• Montrae Holland checked in at 20th among all guards in terms of pass protection efficiency, allowing some sort of pressure on 2.5% of pass plays.  This confirms my thought that Holland was very underrated this year. Kyle Kosier was 33rd at 3.2%.  He was just a league-average guard in 2011.

• Phil Costa was 29th in the NFL among centers with 2.7% pass protection efficiency.  He really shouldn’t start in 2012, although he probably will.

• Romo finished the season fourth in the NFL in passer rating at 102.5, behind only Aaron Rodgers, Drew Brees and Tom Brady.  That includes a 104.4 rating in the fourth quarter. . .not bad for a "choke artist."

• Taking away drops, spikes and throw aways, Romo's completion percentage was 73.5%.

• On deep passes of 20+ yards, Romo completed 54.8% of his attempts.  That was second in the league to Aaron Rodgers, but only 11.9% of Romo's passes traveled that long--good for only 13th in the league.  He threw 13 touchdowns and only two picks on deep throws.  I've been saying for years the Cowboys would benefit immensely from more deep passes.

• Romo was under pressure on 30.7% of dropbacks, which was 13th highest in league, but completed 56.7% of his passes in these situations.  That was second-best in the NFL to only Drew Brees.

• Cowboys quarterbacks had a 110.8 passer rating when throwing to Dez Bryant, which was the 16th-highest of any receiver in the NFL.  Romo threw three of his interceptions when targeting Bryant.

• I have seen some criticisms of Miles Austin lately, even from "expert" Dallas-area writers.  Don't listen to it.  Austin's only problem has been staying healthy, as Romo posted a 117.8 rating when throwing to Austin, including zero interceptions.  That rating is good for 11th among all receivers.  Austin is an elite wide receiver who will have a monster 2012 season if he stays on the field.

• Puzzling to me are Austin's drops.  After a 2010 season in which he struggled with dropping passes, Austin let four more get through his hands this season.  That isn't an enormous amount, but it was 8.5% of catchable passes and good for just 37th in the NFL.  I think this is a small sample size at work, though, as just one less drop would shoot Austin up to 23rd.

• Meanwhile, Bryant tallied only one drop all season--second-best in the NFL of any receiver who played 25% of his team's snaps.  Only Golden Tate caught every pass possible.

• Laurent Robinson caught 58.8% of deep passes (20+ yards) thrown his way, good for third in NFL.  Austin was 10th at 50.0%, and Bryant 29th at 36.8%.  These numbers are misleading, as Robinson is very rarely the first read on plays.  If he is thrown to, chances are he's fairly open.  Bryant gets balls in double-coverage, and so we'd expect his deep catch rate to be lower.  Larry Fitzgerald, for example, was just 24th in the NFL at 41.2%.

• Robinson tallied 2.18 yards per route--the top number on the Cowboys.

• DeMarco Murray and Felix Jones were both solid at avoiding defenders in 2011, tallying 3.01 and 2.98 yards-after-contact/attempt.  Those rates were 10th and 11th in the league.

• Murray had 36.8% of his yardage come on runs of 15+ yards, which was the 12th-highest rate in the NFL.  Jones was 31st at 26.4%.  Again, this stat can be misleading.  While you always want big plays, a really high "big run rate" can be an indicator that a running back will regress to the mean the following season, rushing for fewer big plays and seeing a decrease in both total yards and yards per attempt.  Murray and Jones are both breakaway players, and I'd expect both of them to be around 35% in any given season.  As an example of how much these numbers can fluctuate, consider that Jones saw 44.0% of his yards come on big plays in 2009, compared to just 15.3% last season.

• Murray and Jones were 24th and 26th, respectively, in catch rate at 89.7% and 89.2%

• Murray and Jones both need to improve in pass protection.  Jones allowed a pressure, hit or sack on 6.3% of snaps he was in pass pro.  This was just the 41st-best mark in the NFL.  Murray's 9.7% number came in at 62nd in the league.

• Jason Witten dropped 3.61% of balls thrown his way (three total), good for 10th in the league.

• 13.5% of Witten's snaps came in the slot.  That was just the 17th-highest percentage for tight ends, and the rate was well behind the top 10 (all of whom played 25+% snaps in slot).

• Witten was 12th in yards per route at 1.69.

• Witten blocked on only 9.4% of pass plays, well below his rate in past seasons.  He was 18th in the NFL with 3.9% of snaps resulting in a pressure, hit or sack.  Martellus Bennett was 17th, with 3.8% of his snaps resulting in some sort of pressure.  It confirms the notion that Witten and Bennett are similar in pass protection (although Bennett is far superior as a run blocker).  Bennett blocked on 20.1% of pass plays.

• The entire offensive line was 14th overall in pass blocking efficiency, allowing a pressure, hit or sack on 18.5% of pass plays.

• Tyron Smith was the league's 14th most efficient tackle in terms of pass protection, allowing a pressure, hit or sack on just 4.0% of pass plays.  Free was 48th with 6.3%.  He also allowed 10 sacks, which was sixth-worst in the NFL.

• Montrae Holland checked in at 20th among all guards in terms of pass protection efficiency, allowing some sort of pressure on 2.5% of pass plays.  This confirms my thought that Holland was very underrated this year. Kyle Kosier was 33rd at 3.2%.  He was just a league-average guard in 2011.

• Phil Costa was 29th in the NFL among centers with 2.7% pass protection efficiency.  He really shouldn't start in 2012, although he probably will.

• Bill Nagy allowed pressure on 4.1% of pass plays, good for 41st in the league.

• Don't blitz often.  Eli Manning's passer rating against the blitz is very comparable to that when four or less defenders rush him, but the Cowboys do not have the talent in the secondary to deal with a blitz that fails.  The team should be in the business of playing aggressively while still allowing for a chance to win the game late, and yielding quick scores due to unsuccessful blitz attempts won't help.

• The 'Boys should mimic the Giants' Week 14 game plan by playing a lot of Cover 2 Man Under.  By keeping everything in front of them, the defense can maximize their chances of halting Hakeem Nicks and Victor Cruz and force either a tight end or a running back to beat them.  Although Brandon Jacobs wore down Dallas in the teams' last meeting, Ahmad Bradshaw is the more likely of the two to give Dallas fits this week.

• The Giants pass a lot out of double-tight formations, so the Cowboys cannot sell out to defend the run when they see the look.  The G-Men used a double-tight set 34 times in Week 14, so the 'Boys better be ready for it.

• The Cowboys, on the other hand, do tip their play calls via their formation, personnel package, or down-and-distance.  Jason Garrett could benefit from being a bit less predictable this week.  Garrett's predictability could be utilized to get the ball downfield with play action. But since 2009, Dallas quarterbacks have thrown for 20-plus yards on only 8.7 percent of play-action passes. And in two-plus years of passes, Garrett has called a play-action pass only eight times with 1-4 yards-to-go for a first down -- the situations when faking a run would actually work. Instead, he's called for a play-action look on 11 plays with 20-plus yards-to-go, when showing a running play is either an obvious decoy or hopeless.

• Since Jason Garrett has taken over as the offensive coordinator, the Cowboys have had well above-average offensive efficiency in every year except for 2008.

• Their best season over the last decade, as you might guess, was in 2007.  This season has fallen right in line with 2006 and 2009.

• Somewhat surprisingly, the best defenses in Dallas were in the first part of the 2000s.  Since Garrett has been in town, the Cowboys have been below-average on defense, in terms of EPA, every year.

• The first is that Garrett is overrated as an offensive coordinator because the offense improved for multiple years since 2002 and their play has been stagnant since Garrett took over.

• The other way to view the graph is that the Cowboys were bound to improve since their horrible 2002 campaign, and Garrett's ability to keep the offense around the 5.0 EPA/G mark is a testament to his ability.

• Cowboys' WP (win probability) drops from 42 to 25 (-17%)

• Cowboys' WP jumps from 42 to 52 (+10%)

• Cowboys' WP drops from 57 to 38 (-19%)

• Cowboys' WP drops from 70 to 45 (-25%)

• Cowboys' WP jumps from 38 to 66 (+28%)

• Cowboys' WP drops from 78 to 56 (-22%)

• Cowboys' WP jumps from 62 to 89 (+27%)

• Cowboys' WP drops from 88 to 67 (-21%)

• Cowboys' WP drops from 49 to 27 (-22%)

• Cowboys' WP drops from 44 to <1 (-43%)

1. Head-to-head (best won-lost-tied percentage in games between the clubs).
2. Best won-lost-tied percentage in games played within the division.
3. Best won-lost-tied percentage in common games.
4. Best won-lost-tied percentage in games played within the conference

• If the Cowboys sweep the head-to-head matchups, they are in the playoffs.

• If the Giants sweep the head-to-head matchups, they are almost assuredly in the playoffs.  They would miss out if they lose both remaining games and the Cowboys win both.

• If the teams split, the Cowboys are in if they win one of their other games.  If the Cowboys lose both of those games, the Giants are in if they win both of their remaining contests.

We very well could have taken a timeout there. We felt like we were in field-goal range. We have yard lines that we use as guidelines before the game. We felt like we were in range at that point.  Tony had them on the line of scrimmage quickly, so we went ahead and clocked it and used that as a timeout. You see so many situations where you have negative plays in those situations. We felt like we were in (Dan Bailey's) range to give him a chance to kick the game-winner. . .We felt pretty good about where we were. Once you get to that 30-yard line we felt like that was a pretty good opportunity for us.

• On average, a kicker has a 65% chance of converting a 49-yard field goal try.
• If the Cowboys gained six more yards, those odds increase to 75%.

• If the Cowboys had passed the football, there chances of giving up a sack (based on season averages) were 4.0%.  In reality, they were lower because this wasn't a "normal" game situation and Romo would be more willing to throw the ball away at the first sign of trouble than on, say, a 1st and 10 in the first quarter.

• A loss of six yards would equate to a field goal try on which kickers have displayed around 50% accuracy.

Also, note Garrett's conception of "field goal range." He has a yard line established before the game. That kind of thinking assumes a yes-or-no, black-and-white idea of a field goal attempt. Either you're in range or you're not. If we're in "range", and the kicker misses, well, that's his fault. This is a failure to think in probabilistic terms.

• Romo finished the season fourth in the NFL in passer rating at 102.5, behind only Aaron Rodgers, Drew Brees and Tom Brady.  That includes a 104.4 rating in the fourth quarter. . .not bad for a "choke artist."

• Taking away drops, spikes and throw aways, Romo's completion percentage was 73.5%.

• On deep passes of 20+ yards, Romo completed 54.8% of his attempts.  That was second in the league to Aaron Rodgers, but only 11.9% of Romo's passes traveled that long--good for only 13th in the league.  He threw 13 touchdowns and only two picks on deep throws.  I've been saying for years the Cowboys would benefit immensely from more deep passes.

• Romo was under pressure on 30.7% of dropbacks, which was 13th highest in league, but completed 56.7% of his passes in these situations.  That was second-best in the NFL to only Drew Brees.

• Cowboys quarterbacks had a 110.8 passer rating when throwing to Dez Bryant, which was the 16th-highest of any receiver in the NFL.  Romo threw three of his interceptions when targeting Bryant.

• I have seen some criticisms of Miles Austin lately, even from "expert" Dallas-area writers.  Don't listen to it.  Austin's only problem has been staying healthy, as Romo posted a 117.8 rating when throwing to Austin, including zero interceptions.  That rating is good for 11th among all receivers.  Austin is an elite wide receiver who will have a monster 2012 season if he stays on the field.

• Puzzling to me are Austin's drops.  After a 2010 season in which he struggled with dropping passes, Austin let four more get through his hands this season.  That isn't an enormous amount, but it was 8.5% of catchable passes and good for just 37th in the NFL.  I think this is a small sample size at work, though, as just one less drop would shoot Austin up to 23rd.

• Meanwhile, Bryant tallied only one drop all season--second-best in the NFL of any receiver who played 25% of his team's snaps.  Only Golden Tate caught every pass possible.

• Laurent Robinson caught 58.8% of deep passes (20+ yards) thrown his way, good for third in NFL.  Austin was 10th at 50.0%, and Bryant 29th at 36.8%.  These numbers are misleading, as Robinson is very rarely the first read on plays.  If he is thrown to, chances are he's fairly open.  Bryant gets balls in double-coverage, and so we'd expect his deep catch rate to be lower.  Larry Fitzgerald, for example, was just 24th in the NFL at 41.2%.

• Robinson tallied 2.18 yards per route--the top number on the Cowboys.

• DeMarco Murray and Felix Jones were both solid at avoiding defenders in 2011, tallying 3.01 and 2.98 yards-after-contact/attempt.  Those rates were 10th and 11th in the league.

• Murray had 36.8% of his yardage come on runs of 15+ yards, which was the 12th-highest rate in the NFL.  Jones was 31st at 26.4%.  Again, this stat can be misleading.  While you always want big plays, a really high "big run rate" can be an indicator that a running back will regress to the mean the following season, rushing for fewer big plays and seeing a decrease in both total yards and yards per attempt.  Murray and Jones are both breakaway players, and I'd expect both of them to be around 35% in any given season.  As an example of how much these numbers can fluctuate, consider that Jones saw 44.0% of his yards come on big plays in 2009, compared to just 15.3% last season.

• Murray and Jones were 24th and 26th, respectively, in catch rate at 89.7% and 89.2%

• Murray and Jones both need to improve in pass protection.  Jones allowed a pressure, hit or sack on 6.3% of snaps he was in pass pro.  This was just the 41st-best mark in the NFL.  Murray's 9.7% number came in at 62nd in the league.

• Jason Witten dropped 3.61% of balls thrown his way (three total), good for 10th in the league.

• 13.5% of Witten's snaps came in the slot.  That was just the 17th-highest percentage for tight ends, and the rate was well behind the top 10 (all of whom played 25+% snaps in slot).

• Witten was 12th in yards per route at 1.69.

• Witten blocked on only 9.4% of pass plays, well below his rate in past seasons.  He was 18th in the NFL with 3.9% of snaps resulting in a pressure, hit or sack.  Martellus Bennett was 17th, with 3.8% of his snaps resulting in some sort of pressure.  It confirms the notion that Witten and Bennett are similar in pass protection (although Bennett is far superior as a run blocker).  Bennett blocked on 20.1% of pass plays.

• The entire offensive line was 14th overall in pass blocking efficiency, allowing a pressure, hit or sack on 18.5% of pass plays.

• Tyron Smith was the league's 14th most efficient tackle in terms of pass protection, allowing a pressure, hit or sack on just 4.0% of pass plays.  Free was 48th with 6.3%.  He also allowed 10 sacks, which was sixth-worst in the NFL.

• Montrae Holland checked in at 20th among all guards in terms of pass protection efficiency, allowing some sort of pressure on 2.5% of pass plays.  This confirms my thought that Holland was very underrated this year. Kyle Kosier was 33rd at 3.2%.  He was just a league-average guard in 2011.

• Phil Costa was 29th in the NFL among centers with 2.7% pass protection efficiency.  He really shouldn't start in 2012, although he probably will.

• Bill Nagy allowed pressure on 4.1% of pass plays, good for 41st in the league.