How 'bout Them Cowboys? You probably don't want to admit it, but I know you're out there.

St. Louis football Cardinals fans.

And I know that if you watched the Monday Night Football game, you probably shuddered and twitched a little bit like I did.

Call it the Cowboys factor.

Tony Romo turns the ball over six times. Two of them were brought back for touchdowns. Terence McGee brings a kickoff back 103 yards for a score. The fans in Buffalo were going nuts. They were going to knock the 'Boys from the ranks of the unbeatens.

But us Big Red fans could see it coming.

They slipped the noose. The Bills let them hang around, and look what it got them. 9 Dallas points in 20 seconds. Two perfect 53-yard field goals, including a do-over after a Buffalo timeout (Beautiful gamesmanship to wait until the until the last nanosecond to call that timeout, but isn't it a little ridiculous that the rules allow that?). Silence. Shock. Heartbreak.

Shoot, I've seen that movie. More than once.

The Cowboys were the team that Big Red fans loved to hate. Remember in the Tex Schramm-Tom Landry era how they hated to wear the blue jerseys when they played on the road? Remember how the Big Red wore their red jerseys at home for all but one game? Bill Bidwill even took out a billboard by the highway running past Texas Stadium the week before the Cowboys came to St. Louis, saying "Yes Tex, we will be wearing the white jerseys on Sunday." Unfortunately, it was about all we Cardinal fans got, because Sunday would come and blue jerseys or not, Dallas would usually win.

There were the occasional departures from defeat. 38-0 on Monday Night in 1970. Jackie Smith's incredible run through the Dallas defense. The 31-28 win in 1974 really the win opened the door to those three great seasons in the Coryell era.

But we also remember the Tony Hill push off on Roger Wehrli. The Terry Joyce blocked punt. The non-interference calls on that late drive in 1976. Ottis Anderson breaking into the league with 193 yards but the Cardinals still losing because Rafael Septien's last-minute field goal bounced off the upright and in. Sure, more often that not the Cowboys were just the better team and beat the snot out of the Big Red, but anytime the game was close and there was a break to be had, you could just figure the Cowboys were going to get it.

Watching last night's game brought it all back. D#$@!#@!~ Cowboys! ¶ 12:12 PM