Worrying signs for the Cowboys. I didn't think Souths were necessarily that great out there, and seemingly adopted a 'fake it till you make it' approach. That's what I think the jaw-jacking and coaching box celebrations were about. They weren't exactly great, but the game would have been viewed as do or die, so a result above everything else was important. There were some good signs for Souths. However, they're going to have to build on them if they're going to challenge because there's still aspects of their play that looks really sub-par.
If I was a Cowboys fan, I'd be feeling anxious about that performance. A lot of those issues have been apparent through out the season, but they've usually found a way to recover. However, now they're in the deep end of the season and they're finding it tougher to retain momentum against teams like Cronulla & Souths who are far more resilient than a Eels or a Raiders. There's still a few weeks for them to recover, but their players are going to have to find another gear if they want to be there. I honestly couldn't believe some of the tries they conceded tonight...the first Souths try was soft, Taumalolo & Granville should have had Burgess, I can live with the gridiron try to Clarke - that was a tough call but the inability to take the bomb erroded any sort of sympathy.