MNF Preview, News and Notes

Jerry Jones is sitting high and mighty on his Steinbrenneresque throne as the king of NFL owners. After owning Sunday Night Football last weekend, Jones' team has a monopoly on Monday football. After spending a billionaire dollars on his new cathedral to excess some call Cowboys Stadium, Jones has Cowboys fans expecting just as good of a show on the field as off. Coming off a hard-fought loss to the New York Football Giants, the Cowboys have a chance at a re-do in front of a national audience. Goods news for Dallas fans is that the Panthers aren't the Giants and QB Jake Delhomme is not Eli Manning. Last year the Panthers were a team predicated on an outstanding ground game and a defense that allowed 20.6 ppg. Delhomme only threw 15 TD passes last year. His struggles this year, 1 TD 5 INT, can be attributed to both a lesser running game and simply poor decisions under pressure. Always considered a gunslinger, Delhomme is simply had one bad game in the opener against a solid Eagles defense. The Cowboys D was stout against the run last week holding the Giants to 97 yards on 26 carries but were gashed Week 1 by the Bucs for 174 on 31. Look for this game to be closer than the 9 point Vegas line. Romo has more to prove this week than Delhomme too; he threw 3 picks last week and has Cowboy vets like Tony Dorsett hot on his leadership. However, TBG can't understand why a QB coming off years of 36 TD 19INT for 4211 yds in '07 and 26 TD 14 INT for 3448 yds in '08 has so many critics. It takes a complete TEAM to win a playoff game (something America's Team hasn't done since '96), not just a QB. Look for both QBs to play well in a 28-24 win for Dem Cowboys.

Rough luck for Dolphins fans. QB Chad Pennington is out for the season after tearing his right throwing shoulder. The all-time leader in completion percentage and last year's second place finisher in the MVP balloting has a history of shoulder problems as he tore his rotator cuff in 2005. Pennington has won Comeback Player of the Year twice in his career but this is tough. His last 5 seasons including '09 look like this under the games played column: 3, 16, 9, 16, 3. With he just start the pattern again next year? He has proven to be resilient and I expect him to play again next year and continue to do what he does best, manage a game by protecting the ball and making smart plays. My roommate Adam, from here on out on this site to be known as My Man Sleepy D, commented earlier that Pennington is the anti-Romo, never talked about but a proven winner. While Pennington can't take his best season to Romo's above mentioned stats, Pennington did take a 1 win '07 Dolphins team to the playoffs in '08 with an 11-5 record.

TBG