I was going to hold our weekly '5 Questions' segment until Saturday, but I figured I might as well get it out to you. Dave Halprin from Blogging the Boys and I exchanged questions.
My answers are here. Go check them out, and behave yourselves over at BTB.
Big Blue View: I know the Cowboys have been ravaged by injuries. Can you go through the litany of guys who will be missing Sunday since I'm not sure Giants fans know just how many guys Dallas has hurt?
Blogging the Boys: Guys who are out for sure include QB Tony Romo, CB Terence Newman, RB Felix Jones and LG Kyle Kosier. Other key players out for the season include P Mat McBriar, S Roy Williams and WR Sam Hurd. More than likely, we will be without TE Jason Witten although there is still a slight possibility he could play, but I have serious doubts about that. CB Anthony Henry and OLB Anthony Spencer are both questionable but look like they will play this week. Oh yeah, Pacman Jones is suspended. (Big shocker there!?)
Boys: Brad Johnson doesn't have the arm any more to challenge a defense deep. He is limited to a dink-and-dunk offense and even that has been suspect because his accuracy has been poor. I've seen statues move faster than he does in the pocket so any breakdown in protection is a dead play at best, a disaster at worst. The thing he did in the win over Tampa Bay that worked was he didn't turn the ball over. Because of that and a stellar effort by the defense we were able to win. Against the Rams though he turned it over three times. So there's not much that can be said that is good about his performances so far this year.
Boys: Zero. Wade Phillips will almost certainly finish the season. Plus, the Cowboys are really trying to bide their time until after the bye next week when they get a lot of their injured players back. Now, if we don't finish the season strong and miss the playoffs, then I would expect Wade would be let go at that point. But he will finish the season.
I'm really in the middle on that question. If we had not won the game last week against Tampa Bay then I could have seen the season slipping away. But since they pulled out that win the worst we can go into the bye week is a 5-4 record. That's still a good enough record to make a playoff push in the second-half of the season. As I mentioned before, we are scheduled to get a host of injured players back after the bye, including Romo who is the key to the whole thing. So there's a real possibility that we could be a much better team the second-half of the season. So I still hold hope that we will be in the thick of things at the end.
Boys: Well, I'm going to keep my "homer" card and go with my 'Boys for the win. It can only happen if our offensive line plays its best game of the year and lets us rely on the running game and allows Brad Johnson some time in the pocket. Also, the defense must have the same inspired effort they had last week. Cowboys 21 – Giants 17.
Final Thoughts: I actually love the bravado from Dave, sticking with his guys and picking them to win. I hope like hell he's wrong, and I think he will be, but I think this will be typical, hard-fought Giants-Cowboys game that isn't decided until late. Also, he's right that this Cowboys team could me much more dangerous down the road. Right now, they just need to give themselves a chance.