Cowboys Blog Official

From Conditioning to Clinching

The media has pegged the Eagles to win out in the NFC East...again, and that is not a far fetched prediction, will it happen? That's another question. The East could be one of the most competitive divisions in the league and the East promises to be an all out rumble this year and players better be well coached and conditioned if they want to make that run to the playoffs.

What's it going to take to clinch the NFC East this year? Without a doubt the Eagles have dominated the East for several years, but the Cowboys are gaining ground and will be right on their tails if not better in 2004, not to mention, its only a matter of time before Gibbs whips the Skins back into shape. The Eagles know this, and are running out of time - the window is closing on them. So, what do the Eagles do this offseason? They sign Terrell Owens and injury prone DE Jevon Kearse. Signing these two marquee names does not guarantee anything, lets not forget that the Eagles lost some core leaders like CBs Troy Vincent and Bobby Taylor, RB Duce Staley also jumped ship.

One key to victory this year will be conditioning, and the Cowboys have one of the best, if not THE best conditioning coach in Joe Jurasek. Under Jurasek the Cowboys have had less injuries than the rest of the East. With a better head coach and retooling of the starting lineups the Cowboys will rely on Jurasek's conditioning program to enable our guys to outlast the rest of the division.

Its early in the preseason, and teams like the Redskins and Eagles have already incurred major injuries to key players that will have them out for the year.

In Washington, they lost OT Jansen to a season ending injury, this will only hurt the Skins already weak offensive line, do not expect newly acquired RB Clinton Portis to have the same level of success in Washington as he did in Denver. Talent at RB does make a difference and there's no doubt that Portis will be dangerous, but he will only be as good as his line is this year.

The Eagles have already lost key players like ND Kalu, Grasmanis, Buckhalter, Ike Reese, and Trotter to name a few.

The Cowboys have a lot of positives that could help them make a serious run at clinching the East and another trip into the playoffs, the key could come down to conditioning.