I was a lucky one. I attended the game this weekend. I got to go to the Texas Stadium with my brother and his family, most of whom are Cowboy fans. I got to watch the whole game live and I got to keep my happy face on during the game. I didn’t get to rant and rage and watch the highlights played on tv over and over, which is probably a good thing for me. I did not show too much emotion in front of whole bunch of Cowboy loving fans. What did it matter? It is just a game? Right? Well not really, but sort of. It was made easier by lots of alcohol, a nice sprinkling of vocal Rams fans in the crowd, and the fact that you can’t hear the announcers in the Texas Stadium.
Six of us went to the game together. 3 Cowboy light fans, a fan of both teams, her boyfriend and me. I am calling them cowboy lights because they really don’t know football in all its complexity, or even know the current team, never mind knowing any history about the team.
I was not very impressed with the Cowboy fans. They were not friendly like most Texans, maybe that has something to do with Dallas. I didn’t hear many intelligent comments in the stands, but they do cheer for everything. They cheer for badly thrown balls, they cheer for penalties, and they cheer when Tony Romo turns a huge mistake for a big loss into a gain. They are absolutely in love with Tony Romo. He is the team to them.
The Texas Stadium is butt ugly from the outside, but pretty on the inside. It is a shallow stadium with two tiers. The stadium has a retractable roof which was left open to its full home field advantage. The sun was shining on the visitor’s side and the visiting team had on dark jerseys. The players and some of the fans including AlphaRam and BigRedMan felt the sun's powerful rays during the game. It was very humid in the stadium and hot even in my shaded seat.
There were many Rams fans in the stands and they were loud. Faulk was the favorite Ram jersey and there many Faulk fans there. I saw a few of Warner, Holt, Bruce, and Youngblood. I was wearing my Tinoisomoa jersey which was noticed by a couple of Hawaiian guys who were fond of Pisa.
My recollections from the game include some happy moments of cheering when the defense held them for three and out, some nice returns by Dante Hall, and a sweet interception in the first half. I went into half time thinking that it was good that the Rams were down by a TD and that they should be motivated and hungry for the second half. I was wrong. They stuck with the second half tradition of falling apart and handing over the game.
I did see some long balls aired out, but none of the receivers seemed able to get open. It was hard to tell if their defense was playing well or if our receivers are unable to get open. Brian Leonard got some carries, but he was not all that some hoped he would be. Welcome to the NFL Leonard. It’s a little different than the college level. The red zone difficulties continued and it was disappointing to see the interception in the end zone. I think the Bulger Bennett TD connection is jinxed. Maybe that tall receiver concept sounds too good on paper. I was surprised to see Wilkins miss another three pointer. He is struggling.
Penalties slowed momentum for the offense. A face mask penalty on the offense? That is what I thought I heard. I would have liked to seen that one up close. The play calling wasn’t horrible but running on third and long a couple of times made absolutely no sense to me. Bulger has converted many a third done in the past, but not by handing the ball off.
Gus showed up in the end of the third or beginning of the fourth and did not seem to have any impact. It’s hard to pay attention to the game when you can’t hear any announcing and the crowd is more interested in trying to get the wave to go all the way around the stadium then the actual game. Of course, with such a lead who can blame them? They were actually booing the fans on the opposite side of the stadium who let the wave die.
The game finally ended. I missed lots of the game, distracted by the crowds. Its hard to see much, and you could lot hear any of the announcing unless you went to the toilets. Being at the game actually made it easier for me, because the people I was with had never been to a Cowboy game before and they really liked the show, the cheerleaders, the flag wavers, the cheering, the win, the attempted wave and they were nice about the win. To them, a closer game would have been more interesting, and I would have to agree.
We took some pictures. I will try and post them up later when I get them. My brother has some pictures of the new stadium that they are building that he took from a helicopter. Here are a couple of pictures of the stadium from the internet so that you can see the roof.
