82-12: The Day After the Night Before

Well last night we saw the Cowboys take what can only be descibed as an epic pounding. 82 (yes, eighty fucking two) to 12. 

Coming off the high of the derby win against the Broncos, on a 5 day turnaround and up against a premiership contender who had won their last 5, this looked a tough game to win. But I don't think anyone saw a pasting like this in the wind.

 As usual there's a chorus of angst on social media. As much though as that was as as ugly as sin last night, I do think we need some perspective:

* It was one game. And as much as the result is a stain on our season, the game will become nothing more than a trivia question in time. 

* We're still 11 and 9 with a bye up our sleeve. And our run in is comprised wholly of sides outside the top 8. We should still make the finals, and no doubt it will prove for fuel for the next couple of games

* So far this season we've beaten the Broncos twice, the Roosters, Penrith, the Sharks and Manly @ Brookvale. Our best football is excellent, there's just a rather large gap between our best and worst.

Sure it would be great to be consistently strong, but you need a elite squad that runs deep to achieve that, and IMO, and we're simply not at that level.

Instead we have a streaky team, and when they get it right, they can threaten anyone (as evidenced by  the list of big scalps from this year), but equally if we're not firing on all cylinders, we look bad.

And why so streaky? Look at our squad. Drinkwater is probably the poster child for being diamonds & rocks, but plenty of the team run hot and cold week to week: Chester, Laybutt, Clifford, Luke, Purdue, Neame, Mahoney (granted the last 2 didn't play last nite).

Personally though I'd rather we were hot and cold than meandering along at a pleasantly warm level.  You can beat quality teams with hot. You just have to wear the cold snaps occasionally. And last night was a fooking blizzard.

Addition: As much as the score stung, I actually don't think the result has much bearing on our finals chances. If let's say we'd lost to the Roosters by 20, we'd still be on 11 wins an still have a pretty crappy for and against. 13 wins has always been enough to make finals. And the result might actually prove some decent motivation for the team, at least in the short term.