the ball against them. And I do think the Patriots were paying attention to the Dallas running game.

The craziest part of all of the media attention is how little the media is focusing on the Colts. That might be a good thing for Indianapolis. Usually, the defending Super Bowl champions have to deal with all kinds of distractions. Not only has the media taken away many of those distractions, but they’ve given the Colts a reason to get angry over a seeming disrespect from the media.

After all, the Colts are undefeated. Not only that, but they’ve actually played against better teams than the Patriots. Dallas was probably the biggest test New England faced, and Dallas had a banged up secondary. New England is in the worst division in the AFC. The Colts are in the best division in the AFC, and perhaps the best division in football.

In a match up of the Patriots and the Colts, I might have to favor the Colts. The Patriots may very well have a better offense, but the Colts have a more balanced offense, and the Colts defense is playing much better than the Patriots defense. In the end, that game would probably come down to which defense can stop the other team.

As for this week and the Patriots vs. the Redskins. I might find myself rooting for the skins a little bit. If just to shut the media up. But, that would rob us of the battle of the undefeated Colts vs. Patriots. Plus, it would mean rooting for the skins, which makes my skin crawl.

Besides, while the Redskins secondary is one of the best in the NFL and may have a good shot at slowing down the Patriots, I’m don’t think their offense is good enough to score enough points.

And, hey, maybe I am the odd ball out on this one. Maybe I am the last person left in America that thinks the Patriots are overrated. What do you think?

I was reading through the notes posted on Yahoo about the owners meeting when I came across this little tidbit buried well into the article:

The commissioner and Dallas owner Jerry Jones emphasized they are committed to the NFL Network even though a long-running dispute with three of the nation’s biggest cable companies has limited its reach to 35 million homes instead of the 50 million the league expected at this point.

The dispute has intensified since last season, when the network started showing late-season games. Jones, the chairman of the NFL Network committee, said he had been getting numerous calls from areas which will not be able to see the Cowboys’ Nov. 29 game with Green Bay, a contest between two of the NFC’s top teams, because the cable companies in their areas don’t get the network.

Worried about missing the Dallas game because it is on the NFL channel? The only sympathy you will get from me is if you don’t get DirectTV or some other alternative means of getting it.

Hey, I left DirectTV a few years back because I thought I could get a better deal with a cable company. I was with Comcast for a while, and then they sold out to Time Warner. And Time Warner promptly dumped the NFL channel.

So, now I’m with Verizon FIOS. Why? Because they do have the NFL channel.

I’ve been with DirectTV, Comcast, Time Warner, and FIOS, and the main difference I saw in service was channel lineup. Sure, DirectTV can go down during storms, so that was a bit of a pain, but I’d rather that than no NFL channel. But maybe that’s just me.

What I will say about the whole battle between the NFL network and the cable companies is I don’t have any sympathy for the cable companies. Hey, you don’t like how much money the NFL wants for their network? Hey, if you guys went to ala carte programming, it wouldn’t be a problem would it? You are charging me for a bunch of stations I don’t ever watch, so you might as well pay for one that I do watch.

But, wait, that won’t work because I already left my cable company for not giving me the NFL channel. I suppose we all need our priorities.

The NFL is anything but predictable. After dominating the time of possession by a 2:1 margin and dominating the total yards by over a 3:1 margin, the Cowboys went into halftime trailing 14-7 because of two fumbles.

You’d think these Cowboys who have been dominating the second half, who had moved the ball all over the field in the first half, and who’d pretty much worn out the Vikings defense by keeping them on the field so much, you’d think these Cowboys would come out and put up 21 or 28 points. You’d think they had the Vikings right where they wanted them.

And they looked like they were prepared to do just that after stopping the Vikings and driving down the field to tie the game up at 14-14. But, that would be the lone touchdown the offense scored in the second half. Instead, it was the special teams that brought the special magic to this game.

Answering the Cowboys scoring drive, the Vikings drove down and got into position to kick a field goal. But Chris Canty penetrated the line and got his hands in front of the kick, and Pat Watkins did the rest of the work, snagging the ball out of the air and racing down the field for a touchdown.

The last person to block a field goal that was subsequently returned for a touchdown: Ed “Too Tall” Jones. And, at 6′7, Canty can live up to the name.

So, what happened? Why didn’t this high-powered Dallas offense seal the deal? Probably because they didn’t need to. The defense did a great job limiting the Vikings, and after Tony Romo came up gimpy during the Vikings fumble return for a touchdown, it seemed like Jason Garrett was more than happy just handing the football off and limiting the number of hits on his quarterback.

After all, T-Ro was 28 of 32 for 231 yards and a touchdown during the first half, and only threw seven passes the entire second half. The passing game was working, and you don’t go away from something that is working until the defense proves it can stop it. Unless there is something else factoring into your decision making, like a quarterback with a slight injury. Add in how the defense was playing, and the prospect of running on a tired defense, and it seems we’ve got the mixings for a change in game plan.

Good enough for me. I’ll take a W and no major injuries and go into the bye week happy.

Next up: The toughest three game stretch we’ll face this season. We’ll face Philadelphia and New York in consecutive road games, and then back home for the Redskins. Divisional games are always tough, and two back-to-back road games against division opponents will be quite a test for the Cowboys. But, they should have Henry back in the lineup after the bye giving them — for the first time this season — a healthy secondary.

No matter how you look at it, the Cowboys took a shot in the mouth last week. It might have been a haymaker, or it might have just been a jab, but they took a hit. That’s got to build up some tension, to build up some pressure.

You don’t want to leave those type of feelings bottled up. You want to get them out there. You want to find a punching bag.

And Minnesota would make a really good punching bag. The Cowboys need to get a little angry, and take out some of that anger on the Vikings. Because, heading in to the bye week, a good win would sit very well.

My advice: Treat the Vikings as therapy.

After six weeks, Adrian Peterson is leaving the other rookies in the dust in the race for the rookie of the year. In fact, Peterson leads the entire league in rushing yards with 607 and has 4 rushing touchdowns. He’s also done some damage in the receiving game with 175 yards and another touchdown.

But on Sunday he’ll be going up against a Dallas defense that is sixth in the NFL against the run. And, in case you think maybe Dallas’s run defense is so highly rated because they’ve been in shootouts that are forcing teams to pass against them, they are giving up a measly 3.4 yards per carry. That’s a pretty good average.

Unfortunately for Peterson and the Vikings, the running game of either team isn’t likely to be the deciding factor in the game. The Vikings come into the game giving up a league high in passing yards while Dallas, well, let’s just say that the Cowboys’ aerial assault is pretty good this year.

The one thing that the Cowboys must look out for is a let down following the loss to the New England Patriots. Just as a game against a weak team before a big game can be a trap game, so can a game after a loss like the Cowboys had last week. Dallas needs to shake the New England game from their mind and concentrate on business, because Peterson has shown the league that you need to focus if you want to stop him.

The media will take the game results and run with them, declaring that no team in the NFC and no other team but Indianapolis in the AFC has a chance of taking out New England, and all but putting a Super Bowl trophy in their hands.

But let’s just think about what might have been had the Cowboys been healthy.

Now, before I get into it, I want to say that New England wasn’t healthy. They were missing their starting running back, and for much of the game, they were out their backup running back too. They also lost their tight end at the end of the first half. There’s no doubt an injury-free Patriots would be better than the Patriots we faced yesterday.

Despite the loss, Dallas is still the clear favorites to reach the Super Bowl for the NFC. Hey, it’s six games into the season, so anything can happen between now and then, but right now Dallas is the team to beat. And, it’s fair to say that New England is the favorite to represent the AFC. The Colts may be the reigning champs, and are also still undefeated, but New England notches them out for favorite in many people’s minds.

So, what might have happened if Dallas was healthy?

Think about this. Wes Welker had 11 catches for 124 yards and 2 touchdowns. Pretty good day I’d say. And, for many of those yards, Nate Jones was being asked to cover him. But, given a healthy Newman and a healthy Henry, Newman would move into the slot to cover Wes Welker, leaving Reeves to cover Moss (like he did for most of the day) and Henry to cover Stallworth.

Now, if you didn’t notice, Newman didn’t give up any of those touchdowns yesterday. In fact, I’d be surprised if his guys got over 50 yards receiving combined. I don’t have a game tape to study, but I can recall one out pattern, one slant by Moss, and then just a bunch of quick screens to the receiver that Newman generally stuffed.

Newman may be unheralded, but that doesn’t change the fact that he’s damn good, and a whole lot better at covering the slot receiver than Nate Jones.

So, I think its safe to say that Welker wouldn’t be having quite as big a day against a healthy secondary. And Moss, well, he’d be facing the same thing that limited him on Sunday when in their three wide receiver set — Reeves and some safety help. This leaves Henry verses Stallworth as the X-factor.

Now, there is no doubt that New England would still be able to have a good day throwing the ball around, and Brady would likely have a multiple touchdown day even if our secondary was healthy, but there’s also no doubt it would be tougher going.

That’s what happens when you have an injury to one of your starting corners and you are going up against a team with three good wide receivers. Suddenly, you are asking your fourth cornerback to cover a Wes Welker. And, remember, covering the slot guy is the toughest job on the field. That’s why, when healthy, we move Newman to that position. When you cover the other guys you have the sideline to give you a little cushion, but that slot guy can go either way.

So, while Brady racked up a bunch of yards on his way to a career day — and kudos to him, when the Dallas defense didn’t get pressure on him he was throwing the ball pretty good — he should be facing a different secondary should these two teams meet again.

And, since we are talking about injuries, let’s look at the offensive a bit. The Cowboys certainly get into a funk during the first quarter. But, after that, they moved the ball reasonably well. Heck, Julius Jones was pulling a Marion the Barbarian act, and Tony Romo was slinging the ball around pretty good.

In the second half, we had two critical penalties kill good scoring opportunities. The first was a long completion to Owens to put us on the Patriots side of the field that was called back due to holding. That one hurt. 1st and 20 is tough. The second one was the holding call that brought back the fourth and one conversion. Another drive that had potential for points called back for penalties.

No doubt, healthy or not, the Cowboys aren’t going to beat the Patriots with that many penalties. But, I’ve gone over all that in my previous article.

Think on this: Terry Glenn. I like Crayton and Hurd, they are both reliable receivers with good hands. But they can’t stretch the defense like Glenn can stretch the defense. And with a guy like Glenn in the lineup, it gets a bit tough trying to deal with Owens and Witten.

I’d have to say that, given two healthy teams, we’d be seeing a bit different type of game going on. Certainly, Dallas’s chances would drastically improve. Going into Sunday’s game, the only shot we had was if we came out with the same fire and intensity the Bills had against us the week before. Other than that, a banged up secondary was just going to be too much to overcome going against that many weapons.

Now, I think anyone giving an unbiased opinion would still favor the Patriots given two healthy teams. We have to be realistic here. If we do manage to continue playing well and make it to the Super Bowl, and we meet this same team in that game, we are still going to be underdogs. And rightfully so. The Patriots are downright scary.

But our chances of pulling off the win would be much higher than our chances yesterday. And, remember, we were still in that game until the Romo interception with four minutes to go. You give the Cowboys a healthy secondary and a healthy Glenn, and I think they are one of two teams (the other being the Colts) that have a legitimate shot at beating the Patriots.

I know a lot of Cowboys fans are coming away from the game disappointed, but my questions is: Would you have taken a 5-1 record after six games before the season started? I’m betting almost anyone would take that one to the bank.

And, really, while a loss is disappointing, there were signs of encouragement. The defense was able to get some pressure on Brady, and the offense was able to move the ball pretty good once they got out of their regular first quarter funk. The big problem was that you can’t beat the Patriots if you are constantly lining up for 1st and 20. The penalties were as much at fault for the game as the secondary.

As for the secondary, I think its pretty good that they were able to limit Moss considering that Henry was not playing in the game and Newman is still not back 100%. In fact, Newman wasn’t even lined up against Moss for much of the game, so the defense was able to limit Moss using Jacques Reeves and help from the safeties.

Sure, none of that is enough to get the taste of defeat out of our mouths, but I think the Cowboys showed that, if there is another meeting between these two teams this year in that last game of the year, they can hang with the Patriots. The score doesn’t show it, but given a healthy secondary, they can make a game of it.

And, let’s be sure to give the Patriots credit. They are crazy good this year. Brady was dangerous without weapons, but with Moss and Stallworth, well, what’s a word for more-than-dangerous?

Still, 5-1 is 5-1. I’d have taken it before the season, so I can’t feel too bad about it right now.

You gotta love the media. (And, for those without a sarcasm detector, yes, that was sarcastic.)

The following tidbit showed up today on Yahoo Sports regarding the whole Wade Phillips thinks New England’s Super Bowls are tainted thing:

Later in the week, Sports Illustrated’s Peter King reported on HBO’s weekly show “Inside the NFL” that first-year Dallas coach Wade Phillips said New England’s three Super Bowl championships this decade were tainted following revelations of Pats coach Bill Belichick’s role in the videotaping scandal.

As expected, defensive guru Phillips immediately went on the offensive and dismissed the charge, telling the Cowboys’ web site:

“Well, the writer evidently got it wrong,” Phillips said. “The only thing he had right in there was I did have a conversation with him. I’m sure he misconstrued what I said. It was certainly his agenda. He went on and on about this was a Watergate thing. It was his feelings on it and I guess for some reason he felt like I agreed with him, which I absolutely do not.”

The well-respected King issued a statement through HBO that he stands behind his story - with the backing of the network.

Note the use of “well-respected” next to King’s name. Now, this is supposed to be journalism, right? It’s supposed to be about truth, right? My question is: Just where’s this evidence that Peter King is well respected?

I’ll say this: The media, in general, is not very well respected. After all, what have they done to garner any respect? Give us 24/7 coverage of Paris Hilton going to jail? Wow, great news, next up Celebrity Doesn’t Pick Up Dog Poop After Walking Poodle, right?

And, as the media goes, the sports media is towards the bottom. Not happy with just focusing on minor stories and blowing them out of proportion, they’ll go all the way to making up stories. What do you think your average ‘quarterback controversy’ is? It’s the media not having anything better to write about.

It goes further, because when you look at the sports media Sports Illustrated is towards the bottom. They are known for trying to twist words around just to get a story.

And Peter King? He’s the same one that came out with the whole “Diamond among trash” quote from Emmitt Smith. You know, the quote that Emmitt says was taken completely out of context and twisted to mean something entirely different.

You know: the well-respected Emmitt Smith.

But, like I said, you gotta love the media. As soon as someone questions the media’s integrity, suddenly the person in question is ‘well-respected’. I guess there’s some sort of weird blue line that members of the media aren’t allowed to cross.