The Dalls Cowboys Injuries

     If you know me then you know how I am a huge Dallas Cowboys fan. Recently they played the Philadelphia Eagles in the last game of the regular season and lost to them. The Cowboys finished the season 8-8 and just missed the playoffs again with the Eagles going on. However in this game the Cowboy's franchise quarterback Tony Romo had back surgery and was replaced by Kyle Orton. He played very well but made an inexperienced mistake by throwing an interception late in the game to cost the season. However Tony Romo was not the only Injury this year, there were almost more injuries to count this season that the cowboys had to deal with.
     Starting off with the Cowboy's Defensive line with pro-bowler defensive end Demarcus Ware. He is a huge leader in the Cowboy defensive line but he had a hamstring injury this year and didn't participate in all of the games. Anthony spencer was one of our defensive tackles who was injured and traded to the Chicago Bears halfway through the season. The only defensive line player that might have participated in every game this year was defensive tackle Jason Hatcher. Hatcher really stepped up his game this year and became a leader on the team when we needed it but he wasn't enough. The rest of the defensive line consisted of people who I can't remember because we basically pulled them off the street because we didn't have anyone else to play. Our star linebacker and leader of the defense Sean Lee is the probably the most valuable defensive player on the Cowboy's roster. However, he suffered from a hamstring injury and a neck injury and missed several important games and when he was gone our defense suffered. We had other injuries in the defensive secondaries that had our safeties playing as corners and vise versa. Our defense was one of the worst defenses in the NFL this year. Rookie safety Barry Church made almost the most tackles this year... as the safety. It is definitely a problem when your safeties are making all of the tackles and plays on defense. Our defense put up horrible stats, several games this year our defense gave up at least thirty five points. This is horrible. If we hadn't had that many defensive injuries then we could have won many more games than we had and probably been in the playoffs.
     Offensively we did not have as many injuries but we still had some vital ones. Franchise running back Demarco Murray had a hamstring injury and missed at least three games this season. Our backup running back Lance Dunbar was also an exceptional player for a backup and he did great. However when the Cowboys played the Oakland Raiders this season he put up huge numbers but her was injured and didn't return for the rest of the season. Wide receiver Miles Austin had a hamstring injury early in the season and missed several games and never really got "back into the game" even though he returned to play later in the season. I say he never really got "back into the game" because when he returned he didn't do well at all. In Cowboy history he did great and used to be our number 1 wide receiver but this season he was kind of "a sleeper." There were other injuries as well but I think you get the point. If they hadn't been injured then they could have been there when their team, city and fans needed them.
     I wish that I could have prevented all or at least some of these injuries but I really don't know how I would have done that. I would say we could have gotten better safety gear but that wasn't a problem noting that the Cowboys are the richest team in the NFL right now and already owned proper gear. I guess the only thing that could have happened was maybe more rest. What I mean by that is that is for example if we had a offensive lineman who has been in the game playing hard for several whole long drives, he would obviously get tired eventually. It's football, it's not easy, it's very tiring and you get beat up because of how physical the sport is. Instead of leaving this player in that long, you could substitute him out with a backup for a while to get him more rest. The more tired you are, the more likely you are to get an injury. However remembering all that I have talked about so far we simply did not have enough people to substitute players in and out.
     If these injuries and some of the trades had not happened the "Dallas Cowboy nation" would have been completely different right now. The Cowboys would have probably had a better shot at beating the Denver Broncos, New Orleans Saints, San Diego Chargers, Chicago Bears, Kansas City Chiefs and many more teams that defeated the Cowboys when they didn't have all of their starters on hand. Now back to the final game of the season when the Cowboys took on the Philadelphia Eagles with the season on the line when we had backup quarterback Kyle Orton in. The game was very close until the game costing interception. Kyle Orton still played a great game and had great stats and the defense stepped up against almost unstoppable quarter back Nick Foles. If Tony Romo had been in then he could have had even more yards and stats than Orton put up as a backup. The Cowboys would have most likely won and advanced into the playoffs. The Cowboys would have played the New Orleans Saints in their first game of the playoffs. The Cowboys lost horribly to the Saints earlier in the season but this time the Cowboys would have half as many more starters they needed playing and they would have had home field advantage. I honestly do not know if they would have beaten the Saints but the season would not have just ended as another heartbreaking "Cowboys Season." If there weren't as many injuries this season then it would have changed my world and other Cowboys and Dallas fans around the world.