We know turnovers and penalties can kill a football team ... so why aren't the Cowboys dead yet?

This is a team that ranks high in penalties and low in turnover margin.

Start with the penalties - Dallas is 5th in penalties per game, at 7-point-4. And those flags are costing the Cowboys 66 yards per game, which is 4th worst in the league.

23 different Cowboys players have commtted a total of 37 penalties.

Flozell Adams leads the team with 7 penalties. The next highest total is 3, by Anthony Spencer.

The only teams penalized more than Dallas are Green Bay, Buffalo, Baltimore and St.Louis. Green Bay (3-2) and Baltimore (3-3) are pretty good teams which make up for their penalties with positive turnover margins. The Packers are +8, the Ravens +2.

And that's where we go next. Dallas has a minus-4 turnover margin through their first 5 games. Only 5 teams are worse, and listen to this list: Tennessee, Carolina, Oakland, St. Louis and Cleveland. Combined record: 5-and-24.

With those numbers, it should be a miracle that Dallas has a winning record - until you take into account the Cowboys offense - ranked 2nd in the league - and their schedule: Dallas' 3 wins wins came against Tampa Bay, Carolina, and Kansas City.

So when you look at the Cowboys this way, it appears that these two areas - penalties and turnovers - are the problem. Talent is not, or at least it doesn't look that way. If a team lacks talent, that's a problem without a solution - you can't fix that during the season, especially now that the trade deadline has passed. But if a team lacks focus, it should be able to just "clean those things up" as players and coaches always say. Can the Cowboys? That's the question for Wade Phillips.

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