PFW:  And now for something completely different...

The most incredible, amazing thing happened during the Houston Cougars' first drive towards the TCU goal line Saturday evening.

They got stopped.

(Insert bug-eyed expressions of shock and disbelief here.)

And, to coin an old Jim Wacker phrase, as if that weren't unbeleeeeeeeeeevable enough...on Houston's second drive, it happened again.  And up until the fourth quarter - after TCU had put things away - it kept  happening.

Fact, is, I'm fortunate to be here today.  I was one of about 36,000 or so who could have had coronaries over TCU's sudden defensive resurgence:

Arlington Heights 45, Polytechnic 21
TCU 34, Houston 27
Oklahoma 41, Kansas 10
Dallas 21, Green Bay 41

My Arlington Heights Yellow Jackets kept Poly's record perfect for the year - 0-for-2004.  Gotta love teams that take care of business.

OU delivered the expected squash to the Jayhawks.  No real surprise there.

If you haven't figured out by now my abject surprise at TCU's fourth victory, know now that I was shocked beyond belief.  Last year's game was barely won by TCU, 62-56.  And since the Frog secondary is worse this year than last, I was fully expecting a pitch-and-catch-fest.

Not that the Cougs didn't try.  But Gary Patterson apparently listened to me for once, and spent some time tweaking his defense.  Most of the night, the Froggies employed a 3-2-6 against the pass-happy 'Cats.

Whatever, it worked.

Which is more than I can say - speaking of crappy defenses - about the Dallas Cowgirls.  Seven years ago, a Barry-Switzer-coached edition of this team stunk it up against the Pack in Green Bay, 45-17.  This year's version seemed Hell™-bent to top that at all costs.

The epitome of how the day went came towards the end of the game.  Green Bay quarterback Brett Favre went back to pass and completed an out route to one of his receivers.  As the ball was getting to the receiver, there - about two, three yards away, was our ace cornerback, our first-round draft choice from last year, our shutdown corner,  Terrence Newman...

Just.  Standing.  There.  Not running, not leaping to bat the pass, not bearing down on the receiver - just.  Standing.  There.

Denizens, this Cowgirls bunch has flat-out given up.  This excuse-for-a-team has quit  on Bill Parcells six games into the season.  And Parcells himself is no longer above criticism.  This was the guy who brought that loser Vinny Testaverde here in the first place.  This is the guy who would rather have our latest first-round bust, Newman, than a quarterback like Byron Leftwich - who, by the way, is now tearing things up in Jacksonville.

During his post-game press conference yesterday, Parcells said that if the defense continuted to perform like it did in Green Bay, they didn't have a chance of winning another game this year.

I say that winning another game this year is an iffy proposition whether the defense shows up or not.  The fact is that this is not a very good football team, and that 10-6 last year seems now to have been a fluke.  It's old, and it's slow, and it needs an infusion of young, fresh blood.  If I were Jerry Jones, I'd open up my pocketbook and pay Bob Stoops whatever he wanted to come down here and pull this franchise back from the brink of what now seems like a looming decade (decades?)-long funk.

Because Parcells, unfortunately, does not seem to be the answer.

The PFW returns Friday for another shot.