We're looking forward to getting back on the field this weekend, after having our bye last weekend. It felt very weird to not play football on Sunday. Instead, I went Christmas shopping with my fiancée. I scored major points, because we shopped for a few hours, and I didn't complain once.
It felt good to get back to work on Monday. The bye weekend was helpful because it helped us to heal up, give our bodies time to recover from the nagging injuries that you get during the course of a season. Plus, it gives us time to clear our minds, to be able to focus on the task in front of us.
Unfortunately, we've dug a whole for ourselves by having a 5-6 record. We pretty much have to win every game to make the playoffs. The trick is, we can't get caught up thinking that we have to win all five at once. You can only win one game a week, and this week we have to travel down to Dallas to play the Cowboys.
The last time we played against the Cowboys, I threw five touchdown passes. The problem was, two of them were interceptions that the Cowboys returned for touchdowns! Luckily, we were able to come back and win that game. It also raised $25,000 for my charity, KC For Kids.
This year, I pledged to donate $5,000 for each touchdown that I throw to a fund that benefits the families of firefighters lost in the Sept. 11 attack on the World Trade Center. I threw three touchdowns to my own teammates, which meant I should donate $15,000, but I figured that since the interceptions went for touchdowns too, I donated $25,000. Hopefully, after this week, I'll only have to donate for touchdowns thrown to MY team.
The Cowboys have one tough defense. They really brought it when we played them at Giants Stadium. We're gonna have our work cut our for us against them.
The Cowboys are also going to come in feeling pretty good about themselves. They went into Washington last weekend and beat a team that had won five games in a row. That, combined with the fact that they're playing at home, is going to have them sky high heading into the game.
Our division is really incredible. Philadelphia is sitting on top of us at 7-4 and then we're tied with Washington and Arizona. It wasn't too long ago that Washington was 0-5 and then they won five in a row. Then they lost to the Cowboys last week. The Cardinals were 2-6, and now they've won three in a row.
They went into Oakland and beat the Raiders. Jake Plummer is having a great year, and he and David Boston are some duo. After this week, we play the Cardinals at home next week.
As you can see, every team in our division is capable of beating the other one. We just have to focus on winning one game at a time, and we'll see what happens. 12/6/01
-- Kerry Collins