Winning the War

Nothing like losing the battle but winning the war.

Beaten statistically all day, the Cleveland Browns nonetheless finally let another team make the critical 4th quarter mistakes and as a result, took themselves out of the winless column thanks to a hard fought 23-20 win against the Cincinnati Bengals. In the process, the Browns may have also found themselves an identity and his name is Peyton Hillis.

For the second straight week Hillis ran for more than 100 yards, none bigger than his 24-yard run just before the two-minute warning that took the ball from the Cleveland 46 yard line to the Cincinnati 30. With the Bengals using their remaining time outs prior to the Hillis run, that run effectively sealed the win and all that was left was for quarterback Seneca Wallace to do was take a knee three times and the Browns had their first win of the season.

The Browns' win simultaneously broke a 3-game losing streak against the Bengals and halted a Bengals 8-game winning streak against the AFC North.

If you're a fantasy football player looking just at the box score, the game was a statistical mismatch in favor of the Bengals and you're happy, particularly if you started quarterback Carson Palmer or receiver Terrell Owens. Palmer was 25-36 for 370 yards and two touchdowns and the Bengals also had 67 yards running. Owens meanwhile gave the Browns' secondary fits all day. He had 10 catches for 222 yards. Based those statistics fans in both Cleveland and Cincinnati are probably wondering exactly how the game ended up as it did.

A lot of the answer to that question depends on how you want to look at things. Technically, the difference in the game was a 44-yard field goal attempt by Bengals placekicker Mike Nugent that was blocked by linebacker Scott Fujita late in the first half. The Browns, behind some timely completions from quarterback Seneca Wallace, were able to turn that block into a 34-yard Phil Dawson field goal as the half ended. It was a 6 point turnaround that was the difference in the game.

But it was really far more than that. While Owens was running wild in the secondary and screaming on the sidelines when the Bengals didn't have the ball about how the Browns' defense couldn't stop him, Palmer was making one timely mistake or another that kept the Bengals out of the end zone. Although he missed on only 11 passes, it seemed like every one of those misses couldn't have come at a worse time.

Consider, for example, what turned out to be the Bengals' last drive. Starting at their own 14-yard line, Palmer was picking apart the secondary as the Bengals made their way all the way down to the Cleveland 37-yard line. Palmer then missed a short pass over the middle to receiver Andre Caldwell and, two plays later, missed Chad Ochocinco on a short pass. Ochocinco didn't help matters by being flagged for an interference penalty and Eric Mangini didn't help matters by accepting the penalty. On 3rd and 13, Palmer was then sacked at the 45-yard line, forcing a punt with just under 5 minutes remaining. It was one of 4 sacks Palmer endured, mostly because he seemed indecisive at just the wrong moment.

But it wasn't just Palmer's strangely inconsistent play that was the difference either. Credit must go to the ability of the offense behind Hillis to put the game away with nearly 5 minutes remaining as Palmer helplessly watched.

Hillis, though, was more than just that last drive. Taking nearly as much punishment as he was dishing out, he gained the tough yards the entire day that forced the Bengals' defense to respect the run. That opened up enough of the passing game for Wallace. Let's also mention that there was another signature run for Hillis, this one in the form of a blast he put on safety Roy Williams when Williams made the mistake of trying to tackle Hillis near the shoulder pads. It knocked Williams back about 3 yards and then out of the game.

Wallace, meanwhile, continued to make a case for supplanting putative starter Jake Delhomme. If Delhomme was brought in to essentially better manage the game than the former pretenders behind center for the Browns, and he was, then serious consideration should be given by Mangini to continue riding Wallace instead. He's doing just fine in that regard.

Wallace didn't have the glamor statistics that Palmer put up but he was quietly effective anyway, hitting 18 of 30 passes for 184 yards. He had one touchdown, a beautiful 24-yard pass to tight end Evan Moore in the first half that stretched the Browns' early lead to 10-0. Wallace still makes some poor decisions, including an interception, but nothing that the Browns couldn't at least overcome this week.

As for the defense, anytime it can hold a potentially explosive offense to 20 points, it should be considered a good day. But further analysis will reveal that so much of what went wrong for the Bengals was self-inflicted on offense that it certainly isn't time yet for the defense to claim elite status.

One of the lingering questions would be how cornerback Eric Wright might respond after absorbing a week of watching countless replays of him chasing Baltimore Ravens' receiver Anquan Boldin. It was a mixed bag, at best.

It looked like the Browns adjusted their defense to give Wright a slightly less demanding role. Defensive coordinator Rob Ryan had Wright pinching up in run support and getting help while watching Chad Ochocinco. The task then fell mostly to Sheldon Brown to cover Owens. Ochocinco had only 3 catches for 59 yard while Owens ran wild. But Wright was often out of position and late on coverage and still seemed out of sorts for most of the day. Either there is something physically wrong with him or he's lost his confidence. Either way, this is a situation that will likely end up with rookie Joe Haden starting sooner rather than later.

And what would a week be without Ryan using the blitz as a sword instead of a shield and looking nearly reckless in the process? Another ill-timed blitz in the first half seemed to wake up the Bengals at just the wrong time and looked, for awhile anyway, like it was just the medicine that the Bengals' constipated offense needed.

With the Browns having taken an early 10-0 lead Ryan called for an all-out blitz on 2nd and 13 from the Bengals own 22 yard line. This time it was Brown on an island with no help and as he tripped, Owens pulled in what turned out to be an easy 78-yard touchdown pass that helped tie the game at 10-10.

The Browns' offense seemed as stunned as the crowd by that turn and on its next possession turned the ball right back over to the Bengals after Chansi Stuckey defelected a short pass from Wallace into the arms of Bengals' cornerback Leon Hall. But after a 25-yard completion to Owens, Palmer missed three straight times and then Fujita block Nugent's field goal attempt, essentially taking Ryan off the hook and the Bengals lost whatever momentum they had.

As if to prove the point, the Browns then stretched their slim halftime lead to 10 on their second possession on the back of some timely completions by Wallace, some hard running by Hillis and a few mistakes by the Bengals' defense, including an interference penalty that kept the drive alive. Hillis finished it all off with a 1-yard run.

The Browns then had a real chance to put the Bengals away midway through the third quarter when Palmer fumbled and it was recovered by Kenyon Coleman at the Cincinnati 13-yard line. But the Browns couldn't punch it in from there and settled for a Dawson 22-yard field goal that gave the Browns a slightly more tenuous 23-10 lead.

It looked even more tenuous when the Bengals marched right back but they again came up short in the red zone and had to settle for a 25-yard field goal by Nugent with just over a minute remaining in the third quarter.

Following a Browns' punt, the Bengals then put together their most effective drive. On 3rd and goal from the Cleveland 7-yard line, Palmer looked to have missed receiver Jordan Shipley in the end zone, but safety T.J. Ward pummeled Shipley with a late helmet-on-helmet and was flagged for the personal foul. Ward probably should have been ejected from the game and will surely be fined substantially. Palmer then shoveled a pass to running back Brian Leonard for a 4-yard touchdown that brought the Bengals back to within 3 points.

But the Bengals couldn't find any more after that and, as a result, look like about the third best team in the AFC North.

The win will surely put a bounce back into the steps of a Browns' team that looked like it might have to endure a very long stretch before victory would come their way. Now the trick of course is to follow it up with another win against a Pittsburgh Steelers team that will have serial offender Ben Roethlisberger back at quarterback. Things never look easy for this team but at least for one weekend nothing looks impossible.

Lingering Items--Free Agency Edition

If you’re surprised that the Cleveland Browns have been essentially bystanders thus far in the NFL’s annual late winter game of musical chairs, you shouldn’t be. And if you’re planning on trying to find a way to squirrel away enough money now to pay for playoff tickets next season, you shouldn’t be. The lack of activity on the free agency front indicates more than anything else that general manager George Kokinis and head coach Eric Mangini feel this team is a lot further away than just one or two players. It’s a refreshing assessment.

For the last several seasons, former general manager Phil Savage conditioned fans to anxiously await free agency as he took generously from that well. Savage brought the Browns Eric Steinbach, but he also brought them Donte Stallworth. Then there were the heavy investments in LeCharles Bentley and Gary Baxter, both of whom suffered career-ending injuries before getting any real opportunity to make a meaningful contribution. For reasons both good and bad, the Browns spent more money than they have to show for it.

The point is that free agency is a high stakes crap shoot with the odds heavily stacked against the teams that see it as a way to get better quickly. In the first place, the high profile players don’t come cheaply or easily. Their contracts tend to be heavily front-loaded and eat up healthy chunks of the salary cap. It’s as much a devil’s pact where a team strives for redemption while playing salary cap roulette. More often than not, the bullet in the chamber ends up being Terrell Owens.

In the second place, the value of free agency has always been suspect anyway. It can be a nice payday for certain players, but the payoff to the team is often fleeting, at best. If you are a team that needs maybe one or two players to take that next step, it can be worth the gamble. If you’re a team that is 5-10 good players away, then throwing big money to one or two players isn’t the best use of the boss’ money.

As most fans will recall, Savage was fond of telling everyone how bare the cupboard was when he came to town. While true, his constant reminders were also self-serving. Private motives aside Savage was smart enough to know that free agency was often a sucker pin placement. That didn’t stop him from shooting for it anyway in attempt to make a sea change in the talent level on the team.

The problem was that there were just too many holes to fill and not enough cap space to go around. As a result, Savage was forced to make some decisions that in the end cost the team every bit as much as it gained in the process.

The best example was last year’s signing of Stallworth. To Savage, Stallworth represented another deep threat to complement Braylon Edwards. In Savage’s rose-colored view of the world, opposing defenses would not be able to stop Edwards, Stallworth and Kellen Winslow. That in turn would open up the running game and make the offense even more prolific. It was a case of hoping that the best defense was a good offense.

It was a nice thought. But Stallworth didn’t come cheaply. He got $35 million over 7 seasons with $10 million guaranteed. When Stallworth is eventually cut, be it this season or next, the cap hit the Browns will take a substantial cap hit because the remaining value of that contract will get accelerated. If either Kokinis or Mangini doesn’t eventually complain about this millstone, that would be something worth reporting.

The other, more immediate, problem the Stallworth signing caused was that it forced Savage to forego bringing in any credible veteran help in the secondary, leaving the team with Eric Wright and Brandon McDonald as the starting corners. That might have been an acceptable risk if the linebacker-centric scheme on defense had the requisite linebackers to pull it off. It didn’t. Wright and McDonald were constantly exposed last season and responded about how one would expect to raw cornerbacks to respond.

If the Browns already had been fundamentally strong on defense, the signing of Stallworth on a team that went 10-6 the previous season would make sense. But it wasn’t a fundamentally strong team looking for a missing piece. It was a team, like so many others, still in search of several missing pieces.

Mangini and Kokinis can see this as well as anyone. They seem to have rightly concluded that this is simply not the offseason to spend big again. The Browns weren’t players in the Bart Scott sweepstakes and they didn’t give Ray Lewis a second thought. They didn’t even pursue running back Derrick Ward. Put this all together and the only conclusion to reach is that the Browns are in a multi-season rebuilding project, the goal of which is to “build this team right.”

What that means is that you’ll see more deals like the trade of Winslow. Draft picks are a far cheaper way to rebuild. You’ll likely also see some “minor” signings of role players, like the recent signing of former Buffalo tight end Robert Royal. These are the kinds of players that give a team depth, something the Browns lack, even if they don’t necessarily improve the team in the short run. This will be the operating mode for the next few seasons.

The are only two real questions that will dictate whether this strategy will work and the questions are related: will the fans have the patience to tolerate another rebuild and will Mangini/Kokinis have the patience to stick with their plan when the fans lose their patience?

It’s easy to take the long view when you’ve just been hired. It’s a lot harder when fans are calling for your head after the team suffers its third loss in four games and is headed for another 6-10 season. There will come a point that Mangini and Kokinis will want to accelerate the process with high risk/high reward Stallworth-type transaction. When the heat is at its most intense, it’s the natural reaction. It would also be the worst reaction of all.

The time will come when a deal like that will pay off. It’s not this offseason. It’s probably not the next one, either.. If Mangini and Kokinis want a greater shelf life than Savage, they should lay the ground work for the fans now, gently lower the expectations to a more reasonable level and then actually go about building this team the right way. It may not be easy, but it is the right way.

**

Free agency in the NFL always did resemble a high dollar flea market. High priced veterans end up in the cut out bins as their former teams turn their attention to cheaper alternatives. This year’s poster child is the aforementioned Owens.

Owens is the most high profile of all free agents. He’s also the patron saint of loudmouth receivers, which is the blunt way of saying that he carries some baggage. Whatever his value as a receiver may still be, and it can be substantial, even Dallas doesn’t seem his as worth the effort.

A team, any team, will tolerate the occasional odd ball as long as he produces. But it’s a fine line. In the case of Owens, he’s averaged more than a thousand yards receiving every year. But it comes at the expense of team harmony. He’s an outsized personality with a raging sense of entitlement who will throw any teammate under the proverbial bus. It didn’t take Nostradamus to foresee his exit from Dallas, just as it won’t take Nostradamus to foresee his exit from the next team that places that sucker’s bet.

The object lesson of Owens’ recent plight is that it underscores why Kokinis and Mangini are proceeding so cautiously in free agency. At this point in the team’s arc, it’s simply too risky. The near term upside simply isn’t high enough to offset the depths of the long term downside.

**

It was with some glee, wasn’t it, that Baltimore Ravens linebacker Ray Lewis overplayed his hand in free agency and had to crawl back to Baltimore to cash in? Lewis let it be known that he wanted to be anywhere but Baltimore, even telling the media that he wouldn’t give the Ravens a “hometown discount.”

But negotiation in anything is about leverage and Lewis, thinking he had it in spades, quickly found out otherwise. There simply weren’t any takers for a 13-year veteran looking for a $10 million for another three years. Consequently he and was “forced” to crawl back to Baltimore, tale between legs, for around $7 million in order to save face.

The truth is, Lewis may be an emotional presence, but that’s about it. His value has been overrated for years as others, like Bart Scott, have toiled in somewhat obscurity next to Lewis’ camera-mugging grandstanding. Despite his accomplishments, Lewis simply couldn’t convince anyone but his current employers that there was much mid to long-term upside to a 33-year old linebacker, at least at the prices he was expecting. Again, like Owens, it’s a case of teams believing that they can come close to replicating his productivity at a fraction of the price.

The real winners in all of this are the Browns and the rest of the AFC North. Lewis’ deteriorating play coupled with the cap space he occupies puts the Ravens in a bind they didn’t necessarily foresee when they first left Lewis to test the free agent waters. The best case scenario for the Ravens was that the Cowboys, for example, would way overpay for Lewis and thus relieve them with enough public relations cover for not resigning him themselves. But it didn’t happen. Instead, the Ravens were essentially forced into making a bad business decision out of a misguided sense of loyalty to Lewis because the Cowboys and the Jets suddenly got smart with their money.

The more bad business decisions the Ravens can make the better. Far better, I think, for the Ravens to cling to Lewis than keep Scott in the fold. Now if the Ravens can figure out a way to rid themselves of Ed Reed….

**

To this point, the conventional wisdom about Derek Anderson is that Savage blew it last offseason by not trading him when his value was highest. While that’s probably true, it’s also probably true that his value wasn’t nearly as much as fans believed. New England had to throw in Mike Vrabel with Matt Cassel in order to get even a second round pick from Kansas City. Cassel was good, but like Anderson, he was still a one-year wonder. All this leads to this week’s question to ponder: In light of the Cassel trade, what could the Browns really have obtained had they traded Anderson last off season? And for bonus points, in light of the Cassel trade, what could the Browns possibly obtain this offseason?

Getting Schooled

Tell your expectations to just shut up.

The Cleveland Browns, entering a season in which much, maybe too much, is expected, demonstrated that the preseason was indeed a dress rehearsal for the regular season, going down hard to the Dallas Cowboys Sunday 28-10.

The 18-point margin is deceiving. It was as complete a defeat as one could imagine. The Cowboys were able to pass and run nearly at will and did more than enough on defense in applying a hard lesson to a team that was simply outclassed. About the only Cowboy’s decision worth questioning was why, after winning the coin toss, they decided to defer their decision to the second half. With as potent of an offense as there may be in the NFL, it seemed odd that Dallas would forego the opportunity for a quick score and the tone that would set for a chance at a quick defensive stop. It mattered little. While not stopping the Browns’ offense immediately on their first possession, they stopped it quickly enough.

The Cowboys, behind quarterback Tony Romo, put together the kind of textbook 10-play 80-yard drive that had the look and feel of what could very well turn into a recurring theme for the Cleveland defense. At least it was on this day. The Cowboys initially chose not to run at the strength of the defense, instead sending running back Marion Barber to the edges. Meanwhile, Romo was a perfect 5-5 on the drive, essentially playing pitch and catch as the defense, even with several blitzes, couldn’t come close to making him sweat.

It was the start the Cowboys wanted and the Browns feared and it begged for an appropriate response. Getting that and more, quarterback Derek Anderson led the Browns on marathon 16 play, 78-yard drive to tie the game at 7-7, capped off by a two-yard toss to tight end Kellen Winslow. It was the team’s high water mark for the day. The drive was aided greatly by two Dallas penalties, the most critical of which was a third down interference call on cornerback Adam Jones, who essentially tackled receiver Braylon Edwards as Anderson’s pass was headed his way. More importantly, the drive consumed nearly nine minutes, which had the intended effect of keeping the defense off the field.

If defensive coordinator Mel Tucker used the extra time to make whatever defensive adjustments were necessary after the first Dallas drive it didn’t show. Romo, Barber and the rest of the company went right back to work, barreling through the defense with one big play after another and in short order, following a Romo to Terrell Ownes 36-yard touchdown pass, Dallas had recaptured the lead for good. On the play, Owens had two steps on cornerback Brandon McDonald. You probably won’t see a bigger mismatch in the NFL this year.

With the pace being set by the Cowboys offense, it was a rather large request to ask the Browns offense to continue to respond in kind. Indeed, after that first Cleveland drive, it was mostly just a series of fits and starts for the offense. It didn’t help that Edwards was dropping more balls than he was catching and otherwise looked mentally distracted for most of the day. Yet, you can’t lay too much blame for the loss at the feet of the offense. With most of its starters back, the offense, with the exception of Edwards, had a certain crispness at times that had eluded them throughout the preseason. But the joint pressure applied by both the Dallas and Cleveland defenses was simply too much for the Browns’ offense to overcome.

Still, with less than three minutes left in the first half, the Cowboys only had a 14-7 lead. Unfortunately, they also had the ball inside the Cleveland red zone. They used the time wisely. A hands-to-the-facemask penalty on McDonald against Owens, took the ball to the Cleveland 15-yard line. A tipped pass on first down, a short Barber run on second set up a third and six that Romo converted with a seven-yard pass to Owens. It looked like Owens had scored but the officials marked it down at the one. Cowboys head coach Wade Phillips didn’t even bother to challenge. Instead he just sent Barber in for the easy score with 26 seconds remaining in the half for an insurmountable 21-7 lead.

As the second half beckoned, the wisdom of Dallas’ decision to defer after winning the opening coin toss became apparent. But an offensive pass interference call on Owens pushed Dallas into a third and 15 on that opening series. The defense then put its first real pressure on Romo as he was forced to throw it away. With Dallas pinned back, the Browns took over after the punt at midfield with the chance it needed. Instead, they quickly went three and out. Dallas took over and put together its third long drive of the game, with rookie running back Felix Jones running straight up the heart of the defense and taking with him whatever was left of it, for an 11-yard run and a 28-7 lead.

Down 21 points and forced to all but abandon the run, the Cowboys defense was able to simultaneously lay back and tee off, denying Anderson any real chance to find the home field rhythm he possessed last season. The closest he came was late in the third quarter and early in the fourth when he led the Browns to their best drive since the first quarter, mixing in a little of his own scrambling with a little running by Lewis and a few key passes, including an 18 yarder to receiver Steve Sanders, that took the ball down to the Dallas 24 yard line.

From there, the drive appeared stalled and on 4th and 3 at the Dallas 17. Head coach Romeo Crennel then seized the moment as only he can by deciding to kick a 34-yard field goal, which kicker Phil Dawson converted. With just 10:31 left in the game, it was a bizarre decision unless Crennel was betting the “under” in some sort of coaches’ pool. As meaningless as that decision ultimately was, it nonetheless sucked whatever life was left in the stands and on the sidelines. The Cowboys then held the ball for the rest of the game. At least the crowd got an early start for the parking lots.

As lopsided as the game was, it could have been worse. Romo, perhaps bored with all the time he had to throw, made his only mistake of the game when cornerback Eric Wright stepped in front of a pass intended for Owens in the end zone. Cowboys’ coach Wade Phillips then decided to mostly sit on the ball at the end of the game with it sitting deep in Cleveland territory.

Overall, a potent Browns offense that was rolling up over 350 yards a game last season was rendered mostly impotent, running up a meager 205 yards. Without an opportunity to fully mix in the run, particularly in the second half, it was hardly a surprise. For the game, Anderson was 11-14 for 114 yards and one touchdown. Lewis, in just 13 carries had 62 yards.

Meanwhile, his counterpart, Romo played like a MVP in the making. It wasn’t difficult. On nearly every pass play, at least two receivers were open downfield and with enough time to both survey the field and wave to girlfriend Jessica Simpson squirreled away somewhere in a suite, Romo had no trouble finding them. On the day, he was 24-32 for 320 yards, one touchdown and one interception. Barber, before going out with an injury, ran for 80 yards and two touchdowns while Jones added another 60 yards rushing and a touchdown. Owens, toying with McDonald all day, had five catches for 87 yards and one touchdown. Tight end Jason Whitten meanwhile had six catches and 96 yards. Overall the Cowboys amassed 487 yards against what might be the NFL’s worst defense.

While the game may not have been a complete embarrassment, it was embarrassing enough. It also was an eye opener that demonstrated the difference between expectations and execution. It’s the latter and not the former that keeps teams playing in January. And on that count, this much is clear: the Browns still have many steps to take.

The defensive problems were well known going into the game. Nonetheless, with a rebuilt defensive line, more was expected, less was delivered. Barber and Jones ran free while Romo lounged in the backfield. It’s a scene fans better get used to.

As everyone inside and out of Berea knew, it isn’t going to be any easier in the Browns’ second week, facing a Pittsburgh team smarting just a bit from all the preseason hype coming Cleveland’s way. Though the Browns’ defense played a mostly better second half, it didn’t play nearly well enough to give the Steelers any reason to be concerned.

Last year, general manager Phil Savage made the most dramatic move of his career after the first week, jettisoning starting quarterback Charlie Frye in favor of Anderson. It was the move that ultimately turned the season around. Don’t look for a repeat performance. The Browns defense simply needs too much help.

Jerry Jones and His Deal with the Devil

It’s one thing to dodge the potholes in the road as they come along, it’s a whole other thing to put them in the road yourself. Yet that’s exactly what the Dallas Cowboys are doing by selling whatever might be left of their souls by trading for disgraced former Tennessee Titan’s cornerback, Adam “Pacman” Jones.

Assuming as we must that Cowboys owner Jerry Jones approved this pending transaction, what this proves is that Jones secretly harbors an inner desire to be the NFL’s new Al Davis. Jones, always a bit of a maverick anyway, is further confirming that status by deliberating infecting his team with a cancer that the Titans are only to happy to cure themselves of.

Sure, we’ll hear the usual manure from the usual suspects, in this case Jones as owner and as Cowboys general manager, that he’s both spoken to Pacman and is convinced he’s sincere about turning his life around. It’s essentially the same line George W. Bush used when he said he looked into the soul of former Russian president Vladimir Putin and that’s not working out too well either.

You don’t have to venture too far into the realm of the internets to appreciate the liability that the Cowboys are attempting to take on by essentially taking over the cleanup of this toxic dump. In terms of rap sheets, Pacman’s alone rivals that of the current roster of the Cincinnati Bengals. And that was before the revelation earlier this week that Pacman was paying hush money in connection with his little, ahem, incident in Las Vegas.

Anyone who listened to even a part of Pacman’s radio interview a few weeks back with Michael Irvin, himself no stranger to trouble, couldn’t possibly have come away thinking that “yea, this is the guy we need to have on our team.” Anyone, except maybe Jerry Jones. Someone get him a transcript. Better yet, to appreciate Pacman is to hear him speak, so get Jones the tape. Pacman didn’t so much as own his former troubles as diminish them by laying blame in a somewhat whimsical fashion to his completely understandable obsession with strip joints. Except he likely couldn’t spell obsession and couldn’t define whimsical.

There are any number of variables that go into putting together a successful season. Talent is a given, but it isn’t the end of the rainbow. In a sport that depends on the ability to put a large number of players on the same page, the last thing a team needs is a bunch of rugged individualists, even ones with immense raw talent. One of the great secrets to the success of the New England Patriots hasn’t been overwhelming talent, but overwhelming teamwork. Whether it’s because the players unite behind the common theme of hating head coach Bill Belichick or some other reason, the Patriots are a team first.

The Cowboys, on the other hand, seem hell-bent on disproving the notion. They brought on serial gun nut Tank Johnson while he was still suspended. They also already employ one of the biggest distractions in recent memory, Terrell Owens. All Owens has done over the years and everywhere he’s been is burn every bridge he’s ever crossed, taking a fair share of collateral damage in the process. The fact that Owens hasn’t fully torched all of Irving, Texas thus far is more luck than maturity.

Then there is the matter of the traveling circus that vastly overrated quarterback Tony Romo has become. So proud, apparently, is he of having Jessica Simpson to squire around town that he seems incredibly oblivious to the distractions he’s foisted on his teammates in the process if the little side trip to Mexico he took with the vocally-challend Ms. Simpson during last season’s playoff bye week is any indication.

Sure, Romo would be a fool not to avail himself of the opportunity that his fleeting celebrity status has given him to take the measure of Simpson on a regular basis. But every question he has to constantly answer from a press that can’t tell the difference between news and fluff—“are they engaged?” “is she really as dumb as she seems?”—is another chance he doesn’t have to concentrate on more pressing matters of the day, like how to solve the Packers secondary.

But the Owens/Romo sideshows are about to seem like the halcyon days of yore once Pacman and his entourage arrive in Dallas, which may still be awhile if NFL commissioner Roger Goodell decides he’s still offended by the fact that Pacman felt the urge to frequent a Manhattan strip joint the night before his come to Jesus meeting with the league last year.

Pacman’s mere presence is going to force virtually every person associated with the Cowboys, save maybe the third string ball boy, to constantly respond to what will surely be an endless series of Pacman-related questions. The Dallas media might tire of asking the same questions and getting the rote answers somewhere around next December, but the questions will dog the Cowboys at every stop they make during the season. And that’s assuming Pacman heads straight home after practice. Pacman being Pacman isn’t Manny being Manny. Pacman being Pacman involves late nights, people getting arrested, lawyers being retained and pleas being bargained. In other words, the chance that Pacman won’t be involved in something somewhere is roughly the same as the chance that a clock won’t tick.

Jerry Jones has always come across as the kind of guy so impressed with himself that there is no problem too large for him to handle. Pacman promises to test the depths of Jones’ seemingly unlimited supply of self-esteem and the utter patience of Cowboys fans that have been sorely tested the last two seasons.

This all is good news, of course, for the rest of the NFL East. While Jerry Jones is making deals with the devil, the rest of the division is just going quietly about their business of actually improving the team dynamic.

And if this Pacman thing doesn’t quite work, there’s also some good news for Jones. Odell Thurman was recently reinstated and is probably available and Rae Carruth has to be up for parole sometime in the next several years.