It's amazing how the Dallas Cowboys have flown under the radar this past week. The talk of the NFL has been the Jets improbable run, the way the Cardinals took down the Packers and how the Ravens could possibly knock the Patriots AND Colts out of the playoffs. I've read more national press about the Patriots losing than the Cowboys winning!

Little does everyone know that they could be ignoring the eventual Super Bowl champions...

There's no team clicking on all cylinders the way the Cowboys are.

The Cardinals just allowed the Packers to come back from 21 points down to force overtime. The defense couldn't make a stop in the 2nd half, special teams gave up an onside kick, and Neil Rackers missed a chip-shot field goal that should have ended the game. Meanwhile, the Saints have lost three straight and are hoping that just playing at home will snap them out of their recent funk.

The Colts don't have much mojo coming into the playoffs. They gave away their perfect record and the starters haven't played a full, competitive game in more than a month. Peyton Manning's teams have never won a playoff game following an opening-round bye. And Indy could be rusty coming into their game against the Ravens, who jumped out to a big start against the Patriots. Baltimore is running well and their defense looks sharp, but Joe Flacco is still playing like a rookie.

Meanwhile, the Jets are quarterbacked BY a rookie. The simple game plan for San Diego is to get up early and make Sanchez beat them. But the Chargers are vulnerable as well. Their running game can't be trusted with LaDanian Tomlinson.

As for Dallas, it has to feel like the 90's. Their running game is the best in the league, they have multiple weapons passing, their defense is quietly shutting down the opposition... and no one can remember who the kicker is.

When it all comes down to one game, with everything on the line in one contest, it doesn't matter who played well for the last four months. It only matters who played well for the last four weeks, and that's why Dallas has a chance to win it all.

It's tough to get hot the last few weeks of the season in major league baseball or the NBA and then turn that into a championship, because a four-game streak in those sports gets you to the 2nd round. But in the NFL playoffs, it'll get you to the Super Bowl.

And as poorly as the Cowboys played the first half of the season, the defense has played well all season. The emergence of Miles Austin helped Dallas break out offensively and they've showed no sign of slowing down. They've held their last five opponents to 20 points or less. Four of those opponents were playoff teams. They may be the only team in the playoffs on a winning streak that has a "no one believed in us" factor still working for them. Experts and NFL fans alike have picked against them in every big game down the stretch and into the playoffs. And here they are once again, preparing to take on Brett Favre, Adrian Peterson and the Vikings in Minnesota.

But the Cowboys are riding high and confident. And they should be.

As far as recent losses the Vikings have suffered, you can't compare Dallas to Chicago. Dallas is better in every way. But you can compare the Cowboys current run to how the Panthers played in the final month with the defense clicking, their running game dominant and Matt Moore playing well. That Panthers team controlled Minnesota in a game the Vikings needed to win to hang on to their first-round bye. But their offensive line continued to slip and their defensive line couldn't disrput the way they had at the beginning of the season.

Minnesota's best shot at winning against Dallas is to control the game with Adrian Peterson. That's been their best shot at winning all season. And yet, it's become the Brett Favre show all season. Even in close games toward the end of the season when Favre struggled, they refused to shift the offensive focus. Is it because Favre is a me-first prima donna quarterback? Is it because Brad Childress has ceded control of his own team to him? If Minnesota's season ends at the hands of the Cowboys on Sunday, Vikings fans and the media will all be looking for answers to that question.

And that'll be just fine with Dallas. If they can fall under the radar even while making the NFC Championship game, that would be fine with Dallas. But that's a highly unlikely situation.

I'll take the Cowboys and their three-pronged running attack, their stable quarterback, and stellar defense against Minnesota. But there could be a problem in the NFC Championship game.

As well as Dallas is playing, if I were a Cowboys fan, I'd hope that the Saints beat the Cardinals. Dallas has already won in New Orleans and showed that they can beat an offense similar to theirs in Philadelphia. And, of course, the Cowboys already beat a regular season opponent in the playoffs. The offense clicked early in the Superdome and the defense prevented the big play, allowing Dallas to power through their special teams struggles. But if the Cardinals win, they might have trouble.

Yes, the Cowboys would be able to play at home, but Kurt Warner has too many weapons at his disposal, the line is playing well, and they seem to play better if Warner has to rush his pass and look for the big play when facing a blitz.

If I were a Cowboy fan, I'd be worried about playing the NFC Championship game in Dallas.

But first let's get there.... then we can talk.

With three minutes left in the national championship game, Texas had the ball with a chance to tie or even take the lead despite losing their starting quarterback, who had been their team MVP for the last four years, in the first series of the game.

All I could think was, "How did we get here?"

Despite being 10-point underdogs going into this game, texas fans went into the BCS national championship game confident. Texas had been holding Colt McCoy back this season. He went through so much last year leading the team in passing AND rushing, that he wouldn't be able to take that kind of punishment again this year. But this was his last game. No use in holding him back for anything anymore. I was confident that we'd see the re-emergence of the zone read and designed quarterback draws that made him so dangerous last year. Putting it back in the game plan made sense because Alabama likely wouldn't expect it and Texas would be able to break some big plays as a result of Crimson Tide defenders having to play up and respect the run.

But all of that went out the window in the first offensive series of the game for the Longhorns. Texas got some early breaks by playing some great defense, but couldn't get into the endzone. Colt McCoy had to come out of the game with a shoulder injury. And despite being up 6-0 early, we Texas fans knew that we were in trouble.

The rest of the first quarter, I wasn't paying attention to the field so much as the sidelines. I was peering through binoculars at the trainers checking McCoy out. From our vantage point, it looked like he had been popped on his non-throwing shoulder. But my view toward the sidelines brought on my worst fears. They kept making Colt raise his throwing arm to see what was wrong. And it wasn't too long before he headed to the locker room.

Our seats were close to the Texas tunnel. As he walked in, we chanted his name. "Colt! Colt! Colt! Colt!" But it would be a while before we saw him again. And unfortunately, we'd just seen him take his last snap as a Texas quarterback. This Longhorn wouldn't rise into the sunset. He'd be dragged.

Thr rumors flew around the stands. "It's his collarbone." "They're taking X-rays to see if he can come back." "He and his dad are considering signing a release form so that he can come out and play in the 2nd half."

All we knew was that if he was coming back, it wouldn't be until the 2nd half. Before then, Texas had to hold on. And for a while, it appeared that they would. Alabama dominated the 2nd quarter and took a 17-6 lead after being held to a field goal in the final minute of the half.

I remember yelling to the other sidelin, "Is that all you've got!? No Colt McCoy and you only lead by 11!?" Little did I know that the half was far from over.

Probably the worst thing that could've happened to Texas on their ensuing posession was that they got nine yards on their first play of that drive and took a time out. If they don't get a good gain there, they likely let the clock wind down and go to the locker room down 11 and feeling good about their last stop. Instead, they ran one more play: a pretty safe call looking to take advantage of the over-pursuit of the Alabama defensive line. It was just a shovel pass.

That's as safe a play as you get and it almost worked. If DJ Monroe catches it cleanly, there was no defender for 20 yards in front of him. Instead, it was bobbled and picked off in the air and returned for a touchdown that sucked the energy out of every Longhorn fan watching this game as Alabama took a 24-6 halftime lead.

Everyone thought that was the dagger...

The Texas crowd was dead at halftime. Moving the ball to start the 3rd quarter got us up a little. And the defensive stops have us a little hope. But Texas wasn't putting any points on the board.

(On a side note: Give Texas fans credit. No one was complaining about Colt McCoy getting hurt. There was no bitterness after the game. But people that say that they were only in the game because Alabama played conservatively on offense are stupid. In the 1st and 3rd quarters, Alabama got stuffed when they ran and when they attempted to pass, even worse things happened to their offense. All of that was a result of the excellent game the Texas defense played. Bama wasn't trying to give the ball back to Texas, they were just ineffective.)

But then we got a spark.

At the end of teh 3rd quarter, the drops by the Texas wide receivers stopped, and Jordan Shipley made a great grab. A 44-yard touchdown pass cut the lead down to 11. And then Texas recovered a live ball on the ensuiing possession. Alabama made contact with a hard aquib kick. The Longhorns went 3 and out from there, but were again winning the field position battle.

In the 4th, Gilbert hit Shipley wide open for another touchdown and then converted the 2-point conversion to cut the lead to 3... and the college football world was on its head for a few minutes. Texas made a stop on their ensuing possession to get the ball back and all of a sudden, they had the ball with a chance to tie or take the lead.

All I could help but think was, "How did we get here?" There were smiles on the faces of every Texas fan in the house. And the Alabama fans were scared of the impossible: a Texas comeback without Colt McCoy. I knew right then and there that Texas was playing with house money at that point. We weren't supposed to be there in that position. An Alabama blowout would've been understandable. But Texas fought with all their heart to come back to this point.

But that good feeling went away quickly.

Alabama got it's first sack of the game on a brilliant play. As soon as I saw the Crimson Tide defensive formation, I pointed it out to my father. They showed a two-man blitz from the right side, then those played backed off and a blitzer came from Gilbert's blind side. Unblocked, he jarred the ball loose and Alabama recovered. Mark Ingram scored the clinching touchdown to seal the championship for the Crimson Tide.

In the instant karma department, Alabama ran for another touchdown after getting another interception to really clinch the game. It was a low-class move by a me-first coach. Just seconds after that touchdown, two Alabama players poured Gatorade on Nick Saban but hit him pretty hard on the side of his head with the cooler. Right after that, they missed the extra point. Something tells me that sequence of events was no coincidence.

After the game, as the players gathered in front of us for the playing of "The Eyes of Texas," I had tears in my eyes. All we can ask for as fans of a team that we love so much is for them to give them everything and pour their hearts out, leaving it all out on the field. And that's what they did in the championship game. It's why so many people think that Texas would have won if Colt McCoy had played. He had to compose himself before answering questions on TV after the game because he was so proud of the way the team fought and it killed him to have to watch from the sidelines.

I always go back to what Coach Norman Dale said in Hoosiers: "If you put your effort and concentration into playing to your potential, to be the best that you can be, I don't care what the scoreboard says at the end of the game, in my book we're gonna be winners."

To Longhorn fans, that Texas team had a big group of winners.

And the biggest winner: Garrett Gilbert.

The last quarterback to get the baptism by fire treatment the way Gilbert did was Major Applewhite. And, ironically, it happened on that same field in Pasadena against #6 UCLA in 1998. And what a game he played. We saw him grow up before our very eyes. And when he's taking snaps next year at Texas Tech, in the Cotton Bowl against Oklahoma, and at Nebraska next year, he won't be shaken or overwhelmed. He's going to be the most dangerous first-year starter in the NCAA next year because all he's going to be thinking about is how he got a taste of the national championship game and wants to get back.

And I don't think that anyone doubts that he will.