Article:Cowboys derailed by Mr Adversity

Oh, how the mighty have fallen. The once mighty Cowboys who were deemed the class of the NFC by mid-season and had most football fans feeling America's team felt the stone cold taste of a one and done playoff session. The always jolly Wade Phillips looked as if he just heard Sanjaya Malakar sing during the press conference. Tony Romo's magic carpet ride has crashed back to earth. And then T.O boo-hooed the oncoming and pending media beatdown that Romo most definitely will receive for his trip to Mexico with what's her face. To put that issue to bed, Tom Brady also took a trip during the bye week with his hitch and played a virtually perfect game with an undefeated season to uphold. But the issue that won't be put to bed is that the 6 year - 66 million dollar investment of Jerry Jones is now 0-2 in the playoffs. This will be all that Tony Romo will hear ringing in his ears during the offseason. This will be all that he hears when he makes promotional appearances for the Cowboys because fair or not, this is the pressure that the quarterback of America's team has to deal with.

I have to be honest, I smelled a Giants victory from the time this matchup was official. But it wasn't squarely based on how different the Giants were...

It was more on how different the Cowboys were.

It all started with the Week 15 Dallas/Philadelphia game, the game in which mastermind Eagle defensive coordinator Jim Johnson laid the blueprint on how to curtail the Cowboys offense. He left the Cowboys frustrated and they were NEVER the same since. And they didn't have a great defense to offset this sudden turn of events. {80 yd dr in 42 seconds!!! Yikes!!}

They didn't look much better against the Skins in Week 17 when their offensive starters played three quarters and lookded lethargic.

Yet Wade Phillips decided to give the players plenty of time off to reportedly forget about football for a little while. This would work for the Patriots or even the Packers. But with the way the Cowboys played down the stretch...

Bad Bad Move.

Wade is now on a SHORT leash in Dallas. He is now 0-4 in the playoffs. And with Jason Garrett and Tony Sparano hot choices for head coaching vacancies, He'll have Jerry Jones's undivided attention.

I can also attribute this collapse to a lack of locker room leadership on the Dallas Cowboys. Somebody should have spoken up after the losses to their two other division rivals down the stretch. Someone should have diffused the Tony Romo controversy during the week leading up to the game before it got out of hand.

With the NFC East being what it is, I can already tell you that more adversity will face America's team next season. They must certainly acquire some mental fortitude by then.

Or T.O will really have something to cry about.