Dallas Cowboys vs Chicago Bears

      The Cowboys and the Bears were the stars of this past Monday Night Football game... The weather was anything but conducive to football as the kick-off temperature was nine (9) degrees with a windchill factor of eight below zero. 

      Dallas was tied with Philadelphia for the lead in the Eastern Division of the NFC at the beginning of this game as the Eagles had won the previous day. If you believe in the Sports Illustrated jinx, this game added a lot to the mystic. Last week Dallas quarterback Tony Romo had been on the cover of the weekly magazine.

     The so-called jinx or curse is suppose to be bad luck for you if you are on the cover.. Just the previous week Alabama quarterback A.J. McCarron had been on the cover and his team lost to Auburn, robbing the Tide of a chance to repeat as National Champs.
   I don't think the magazine had anything to do with Dallas' demise, as Tony Romo looked great under the severe conditions. He tossed three touchdowns and controlled a good pace on the field. It's the defense of Dallas that is causing all the trouble. They allowed a good (but not great) Bear's team to run roughshod over them in front of a national TV audience. 

     Chicago running back Matt Forte ran for a hundred yards and scored two touchdowns as the Bears prevailed 45-28 over the Boys. Chicago was led by back-up quarterback Josh McCown and all he did was throw four (4) touchdown passes enroute to 348 yards of passing offense.

      McCown, number 12 above, has been filling in for Jay Cutler (#6) while he recovers from an injury...BUT now there are players calling for McCown to get the starting job and let Cutler take his services elsewhere. Meanwhile, McCown shredded the Dallas secondary with accurate passes to Alshon Jeffery and Brandon Marshall..

       ...So much so that McCown was today named NFC Offensive Player of the Week. Six of his aerials went to Marshall for one hundred yards.
     The fans in Dallas cried out for a change in the offensive play-calling and more running so Romo would not be passing on every down...

      Cowboys running back DeMarco Murray ran the ball eighteen times for one-hundred and forty-six yards... a good day for him... but you have to play defense when the other team has the ball. In my pre-season forecast for the Cowboys (see September 5th posting) I predicted they would finish no better than 9 wins and 7 losses. At the time I didn't know the entire NFC East would be such a pitiful example of pro football. Now I realize that 9-7 might win the division title.
   Dallas has a home game this Sunday (December 15th) against the Green Bay Packers.... then on the road to play the Washington Redskins before closing out the regular season with a home game against Philadelphia. Currently residing at 7 wins and 6 losses, Dallas players are talking about winning out the remainder of the schedule. I just don't see it! Quarterback Aaron Rogers is scheduled to return to action for Green Bay this week, and they are a completely different team with him leading them. The Redskins are ripe to be finished off. Disappointment in their record and a current squabble between QB Robert Griffin III and Head Coach Mike Shanahan has turned rancid. Game sixteen should decide it for Dallas... They beat the Eagles when they played in the City of Brotherly Love, but Philly has made great strides since that game...and throw in the factor each team hates the other..
   One good aspect of this past Monday night's game... The Bears retired the jersey of former player and head coach Mike Ditka. Iron Mike was also a player and assistant coach in Dallas, ..so it was fitting he should be honored at this particular game...