OPINION

By Albert Breer

updated 8:24 p.m. ET Dec. 9, 2008

The '07 Cowboys said they were over their December woes.

New year. Wade Phillips had them fresh. A better roster.

Blah, blah, blah.

It wasn't pretty. The Cowboys fidgeted to squeeze out wins against Carolina and Detroit, a pair of 7-9 teams, and got blasted by the Eagles and Redskins, playing nowhere near the level they had for the first three months of the '07 season.

So no matter what they say this year -- in the wake of so many blown chances to beat Pittsburgh on Sunday -- it's hard to believe that members of the Cowboys' loaded roster aren't thinking about yet another December swoon.

"I think we'll compete, and compete hard," owner/GM Jerry Jones said in the immediate aftermath of the Heimlich at Heinz. "It was unrealistic to think we could win the last four, with our schedule. We saw the Giants could be had today, and we've got a home game [against them on Sunday]. In terms of having the incentive and having the players, we're relatively healthy, relative to the way we came in.

"I'm sick. I'm sick for these players. But it'll have no bearing on how we play against the Giants (on Sunday at Texas Stadium), other than having our backs to the wall more."

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That's what makes this season different than '07, when the Cowboys clinched the division in Detroit, after a miracle win, and had home-field locked up going into the season finale in Washington.

So there's that.

But there's also the fact the December curse traces well beyond the last 12 months.

• In '06, the Cowboys reached 8-4 with a shot at a first-round bye and promptly lost three of four, forcing them to play a wild-card playoff game at Seattle, which they lost.
• In '05, a 7-3 start dissolved in another December disaster, with the Cowboys finishing 9-7 and out of the playoffs.
• In '04, they lost three of their last four to finish 6-10.
• And in '03, a sizzling 8-3 beginning came undone down the stretch with a 2-3 finish leading to a postseason loss at Carolina.

It takes a mentally tough team to overcome that kind of history. Sunday's loss at Pittsburgh hardly indicates the Cowboys have that.

Given the chance to step on a contender's throat in a brutal place to play and in terrible conditions, Dallas let the Steelers slide. The idea, of course, was to exhibit a killer instinct and not let that happen.

"That was the attitude," Cowboys defensive end Marcus Spears said. "But they get paid, too. They just made some plays, and we weren't able to stop them. I don't think that we had in our mind that we could let up and allow them to do things. They made plays, and we weren't able to like we had all game."

The fact the Steelers' defense made plays -- to be expected -- isn't the problem. The Cowboys made their share of plays, too.

It's the jarring problem with the details that killed Dallas last year and could do the same again in '08.

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