It seems that the Cowboys and I have something in common the last couple of weeks. We’ve both been pretty busy. Me, I’ve got a new gig taking up a lot of my time.

The Cowboys haven’t been so lucky. They’ve seen assistant after assistant head out the door, mostly going down to Miami to reunite with Parcells. They’ve also made some interesting hires to replace them.

Can you believe Dave Campo is coming back? I think that was a great hire. Campo may not have been a great head coach — though I think he was in one of those tough-to-succeed positions — but he’s always been a great defensive coach. Having him coach the secondary might be a very good thing.

And the rumor goes that Don Capers might be signing soon. That would be another good hire, though you have to wonder what the Cowboys will do with so many former head coaches working as assistants.

But the key is, you don’t get to try out the head coaching ranks without being a very good position coach and/or coordinator. These guys should be solid replacements.

Well, at least the Cowboys received a little good news this week after Jason Garrett decided to turn down head coaching offers from the Atlanta Falcons and Baltimore Ravens. This isn’t to say that he won’t receive a more lucrative offer later on as more teams begin head coach searches, but for now, Garrett is staying put.

It might be a wise choice on Jason’s part. After all, he doesn’t have a large amount of coaching experience having shot up through the ranks to the offensive coordinator position in only a few years. And it isn’t like Atlanta and Baltimore is brimming with the same offensive talent here in Dallas. Jumping the gun and going into a difficult-to-succeed situation might do more damage to a long term head coaching position than anything.

And why not stay? He’s almost guaranteed to replace Phillips one of these years, and no doubt, more head coaching offers will come his way.

For Dallas, keeping Garrett for another year would put us in good position for another run at the Super Bowl next year.

These 2007 Dallas Cowboys took a different road to the playoffs than the 2006 Cowboys who let their division slip away and who snuck into the playoffs as a wildcard team, but when it was all said and done, the two teams were very similar.

They both played well in November, and played poorly during the last few games. They both played their first playoff game against a team that was hurting in the secondary. They both should have won handily. And they both lost.

People will blame Romo and his trip to Mexico — no matter how silly that is. People will blame Crayton’s dropped passes (and perhaps his loose lips). People will even blame Wade Phillips whose team last year went 13-3 only to lose their first playoff game.

At the end of the day, the Cowboys simply did not show up to play. That might just be the last lesson they need to learn: Playing well in September, October, November or even December doesn’t do any good if you don’t play well in January. And the Cowboys did not play well.

From the defense that let the Giants drive down the field in the last seconds of the first half to tie the ball game, to the offense who couldn’t get anything going in the second half despite playing against a hurt secondary, to the special teams that let a few returns slip past them, the Cowboys simply did not play well.

There is a lot to be proud of this season. Perhaps in August, we can look back and say, yeah, we were pretty good. We might be pretty good in ‘08. But, that’s August. For now, we’ll just say that we had a good year and we let it slip away.

The Giants have won their past eight consecutive road games. In the history of the NFL, teams have met three times in a single season with one team having swept the regular season against the other only 17 times, and 11 times the 2-0 team prevailed.

Have you heard these already?

They are about as useful as sitting around thinking that Jessica Simpson is somehow the doom of the Cowboys season.

You want stats? How about this one: The Cowboys have beaten the Giants twice this season. There’s no reason to think they won’t beat them a third time. No T.O.? The Giants are coming in without Jeremy Shockey. Injuries happen. And they don’t change one simple fact:

The Cowboys either show up to play, or they go home.

Jessica Simpson isn’t going to decide that one. Neither are these useless stats that are being thrown around. The only people that are going to decide that one are the ones suiting up to play this weekend.

I spent Saturday morning trying to decide who I would root for during the wildcard games and kept coming up with no answers. Going into the last week of the season, I was set to root for the Redskins since they were a very average team that was going to squeak their way into the playoffs, but after seeing how Todd Collins had opened up their offense, I was ready to change my mind.

But if not the Redskins then who?

I couldn’t decide. And then it hit me. It doesn’t really matter who we face. If the Cowboys play like they did in the last three games, they are going to have a tough time beating any of the teams. If they play like the did during the first thirteen games, they will beat any of them.

And that’s what it comes down to: will the Cowboys show up to play? Our old coach used to say “you are what you are” and what the Cowboys have been is a team that has faded down the stretch. A coaching change could change that late season fade, but the Cowboys weren’t exactly lighting it up in December, so the question remains.

The Cowboys Need Romo Magic

If the Cowboys are going to do some damage in the playoffs, they are going to need the Tony Romo that was making plays and finding the open receiver. They are going to need that Jedi Knight that seemed to have eyes in the back of his head and the ability to will his team to success.

It’s funny because all season I’d been looking forward to seeing a Cowboys team hitting the playoffs with a healthy Terry Glenn to line up opposite of Terrell Owens to provide one of the scariest one-two punches in the NFL. Now that Glenn might be getting healthy enough to play a whole game, Owens has become a big question mark.

It will be up to Tony Romo to play with that magic and find the open receiver no matter if his name is Owens or Glenn or Witten or Crayton or Hurd. T.O. or no T.O., the Cowboys still have weapons on offense. But those weapons will need to play with intensity and rise up to the challenge.

The Cowboys Need Defense

The other key for the Cowboys will be on the opposite side of the ball. If Owens is unable to go for next week’s matchup or isn’t at 100%, the defense will need to rise to the challenge.

This is a defense capable of doing just that. It’s a defense that has three pro bowl players in the secondary and, while I think the pro bowl is as much a popularity contest as anything, you don’t make the pro bowl by being a bad player. They also have two of the best outside linebackers in the game.

Simply put, it is a defense that is capable of putting the team on their shoulders. But they’ll need to live up to their potential by making plays and, most importantly, not making mistakes. It’s no secret that the Cowboys have a weakness against the deep ball, and no matter if they play Tampa Bay or New York next week, they will be playing a team capable of getting it deep. The secondary will need to play smart while Ellis and Ware gets at the quarterback.

Tampa Bay or New York

That’s what it is down to, and that’s what will be decided on Sunday. But, no matter which of those two comes out with a win, Dallas will need to show up to play. If they do that, they will advance to the NFC championship. If they don’t, it might be a very long offseason.

I’ll tell you this: I read a lot of stupid stuff coming from websites with big names like ESPN, CBS Sportsline, Yahoo, etc. I try not to waste too much time wondering where they get these guys that seem a bit clueless about their subject, but sometimes I can’t help myself.

This is one of those times.

Charles Robinson of Yahoo! Sports has written up ten story lines for the NFC playoffs, and Dallas is spotlighted in two of them. And both of them show — well, let’s just call it a bit of ignorance about the Dallas Cowboys and leave it at that.

Filed under: Will Terrell Owens and Terence Newman be ready for the playoffs?

If the Seahawks beat the Redskins, either of Dallas’ second-round opponents — Tampa Bay or New York — could cause problems. Without Newman, the Cowboys won’t have a player who can match up with the speed of Joey Galloway or the size of Plaxico Burress.

My Question: Since when did 5′11 Terence Newman match the size of 6′5″ Plaxico Burress? Hey, it’s great that he’s giving Newman some well-deserved props, but let’s stick to the facts. I think its Newman’s coverage ability we’ll miss, not his perhaps-slightly-smaller-than-average stature.

Filed under: The curse of the succubus will doom Dallas. (We’re kidding. No, really, it will.)

By now, we all know that Cowboys quarterback Tony Romo gets the yips playing in front of his love interests. His stats in front of Carrie Underwood/Jessica Simpson? An 0-2 record, five interceptions, a pair of embarrassing passer ratings (45.4 in front of Underwood and 22.2 in front of Simpson) and droves of irate Cowboys fans who would rather see Romo taking the “lone” in Lone Star State literally.

My Question: Since when was Carrie Underwood only at one game and Jessica Simpson only at one game? It’s pretty much well-known that Simpson witnessed Romo take down a few teams before everyone saw her at the Eagles game. Okay, well-known to everyone outside of Yahoo! Sports.