I’m strangely OK with this loss. It stinks, no doubt, but it showed me that we’re not too far behind the New England Patriots. I don’t have any doubt that the Patriots are a better football team right now; they came in and whipped us. After the Cowboys made it interesting by going ahead 24-21 in the 3rd quarter, New England showed why they are the top of heap in the NFL along with the Indianapolis Colts. They beat us in our own house, plain and simple.
But here’s why it’s not a total disaster for me, the Cowboys were in the game. They were competitive through most of the game and could have put themselves in a position to win it. With all that happened, Dallas was just one or two big plays away from seriously contesting the win. I’ll take it, for now. Because I think this Cowboys team is only going to get better as the year goes on.
Self-inflicted wounds like penalties really hurt Dallas’ chances and the inability to stop Tom Brady on 3rd down led to a loss. The Cowboys habit of starting slow put them in a 14-0 hole right out of the gate and they spent the rest of the game playing catch-up, and then when they finally got the lead, New England just punished them the rest of the way. The decision to kick the FG in the 4th quarter instead of going for the TD felt like a surrender of the game. There just was no evidence that the Dallas defense could stop the New England offense.
I think not having Anthony Henry available hurt us more than we predicted. The Patriots receiving corps and the arm of Tom Brady were just too much for a secondary that was stretched thin and had to put Nate Jones on Wes Welker for portions of the game. Even Terence Newman struggled to keep up with the Patriots receivers and Tom Brady showed why he’s one of the best to play the game. He shredded us.
Look, we’re now 5-1 and I didn’t expect that to start the season. I consider us to be in a very good position. Now that we’ve played the Patriots I know that we can compete with any team. We should get Henry back soon, maybe get Terry Glenn back, we’re definitely getting Tank Johnson on the field and Greg Ellis is getting healthier. I’m very optimistic even though I wanted to beat New England in the worst way.
Maybe later this season, just maybe.
I’ll have more later tonight. Comments are welcome below.