It's a Beastly weekend before us with the Cowboys visiting the Giants Sunday afternoon and Eagles in town to face the Redskins for Monday Night Football. We turn to our Philly friend and Bloguin colleague Thomas Jackson of Eagleseyeblog.com for some Iggles insight.

Redskins Hog Heaven: Who are the MVPs of the Eagles offense, defense and special teams?

Eagles Eye: MVP of the Eagles Offense so far in 2010?---I guess it has to be RB LeSean McCoy...this 2nd-year pro out of Pitt  has actually given the Eagles a semblance of a running game...Lifting weights and strength-conditioning over the past off-season has been a first-time-ever experience for the young McCoy...and it has paid off big-time.

MVP of the Defense? It has to be CB Asante Samuel...he has shut down the left corner on every big-rep wide receiver so far this year...and has a bunch of picks to show for it. It's gotten so nobody throws his way anymore...The word is out: stay away from Asante...

Special Teams? Placekicker David Akers is still money after 45 seasons in the league...I kid, but in his 12th year out of Louisville, it seems like Akers has been here forever...and will still be nailing 45-yarders in the cold wind 12 years from now...he is that good.

RHH: Michael Vick or Kevin Kolb?

EE: Michael Vick or Kevin Kolb? Guess what---the NFL is evolving into a 2-QB league....It's getting so you need two QB#1's on the roster in order to assure a legitimate shot at a playoff berth. Vick currently holds the edge in mobility, arm strength and experience...but Kolb has proven he can step in and run the West Coast Offense to great advantage (as in the Eagles' 31-17 win over Atlanta)... Think Lamonica and Blanda... that's kind of what we have going on in Philly right now. Andy Reid calls it "a beautiful thing..."

RHH: Why is Andy Reid still there?

EE: As for Reid's job security?  Half of all Philly fans are constantly calling for Andy's scalp, to wit: "He can't manage the clock", "Andy doesn't have control of his players", "He doesn't execute his challenges wisely", "He spends his time-outs too early", "Andy doesn't run the ball enough", "He can't call the right play on 4th-and-1"....and so on.  But the fact is, real football experts in the know say Reid is a great coach who is loved by his players and does everything by the book of Smart Coaching Decisions. Owner Jeff Lurie loves his head coach--- they are on the same page, now more than ever.  I think Reid stays on as head coach for the Eagles as long as he wants to. It would take a 3-13 season to change that premise, in my opinion.

Nobody anymore blames Reid for trading McNabb. They have finally realized: it was a "business decision"... Of course, if McNabb and the Redskins triumph on Monday night,  it will be a different song.

RHH: What concerns you about the Washington Redskins?

EE: What concerns me most about the Washington Redskins on Monday night will be their incredibly smart and opportunistic defensive spirit.  I just don't see anyone on the Redskins' defense taking plays off anymore. You used to be able to say that about the 'Skins. No more.  Mike Vick sure remembers who knocked him out of play for three weeks. The Washington defense is a beautiful thing that morphs and flexes like an amoeba. You never know when the door will get slammed in your face as an offensive opponent...and God forbid should you momentarily think "we've got this one in the bag"... Any real breakthrough at all in the Redskins' running game or in McNabb's pocket protection could result in a statement game for the Washington defense.

RHH: What's your game prediction and score?

EE: Game prediction and score? Well, I correctly predicted the Eagles would lose to Tennessee--- and to Washington in the first matchup---so this is a scary proposition.  Tough, tough game...Vick is spied all night and can't get anything going downfield or outside the edges...Shanahan reverses McNabb's read progression from deep to short, and suddenly #5 is lighting it up on third down conversions...but settling for FG's. Eagles only get possession for 20 minutes...but somehow get the game tied at 12-12 and into OT. That's when the Beer Truck  (FB Owen Schmitt) hits the play of the night with a 30-yard rumble on a checkdown. Hearts are broken in OT:  Birds 15, Redskins 12...

Woooo!  Somebody get me a brewski... that was an out-of-body experience!  Sorry to be a downer...and I may be completely off base. But that was my vision of what will go down beneath the Beltway on Monday night.   The main point is: it will be close...and could go either way.

RHH: BONUS QUESTION - Philadelphia or New York Giants for the division title?

EE: Philly or New York for the Division Title?  I've gotta say "Way Too Early to Even Pretend To Know"... because (A) the Redskins are still in control of their own destiny in the NFC East; (B) Philly still has 5 divisional games to play and is currently 0-1 in the Division; and (C) Dallas is now motivated to spoil all three of its divisional rivals'  hopes with a second-half turnaround. ---I've been around long enough to see crazy things happen---and it would not surprise me if Dallas (currently 1-7)  rallies and finishes 8-8, basically turning the NFC East into a lottery for the title.  I anticipate a wild, mathematically determined finish, regardless of what Dallas does.  It will probably be based on tiebreakers. And it could very well involve all three teams--- the Giants, Eagles and the Redskins. The bigger question to me is: can our Division get a wild card entry, too?  Now that would be something!

Thomas Jackson is a long-time blogger colleague covering the NFC East since our days with the old Most Valuable Network. He and his Eagles Eye team provide excellent analysis of the Philadelphia Eagles and are always an enjoyable read. Find my answers to Tom's questions about the Redskins at Eagles Eye here.

Go take a look. We'll be here when you get back.

The next Redskins Hog Heaven Bye Week debate asks what if the Washington Redskins used their draft picks differently than trading them to Philadelphia for Donovan McNabb. Whew! Talk about a discussion.

Greg Trippiedi: Better off using the picks than to trade them

Without a doubt, this topic gets at the essence of what is wrong with the 2010 Redskins.

Redskins fans as a group find solace in pointing out how the franchise has never had a "real" quarterback in the mold of a Tom Brady or a Peyton Manning or Drew Brees or Philip Rivers, at least not in most of our lifetimes.  This, however true it may be, has caused the jump in logic that the quarterback problem in Washington is the primary reason that the Redskins have been a losing franchise since Joe Gibbs' first retirement.

That part isn't true.  Quarterback play has had very little to do with the failures of the franchise over the long term.  The Redskins have had numerous passing leaders since 1993 when Mark Rypien lost his stranglehold on the job.  Here are all quarterbacks to lead the Redskins in single season passing year to year since then:  Heath Shuler; Gus Frerotte; Trent Green; Brad Johnson; Tony Banks; Patrick Ramsey; Mark Brunell, and Jason Campbell.

Shuler and Banks weren't good quarterbacks, admittedly, but neither led the Redskins in passing for more than just a season.  Green was a good quarterback on an absolutely dreadful football team.  Ramsey was an average performer with crystal clear deficiencies that Gibbs couldn't fix.  Every other player on this list had a really good year as Redskins quarterback: Frerotte in 96, Johnson in 99, Mark Brunell in 05, Campbell in 08.  Those quarterback seasons are...very spread out, which is why the Redskins have been unable to find *1* guy to be the QB of the Redskins.  But the big point is that: they occurred, and have continued to surface with different players time and again.

So the very notion that the acquisition of Donovan McNabb would solve a problem that never existed was minor lunacy.  That he'd pull some miracles with this supporting cast: absolute lunacy.  That he'd be able to do it with no concessions whatever from a coaching staff that had (and has) accomplished nothing in Washington, wow.  In a word: Shanahan.

We can see now how misguided and hubris-motivated the McNabb trade was, if you couldn't at the time.  There are differences in the way that Jason Campbell and Donovan McNabb approach and handle conflict, but if at any point Kyle Shanahan concluded that Jason Campbell couldn't execute the system he wanted to run, it made little sense to get McNabb, who has the same deficiencies plus some in the accuracy category.  This point was made by Mike Tanier of Football Outsiders (an Eagles fan and McNabb expert) in a pre-season interview he did with Hogs Haven:

"I am saying that the team could have gotten a veteran placeholder AND a quarterback of the future instead of spending draft picks on a short-term solution. And I don't doubt that McNabb will be better in 2010 than any of the other options available. The concern is about 2011, 2012, 2013. There is no quarterback of the future whatsoever, which is a real problem when your starter is in his 30s and has had a lot of injuries in recent seasons.

"As for who is and who isn't a traditional WCO quarterback, I am as big a supporter of McNabb as you'll find in Philly, but if you are worried about accuracy on short passes and a slow trigger, I have some bad news for you.

"The bad news is that you said 'Campbell is the furthest thing from a WCO QB, which was evident with his slow release and problems with accuracy.' That was your argument as to why Shanahan shouldn't have kept Campbell around for another year while developing a Clausen or Colt McCoy. By those standards, McNabb is hardly the prototypical WCO quarterback, either. Of course, McNabb is a better quarterback, for 2010, than Campbell. The crux of the argument remains that the Redskins have no plan for when McNabb takes the next step toward breaking down. The Eagles, who know him better than anyone else, started planning three years ago. The Redskins should have started planning in April, or (better) recognized that they aren't a Win Now team and passed on him."

Any small amount of critical thinking could have saved the Redskins the trouble as this was never a good move from the beginning.  What this teaches us is that there is someone high in this Redskins organization who lacks critical thinking ability.

There may have been a better option to trade those picks for in terms of veterans, but I think it was imperative that the Redskins had kept those picks.  That second rounder could have been Colt McCoy had the Redskins wanted to add some quarterback help should Jason Campbell had been unable to pick up the Shanahan system and Rex Grossman needed to actually lead this team into the regular season.  But they also could have passed on quarterback for the time being, and got a quality defensive player such as Nate Allen or Torrell Troup, or a running back to fix the biggest offensive weakness or an interior guard.  Any of those choices would have been more productive than McNabb, and the Redskins would still have a third round pick in next year's draft.

I like McNabb as a quarterback and a leader.  He reminds me a lot of Jason Campbell in both of those ways.

Anthony Brown: Anquan Boldin was an intriguing possibility

I agree with everything Greg says above, which screws up the debate content of this post. Second and third round picks are how you source offensive linemen. But if picks had to be traded to support a "win now" approach, then a wide receiver would have had immediate impact. Two players could have breached that chasm on the Redskins: Brandon Marshall and Anquan Bolden.

Here's how the off-season deals for those players went down.

The Redskins trade their 2010 second round draft pick and their 2011 third/fourth round pick to Philadelphia for Donovan McNabb.

The Ravens traded their 2010 third and fourth round pick to the Cardinals for Boldin and for the Cardinals' 2010 fifth round pick. The Ravens agreed to a three year, $25 million contract extension for Boldin.

The Dolphins traded their second round picks for 2010 and 2011 to the Broncos for Brandon Marshall. The Dolphins agreed to a four year, $47.5 million contract extension for Marshall with $24 million guaranteed.

Donovan McNabb will be 34 years old this month. Boldin is 30. Marshall is 26.

And here's one other important factoid: Santana Moss (31) will be an unrestricted free agent in 2011.

Whatever the offensive scheme, any pro football team needs two wide receivers who can combine for 150 receptions, 1800 or more yards and 16 or more touchdowns.

Boldin or Marshall could compliment Moss for a wide receiver one-two punch. Boldin is the superior win-now choice as much for his maturity and strength of leadership as for his catching abilities. Boldin is having the better year for scoring (5 TDs) than Marshall (1 TD).

Marshall brings size (6-2, 230 lbs.) and youth (and immaturity) to the table to compliment Moss this year and to replace him if Moss walks at the end of the season. Marshall played for Mike Shanahan in Denver, which may be a factor in why he's not here now.

I would pick Boldin over Marshall, while understanding that the roster won't get younger if he's on it. Boldin's deal can be more easily folded into the next salary cap than Marshall's and his intangible value over Marshall is solid.

If you read these pages last August, you already know that McNabb brought modest improvement over Jason Campbell. The well in Washington was poisoned for Campbell so he had to go, but can we agree that he could have been more successful with Boldin or Marshall and Moss as targets?

Trade picks to Philadelphia for McNabb crippled the Redskins' effort to deal a second round pick to San Diego for WR Vincent Jackson.

Redskins Hog Heaven: Terrell Owens and Freddy Mitchell bashed Donovan McNabb for his Super Bowl performance in Super Bowl 39. Did Donovan McNabb choke in that game?

RHH: A medical thing? I don't find reference to that anywhere.

RHH: Is Donovan McNabb done as an elite quarterback? 

Doubt and uncertainty about the Washington Redskins rode in on the back of Mike Shanahan's decision to bench QB Donovan McNabb in the last two-minutes of the Detroit Lions game. Is the damage irreparable? Redskins Hog Heaven analysts Greg Trippiedi and Anthony Brown debate the issue.

Greg Trippiedi: Cooler heads will prevail

Donovan McNabb can achieve success with the Washington Redskins, and I think he can achieve success with the Redskins in 2010.  Still.  I mean, knowing McNabb's contract situation and shaky status as the teams "unquestioned" leader, there is no tomorrow for Washington and McNabb.  It's an eight game career, as far as this organization and its current quarterback go together.

The Redskins made an error with McNabb in reversing his read progression from deep to short.  McNabb was an efficient quarterback in Philadelphia reading short to long because his arm strength allowed him to wait out the deeper routes and put the ball over the top.  What the Redskins have essentially done on those longer developing plays with McNabb reading deep first is that they're giving him only a partial picture of what the defense is playing.  This passing offense doesn't have a motor because the seven-step game has only deep elements in it.

There's no chain-moving factor in the Redskins passing game.  There are shorter, high-completion passes, but those are the simplistic routes that don't work in third downs.  The Redskins no longer run the long crosses, halfback angles, and speed outs of the west coast passing game that made converting third downs a simple execution issue.  Their best plays in third and short involve the ball being thrown down the field into coverage, which are low percentage plays.  Too low.

Every part of this is correctable.  They don't need to run all these long to short plays to get these big plays.  They can rely on the west coast concepts in the Kyle Shanahan playbook to get those chains moving and open up the running game, then bringing the bootleg game off that.  Good adjustments by the coordinator will make McNabb a better player.  And we know from his Philadelphia days that McNabb can run that offense.  McNabb's career average line is 59% completion, 18 TDs, 8 INTs, 7.0 yards per attempt, and a 7% sack rate.  McNabb is there in yards per attempt and sack rate, and he's close in completion percentage.

What the Redskins need to rectify is the amount of INTs he's tossing for the lack of TD opportunities he has.  The read system is backwards and counter-intuitive and it's confusing and befuddling McNabb.  There's no reason for it.  Sheer probability sees many more TD opportunities for McNabb in the second half of the season that he will need to execute, particularly in the red zone.  If they simply fix the read progression so that everyone is on the same page, McNabb's interceptions will drop and his production will improve.

In the end, common sense is going to win out and McNabb will have a very good second half of the year.  I do not believe it will be enough to earn him a long-term extension, because the failures of the first half of the year are going to loom large in the mind of the Shanahan's.

Anthony Brown: Issues exposed and fixable

Donovan McNabb cannot possibly have success with the Washington Redskins. Not after head coach Mike Shanahan showed his utter lack of confidence in McNabb to pull out a last-minute win in Detroit.

We haven't seen a quarterback benched like this before in Washington. Never. Not ever. Not since:

• Joe Gibbs benched Patrick Ramsey for Mark Brunell in the first game of the 2005 season, or
• Joe Gibbs benched Mark Brunell for Jason Campbell in the 2006 season, or
• Marty Schottenheimer benched Jeff George for Tony Banks in the first game of the 2001 season, or
• Joe Gibbs benched Jay Schroeder for Doug Williams in the last game of the 1987 season in the run up to Super Bowl 22.

That's not to mention Steve Spurrier's numerous quarterback switches between Shane Matthews, Danny Wuerffel and Patrick Ramsey in 2002-2003.

Quarterbacks are players. Players are benched. Thus, quarterbacks are benched sometimes.

I'm supposed to take the con argument in the debate whether Donovan McNabb can be successful after Mike Shanahan benched him in Detroit. The con arguments, as above, don't stand up unless one resorts to exaggeration and hyperbole.

Like saying, we've never seen this kind of thing before. Only we have. Mike Shanahan once benched John Elway and he ended Jake Plummer's career by benching him for Jay Cutler.

My ex-wife says I'm not very bright. Maybe that's why I recognize brain farts when I...hear one. Shanahan had a brain fart in Detroit. Let it go at that.

The Shanahan-McNabb relationship may not be damaged beyond repair, if at all. There are issues, however.

Communication - Shanahan thinks he cautioned McNabb that he might be pulled under certain conditions. McNabb thinks he did not hear him. Lets not attribute this to malice (or racism). Taking different meaning from the same words is a common communication problem. It's fixable, so fix it.

Trust - is something that comes with time. When persons know each other--what they value, how they think, how they act under different circumstances--they have a basis for unison of purpose. Working together becomes easier. We know now that Shanahan has trust issues. This may be something Shanahan, not McNabb, has to work though.

Here's a football secret. Pay attention. In a quarterback-driven era, teams do not need great quarterbacks to win. The Baltimore Ravens won a Super Bowl with Trent Dilfer. The New York Giants won with Eli Manning, when Eli wasn't very good. They beat the Tom Brady-led New England Patriots to do it. The Oakland Raiders reached a Super Bowl with Rich Gannon and the Carolina Panthers did it with Jake Delhomme. With the exception of Brady, McNabb is better than that bunch.

Greatness is not the key. The great teams have quarterbacks in tune with the coach at the right moment in time.

After Detroit, Mike Shanahan and Donovan McNabb know each other a little better. Weak partnerships will fracture over an incident. Strong ones just get stronger. I'm betting that two high achievers can get stronger. Thus, there is no reason why this can't work, if McNabb and Shanahan work on it..

Unless you are superstitious. If you are, there is reason to worry.

Donovan McNabb wears the same jersey number (5) as Heath Shuler. McNabb is doomed!

Sports Illustrated sends a heads-up that their next issue (Nov. 15, 2010) tackles the Bogus Championship Series that props up this path to the fake national championship. The money interests that prop up the BCS are the non-profits that own the major Bowls, the major conferences and very well paid Bowl and conference executives.

The smaller Bowls in the series lose money and are subsidized by the major Bowls. Participating teams lose money according the anecdotal evidence in the article.

Abolishing the BCS and moving to a NCAA Football playoff system is a campaign of mine, so I'm about to do what SI hoped I would do when they emailed this information to me. I've shamelessly cut & pasted their information in this post. Here's what's coming in the SI story:

"The strong cases made by [Oregon, Auburn and TCU] and the seemingly inevitable, end-of-season BCS chaos suggest that a change in college football is necessary, as summed up by the heading Playoff: How (and Why) the BCS is Blocking What College football Needs. Senior writer Austin Murphy (si_austinmurphy) worked with Dan Wetzel (who co-wrote the highly-regarded Death to the BCS with Yahoo! Sports colleagues Josh Peter and Jeff Passan) to make an impassioned plea for a revised postseason format.

"Back in 2005, Big Ten commissioner Jim Delany told Congress that "an NFL-style football playoff would generate three or four times" more than the BCS, i.e. $700 to $800 million annually to be distributed among the I-A conferences. When Murphy and Wetzel try to make sense of how things currently are, they end up describing a business model that cannot sustain itself (page 42): "Most conferences pool all their bowl payouts, using the bigger-money BCS games to cover the losses incurred in the smaller games. Thus does the Rose Bowl help subsidize the Little Caesars Pizza Bowl - a bowl bailout system that indeed spreads the wealth. Bowl directors privately admit that fewer than half the bowls could survive without the financial support from the schools. Meanwhile, the sad sack programs that fail to qualify for a bowl often end up in the best financial position. As former Michigan AD Bill Martin said after the 2009 season, 'The fact we didn't go to a bowl game the last two years means we actually made money.'"

"Murphy and Wetzel also shed a light on the money-making traditionalists - namely bowl executives and the highest-profile conference commissioners, ADs and coaches - that are eager to maintain the status quo. Here are several reasons why this group of power brokers wants to keep things the way they are:

"· Bowl games enjoy tax-free, not-for-profit status despite generating money: "The Sugar Bowl finished 2007 with $37 million in assets and turned an $11.6 million profit. What's more, the Sugar Bowl accepted $3 million from the Louisiana state government-this a year before it was announced that the state was running a $341 million shortfall in its budget."

"· Bowl executives are handsomely compensated: "Working for bowls is a great gig, if you can get it.... The money is excellent, even for such inconsequential games as the Kraft Fight Hunger Bowl, whose executive director, Gary Cavalli, is unlikely to go hungry, having pocketed $377,475 in 2009. Cavalli, of course, is a bargain compared with Sugar Bowl CEO Paul Hoolahan, who made $607,500 in fiscal 2007."

"· The majority of a bowl's revenue goes to the bowl, not the participating schools: "The 2007 Chick-fil-A Bowl generated $12.3 million in revenue but paid out just $5.9 million total to the participating schools, Auburn and Clemson."

"· Schools profit little from bowl games, even if they're BCS bowls: "The $18.5 million [Ohio State received for making the Rose Bowl last January] went to the Big Ten, where it was added to a pool of bowl revenue that was then sliced into 12 shares - one for each team, one for the league office. That still left Ohio State with a tidy $2.2 million to spend, which the Buckeyes did. Ohio State's team travel costs were $352,727. Unsold tickets ran the school a cool $144,710. The bill to transport, feed and lodge the band and cheerleaders came to $366,814. Throw in entertainment, gifts and sundry other expenses and the Buckeyes lost $79,597."

"· Bowls profit off of the teams that play in them: "Halftime entertainment at the Jan. 1, 2009, Outback Bowl was provided by the [Iowa] Hawkeye Marching Band. And how did the Tampa Bay Bowl Association, which runs the game, thank the band for that gratis performance? By charging the university $65 a head for each of the 346 band members. According to university records submitted to the NCAA, the school was forced to purchase face-value tickets totaling $22,490 for the band, even though the game wasn't sold out."

"○This includes required ticket agreements: "For their appearance in the 2009 Orange Bowl, Virginia Tech and the ACC agreed to purchase 17,500 tickets at $125 per seat, but they could sell only 3,342, according to university documents. The result: a $1.77 million bath for the school, not the bowl."

"· Bonuses for certain coaches/ADs that make bowls: "Coaches land tidy bonuses for even minor-bowl glory. ADs, too, reap a windfall for a bowl invite. The going rate: one month's extra salary for an appearance in even the lowliest game. Oregon's Rob Mullens receives $50,000 if the Ducks go bowling. Kentucky's Mitch Barnhart collects $30,000."

So if you are interested, get the next Sports Illustrated. Whatever else you do, don't call this thing the "national championship." It's the BCS champion and it's bogus.

Ex-Redskin of the Week: Rep. Heath Shuler (D, NC), U.S. House of Representatives

There were plenty of candidates for ex-Redskin of the Week this week. It's November, so Norv Turner is winning. Jason Campbell led the Raiders to a win over the Chiefs. Gregg Williams' defense handled the Panthers, though that's not saying much. Even with a bye, Denver's Brandon Lloyd is the league-leading receiver, and I hate him for it.

Hog Heaven goes outside of athletics to the somewhat more important sport of national politics. This week's candidate was a candidate. Heath Shuler, a Democrat, survived last week's Republican onslaught to win re-election to his U.S. House seat representing the 11th District of North Carolina. He won with 54 percent of the vote, far higher than any fan contest he would in around here.

Here's what caught our eye. Shuler, a conservative Democrat, thinks his party would be better served by replacing Nancy Pelosi with conservative leadership in the House--leadership that just might include Heath Shuler. He made his case with a Redskins reference, to wit: "We weren't successful with me at quarterback, so I lost my job."

For that statement recognizing the cultural significance of the Redskins in Washington, Shuler wins my vote as Ex-Redskin of the Week.

Ex-Redskin of the Weak: None

Point after: OMG! I just noticed that Heath Shuler wore jersey No. 5. McNabb is doomed.

Wade Phillips has been a winner everywhere he has coached. He sports an 82-61 overall record in 11 years of coaching, including 34-22 in his three and a-half seasons with the Dallas Cowboys. Somebody had to pay for the delightfully dreadful disaster that befell the Cowboys' 2010 season, so Phillips had to go, record notwithstanding.

The Cowboys have a lock on fourth place in the Beast. Thus, the door is open for third place in the division for the Washington Redskins, barring a second half collapse.

That's not to be taken lightly. The NFC East has sent three teams to the post-season more than once. With the state of the 2010 NFC, that can possibly happen again, even for a team that finishes 8-8.

Enough about us. This post is about them, the Cowboys, Jerry Jones and Dan the man.

Dan Snyder persisted in emulating Jerry Jones' failed methods of building playoff teams. But Snyder did it without copying Jones' practice of making himself answerable to the media and the fans for decisions everyone knows he makes.

When it became obvious over the weekend that Dallas players quit on the season, Jones took direct action. He fired the coach. He did it without guile or unnecessary embarrassment to Phillips. Then Jones stood before the fans, through the media, to explain his decision. He did it without front men.

Yes, Jones is open to criticism that he installed Jason Garrett as interim coach when many feel Garrett is as responsible as anyone is for the Cowboys' predicament. Jones is accountable for how Garret got to the offensive coordinator position and for bringing in Terrell Owens that may have hastened Bill Parcells departure from the team.

You can accuse the Jones family of so hyping the 2010 Cowboys that they unhinged the players. Jones can be accused of mismanaging the football side of his franchise and of many other things. Failure of leadership is not one of those things.

Holding others accountable is the most important gift an owner can give his team.

Not that I am making comparisons to any other franchise owners in similar positions in the recent past. I really don't have to, do I?

Point after: I have the sense that Jones was not so sanguine when he spoke to his employees (the players) as during his press conference. I would loved to have been a fly on the wall. The story will trickle out as it always does, but I imagine Jerry's comments went along the lines of "there are eight games left and I expect you mo'fo's to win all of them to finish 9-7." Don't be surprised to see one or two players cut before the season closes to reinforce the point. Watching someone get fired is incredibly motivating to those who survive. Watching too many people get fired crushes a group.

Just to rub things in, we rerun that pizza commercial featuring Jerry and Dan and hyping the site of the next Super Bowl.