Vacchiano: Cowboys pace the NFC

In the moments after the Dallas Cowboys completed their season sweep of the Giants on Sunday, Patrick Crayton began talking like he was the Cowboys’ other receiver. He said the Giants tried to talk themselves into believing they were as good as the Cowboys, and it didn’t take them long to realize they were wrong.
 
“I’m not going to say they were scared,” Crayton said. “We’ll say they were worried. I think we were on their mind a little bit.”
 
One thing is for sure: The Cowboys should be on everyone’s minds for the rest of the season. America’s Team is back and looking better than they have in more than a decade.
 
They are the best and most complete team in the entire NFC.
 
That might not mean much in a year destined to be dominated by the New England Patriots, but it at least means the Cowboys (8-1) are the favorites to be their opponent in Super Bowl XLII. They still have some challengers they have to evade, like the Green Bay Packers (8-1) and Detroit Lions (6-3), whom they play in a critical, two-game stretch right after Thanksgiving.
 
But as good as those two teams have looked, they can’t match the Cowboys’ combination of a power running game, a creative and dangerous passing game, and a stifling defense with a dangerous pass rush, too. They have all the ingredients you look for when searching for a true contender.
 
They’re also on a roll as they begin the stretch run - - and they’re feeling it, too.
 
“You can call it ‘swagger’ but it’s really the confidence we have to beat teams,” Terrell Owens said. “We came here and the game was played and I felt like we made a statement.”
 
“It’s just another step along the journey that we’re trying to go through here, to get to where we want to go,” added quarterback Tony Romo. “I think a win like this just adds to your confidence. Say once in a while, if you do something like this, you have a chance to do something special.”
 
Clearly the Cowboys have that chance. Just look at all their pieces. Romo is the NFC’s top-rated quarterback, as dangerous outside of the pocket as he is inside. He leads the NFL’s No. 2 offense, ranked ahead of everyone but the Patriots, and plays behind one of the NFL’s most underrated offensive lines. On defense they may have a suspect secondary, but they’re able to mask it with a strong front seven that provides a strong pass rush and is terrific against the run. Their defense is ranked seventh overall.
 
Only New England (first on offense and fourth on defense), Indianapolis (third on both) and Pittsburgh (fifth on offense, first on defense) have better rankings for both of their teams.
 
For more proof, just look at what they’ve done to the Giants, their top contender in the NFC East and a team that had won six straight games. The Cowboys lit up New York’s defense up for 76 points and 801 yards in two games, and on Sunday they got five sacks against an offensive line that had only given up nine all year. The Giants oddly still think they’re as good as the Cowboys, but the Cowboys showed everyone else that they’re really not even close.
 
Maybe Green Bay, with the ageless Brett Favre, the most promising young defense in the conference, and a terrific young offensive line that powers running game seemingly led by a different running back every week, will become the roadblock to the Cowboys’ run to their first Super Bowl since 1995. Certainly if the Packers win in Dallas on Nov. 29 they’ll have the inside track to home-field advantage in the playoffs, and winning in Lambeau in January isn’t easy for anyone at all.
 
But other than the Packers, who else can stop Dallas? The Giants have tried twice and failed. The Lions don’t have the defense. Nobody else even seems to be close.
 
“We’re on two different levels,” Crayton said after the Cowboys beat the Giants. “They’re on a level. We’re on a level. It’s up to you to decide which one we’re on and which one they’re on.”
 
Right now the entire NFC is trying to make that decision. In the end, the answer may be that the Cowboys are on a level of their own.

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