The Dallas Cowboys, and the San Francisco Forty-Niners

If your face was on fire and the only way to get the fire out was to have someone beat it out with an axe, you might consider this a kinder fate than being in the locker room of the San Francisco Forty Niners after Sunday’s embarrassing loss to the Atlanta Falcons. Coach Mike Singletary who played on that superb 1984 Chicago Bears team is like going to be as pissed as he ever has been. The Niners allowed 45 points, and was only able to put10 up themselves. The very solid defense the Niners have shown all season collapsed, and discipline eroded.

This is going to get ugly, early, and often.

Singletary is going to make a lot of grown men suffer for this loss, but he’s also got two weeks to prepare them for a Texan’s team that is at best subpar. The NFC West is a weak division and Coach Singletary isn’t going to let this hang over his team very long.

If your face was on fire and the only way you could get it out was to stick your head in a bucket of gasoline, you might understand what it felt like to be in the Dallas Cowboy’s locker room after the game. They won, but it took everything they had to do it, and the game went into overtime. What titan of the gridiron were they playing this week? The winless Chiefs. Dallas is now 3-0 against teams that are collectively, 0-15. Having to win this game in overtime was as embarrassing as losing by 35 points.

But the Cowboys are off next weekend, too. In two weeks they’ll face the Atlanta Falcons, who as we have just seen today, are not winless.

The Niners and the Cowboys are two very different teams and I suspect they are heading in very different directions. Coach Singletary is an intense and active individual with a passion for football. Coach Wade Phillips, who came within a late score of losing his job today, has two weeks to study film, and recover from a victory.

We’ll see in two weeks whose team comes out on top.

Take Care,

Mike