8 - 1

"We had trouble stopping the slant all night long. You’d think we’d never seen a slant before."

-Tom Coughlin

"I havn't been held that much since I was a baby."

-Mathias Kiwanuka, LB/DE

Well, the C'boys beat the Gmen. They "ruined the Giants celebration night." Oddly, I'm not down, but I'd like to comment a teeny tiny bit about the media. Between the pregame show on NBC and the general swirl of ideas about what will happen and what, if any, significance exists about the meeting, it really is a game that doesn't count. There are other games this first week that will perhaps have butterfly effects on the season like Jets-Bills or Broncos-Steelers. However there is a love-hate relationship with the Cowboys that makes for sensational high and lowlights. And then there's the "significance" stats: 2 billion dollar net worth for the Cowboys, 1.47 for the Giants; season opener predictions, "Giants will win because...", Cowboys will win because..."; since the Thursday-night-schedule-super-bowl-winner-hosted season opener began no host has lost in its first 8 seasons (now they have, hence, the title of this post). The list goes on and is clearly convoluted--but not the "extremely complex and hard to follow" definition (that's saved for this post). What's real? Only the games are real. Now I sense a  developing notion of the Giants being to the Cowboys what the Patriots are to the Jets, the Steelers are to the Ravens, or the Yankees are to the Red Sox.

But does it count? Does this win for the Cowboys count? It certainly is more important. Last year in the first quarter of the season Tony Romo had ribs broken against the 49ers. He went out of the game and came back to win it in OT. He followed the next week with a Monday nighter against the Redskins with a "gutsy" win. Yet last year they lost their chance to be the NFC East Division champs with some relatively poor play at the end of their first meeting with the Giants. Then they weren't ready to play in the second meeting and only showed up a little in the second half. They ended the season 8 - 8. How 'bout them Cowboys? We'll see. On offense last night, they looked really good in the last three quarters and the defense was great all night. They have a fairly rough schedule this season based on last year's winners and losers and general history. We'll see...

...and don't get me stahwted on the officiatin'.