Wednesday, October 14, 2009

A win's a win and the Cowboys had to have it

This past Sunday, the Dallas Cowboys outlasted the Kansas City Chiefs in overtime at Arrowhead on a chilly cloudy looking day. Playing without WR Roy Williams and RB Felix Jones, the Cowboys overcame two early turnovers that led directly to 10 pts for the Chiefs, FIFETEEN penalties, and various missed opportunities in the redzone to pull this one out. Three times the Cowboys had to settle for FGs instead of TDs in the red zone, and one of the FGs on their opening possession was shanked by the normally close to automatic Nick Folk, the third year PK out of Arizona. Miles Austin took the place of Roy Williams and looked the part of a number one wideout, catching 10 balls for an astounding 250 yards and two TDs, one in the fourth that put Dallas up 20-13, and the other to win the game in the extra overtime session. The Cowboys(3-2) were shaking cobwebs throughout most of the first three quarters, falling behind 13-3 and racking up penalties on both sides of the ball. One one drive that led to the Chiefs third quarter FG, the Cowboys D was whistled for being offsides a ridiculous FOUR times. After finally taking the lead with under three minutes to play on a 56 yard pass to Austin, the Cowboys defense, who had held down the fort throughout the game while waiting for the offense to finally get it going, gave up the tying TD drive that sent the game into overtime. And in the overtime session, the Chiefs even had two possessions including the first one on the winning coin toss. The second time they got the ball, I for one, thought that the Cowboys had lost it right there. Dallas did nothing on their first overtime possession and the shortest punt of the day by Mat McBriar, came at the worst possible time as Kansas City ended up at midfield. But the Cowboys D stopped the Chiefs from gaining a single yard much less a first down. After Patrick Crayton fair caught a punt at his own 21, the Cowboys began the winning march or sprint if you want to call it that. Choice ran for 16 yards. He and Marion Barber got the ball to midfield on the next couple of plays before Flozell Adams was called for holding and backed the team up 10 yards to their own 40. And then Romo connecfed to Austin for what appeared at first to be a 10 yarder to get the holding yardage back. He then shook a tackle and sprinted away from everyone down the Joyous Cowboys sideline to the end zone. The Chiefs are still winless at 0-5. And ofcourse the Cowboys need to be a lot better than this. But they DID win and head into their bye week, hoping to get healthy and ready for some more consistency. Atlanta is next in Dallas on Oct. 25. Cowboys can still get better and definitely need to. If they played the Eagles, Saints, or Giants right now, the result might not be pretty. That said, they should have beaten the Giants three weeks ago at home and let the Denver game get away. Those are good teams yet people want to make them out to be WAY better than the Cowboys. I don't think they are a lot better than the Cowboys potentially. This team is one that could get a lot better as the season goes on. But the penalties and turnovers can team up to kill you. And this team has a lot of ironing out to do. It's not a question of what they're capable of. It just could go either way as it stands now. I know one thing for sure. Had they not won this last one, they might not be recovering from it. But they did what a good team does even when they play a below average game. They still won. They knew they had to have it, when it mattered most anyways. So a bye week comes at more ideal time than the one last year, which didn't come until week 10.

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