Saturday Night Fever

***SATURDAY NIGHT FOOTBALL***

Cowboys @ NEW ORLEANS -7.5 ±53.5

Look. I hate the Cowboys as much as the next guy, maybe more. But I wanted to look into this “December Swoon” thing and see if the Cowboys weren’t getting a bad rap. After losing last week to the Chargers the Cowboys are now 3-7 in December dating back to 2007. Certainly nothing to be proud of but as we all know Dallas is part of an NFC east division that perennially sends 2 if not 3 teams to the playoffs. Teams often have multiple division games scheduled in the final 4 weeks and such games are always competitive, especially in the east.

So let’s take a look at this year by year.

2007: The Cowboys went 13-3 and had their bye locked up before week 16. They went 2-2 that December, beating the Lions and Panthers weeks 14 and 16 and losing to the Eagles and Redskins weeks 15 and 17. Both losses were to division rivals, the Eagles being a perennial NFC powerhouse and the Redskins loss being a road game where starters were probably being rested.

2008: The Cowboys entered December with an 8-4 record on the playoff bubble. They went 1-4 that December, beating the defending Super Bowl Champion Giants in week 15 (albeit without Plaxico Burress or Brandon Jacobs) but lost to the Eagles, Ravens and Steelers. All 3 of those teams made it to their conference championships and one was the eventual Super Bowl Champion.

2009: As in previous year, The Cowboys came into December with 8 wins, although this time with a division lead in hand. They’ve lost both games so far, but as in years past one came from a division rival, The New York Football Giants, while the other came from the San Diego Chargers. Both defeats were from reigning division title-holders and San Diego is in position to clinch their division and the #2 seed in the AFC this coming week.

Tonight the Cowboys go on the road against the undefeated Saints, a team that completely embarrassed the mighty Patriots a few weeks ago. They’ll probably end up losing this game and the December swoon talk will continue. Now I understand that good teams find ways to win these tough games. And surely a .500 record against NFL teams of any type is not too much to ask.
But this swoon talk is a little overblown.

Having said that, I think the Cowboys come out and have a complete shit stain of a game. They’re either going to come out and be too conservative not wanting to make any mistakes against a Saints team that will kill you dead without prejudice…OR they come out so fast and loose as if to prove a point, in which case there will be mishaps galore.
Either way I like Drew Brees to go out there and do what he do, and that’s put 40-burgers up on the scoreboard.
Saints and the under.