GAME RECAP: PATRIOTS 48 - COWBOYS 27
Patriots Wear Down Cowboys' 'D' in 48-27 Win
The Dallas Cowboys dropped to 5-1 on the season after a hard fought loss to the Patriots at Texas Stadium Sunday afternoon. It was actually a much closer game than the score would indicate.
"Well, they are that good," Cowboys head coach Wade Phillips said of the Patriots as he opened his post-game press conference. "I think the final score looks a little worse than it was. But they're a great team. We had our chances . . . we could've stayed in the game. But they played better than we did. They're an outstanding team."
"We wanted to be one of the elite teams in the league," Phillips said. "Obviously, we're not. This was certainly a wake-up call for us."
The Cowboyas started off slow, going 3 and out on their 1st 3 possessions of the game, while the Patriots scored touchdowns on 2 of their 3 possessions, making it 14-0 quickly. Tom Brady executed a 14-play drive that ended in a 6-yard TD pass to Randy Moss and a 6-play drive that was completed with a 35-pass touchdown pass to Wes Welker.
On Dallas' next possession, Tony Romo led the Cowboys on a long 11-play drive, but it only ended in a Nick Folk field goal to cut the lead to 14-3.
The Cowboys would jump right back into the game after Greg Ellis sacked Tom Brady on a 2 and 10 and forced a fumble, which Jason Hatcher promptly picked up and returned 29 yrads for the touchdown the cut the lead to 14-10 just like that.
The Patriots then executed another great offense drive, running 12 plays and marching 72 yards on a drive that ended in a 12-yard Wes Welker TD, his 2nd of the game to make it 21-10 Patriots.
Before the half, Tony Romo got it back. With less than 1:00 left in the 1st half, Tony Romo threw a 12-yard TD pass to Terrell Owens to make it a 21-17 game at halftime.
The Cowboys would take their 1st lead of the game on their 1st possession of the 2nd half. After stopping the New England offense, Tony Romo conducted a 7-play drive that finished with an 8-yard touchdown pass to Patrick Crayton to give the Cowboys a 24-21 lead. It would be very short-lived though.
On the next Patriots drive, New England was driving once again, and a crucial play in the game unfolded. On 2nd and 7 from the Dallas 16, Tom Brady tried to find Randy Moss in the end zone. However, Moss bumped into Pat Watkins, and Watkins was called for pass interference on the play. It was a bad call that came back to bite the Cowboys on the next play, as Tom Brady found Kyle Brady for the 1-yard score to put the Patriots back on top 28-24.
The Cowboys were only able to tack on another field goal the rest of the game and New England outscored Dallas 17-3 in the 4th quarter, rolling to a 48-27 win.
Tony Romo had a much better game than last week, completing 18/29 passes for 199 yards with 2 TD's and an INT.
"I thought we were moving the ball pretty well there in the second quarter," said Tony Romo. "I thought we had some things going. We grabbed a little momentum there before halftime."
The running game could never really did get going, as the offense wasn't on the field that much. Julius Jones carried the ball 6 times for 51 yards while Marion Barber III carried it 8 times for 47 yards.
Terrell Owens finished with 6 receptions for 66 yards and a TD, Patrick Crayton had 5 catches for 46 yards and 1 touchdown, while Jason Witten caught 3 passes for 47 yards.
Although the defense allowed 48 points, they still played solid, except on 3rd downs, where they had some trouble getting the stops they needed. They did record 3 sacks and force 3 fumbles, the only one that they recovered being returned for a TD.
Penalties killed the Cowboys all game long. They committed 12 totaling 98 yards.
Nick Folk made both of his field goals, his longest being 38 yards.
Not the best game we could've played obviously, but we kept it close until the 4th quarter, proving that we could hang with the Pastriots and that we can beat them, even if we didn't on Sunday. Now it's time to focus on the Vikings before our bye week to try to go to 6-1. We're still in good shape.
Comments
THE COWBOYS ONLY HAD 5 PENALTIES, THE OTHER 7 WERE A GIFT THE REFS TO THE CHEATING PATS. THE OTHER TEAM DIDN'T WEAR DOWN OUR D, THE REFS DID. I AM NOT SAYING THAT WE WOULD'VE WON IF THE REFS DIDN'T CHEAT, BUT WE WOULD'VE HAD A CHANCE TO PLAY WITHOUT CRUSHED SPIRITS. WE DIDN'T DESERVE TO BE BLOWN OUT AT HOME, BUT WE WILL MOVE ON & GET BETTER NEXT WEEK.
Posted by: BIG JON | October 15, 2007 08:44 AM
Sounds like "BIG JON" is a BIG BABY.
Your team was beaten by a superior team... stop your whining and get over it.
Posted by: Snerdly | October 15, 2007 11:31 AM
The Cowboys do need to cut the penalties in half. But hey we've won 5 outta 6. Nothing to hang our heads about. We will learn from our mistakes and rematch them in February!
Posted by: Kelly | October 15, 2007 03:43 PM