“No question,” Kobe said Saturday when asked by our girl Gina Miller whether the trade moves the Mavs to the Lakers’ level. “I hate to say it, but it’s true. … Trust me, I don’t like it by any stretch of the imagination. But it’s a great move by (Dallas). It pains me to say it. But you guys made two great pickups.”

Puhleeze, Kobe. Everyone knows he loves to compete. I bet he gets even more excited for his next (and last) matchup with the Mavs. He lives to overcome new challenges. And that’s exactly what the Mavericks are now. A new challenge.

Here’s what Kobe had to say about Caron Butler: “You’re going to love him,” Bryant said. “I hate to say that, but you guys are going to absolutely love him. You put him on a contender and I’m telling you, you’re going to love him. And he’s tough as nails, too.”

Just How Good ARE The Mavs Now?

Mark Cuban is noticeably excited:

“It makes us significantly better,” owner Mark Cuban said. “Damp [Erick Dampier] is having problems with his knees and requires rest every now and then and we were in a spot without having a shot-blocker behind him. Drew did a great job. He laid it out there every game for us to try to fill in. Going into the season we thought that would work and it just didn’t play out as planned.

“Any which way you evaluate his performance, [Haywood] has been a top 5-to-7 center. And he’s a top-5 center defensively. This gives us a lot of flexibility.”

The question on everyone’s mind is whether this trade for Caron Butler and Brendan Haywood really makes the Mavs an elite team like Los Angeles, Cleveland, Orlando, and possibly Denver. Let’s look at the new lineup.

PG – Jason Kidd
SG – Caron Butler
SF – Shawn Marion
PF – Dirk Nowitzki
C – Brendan Haywood

6th – Jason Terry
7th – Erick Dampier
8th – JJ Barea
9th – Roddy Beaubois

Not a bad lineup, but not terribly deep at Power Forward or Center now. With Dampier injured, Haywood is the only true center on the team, leaving only Eddie Najera and Tim Thomas (if he ever rejoins the team) as the only fresh legs for to play some minutes at Power Forward or Center.

What we’ll see is a lot of rotating down, where Shawn Marion takes a break while Jason Terry or Roddy Beaubois get some playing time, shifting Caron Butler down to his natural spot at Small Forward. Or we’ll see Haywood sit and Dirk take some minutes at Center with Kidd, Terry, Butler, and Marion on the court.

Possible Holes in the Team

The biggest hole in the team is the 13 man roster. That means there are two spots on the bench NOT being used. Dallas needs to fill those roster spots this week if possible so they have a full rotation heading into the playoffs. All it would take is one or two tweaked ankles in the Power Forward or Center spot and the Mavs would have no hope for playoff advancement.

Dallas is guard heavy and forward light, as far as the number of players available to play each position. Terry, Barea, and Beaubois can each play the Point Guard or Shooting Guard position. No worries about those two positions. Matt Carroll and DeShawn Stevenson are both shooting guards who will likely never play.

The money’s been spent on starting big men, which means Dallas has no real backup plan in case of injury. Tim Thomas is nowhere to be seen these days, Eddie Najera is a defensive threat but not a scorer.

Pick up two Power Forward / Centers while you can and this team has a shot.

Ready to win tickets to the Jam Session? Today is your last opportunity! Fans should follow Time Warner Cable’s employees on Twitter: @MelissaTWC_TX, @GnaiTWC_TX and @MsmarTWC. They will be tweeting out one NBA trivia question today, February 10th. If you answer the question correctly, you will be entered for a chance to win a set of 4 tickets to NBA All-Star Jam Session.

Irvin’s show continued an extra month (a little bizarre) and just happened to be officially canceled following the press release that Irvin has been accused of rape. It’s apparently a two year old charge, but one which, nonetheless, will garner a lot of attention during Super Bowl Weekend.

In case you’re inclined to believe ESPN that it was a simple matter of not renewing a contract, let me reference again Barry Horn’s DMN article where he says:

On the flip side, rumors have been circulating for weeks that Irvin and ESPN soon would be splitting. Never a threat to overtake The Ticket in the 11 a.m.-to-2 p.m. time slot, Irvin’s show has found itself in a ratings battle with Newy Scruggs and Richie Whitt of “The Fan” KRLD-FM (105.3).

Irvin has heard the rumors, too. So he walked in to his bosses at ESPN radio and asked if they had plans to end his show.

“They said they did not,” Irvin said.

Pete Dits, 103.3’s general manager, confirmed the conversation.

“We both agreed that we like being on the same team,” Dits said Friday afternoon. Dits acknowledged that better ratings remain a goal but that the show has drawn a “very healthy” number of total listeners.

As of today, Ben and Skin now fill the lunchtime slot. While this is purely conjecture, I assume that the reason the show is gone is because the radio ratings weren’t worth the headache of Super Bowl Week scandal.

Would ESPN Radio send Michael Irvin and Kevin Kylie to Miami to broadcast live from radio row this week if they planned to cancel them before week’s end? I don’t think so. This is controversy laden.

Despite Michael Irvin’s statement, “Radio is my pleasure and purpose. I am going to grow my show. I am not going to let anyone stop my show” – Irvin’s radio run in Dallas is over.

Best of luck to Kevin Kylie, Irvin’s cohost.

According to Barry Horn at 10am this morning, “Irvin’s other employer, NFL Network, told me earlier this morning they had not decided if Irvin would work any more Super Bowl studios.”

As I did with last week’s game, I will break down each of the three “Romo Friendly” keys for victory and see how well (or how badly) the ‘Boys did in achieving each. Hopefully this analysis will allow us to see the reasons why the Cowboys were beat so soundly.

Key #1: Balance

As with last week, I said the Cowboys needed to remain balanced and stay within a 55-60% pass play rate. Against the Vikings, the Cowboys ran 66 plays and only ran the ball 25 times. That leaves us with a total result of 62.1% pass for the game. Now, while this pass rate is clearly above the bounds I set for this key, keep in mind that the Cowboys entered desperation mode in the fourth quarter and went very pass heavy in order to try and make it a game.

The thing to take home here is that Garrett did not abandon the run completely as he has done in previous losses. I was actually rather pleasantly surprised to see Garrett stick to the run while opening the second half. Typically, this would be a situation in which Garrett knee-jerks and uses the passing game as a clutch to play catch up. This time around that did not happen and the rushing game put together a respectable 92 yards on the ground against one of the best rushing defenses in the league.

You can’t completely place a blame on Garrett for passing just a little bit more than this key required. Garrett put together a decent, balanced gameplan, but it just didn’t work and the Vikings stopped it in it’s tracks.

Key #2: Tony Romo

For this key, Romo needed to try to reach for the 300 yard plateau and ensure he turned the ball over no more than once. To say that this key resulted in failure was an understatement.

Romo finished the day 22/35 (62.9%) for 198 yards, 0 TDs, 1 INT, 3 fumbles with 2 of those being lost. The critical key of protecting the ball game back to bite the Cowboys hard as they fell to 0-5 when Romo turns the ball over more than once. On top of that, Romo feel just over 100 yards short of the 300 mark.

However, it is tough to completely blame everything on Romo based on just these numbers. Despite the turnovers, it is hard to claim he was inaccurate and not trying to take care of the ball and his 62.9% completion rate attests to that. The two lost fumbles came on the result of sacks on Romo: one was flat out ripped from his arms as he went down on a sack, and the other was the result of a clean blindside shot Romo never saw coming. On top of that, Romo was sacked four more times beyond that, resulting in a total of 6 sacks given up on the day for Dallas.

Romo was running for dear life the entire game. Even his lone INT came as a result of trying to get away from the pocket collapsing around him. It didn’t seem to matter what the Cowboys called, whether it was a max protect scheme or short dump routes, Romo simply did not get the time he needed. He couldn’t take any real shots downfield and was restricted to passes 20 yards and shorter–if he could even get those off.

Make no mistake, Romo must shoulder at least part of the blame for not taking care of the ball, but I don’t think even Peyton Manning could’ve won behind our line. Either way, following key #2 was a complete and utter failure.

Key #3: Red Zone

For this key, I said the Cowboys needed to make the most of their red zone chances. I also added on that for this tough road game, they’d have to get a TD in their first red zone trip and they must get it early to take the crowd out of the game.

That flat out never happened; in fact, the Cowboys only had a single trip into the red zone. To make matters worse, that trip resulted in a “goal to go” situation in which the Cowboys failed to convert. As far as the timing of the trip, it came at the beginning of the second quarter, but more importantly, it happened while the score was only 7-0. The Cowboys had a chance to shake off everything that had happened to that point, and tie the game on a superb 82 yard drive and silence the crowd.

Instead, Felix Jones was stuffed up the middle, Romo was sacked and then Romo was under severe pressure and forced to throw the ball away. The Cowboys left points on the board and had to settle for a field goal. As I had warned before, you can’t do that against good teams because they will cash in. The Vikings did just that and immediately scored a TD on the next drive. Instead of the worst case scenario being 14-7, a single possession game, the Cowboys were then faced with a two-score deficit of 14-3.

The Vikings never looked back after that. Key #3 was also a monumental failure.

The Verdict

As the title says, the offense completely ran into a wall. Of the three keys, you can only make an argument that one was achieved, the other two (Romo and the red zone) resulted in a complete disaster that reflected the outcome of the game. Simply put, the Vikings defense (especially their pass rush) flat out beat the Cowboys. There isn’t a whole lot that you can do as an offense when you lose the battle in the trenches and the opposing defensive line seems to be in the backfield every play.

The Cowboys have had a good run, but all good things must eventually come to an end. This time around, the end came in Minnesota and there really wasn’t much the Cowboys good to about it.

Tip your hat to Minnesota because they simply overwhelmed the ‘Boys.

Earlier today, Mike Florio of ProFootballTalk.com posited a scenario in which Jason Garrett could make a power play for Wade’s job. I’ve heard no one else in the traditional media talking about this possibility, but let’s look at it just in case.

1. PFT says that Garrett is on the “fringes” of the Buffalo Bills’ list of potential new coaching hires.

2. If Buffalo comes calling, Garrett will likely want to give Jerry Jones a chance to offer him something better.

3. At the prospect of losing Red Jesus, Jerry Jones COULD conceivably drop Wade Phillips in a heartbeat and offer the position to Garrett.

4. If Jerry is only after one more year with Wade Phillips, he might be willing to make this move now given the right circumstances.

Why that will never happen

Jerry Jones actually likes Wade Phillips. He probably likes winning and avoiding embarrassment even more, but Wade’s up there. However, Jerry refused to give a definite answer to bringing Wade back next season until the playoffs were over. That means despite his Wade-love, winning and approach to the game still matters.

If anything crumbled this past weekend, it was Garrett’s offense… especially the offensive line. I don’t know what led ProFootballTalk.com to assume that Garrett is still the heir apparent, but I don’t think that’s the case at all. A few games of success in December and January should not change Jerry’s view of what he can expect from an offensive coordinator / co-head coach who can’t handle a Terrell Owens or Roy Williams.

And honestly, does ANYONE want to coach Buffalo? If Garrett does indeed think he has a chance to coach these Cowboys, he’d probably fight to keep his spot as co-head coach.

So while you were crying in your beer (or in my case, my green tea), Favre was getting his groove on… sort of.

So here you are, disappointed and in shock. After hearing the entire country jump on the Cowboys bandwagon last week, you began to believe, not just hope. You may not have said it, but you expected to see your team in the Super Bowl. You planned on savoring three more weeks of glory. And then the unthinkable happened, and you watched an old man rise to the challenge as your team went down in flames.

Let’s not hold onto the pain. Assuming you’d rather do ANYTHING else than watch the remaining weeks of football in abject bitterness, we’ve assembled a crack team of specialists to help you recover. Unfortunately, they all turned out to be Vikings fans and abandoned us en route to DPS headquarters, so I had to throw together a list of things to do in hopes of helping you make it over the hump.

8 Things You Can Do Now that the Cowboys Season is Officially Over

ONE: Wear clothes to church that actually DON’T embarrass your wife (no more jerseys)

My wife would kill me

TWO: Hunt down a new and interesting podcast to entertain you on the drive home

I think I've found my answer

THREE: Read a…a….GASP!… a… BOOK!

Who writes this stuff anyway?

FOUR: Start a blog about how the Mavericks are going to choke again this year

FIVE: Play the Madden NFL 10 over and over and over again as you drop kick Favre into oblivion

SIX: Go back to reading the newspaper (for those of you dinosaurs who still do) strictly for the comic strips

SEVEN: Find someone in a worse situation than you are and be grateful you’re not them

Texas Governor Rick Perry

EIGHT: Take a vacation. You deserve it. Try Cabo. I hear it’s great.

Romo, Witten, and company in Cabo last year