It seems that there are an inordinately large number of people worried about the game against the Giants being some kind of emotional trap. Not me.

Dallas has kicked into a much higher gear. Emotional traps usually happen earlier in the season when a team’s playing unevenly and after a big win can sometimes take the next opponent lightly. That’s not true of Dallas.

Dallas is playing better football than anyone else in the NFC. They are exactly the kind of team New York does not need on this week’s schedule. The floundering Giants would, for me, represent the significant threat had they been playing well. That’s not true of this Giants team.

This Giants team has slowly descended into the bottom half of the league in quality of play. Almost nothing is going right for them. The last thing that New York needs to face is a team hitting on all cylinders like the Cowboys.

…If you took a consensus of everyone in the NBA today, would the Mavericks be considered a significant favorite to win the championship?

…The battle for free agent Barry Zito might well come down to Rangers vs the NY Mets. One simply can’t see the Rangers winning this kind of megabucks shootout. But Texas may have 3 small things in its favor:

1) Zito’s extremely high respect level for Manager Ron Washington

2) Taxes—given the level of taxation in New York City and New York State, if the Rangers were to offer 6 years and $100M to Zito, the Mets would have to offer 6 years and between $110M and $115M just to reach the bottomline, breakeven point for Zito

3) Some players are reluctant to change leagues…Plus those who know Zito best suggest he might be a guy who’s better off as a huge fish in a middle size pond.

…Are you starting to get worried about how many “soft goals” the Stars are allowing?

Everybody has various opinions about upcoming football games…Sometimes you’re right…Sometimes you are wrong.

Over the past few weeks I’ve had a very good feeling about the Cowboys. And that has not changed a bit this week.

The Cowboys should plaster the Giants this weekend. The Giants are a dead body waiting to be embalmed. They have every ingredient possible for a team waiting to unravel.

First there was questioning all around before this season even began. There was questioning about play calling in last year’s playoffs. All of that is a backdrop of what’s going on this season.

This season, they are completely beaten up. There are injuries all around.

To add to that, their QB has melted down the past few weeks. Over the past few weeks, Eli Manning may be the worst QB in the league.

Then, there’s the “coach under siege”. Multiple players are yipping at Coughlin. Mainly Jeremy Shockey and Tiki Barber. They shooting off their mouths. Before the Tennessee game, Shockey decides to spout off about the Cowboys…How about paying attention to the Titans?

Then, an injured Michael Strahan calls out his starting WR accusing him of “giving up”.

Then, Strahan verbally attacks a reporter for asking questions about the comments Strahan made on his own radio show.

We’ve got teammate vs teammate. We’ve got Coach vs Team. We’ve got Team vs Coach. We’ve got player vs media.

Is there anything else that could be put in this cocktail going on in New York right now?

End the misery for this team. Just end it. This is an armadillo that’s crawled out onto the highway…Run over it.

If the Cowboys don’t beat this team by double figures it will stun me. This Giant team is just ripe to get plastered. And the Cowboys are just the team to do it.

The Cowboys in high gear, they’re well rested. This is just the team to do it. Psychologically this is the top team vs the bottom team. If you asked who was at the top of the heap feeling good about themselves you’d have to say the Cowboys. If you asked who was at the bottom of that same list, it would have to be the Giants.

I think that the Cowboys need to come out and attack the Giants…just completely attack them. Put them away early. This Giant team has no confidence. Don’t ever let them get any confidence.

There is no way that the Dallas Cowboys should lose this football game.

This is a very very bad Tampa Bay football team. They get out passed by a large margin this season. They get out-rushed by large margin.

Dallas. which is at the top of the league in time of possession, now faces the team (Tampa) with the worst time of possession numbers

In passing defense, Tampa is #31 in the league. In number of sacks, Tampa is dead last in the league.

In passing offense they are 28^th in the league. Tampa’s numbers are dreadful. They’ve won 3 games this year, none by more than 3 points.

When you have numbers like this you’ve got a real chance for domination.

Tampa Bay doesn’t even match up with Arizona. And we all saw what happened when Arizona faced the Cowboys.

This is a dreadful matchup for Tampa. It’s just a dreadful matchup. Tampa can’t pressure Romo. They can’t stop the Jones. They can’t expect to have much of a passing game with their QB situation.

There’s only one team that can beat Dallas today and that’s Dallas.

If the Cowboys are focused today, they win by 20 or more.

I believe that Dallas will beat Indy on Sunday.

While the Colts are 9-0, a closer inspection of their games suggests that this isn’t the type of team that’s going to go unbeaten.

7 of Indy’s 9 wins have come by7 points or less. All those are games where a play or two could have changed the outcome. The ball simply doesn’t bounce right like that every Sunday for an entire year.

The Colts rush defense is awful. It’s the worst in the NFL at 9.1 yards allowed per carry.

They are also one of the worst pass rushing teams in the entire league. If you can’t stop the run AND don’t generate pressure on the opposing QB it’s simply a matter of time before you lose. And perhaps lose a couple or three time.

The Cowboys above average running game will control the clock for large chunks of time. The Cowboys above average run defense just might turn Indy into a one dimensional passing team.

Now that’s not bad for passer Peyton Manning. But Dallas also possesses maybe the best overall cornerback trio that the Colts have faced this year. Dallas’ biggest need is to prevent the big play that has dogged them a good part of this season.

But oddly, Indy has only 2 completions longer than 40 yards and no runs longer than 21 yards.

Don’t be surprised if this is a Dallas win and maybe by a fair margin of 7 or more points.

The loss of Greg Ellis punches a huge hole in the Cowboys defense. Only 2 Dallas defenders could be counted on to pressure the QB with any consistency—Ellis and Ware.

Ahead lay games where QB pressure will be critical to defeating QBs like the Manning brothers, Drew Brees and Donovan McNabb.

With all that said, Indianapolis comes in at 9-0 and 50-13 their last 63 games. This may be the biggest stumbling block to a perfect Colts’ season. Following this Dallas game the Colts have home dates with Philly, Cincy and Miami. They have road games at Tennessee, Jacksonville and Houston.

Isn’t it reasonable that a game at Dallas probably constitutes, on the surface the toughest game left on their schedule.

Dallas might have the kind of team to take down the Colts. The Cowboys seem capable of sustaining drives. Buffalo nearly defeated Indy on Sunday playing their safeties deep and forcing the Colts to dink and dunk for yards.

Can you believe that there is talk out there of Texas QB Colt McCoy being a Heisman Candidate? Wasn’t it just 2 months ago we weren’t certain who the Longhorns’ starting QB would be…

It’s good that the Mavericks have gotten off the schneid with a win at Phoenix. That doesn’t, however, disguise the fact that this team, right now, is playing dreadful defense. And that makes them vulnerable to any team on any night, even the Knicks…

It appears that the Rangers are serious bidders for the Japanese pitcher Matsuzaka but it also appears that they are going to have serious competition in retaining CF GMJ. And even if somehow they got both they still need to re-sign Mark DeRosa and another veteran starting pitcher and an outfielder/DH type. But, at least they appear to be serious players in the market…

Why are the Rangers wasting time even thinking about Barry Bonds?

…The Cowboys season may literally be on the line Sunday in Arizona. Should they stub there toe on this apparently disheartened Cardinal team they’d probably have to win 6 of their last 7 to reach the playoffs. Right now the home game with Indy and visits to the Giants and Atlanta look problematic.