It feels sort of like a bye week. No Dallas Cowboys football this Sunday, but we got a victory safely banked away and now we root for the NFC contenders to lose. According to Todd Archer the best scenario for us today is the Giants beat the Redskins, San Diego takes out Atlanta, the Saints beat-up the Bucs and Green Bay crushes Carolina. If all that happens we are the #5 seed and control our own destiny. If only Washington and Atlanta lose, we slide into the #6 seed.

Sounds good to me, that's what I'm concentrating on this Sunday.

This is an open thread for the games today. Feel free to chat it up.

Mac Engel takes a look ahead for the Cowboys. 

Martellus Bennett keeps talking and keeps catching TD's, and both activities are very entertaining.  

JJT says the run defense is the key. I'm always a "win the trenches" guy, so I'm with it. 

Welcome to a festive edition of What They're Saying. An 8-4 record, complete domination of a game and ungodly amounts of turkey produces that very satisfied coma of holiday bliss. Football is entering the stretch run when pretenders fade and contenders are made, and our Dallas Cowboys are finally playing some inspired, team-centered football. They've shown a little heart and enthusiasm recently, winning does seem to cure all in sports. So let's thank the Football Gods for their early holiday present, giving us the 49ers and Seahawks in a short week. Chalk two victories up on the big board and it's on to December, where we hope more holiday good tidings await.

Let's dispense with the bad news right away so it won't be a buzz-kill. Both DeMarcus Ware and Marion Babrber got injured. Ware's knee initially looked vulnerable to a long-term thing. But, after the game, he's been quoted as saying he feels good.

"I'm good," said Ware, who had three sacks and four tackles for loss. "I was scared. Injuries are part of the game, and they usually don't happen that way with me."

He also said the same while receiving his Gobbler award and states even though he's having an MRI done, he'll be ready for next Sunday. 

"I'll be ready for this big game in Pittsburgh," Ware said.

As always, we must remain cautious until the MRI is read, but everything sounds positive now. Big bullet avoided if DeMarcus is good to go.

Meanwhile, Marion Barber dislocated his little toe but there is no break according to Dr. Jerry Jones.

Barber suffered the strange injury late in the second quarter and went to the locker room with less than a minute remaining before halftime. Owner Jerry Jones said X-rays were negative.

[snip]

"That ought to be manageable," Jones said.

The Barbarian had this to say after the game.

Ha! Psyche.

Barber, as usual, said nothing. Jerry Jones said his star running back suffered a dislocated pinkie toe on his right foot.

"I don't want to speculate," Jerry said when asked about Barber's availability against the Steelers, "but there's no way I'll rule him out."

At least they're talking about Barber possibly playing next Sunday instead of debating something more serious. But again, we need to wait for the official word.

So both injuries considered, things look positive right now while we cautiously await official word.

On to the good news, after the jump.

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The Philadelphia Eagles host the Arizona Cardinals in what will hopefully be a competitive game. Also, Texas A&M plays Texas.

This is an open thread for both games.

On Turkey Day, the Dallas Cowboys feasted on some bird, gobbling up the Seattle Seahawks 34-9 in a game that Dallas owned from the first drive. Look no further than the big uglies on both sides of the ball for the victory. Dallas owned the trenches. In the first half, when the Cowboys built their lead, Tony Romo could have taken a turkey-induced nap in the pocket and still had time to pick out receivers. Romo ate his fill of the Seahawks defense, passing for 331 yards and 3 TD's. He also wasn't sacked on the day although he pulled off a few Houdini-like escapes. Montrae Holland was an upgrade over Cory Procter and looks like he may be the replacement for Kyle Kosier we needed.

On the defensive side of the ball, the Cowboys amassed seven sacks (celebrated with turkey dances) and many more hurries on Matt Hasselback while totally frustrating the Seahawks offense. For another game, this defense comes up big by not allowing a TD and getting a couple of turnovers. DeMarcus Ware was a beast with three sacks and now leads the NFL at 15.

Mentioning Ware though brings to mind the bad news of the day, Ware's knee injury and Marion Barber's foot injury. Ware said after the game while accepting the Gobbler award that his knee felt good but they didn't want him to go back in. But as always, we'll have to wait for the doctor's report.

The skill guys did their part, Jason Witten was huge, Roy Williams and Terrell Owens got involved, Martellus Bennett caught another TD and Tashard Choice showed some skill replacing Barber.

On the field the Cowboys played an excellent football game. Off the field, we have to wait for the injury report.

But go ahead and celebrate anyway, we're 8-4, and we're playing much better football. Granted against some bad competition, but you have to play who they schedule for you. The Cowboys had no problems accepting their bird feast today.

Box score.

New open thread for the Cowboys/Seahawks game.

Open Thread

Dallas Cowboys vs. Seattle Seahawks
Sunday, Nov 27th, 2008
4:00 PM EST, TV: FOX
Texas Stadium - Irving, TX

My prediction: Dallas 34 - Seattle 13

Weather Forecast
Cloudy
69 degrees
Wind 1 mph

This is an open thread for game chat. Happy Thanksgiving!

Time to consume the turkey then watch a little pigskin. The gameplan for me is to do the feasting during the Titans/Lions game. Munch on some turkey and gravy, mashed taters, a little corn, a bunch of stuffing, some more gravy and top it off with a little pie. Then kick back and watch the Cowboys stomp all over the Seahawks.

I'll be back later today from the festivities to put up open threads for the game. In the meantime, use this as an open thread for Thanksgiving and for the early game.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Summary of Wade Phillips' press conference today.

(I didn't hear the beginning but I think he said Mike Jenkins is out for this week's game, at least he confirmed that later in the PC.) We'll know more on Kyle Kosier tomorrow (after second-opinion) as far as the season is concerned. Martellus Bennett was limited with an ankle sprain, Terence Newman was limited but he looks OK, Justin Rogers may be back this week. Pat Watkins we're not sure about, he was limited, a pain in his shoulder, the same injury has re-occurred. Tony Romo, Isaiah Stanback and Jason Witten are fine and practiced.

Newman was limited, but it was just a walk-thru practice, it's hard to be limited in that, just guys who had been banged-up. He seems to feel better than last week, I think he'll play.

Kosier's season depends on what the doctors say. We know what our docs said, we're waiting on a second opinion. (What did your docs say?) We'll wait and get the whole opinion and then make the decision. We're waiting for the other doctor.

Alan Ball might get some time with Jenkins out, possibly, Seattle goes 4-wide, you have to have more DB's with a team that does it, San Fran went 4-wides last week. We were playing Jenkins anyway some because we thought he needed to play, but he was kind of the extra back last week. We'll probably play Ball some but in special situations.

We worked Montrae Holland in some today. We're still looking at it. We're still looking at Holland playing or even starting this game. He's knows more now, I talked to Hudson and Jason, they feel a lot better now that he's been here a while. He's experienced, he started a lot of games, we feel good about where he is.

(Has Procter run out of gas, is Holland an upgrade?) We like Holland is more of what I'd say, we like Holland. We liked him but it took a little while for him to blend in and know what to do, his time is getting close to playing with Kosier out.

I expect the same effort from Julius Jones that he gave here. He's a great person, I enjoyed being around him, he's the right kind of guy. He did everything we asked of him as a player and did it the right way, I was proud to have him. He does the right things and works hard. (Will he be extra-motivated to play his old team?) That's up to him. Normally guys play well against their old teams. (Was it tough to demote him before the playoff game?) We thought it was best for the team. It was difficult because of the person he was but not because we thought it was best for team. Marion Barber came through in the game for us, he played well in the playoff game, well enough to win.

(Have you turned the corner with T.O. production-wise?) Yeah, I think we'll get 200 or 300 yards every game now. (He said he still isn't satisfied?) That's good, I'm glad, he's a competitor he wants to be the best and that's why he is the best. We'll try to do the same thing as last week.

Mike Holmgren will have them ready to play, they're certainly stronger than their record. It's more about how we play, if we play our best I feel pretty good about it. The last three games with Hasselback they had a chance to win those games. If you lose a few close games your record looks bad but you could be a good team.

Tony Romo is closer to not using the splint but I don't know. Whenever the x-ray shows he's completely well, we'll take it off.

We're not working Adam Jones in this week's practices. He's in meetings and learning the game plan and we test him and the rest of the team on it, but he's mainly doing the show team stuff. (Will he play the next game?) Yeah, I think he'll play. He said he's been working out. We'll see next week, with more practices we'll see, I think he'll be fine.

Carlos Polk has come in and caused a fumble in the Tampa Bay game, a big play, and the big play last week.

Nick Folk, I keep thinking he won't make everyone, but he does, and some were long, 47-yards. Nobody expects him to miss, I guess he will sooner or later. He is amazing in his calmness.