My baseline vs. actual results, plus thoughts

That was an amazing win.  Exciting, scary, and appropriate.  The better team won.  I loved it!

I made a semi-prediction last week for the stats we could expect from the Dallas game -- HERE



So, in the interests of full disclosure, how did I do?

Here's what I thought trends would... well, trend towards:

Here's what happened:

• Barber/Choice -- 74 yards, 2.96 yards per carry
• Romo -- 255 yards, 0 TDs, 1 INT, 67.06 QB rating
• Overall running -- 74 yards, 3.0 yards per play
• Overall offense -- 315 yards, 4.4 yards per play, 10 points

Before this game, we were dominating the defensive side of the ball and holding our opponents to significantly less than they were acheiving vs. other teams.  We had the #7-ranked rushing defense, the #2-ranked passing defense, and the #1-ranked scoring defense.  And you know what happened on our first "real test"?

We outplayed ourselves.  Our defense improved.  We did better.

And that's just by stats alone.  When you consider that holding JaMarcus Russell and Brady Quinn to a 20.7% lower QB rating and 11.6% fewer yards is admirable, but no magnificent feat, consider doing the same for Carson Palmer.  Then consider doing better for Tony Romo.  Our defense is amazing.  It is terrifying.  If I'm Tom Brady, I'm waking up to nightmares of Dr. Doom, bearing down on me, ready to pounce.

I'm a little freaked out, actually.  My predictions were scarily accurate, and when they were wrong they were mostly too generous.  The running game (as a whole) got half as many yards total and WAY fewer yards per carry.  And that was supposed to be the strength of the Dallas offense.  Romo, despite the "he played poorly" storyline likely to be perpetuated by the MSM, did slightly better than expected: more yards, better QB rating, and typical TD/INT ratio.  The offense as a whole got fewer yards, was significantly less effective per play, and only scored one more point compared to stastical trends.  It won't happen, but I hope that MSM journalists will read this and desist with putting this on Romo's shoulders.

The fact is, he ran into a buzzsaw and did the best he could.  The rest was all Orange and Blue.