Another week, another New York football team stomped upon. Yawn.
The Dallas Cowboys are 2-0 to start a season for the 26th time in their 64-year history.
Only once in the Cowboys’ eight Super Bowl seasons has Dallas not started the season at 2-0. That one year was 1993 when Emmitt Smith held out.
As dominating as the defense looked on Sunday, it’s not too early to say the Cowboys may be on their way to a ninth Super Bowl appearance.
Cowboys’ Offense
The offense hasn’t turned the ball over in the first two games of the season.
The Jets defense nearly got an interception on Sunday.
But the fact is that Dak Prescott is doing a much better job protecting the ball this year already.
He’s checking down and even running.
Getting away from throwing the “chuck and pray” pass is one reason why Prescott is off to a great start. He needs to keep doing that.
The running game had 44 carries for 134 yards, just three yards per carry. That needs to improve.
Although Tony Pollard did break out with a 23-yard gain.
But the offensive line was leaky at times, leading to seven tackles for a loss for the Jets’ defense.
It also led to settling for field goals in the red zone.
Part of that issue was in the play calling, which got a little too cute in the red zone. Dallas needs to be able to play smashmouth when they have the lead.
They need to punch the ball in for six instead of settling for three points.
Sooner or later that will come back to bite Dallas.
Brandon Aubrey settled in with a nice 5-for-5 effort in the field goal department, including a 55-yarder that was rock solid.
Aubrey looked a lot more comfortable with his kicking, as opposed to last week when the wet conditions were a concern.
Cowboys’ Defense
If the Cowboys hoist the Lombardi trophy in February it will be because of this unit.
The defense forced four turnovers against the Jets, giving them seven for the season.
Dallas has 10 sacks and 15 tackles for a loss for the year.
Micah Parsons already has three sacks and recovered a fumble that he himself forced, a nice tackle and strip of Dalvin Cook on Sunday.
At this pace, Parsons is a lock for Defensive Player of the Year.
If he keeps it up he will also be a contender for league MVP.
The Jets’ lone touchdown came when safety Malik Hooker took too shallow of an angle on a crossing pass.
The error allowed Garrett Wilson to turn a short gain into a 68-yard touchdown. The field goal came when Dan Quinn went to man-to-man.
That was tightened up in the second half and the Jets’ offense was grounded.
Hooker picked off a pass to attone for his earlier error.
The Tight Ends Showed Up
After the season-opener when the tight ends were seemingly playing with concrete gloves, the room had a much better day.
Jake Ferguson caught the first Cowboys touchdown of the day.
The rookie second-rounder from Michigan also got on the board.
Luke Schoonmaker’s first NFL target was also his first reception and touchdown in the league all rolled up into one.
Yes, it was only for one yard, but it counted for six points like any other touchdown does.
Welcome to the NFL, Mr. Schoonmaker.
Something Special In Colorado
Former Cowboys’ defensive back — and sometimes receiver — Deion Sanders is doing something special in Colorado.
Yes, they have a tough grind coming up with some solid Pac-12 teams on the schedule.
But a 3-0 start is nothing to sneer at.
And Saturday’s game against Colorado State was something worth staying up into Sunday morning for.
The Buffaloes’ 43-35 victory over the Rams in double overtime had a little bit of everything.
The Rams had a week off and it showed.
They were prepared and jumped all over Colorado, who seemed out of sorts for most of the game.
It didn’t look good, down 11 with over seven minutes left.
But the Buffaloes pulled it out and Shedeur Sanders added to his Heisman resume with the come-from-behind win.
Serious Measures Needed
There were two ugly incidents on Saturday that stand out and it’s far past time for the powers that be to take a stand against such actions.
At the end of the Tennessee-Florida game, the Gators ran a final play to drain the last few seconds off the clock.
Florida’s quarterback took a late hit on the play and a brawl ensued.
Punches were thrown by players on both sides.
In the Colorado-Colorado State game, the Buffaloes’ two-way star Travis Hunter saw his Heisman run end with a dirty hit.
The Colorado State player was correctly flagged for the late hit, but not ejected.
Former NFL star J.J. Watt took to Twitter/X and asked why the player wasn’t booted.
Hunter remained in the game for a while but was later taken to a local hospital and is expected to miss a few weeks.
The hit was late, and unnecessary as the play was over and Hunter had no way to protect himself, and very dirty.
The Colorado State player, and the players in the Tennessee-Florida game who threw punches, should all be suspended for the rest of the year.
There should be no place in the game for such conduct.
Maybe if some players started losing the privilege of playing college football we can clean the game up.
