COWBOYS OFFENSE: A...COWBOYS DEFENSE: D-

By mark rogers
September 13, 2009

At the end of the day I'm just happy the Cowboys beat the Buccaneers and are coming home next week 1-0.

It was a dominant performance by our offense. Well-balanced, efficient, few penalties, powerful and explosive.

But if we want to win the division and contend for a Super Bowl, our defense better get a lot better.

Now, the D didn't play terrible, we eventually wore down the Bucs offensive line and beat up Byron Leftwich pretty good...but we also gave up 450 yards, 21 points and nearly 30 first downs.

Those numbers are all way too big.

The bright spots were Jay Ratliff and Demarcus Ware (the fact that he wasn't seriously injured early in the game).

But Tampa Bay ended up with one more sack than us and they had one on the day. That's not good for a defense that thrives on big plays like sacks and tackles-for-loss.

Our second string line was in for a few of the big running plays which tells me that we better not have any serious injuries to our line. If Ratliff gets hurt, things could get ugly.

When he's blocked one-on-one and the play is anywhere around him? He makes the tackle. Actually, on the first play of the game, Ratliff was double-teamed and still made the play for no gain.

I guess I'm glad there was something major we need to improve after the first game. Normally we look unstoppable in the first month and completely collapse late in the year.

But maybe this year we'll peak at the right time: December and January.

Overall I was pleased. Romo set a career high in passing yards, we didn't turn it over, three different receivers scored TDs, and we were able to dominate the line of scrimmage in the fourth quarter.

But we won't beat the Giants next week with that kind of defensive performance because I don't think the Giants will give up as many big plays as Tampa did. In fact, we won't beat a lot of teams unless the defense tightens up a bit.

Like I said, I'm pretty pleased that at least there's something to improve

A good start to the year. 1-0 en route to 12-4. And remember, I predicted a 7-0 start.

Can't wait for next week.

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