Week 2 of the NFL season can be a barometer for emotional and bandwagon fans to gauge their team’s doom or success for the upcoming year. An opening week win followed by another victory will instigate Tasmanian Devil-like dances in the middle of their living room or grocery store. A win followed by a loss will give them the impression that inconsistency is going to be prevalent all year. Losing Game One and then winning the following week is like Tums on a queazy stomach. Two losses in a row to open a season breeds disilluision and a frantic desire to fill out a will.

A loss in Week 2 is not likely, but it won’t be the end of the world. I typically don’t get caught up in historical facts to determine the outcome of a team’s success for a season or a game, but Dallas did begin the 1993 season 0-2 and then went on to win Super Bowl XXVIII.

While I do pick the Cowboys to fly out of Miami International Airport Sunday evening with a victory, the ingredients are there for a Miami upset. The players and coaches naturally downplay extreme weather like a speed bump, but you can’t argue or debate what heat and humidity does to the human body. Also, the Cowboys won’t be facing a defense that will remind them of the Giants from last week. They are getting older, but they still pack punch and can smother offenses. QB Trent Green and Co. don’t scare me, but the holes that the Dallas defense has right now due to injuries does.

Here are some other notes going into sunny Florida:

• Greg Ellis is out and I seriously doubt we’ll see Terence Newman.
• As if facing the potent Dallas offense isn’t bad enough, Miami S Yeremiah Bell is out for the season with a ruptured Achilles tendon. Air Romo should have some decent numbers this week too.
• I’m not sure what the bigger game this weekend. The Dallas-Miami game or the Southlake Carroll-Miami Northwestern high school game.
• For a second straight week an opposing player is trash-talking Dallas. This time it’s LB Joey Porter who wants a piece of RB Marion Barber who he says, “…thinks he’s a tough guy…..”
• How’s this for a game plan? Get the ball to Terrell Owens. Any time T.O. scores two TD’s in a game, his teams are 22-5.
• Dallas 22  Miami 18