I have to say one thing about June Jones, he's always been an optimist.  He said last month that SMU would sell out the home opener against Stephen F. Austin and tonight, two nights before the game, the school says 32,000 seats at Gerald J. Ford Stadium are sold making the game an official sell out.

"We talk about `believing' with our team, and I had asked everyone in the community to believe that we would sell out this game," said Head Coach June Jones. "We've done that. It will be great for our kids to run out into a stadium full of our SMU fans, and our team will feed off their energy. As I've said, it's an exciting time to be a part of SMU football."

The school put together a committee that asked different Dallas businesses to purchase 1,000 tickets a piece and then either sell the tickets or give them away.  Many tickets will go to youth organizations and high school students.

The all time record at Ford Stadium is 34,689 and the Mustangs have created some new
seating areas which could help this crowd set a new record and Athletic Director Steve Orsini believes it will happen. 

"We want to thank everyone who was involved in this effort," said Orsini. "This historic effort is a tribute to our Sellout 2009 committee and our ticket sales staff. While we're sold out, I believe that we will also break our record for the largest crowd in Ford Stadium history."

Kickoff is 7:00pm and the gates to the Ford Stadium open at 5:30pm.

It's officially Tony Romo's team now.  For the first time, Tony's teammates voted him as one of the four captains on this squad.  He will be joined by Jason Witten representing the offense at the coin toss.  Bradie James and DeMarcus Ware are the defensive captains and whoever is named the MVP of the special teams from the game before, will represent that unit the next game. 

Regardless of how many Cowboy fans believe that leadership isn't that strong on this team, Wade Phillips is thrilled with men who will lead his group.  "We have good leaders here" said Phillips. "They work hard, they encourage their teammates, know what to do, and that's important.  Bradie knows all the defenses,  when guys make mistakes and Tony, offensively knows all those things so you have guys like that can say things and correct things on the field when the coaches are out there." 

The Cowboys open the season Sunday in Tampa with a 12 noon kickoff.  We will be there and will bring you complete highlights and reaction from the locker room Sunday night on Inside Sports at 9:30pm.

Are you a believer in the Rangers making it to the post season?  The Rangers are so they're putting tickets for the American League Division Series on sale Saturday morning at 9:00am.
You can buy as many as eight tickets per ALDS game.

There are three ways to purchase ALDS tickets.

Online at www.texasrangers.com
Phone at 972-RANGERS (9am-9pm)
In Person at the First Base box office at Rangers Ballpark in Arlington

The ALDS is scheduled from October 7th-14th and the Rangers could host as many as three games in the series
Here are the ticket prices

 

Lexus Club Infield; Lower Infield; Lexus Club Box.......................$100.00

Lower Box; Corner Box........................................................$  75.00

Lexus Club Terrace; Lower Reserved...................... ...............$  60.00

All You Can Eat Porch.........................................................$   45.00

Upper Box; Upper Reserved; Bleachers; Grandstand Reserved... $   30.00

Standing Room..................................................................$  25.00
 

Well that was an eye opener.  Not exactly the way the Cowboys expected to start the season but they lead the Bucs 13-7 at halftime. 

Couple of my thoughts from the press box in Tampa.

Cowboys Offense
--------------------------
The big play ability was evident with Tony Romo hitting Jason Witten with passes of 13 and 20 yards, the last one being in the two minute drill which ended with Romo hitting Miles Austin for a 42 yard touchdown.  Austin out ran his first defender and then terrific footwork made the second man miss. 

The Cowboys executed a perfect end around, complete with Romo throwing a nice block and but that play was nullified when Flozell Adams was flagged for an unsportsmanlike conduct.  At least he wasn't called for a false start....yet.

The Bucs promised that they would bring the heat on Romo and when they have, he's looked flustered.  Sacked once for nine yards.  He was pressured in the second and threw it away resulting in a punt.  He had two more overthrows when the Bucs brought the pressure.

Cowboys Defense
-------------------------
After the initial scare of DeMarcus Ware taking a blow to the head after the third defensive play of the year for the Cowboys, the Bucs proceeded to lay on the big plays on this unit.  Tampa Bay broke open four plays of 11 yards or more in the first quarter.  The Bucs then had four more big plays in the second quarter including a 35 yard run from Cadillac Williams and Byron Leftwich hitting Antonio Bryant for 35 yards and Michael Clayton for 47 yards. 

The Cowboys defense did not have a sack in the first half but still held the Bucs to only seven points

Cowboys Special Teams
---------------------------------
This is the unit keeping Dallas in the game.  Felix Jones opened the game with a 36 yard field goal giving them good field position in the drive that Nick Folk kicked a 51 yard field goal.

Then Gerald Sensabaugh blocked a Tampa Bay field goal attempt and Mike Jenkins returned it 17 yards. 

David Buehler also booted one of his three kickoffs out of the endzone and the other two were inside the five.

It's raining to open the second half...should make things quite entertaining!

TONY ROMO SPRAINED HIS RIGHT ANKLE IN THE THIRD QUARTER OF SUNDAY'S 34 TO 21 SEASON OPENING VICTORY AGAINST THE BUCCANEERS... DESPITE THE INJURY... ROMO WAS ABLE TO THROW FOR A CAREER BEST 353 YARDS AND THE COWBOYS ARE HOPEFUL, HE'LL BE HEALTHY ENOUGH TO DO THE SAME THIS SUNDAY...

BY ALL INDICATIONS, ROMO SHOULD BE READY FOR THE HOME OPENER AGAINST THE GIANTS THIS WEEK. EXAMS ON HIS SPRAINED RIGHT ANKLE CAME BACK NEGATIVE TODAY AND HE IS EXPECTED TO PRACTICE THIS WEDNESDAY... COWBOYS HEAD COACH, WADE PHILLIPS SAY THEY WILL CONTINUE TO MONITOR TONY'S ANKLE...

"NAW HE WASN'T ON CRUTCHES. FROM WHAT THEY SAID, I DON'T KNOW IF THERE'S ANYTHING SERIOUS. I THINK IT'S ONE OF THOSE BASKETBALL INJURIES AND HE'S PLAYING FOOTBALL SO IT'S NO PROBLEM," WADE JOKINGLY SAID.

"

IT'S ONE OF THE GREATEST DISAPPEARING ACTS I'VE EVER SEEN. NORMALLY THE RANGERS' BATS ARE ALWAYS ON DISPLAY... BUT THEY'VE VANISHED OVER THE LAST THREE GAMES... GET THIS... TEXAS HAS BEEN OUTSCORED 20 RUNS TO 1... AS THEY WENT INTO THEIR SERIES FINALE AGAINST THE OAKLAND A'S... AND UNFORTUNATELY, THE DROUGHT WOULD CONTINUE. TEXAS COULDN'T BUY A HIT TONIGHT. THEY ONLY HAD ONE, THROUGHOUT THE ENTIRE GAME... AS OAKLAND PULLS OF THE SWEEP BY DEFEATING THE RANGERS 4 TO NOTHING TONIGHT. SO NOW THEY'VE BEEN OUTSCORED 24 TO 1 OVER THE LAST FOUR DAYS. TEXAS IS OFF TOMORROW... GIVING THEM PLENTY OF TIME TO THINK ABOUT HOW THEY BLEW THEIR ENTIRE SEASON IN A SPAN OF TWO WEEKS. 

      Euless Trinity practiced at Pennington Field on Wednesday afternoon, where I met up with them and got a little lesson the 'Haka.' For those of you who don't know, the 'Haka' is a traditional dance form of the Maori of New Zealand. It was originally performed by warriors before a battle, proclaiming their strength and prowess in order to intimidate the opposition.  Euless Trinity has done this since 2005 and had ignited media attention from ESPN to the CBS Evening-News, but this year the team wanted to make some changes.

     The boys wanted their 'Haka' to tell the story of Trinity and Trinity alone. Their new 'Haka' captures the blend of cultures at their school as well as the Trojans team phrase, 'hold the rope.' I had to ask the boys what exactly that meant, and they said that if you were falling off a cliff who would you want to be holding the rope. I thought that was pretty powerful idea, and when I took a stab at learning this 'Haka,' I was definitely in need of someone 'holding the rope' for me.

     I just had a couple of minutes to try and learn some of the 'Haka,' but the players spent a week learning it, which trust is not easy. Twenty-percent of the boys are from the Tongan decent but the other eighty-percent had to learn a new language in order to be a part of the 'Haka.' This is the ultimate 'team-bonding' experience, and we'll find out tonight, if they can unite on the football field to beat the Allen Eagles and get their second win on the season.

 

The largest crowd to ever watch an NFL game packed the new Cowboys Stadium for the home opener against the New York Giants.   105,121 fans surpassed the previous high of 103,467 that watched the San Francisco 49ers play the Arizona Cardinals at Aztec Stadium in Mexico City on October 2nd, 2005

Among the fans in the audience, Former President George W. Bush who watched the game next to the former First Lady Laura Bush in Jerry Jones' luxury box.  The former President spent most of the first half sitting next to John Madden and Pat Summerall. 

The halftime ceremony featured the members of the Ring of Honor as the Cowboys unveiled their names that are affixed to the facing of the fourth level.

The best hustle of the day award goes to Troy Aikman who called the Eagles/Saints game in Philadelphia which didn't end until 3:30pm.  Aikman made it to Dallas just before the halftime ceremony.

We will have complete coverage Monday night on The 33 News at 9:00pm

The Cowboys may be without running back Marion Barber for next week's game at Cowboys Stadium. An MRI revealed today that Barber has a strain in his left quad and is listed as questionable for the Monday night show down against The Panthers. The injury occurred in the 4th quarter. Barber went off for 124 yards and a touchdown, before leaving the game.  

Cowboys left tackle, Flozell Adams has the type of streak going that many people wouldn't want. For the second week in a row, Adams has been fined by The NFL. This week, the amount is a hefty $12,500, all for tripping Giants Defensive End, Justin Tuck, who was injured on the play. Flozell was also fined $5000 during the season opener for an unnecessary roughness penalty.