This past week, the media turned its attention to what was happening behind the scenes of the Dallas Cowboys offense. The three main characters of this soap opera? Quarterback Tony Romo, Wide Receiver Terrell Owens, and Tight End Jason Witten. The wide receiver appeared to be jealous of the tight end getting more attention from the quarterback. With the beans spilled out, it looked even less likely that the Dallas Cowboys would defeat the reigning Super Bowl champions.
However, the three of them did away with their anger as they helped lead their team to a much-needed victory over the New York Giants. While the camaraderie of the three main characters were quite attentive to football fans, it was the Dallas defense that kept the team’s playoff hopes alive.
Behind eight sacks, three from DeMarcus Ware, on Eli Manning, the Cowboys defense allowed just two field goals to New York. This gave more than enough room for Tony Romo to work his throwing arm across the football field as he completed 20 of 30 passes for 244 yards, throwing for 2 touchdown passes. Romo completed a 34-yard touchdown pass to Patrick Crayton four minutes into the second quarter to give the Cowboys a 7-0 lead. However, a John Carney 34-yard field goal with 4:52 left in the half cut the Dallas lead to 4. The Cowboys led at the half by a score of 7 to 3.
In the 4th quarter, Romo completed a one-yard touchdown pass to Deon Anderson to increase the Dallas lead to 11. However, facing 3rd and 12 at their own 6 yard line, the Cowboys’ offensive line stayed stationary after the snap, causing the Giants to quickly sack Romo into the endzone. Romo actually fumbled the ball before going down, but managed to knock the ball out of bounds in the endzone to save five points. Dallas still maintained a two-possession lead.
After the insuing kickoff, the Giants drove the ball from their own 40 to the Dallas 29 to set up a John Carney field goal. 47 yards later, the Giants found themselves down 14 to 8 with just under 6 minutes left in the game.
Facing a 2nd and 20 at the Dallas 24, running back Tashard Choice managed to run the ball 17 yards to give Dallas a manageable first down. Then, on 3rd and 3, Marion Barber extended the drive by running 9 yards to midfield. On the next set of downs, Jason Witten was called for holding, which put the Cowboys in another 2nd-and-long; this time, they had to go 23 yards. Romo found Choice for 14 yards to set up a 3rd and 9. On the insuing third down, Romo completed a short pass to Jason Witten, who ran around Giants Free Safety Michael Johnson and picked up just enough yards for the first down. Tashard Choice put the icing on the cake when he ran the ball 38 yards for a Cowboys touchdown.
With this win, Dallas improved to 9-5 on the season and currently control their own destiny in the NFC Wild Card. As for the Giants, who already clinched the division when Dallas lost last Sunday to Pittsburgh, they fell to 11-3 on the season.
