Cowboys not yet in Patriots' league
by Frank Luska
05:28 PM CDT on Monday, October 15, 2007
IRVING – It's the first quarter at Texas Stadium on Sunday and the Dallas Cowboys already trail New England 14-0, haven't made a first down with three possessions and … where have I seen this game before?
Return to the Cotton Bowl in 1966 when the Cowboys and Green Bay Packers met to settle the NFL title. The Cowboys kicked off. Green Bay marched for a touchdown. Green Bay kicked off. The Cowboys fumbled the return. The Packers recovered and ran it in for another touchdown.
Never mind a first down. The Cowboys were behind 14-0 and hadn't run their first offensive play.
Don Meredith loped into the huddle and in a moment of inspiration, regaled teammates with news of the moment.
"Folks," said Meredith, "we are in a heap of [expletive deleted]."
Tony Romo found himself in the same shape against the Patriots and, like Meredith, rallied his mates only to suffer a near-identical defeat. Those two games, played 41 years apart, are still linked by similar roles of the teams. Green Bay was the NFL giant during the 1960s. New England has dominated this decade.
Like out-of-work actors, the present-day Cowboys are between major titles. The Cowboys of the '60s had yet to win beyond the division level. Underdogs on both occasions, the Cowboys were keen to test fledging strength against the best. The outcome would reveal how much ground they had covered, lost or needed to make up.
Listen to same echo from men who coached and lost those games. Neither of their teams was good enough to beat the champion, and they were honest enough to admit losing was no fluke.
"The whole idea is someday you'll grow up to a point you can beat the Packers," said Tom Landry, whose team lost that '66 title game, 34-27.
"We wanted to be one of the elite teams and obviously we're not," Wade Phillips confessed following Sunday's 48-27 defeat.
Both of those Cowboys teams were just good enough to make a game of it. In '66, Meredith led a comeback to tie it at 14. Romo even had the Cowboys ahead once in the third quarter, 24-21. But both games were lost late, which is where the championship pedigree emerges, and both times the Cowboys helped beat themselves with pressure-related errors.
A substitution foul-up left Bob Hayes in the lineup where he missed key block with the Cowboys threatening to tie inside the Green Bay 5-yard line in the final seconds. Phillips and Romo pointed to a penalty on the first play of the fourth quarter as the game-changer Sunday.
Behind 31-24, Phillips green-lighted a fourth-and-1 plunge by Marion Barber from the Dallas 47. Barber made it with an 8-yard slash to the New England 45, but … holding on Kyle Kosier erased the gain and forced a punt.
"The fourth-and-1 play was a turning point … that and pass interference in the end zone," said Phillips, referring to a dubious foul against Patrick Watkins that earlier set up a New England touchdown from the Dallas 1.
TOM FOX / DMN
New England safety Rodney Harrison consoled Tony Romo after the Cowboys' quarterback threw a fourth-quarter interception. "I'd like to see the outcome if we didn't get that holding penalty," Romo said.
In that case, I'd allow the Cowboys a touchdown and upgrade the final to New England 48, Dallas 34. Listen, the Cowboys could play the Patriots until January and they couldn't beat Tom Brady.
Brady was beyond brilliant. He threw seven touchdown passes — five that counted and two to Randy Moss that Moss negated by stepping out of bounds and committing offensive pass interference. He could have thrown eight if turned loose. Brady made a game hero of slot receiver Wes Welker, the 5-9 flea from Texas Tech. Welker wore out nickel back Nate Jones to catch 11 passes for 124 yards and two touchdowns.
Brady would not rattle, and the Cowboys gave him reason to fluster. They trapped him three times – one more than his season total – flushed a fumble that Jason Hatcher returned 29 yards for a touchdown, hit him and rushed him at times. Brady never flinched and shattered the Cowboys' secondary by converting 10 of 14 third downs and totaling 19 first downs with dart-sharp passes.
Romo's performance (18-of-29, 199 yards, two TDs) was erratic, an upgrade from his six-turnover showing against Buffalo, but illustrative of relative youth. It's easy to forget Romo has now started only 14 NFL games, the equivalent of less than a regular-season schedule. There will be more spikes in his learning curve as he progresses.
Meantime the duel between Moss (six catches for 59 yards, one TD) and Terrell Owens (six for 66, one TD) paled in comparison to the haul by tiny-mite Welker and Donte' Stallworth (seven for 136, one TD). Owens so far plays like a better-than-average receiver but one unable to dominate as befits his self-advertised special talent.
His illegal shift penalty ranked high among sins, removing a 23-yard catch from Romo to the New England 38. The difference: A subsequent punt that erased a budding threat, forfeited a first down and 28 yards in field position. Lack of discipline proved a team-wide virus that led to 12 penalties for 98 yards – one more yard than the running game produced.
Still, the 5-1 record is a keeper especially after the victory theft in Buffalo. As for their chore this Sunday, the whole idea is someday the Cowboys will grow up to a point they can beat Minnesota.
05:28 PM CDT on Monday, October 15, 2007
IRVING – It's the first quarter at Texas Stadium on Sunday and the Dallas Cowboys already trail New England 14-0, haven't made a first down with three possessions and … where have I seen this game before?
Return to the Cotton Bowl in 1966 when the Cowboys and Green Bay Packers met to settle the NFL title. The Cowboys kicked off. Green Bay marched for a touchdown. Green Bay kicked off. The Cowboys fumbled the return. The Packers recovered and ran it in for another touchdown.
Never mind a first down. The Cowboys were behind 14-0 and hadn't run their first offensive play.
Don Meredith loped into the huddle and in a moment of inspiration, regaled teammates with news of the moment.
"Folks," said Meredith, "we are in a heap of [expletive deleted]."
Tony Romo found himself in the same shape against the Patriots and, like Meredith, rallied his mates only to suffer a near-identical defeat. Those two games, played 41 years apart, are still linked by similar roles of the teams. Green Bay was the NFL giant during the 1960s. New England has dominated this decade.
Like out-of-work actors, the present-day Cowboys are between major titles. The Cowboys of the '60s had yet to win beyond the division level. Underdogs on both occasions, the Cowboys were keen to test fledging strength against the best. The outcome would reveal how much ground they had covered, lost or needed to make up.
Listen to same echo from men who coached and lost those games. Neither of their teams was good enough to beat the champion, and they were honest enough to admit losing was no fluke.
"The whole idea is someday you'll grow up to a point you can beat the Packers," said Tom Landry, whose team lost that '66 title game, 34-27.
"We wanted to be one of the elite teams and obviously we're not," Wade Phillips confessed following Sunday's 48-27 defeat.
Both of those Cowboys teams were just good enough to make a game of it. In '66, Meredith led a comeback to tie it at 14. Romo even had the Cowboys ahead once in the third quarter, 24-21. But both games were lost late, which is where the championship pedigree emerges, and both times the Cowboys helped beat themselves with pressure-related errors.
A substitution foul-up left Bob Hayes in the lineup where he missed key block with the Cowboys threatening to tie inside the Green Bay 5-yard line in the final seconds. Phillips and Romo pointed to a penalty on the first play of the fourth quarter as the game-changer Sunday.
Behind 31-24, Phillips green-lighted a fourth-and-1 plunge by Marion Barber from the Dallas 47. Barber made it with an 8-yard slash to the New England 45, but … holding on Kyle Kosier erased the gain and forced a punt.
"The fourth-and-1 play was a turning point … that and pass interference in the end zone," said Phillips, referring to a dubious foul against Patrick Watkins that earlier set up a New England touchdown from the Dallas 1.
TOM FOX / DMN
New England safety Rodney Harrison consoled Tony Romo after the Cowboys' quarterback threw a fourth-quarter interception. "I'd like to see the outcome if we didn't get that holding penalty," Romo said.
In that case, I'd allow the Cowboys a touchdown and upgrade the final to New England 48, Dallas 34. Listen, the Cowboys could play the Patriots until January and they couldn't beat Tom Brady.
Brady was beyond brilliant. He threw seven touchdown passes — five that counted and two to Randy Moss that Moss negated by stepping out of bounds and committing offensive pass interference. He could have thrown eight if turned loose. Brady made a game hero of slot receiver Wes Welker, the 5-9 flea from Texas Tech. Welker wore out nickel back Nate Jones to catch 11 passes for 124 yards and two touchdowns.
Brady would not rattle, and the Cowboys gave him reason to fluster. They trapped him three times – one more than his season total – flushed a fumble that Jason Hatcher returned 29 yards for a touchdown, hit him and rushed him at times. Brady never flinched and shattered the Cowboys' secondary by converting 10 of 14 third downs and totaling 19 first downs with dart-sharp passes.
Romo's performance (18-of-29, 199 yards, two TDs) was erratic, an upgrade from his six-turnover showing against Buffalo, but illustrative of relative youth. It's easy to forget Romo has now started only 14 NFL games, the equivalent of less than a regular-season schedule. There will be more spikes in his learning curve as he progresses.
Meantime the duel between Moss (six catches for 59 yards, one TD) and Terrell Owens (six for 66, one TD) paled in comparison to the haul by tiny-mite Welker and Donte' Stallworth (seven for 136, one TD). Owens so far plays like a better-than-average receiver but one unable to dominate as befits his self-advertised special talent.
His illegal shift penalty ranked high among sins, removing a 23-yard catch from Romo to the New England 38. The difference: A subsequent punt that erased a budding threat, forfeited a first down and 28 yards in field position. Lack of discipline proved a team-wide virus that led to 12 penalties for 98 yards – one more yard than the running game produced.
Still, the 5-1 record is a keeper especially after the victory theft in Buffalo. As for their chore this Sunday, the whole idea is someday the Cowboys will grow up to a point they can beat Minnesota.
posted by The Gryphon at 7:19 PM
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