The joke's on Jean-Jacques

Dallas Morning News columnist Jean-Jacques Taylor is the latest to leap off the Dallas Cowboys caboose, writing "These Cowboys have become an NFL joke." That may be true, but who's laughing? The truth is the entire NFC has become a joke, a collection of 16 teams each trying to see who can look the most pathetic.

No team in the entire conference has less than two losses. That's two less then the Cowboys with 11 games left to play. The Cowboys defense has allowed 111 points this season, the best scoring defense of any team in the NFC East.

In any normal year, the Cowboys would probably be toast by now. But this is not a normal year. The Washington Redskins, for crying out loud, have the best division record at 2-0. How long you think that's going to last? In Jeff Sagarin's computer rankings, the top 5 teams all play in the AFC. The top NFC team is Atlanta, No. 7, which got pounded 31-17 by the Philadelphia Eagles last Sunday. If that's the best team in the NFC, I don't think the Cowboys should be too worried right now.

Having said that, however, next Monday night's game at home against the Giants is huge for the Cowboys. If the Boys lose that one, I'll be asking Taylor to make room on the side of the tracks.

In the meantime, however, why doesn't everyone spend a lot more time celebrating the feats of the Texas Rangers instead of fretting about the sorry state of the pro football's NFC? How about handing the Bronx Bombers their worst post-season shutout defeat in the team's storiede history? How about this: the two teams have played 27 innings in this ALCS and the Rangers have had the lead over the Yankees in 27 of them. Yes, Cliff Lee was magnificent again Monday night, but let's give the Rangers offense some credit as well. They are simply out-bombing the Bombers.