The Dallas Cowboys are the NFL's best team, which is interesting in September but not particularly important. Somebody's got to be.
The Cowboys proved last winter that season-long excellence doesn't guarantee anything past home field in the conference semifinals, if that.
And the road to the Super Bowl figures to be more treacherous for Dallas, since the NFC has grown fangs.
But through three weeks? Wow. The Cowboys are the best.
Five NFL teams are 3-0. But only Dallas has two road wins. Only Dallas has kept two other teams from being 3-0.
The Cowboys played high-tech offense in beating Philadelphia 41-37. They played stingy defense in beating Green Bay 27-16, keeping the Packers out of the end zone until the final minutes.
Tony Romo, still doing a whiz-bang Brett Favre imitation, has the third-most passing yards in the league, 892. Marion Barber, who never met a defender he didn't want to punish, has the sixth-most rushing yards in the NFL, 285.
Dallas' offensive line has been dominant. Its defense has raised up when needed.
This is a well-constructed team, and Wade Phillips seems the perfect coach for a group that only needs to be guided, not pushed, to success.
But no team ever won a playoff game, much less a championship, in September.
The Cowboys looked good in other years, too.
In '98, Dallas was 8-3 but limped home 10-6 and lost at home to Arizona in a playoff stunner.
In '03, Bill Parcells showed his coaching acumen by taking a franchise with three straight 5-11 finishes to a 7-2 start, but the Cowboys staggered to 10-6 and lost 29-10 at Carolina in the wild-card round.
In '07, Phillips' easy touch ignited a 12-1 start. Then Dallas' offense went splat, it lost two out of three and then fell at home 21-17 to the Giants in the playoffs.
So now, the Cowboys' playoff drought has reached a ridiculous 12 years, dating back to January 1997, when they beat the Vikings 40-15 in a game that was so long ago, Dallas got 62 rushing yards from Herschel Walker.
The only teams that have been waiting longer for a playoff win are Buffalo, Cincinnati, Detroit and Kansas City. Doesn't matter what the subject is. You don't want to be on an NFL list with Buffalo, Cincinnati, Detroit and KC.
That drought finally should end, but it won't be easy. The NFC East has become the NFL's monster division. No defeats outside the division. Two 3-0 teams and two 2-1 teams, with the Eagles having lost to Dallas and the Redskins having lost to the Giants.
September returns show that the NFC East winner will be the Super Bowl favorite. But September is a long way from January. Sufferers through the Cowboys' drought can confirm.
