Are the Cowboys contenders?

The Dallas Cowboys have not always lent themselves to serious analysis. How much rational scrutiny can really be applied to a team whose owner ditched both his head coach and general manager after winning back-to-back Super Bowls, then named himself to the latter position? A man whose own son, Stephen, reportedly had to physically restrain him at this year’s NFL Draft, to prevent him from selecting a quarterback his team did not need?

Not that the media outlets following this team always seem to have their priorities in order, either. The Cowboys had just recorded a stunning 30-23 upset of the Seattle Seahawks on Sunday when Jones found himself fielding yet another question about Johnny Manziel in the locker room. “I have had some very stern, succinct instructions not to mention Johnny any more from people who count,” said Jones. “Let me put it like that.”

Credit is due to whichever employee or family member brought him around to that view, although, as Ryan Wilson noted for CBS Sports, “the real story isn’t that the people around Jones talked him out of Manziel, it’s that they’re responsible for protecting their current investment, [Tony] Romo, by surrounding him by offensive linemen [selected] in the first round in three of the last four drafts.”

Zack Martin was the man the Cowboys chose ahead of Manziel this May, and there is no question that the Cowboys are better for it. Slotted straight into the line-up at right guard, Martin is being discussed as an early frontrunner for offensive rookie of the year – an award that has never gone to a lineman – while Pro Football Focus grade him as the fourth-most effective player in the league at his position so far in 2014.

He has improved a line which is undoubtedly the strength of this team. Running back DeMarco Murray has rushed for more than 100 yards in six straight games to open this season – something that only one NFL player, Jim Brown, had ever done before – which is in great part down to the lanes that are being opened up in front of him.

But the Cowboys’ old-school, run-first formula for success this season has been noted in this column before. The novelty on Sunday was not that Dallas were blocking well up front, nor even the smart job they did containing Russell Wilson on the other side of the ball. It was simply that the Cowboys showed the mettle to win a huge game on the road.

Down 10-0 in the first quarter to opponents who had lost just once in 20 games at CenturyLink Field, Dallas might easily have folded. Romo, a player with a reputation for shrinking at crucial moments, could even have been excused for doing so after he was splattered across the turf by Bobby Wagner. Instead, there he was in the fourth quarter, improvising a 23-yard completion to Terrance Williams on a key third-and-20 as Dallas marched down the field for their game-winning score.

There is still a long way to run in this season, and time yet for the Cowboys to implode from their present 5-1 record into a fourth consecutive 8-8 finish. But on Sunday night they looked like a genuine contender. No matter what shenanigans your owner gets up to, a road win over the reigning Super Bowl champs earns you the right to be taken very seriously indeed. PB

After Week Six, the Cleveland Browns are relevant

Only Dallas’s win in Seattle overshadowed what many saw as the standout result of the weekend; the now 3-2 Cleveland Browns beating - no, steamrolling – a Pittsburgh Steelers team that were 18-1 behind Ben Roethlisberger against the Browns entering Sunday.

The final score was 31-10 , making the Browns a worthy NFL franchise after Week Six. Who would have thought it? Back in August, no one had it right with Cleveland “experts” and fans jotting down their predictions checklist for 2014. On it: LeBron James coming home was the one-and-only saviour in Ohio sports, Johnny Manziel would be the Browns starter by Week Four and Josh Gordon would somehow dodge his suspension and be a factor this season. Mr James is yet to take his shot and history tells us he will reach those heights, but right now it’s all about Brian Hoyer and the head coach, Mike Pettine, who has constructed a resurgent team.

In the last six seasons, Cleveland have won 4, 5, 5, 4, 5 and 4 games. Last week they overcame the biggest road deficit in NFL history, beating Tennessee having trailed by 25. On Sunday, certainly for the first time in league history, Manziel was not seen on camera a hundred times during a game. Hoyer has now thrown for at least 200 yards in five straight games and staggeringly he did it on just eight completions in this one, including a 51-yard touchdown strike to tight end Jordan Cameron.

Since trailing the Steelers 27-3 at halftime in week one, Cleveland has outscored Pittsburgh 55-13 and Pettine admitted afterward that even the fans don’t know how to act right now. All of a sudden, Hoyer’s looming free agency in 2015 is a big deal. Is he the future? Pettine has reiterated that Manziel will be the quarterback one day, but if the native Hoyer keeps this up Cleveland will either have to pay him starter’s money or face seeing him receive a tasty offer someplace else.

There was one piece of bad news for Cleveland; centre Alex Mack, who since being drafted in 2009 has played every snap in 4,556 offensive plays, fractured his leg and looks likely to miss the rest of the season. It’s a huge blow for the offensive line with Mack the true leader of the pack.

But the fact remains, this could be a special season in Cleveland. The Browns’ next three games see them take on Jacksonville (0-6), Oakland (0-5) and Tampa Bay (1-5). Between now and Week 14 they face just one club currently holding a winning record – Cincinnati – which could be a clash to see who moves to the top of the AFC North. That definitely wasn’t on the list back in August. MW

Detroit and Baltimore setting records straight

Many of us would quite fancy a kicking job in the NFL. No tackling to really worry about, a tidy pay cheque and the potential to be a hero week-to-week. Sounds good, right? But how many people would put on a Detroit Lions uniform before attempting a field goal into the wind this season? The Lions signed Matt Prater from Denver last week having already lost faith in rookie Nate Freese and veteran Alex Henery in the early going.

Prater made 25 of his 26 field goals last season and has been with Denver since 2007, but was cut during his four-game suspension for violating the NFL’s substance abuse policy for an alcohol-related incident. Detroit were an abysmal 4-of-12 on three-point attempts before their 17-3 win at Minnesota, just their second win in the last 17 trips they’ve made there. But Prater managed to double his miss total from last year, converting just 1-of-3 which included misses of 50 and 44 yards. His 52-yard make was a welcome sight but at 5-of-15 on the year, Detroit have already missed more field goals – 10 – than any NFL team did in last season’s entirety.

The upside is the Lions’ defence, currently the best in the league which proved to a team playing without Calvin Johnson and Reggie Bush that if this particular department executes, you can go a long way. Wildly inconsistent by nature – losing to the Bills at home a week ago then sacking Teddy Bridgewater eight times and intercepting him three in this victory – a rush led by Ezekiel Ansah and Ndamukong Suh could sustain a Detroit run and help avoid what was a devastating collapse at the end of 2013.

Meanwhile, the Ravens are making headlines for all the right reasons as they move to 4-2 with the aid of Joe Flacco’s returning Super Bowl form. Throwing for five touchdowns in the first 16:03 against Tampa Bay, the 29-year-old quarterback became the fastest to that mark since the 1970 merger. The 48-17 demolition handed Baltimore their second road win of the season, as many as they had in all of 2013. Never a sleeper on defence, John Harbaugh’s waking offence makes the Ravens contenders once again. MW

Philly hint at their potential

Of the three five-win teams in the NFL right now, two reside in the same division. Alongside the Cowboys in the NFC East are Philadelphia, who made a statement of their own by thrashing the New York Giants 27-0 on Sunday night.

The Giants arrived on the back of a three-game winning streak, having apparently righted the ship after opening this season with consecutive defeats. Much credit was given to their retooled offensive line for helping to turn things around. They had allowed Eli Manning to be hit just three times in as many games, and overall had given up the seventh-fewest quarterback pressures of any team in the league.

All of which makes their catastrophic performance on Sunday that little bit harder to understand. That same offensive line gave up eight sacks on Sunday, prompting the New York Post to ask whether this was the worst blocking performance in the 89-year history of the team.

Manning was quick to take some of the blame on himself, asserting, correctly, that he had held on to the ball too long at times. But he was hardly responsible for the repeated false starts and holding penalties that plagued his beleaguered line, nor indeed the two sacks that they allowed on his back-up, Ryan Nassib, after he was pulled from the game in the fourth quarter.

It was a defeat that left the Giants two games back in the NFC East, although it was the manner of this loss, much more than its impact on the standings, that will raise questions about their ability to stay competitive in a division that is beginning to look like one of the strongest in the league.

Conversely, what will encourage the Eagles is that they have reached this point without previously having looked all that impressive. Nick Foles has thrown seven interceptions in six games, while LeSean McCoy had been averaging just 54.6 rushing yards per game, on a mean of 2.9 yards per carry, before he lit up the Giants for 149 yards on 22 attempts.

The running back’s performance reminded fans how much better this offence can still be. It is not often that you will see a 5-1 team with so much obvious room for growth. PB

Quick outs

• The boldest play of the weekend was surely Aaron Rodgers’s fake spike pass to wide receiver Davante Adams, who apparently did not even know the ball was coming.

If the rookie had been tackled in-bounds, the Packers might not have had time to run another play. But Adams did make it to the sideline, and one play later Rodgers found Andrew Quarless in the end zone. One or two older Miami fans may even have appreciated his moxie, recalling how Dan Marino pulled a similar move to beat the New York Jets all the way back in 1994.

• Some worrying moments against Oakland, but ultimately another win for the San Diego Chargers. Philip Rivers has posted a quarterback rating of 120 or higher in five straight games, an NFL record.

• Two weeks after being thrashed by the Kansas City Chiefs, the New England Patriots have sole possession of first place in the AFC East. Tom Brady has thrown six touchdowns in two games, completing 69.4% of his passes along the way. Crisis? What crisis?

• For the third time in as many years, an NFL game finished in a tie. For the third time in as many years, at least one of the players involved did not know that a tie was even possible in the NFL.

• Two more touchdown receptions for Julius Thomas this weekend, giving Broncos tight end nine already on the season. He is on pace to finish the season with a preposterous 29 scores – enough to obliterate the NFL’s single-season record for most touchdown catches, presently held by Randy Moss, with 23. PB