See this post in Stunning HD! 

Introduction

Forget the fact that it’s now afternoon. I think a good name for this column (which I plan to make weekly) is the The Morning After, just has a nice ring to it.

Last night the Dallas Cowboys defeated the Chicago Bears in what many considered to be a potential NFC Championship preview. Afterwards, the Bears were left wondering who exactly they are and how much longer Coach Smith will stand behind Rex Grossman.

Meanwhile, the Cowboys offense came alive in the second half and Tony Romo demonstrated a poise that many critics felt he didn’t have. Terrell Owens lit up the Bears and Jason Witten continued to be one of the toughest Tight End’s in the league. Finally, Marion Barber III showed he deserves to be the Cowboys number one running back and punished the Bears defense.

First Half

This game was really a story of two halves, with the first half being a defense slug fest.

Before the game there was a lot of talk about how the Cowboys were going to kick away from Devin Hester. To me, it sounded like a good strategy, and the Cowboys employed it early; the opening kickoff sailed out of bounds.

Then the Bears defense came on during the Cowboys’ first series. They sacked Tony Romo and the quarterback struggled early. It looked as if Romo’s critics were right and that his image was bloated by facing weak opponents. The scariest defense in the league had finally brought the young “gunslinger” back to earth.

By half time, the score was 3-3 and neither team’s offense was clicking. Both quarterbacks had been intercepted without throwing a touchdown and the Cowboys had only 18-yards of rushing offense.

Then in the second half, the Cowboy came alive and put up the most points on the Bears since 2004. And the Bears have to be thinking it’s finally time to take the crown off of Grossman and hand it over to Griese.

Nothing Special

The first key to the Cowboys victory was limiting Devin Hester. They changed their strategy and began actually kicking to the phenomenal returner. But the coverage was near perfect and Hester was frustrated.

He muffed one kick and was striped on another. He had to fair catch a couple and did nothing of note all game. The Cowboys punter, Mat McBriar, used a special kind of kick to maximize hand time and allow his coverage team to get down the field.

Nick Folk also helped matters by getting some good hang time and booming his kickoffs to within the 5.

Pay the Man

Tony Romo is the real deal. It’s time the Cowboys pay him and lock him up long term. He showed tremendous poise and recognition. He dodged a great defense and picked it apart. There’s no question now as to what kind of a quarterback he is.

Tony Romo sparkled against a great defense and inspired hope in the offense. And he did so while still missing his number-two wide receiver, Terry Glenn. If he keeps this up he’ll be headed back to another Pro Bowl and maybe the Cowboys will be headed to the Super Bowl.

Rex Grossman

Rex is not the Bears quarterback. He’s terrible. Enough is enough. He’s so bad he makes Roy Williams look good in coverage. It’s time for the Bears to accept that he simply isn’t he answer and hand the reins over to Brian Griese.

The Bears can maybe groom Kyle Orton but they’ve definitely got to give up on Rex Grossman. The Bears should see if they can pull a Cleveland and see if they can’t trade Grossman for a late pick. I mean, if Seattle would take Frye there’s got to be a team that will take Grossman.

Marion Barber III

This guy is a stud. A complete contrast to either of the other two major running backs in this game (Cedric Benson and Julius Jones). Barber doesn’t have the break away speed of an elite running back. What he does have is toughness and intensity and that makes up for it.

He will push the pile every time and he doesn’t bounce backwards. Barber smashed up the Bears in the late parts of the game and broke off a 54-yard run when just trying to run out the clock. He also swatted Adam Archuleta aside for another TD.

Meanwhile, Cedric Benson continues to make the Bears look foolish for trading away Thomas Jones. Benson had a total of 46 yards on 16 attempts (2.9 yards a carry with a long of 12 yards).

Granted the Cowboys are fairly good team against the run, a number one running back should still put up better numbers than that. Especially on a team with Rex Grossman under center. Trading Jones now looks like an even greater mistake than it did when the trade went down.

Cowboys Defense

Anthony Spencer, the Cowboys first round pick, got his first sack. DeMarcus Ware got two sacks. Anthony Henry got two interceptions. This defense is starting to click.

Terence Newman returned after missing the first two games, and while he didn’t have much impact today, his presence will help as the season continues.

While the defense played against an anemic offense, and the secondary still struggled. However, each week the Cowboys’ defense has been doing the little things better. They seem to be getting more comfortable in this new scheme and their play making is up.

If they continue to develop and improve they could do some damage once Newman is back to full strength and Ellis finally returns. If those two come back near 100% then they could catapult this defense towards the top and give the Cowboys a truly great team.

Conclusion

This game was really a game of contrasts. Tony Romo shined while Rex Grossman faded. Marion Barber hit the Bears’ D in the mouth while Cedric Benson was quiet. Terrel Owens dominated while Muhsin Muhammad is still wondering why he left Carolina.

The Cowboys demonstrated they are one of the best teams in the NFC (if not the best) and showed maybe those Super Bowl prognosticators aren’t crazy. Meanwhile, the loss of confidence was evident all over the Bears’ faces. Even the defense surrendered in this game and you knew no one in that locker room believes in Rex Grossman anymore (maybe not even Grossman himself). If the Bears don’t start Griese next week, then Smith should be fired immediately.

In the end, what should’ve been a close game turned into a blow out. And the Cowboys showed how unpredictable the NFC still is.

Note:

Donovan McNabb (21/26, 381 yards, 4 TD’s, 0 Int’s), Kevin Curtis (11 Recs, 221 yards, 3 TD’s). What a difference a week makes. McNabb looked good against the Lions and so did Curtis, and put to rest all this “controversy” from the past week. And my favorite part of this whole thing is that he did it with a white wide receiver.