Thursday Night
Cowboys at Bears
Taking a quick at the standings, I see a lot of what the NFL typically looks like at this time of year: the expected top teams (New England, Denver) and bottoms (Jacksonville, Oakland), some surprises (like Arizona and Cleveland) and some disappointments (think New Orleans). Tonight's contest features, at least to my mind, an overachiever and an underachiever. Not to sound like a broken record, but the Bears, based on my pre-season expectations, are the biggest disappointment of the season. And as for the Cowboys, I thought that their defence would doom them to finish no better than third in their division. Dallas is battling not only for a playoff spot, but for a division title, whereas Chicago has settled into a pattern of losing to any decent team, while beating the obviously bad ones (location seems not to be a factor). The Cowboys are a good team, so there's that. My only concern here is that Dallas, coming off a bad loss at home to the Eagles, and looking ahead to next week's big game against... yep, the division-leading Eagles again (this time in Philly) might get caught looking past tonight's game. They'd better not, as they can ill afford to lose any more ground this late in the season. Fortunately for the Cowboys, unlike last week, when the league inexplicably had Dallas play a Sunday night game before their annual Thanksgiving tilt, they'll be the better-rested team tonight. Winner: Cowboys
Cowboys at Bears
Taking a quick at the standings, I see a lot of what the NFL typically looks like at this time of year: the expected top teams (New England, Denver) and bottoms (Jacksonville, Oakland), some surprises (like Arizona and Cleveland) and some disappointments (think New Orleans). Tonight's contest features, at least to my mind, an overachiever and an underachiever. Not to sound like a broken record, but the Bears, based on my pre-season expectations, are the biggest disappointment of the season. And as for the Cowboys, I thought that their defence would doom them to finish no better than third in their division. Dallas is battling not only for a playoff spot, but for a division title, whereas Chicago has settled into a pattern of losing to any decent team, while beating the obviously bad ones (location seems not to be a factor). The Cowboys are a good team, so there's that. My only concern here is that Dallas, coming off a bad loss at home to the Eagles, and looking ahead to next week's big game against... yep, the division-leading Eagles again (this time in Philly) might get caught looking past tonight's game. They'd better not, as they can ill afford to lose any more ground this late in the season. Fortunately for the Cowboys, unlike last week, when the league inexplicably had Dallas play a Sunday night game before their annual Thanksgiving tilt, they'll be the better-rested team tonight. Winner: Cowboys
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