The Dallas Cowboys traveled to hot and humid Miami to take on the Dolphins in a game that started slow, but ended in rush for the Cowboys. Dallas relied on five turnovers from its defense, some fancy footwork from Tony Romo and hard-running from Marion Barber to close out the Dolphins 37-20. Marion Barber had two rushing TD’s and 89 yards to lead the Cowboys and finished the scoring with a 40-yard TD run. Tony Romo was 14 of 29 for 186 yards and 2 TD’s, a little less than his dynamic game in week one but good enough to help Dallas go to 2-0 with a win on the road. Romo showed some of his Favre-like characteristics by flipping a short TD pass to Tony Curtis while in the grasp of Joey Porter. Terrell Owens also had a TD to go with his 97 yards receiving.
But the big story for Dallas was the resurgence of a defense and the redemption of a secondary. They came up with five turnovers to snuff out any hope of Miami winning the game. Anthony Henry had two INT’s and safeties Ken Hamlin and Roy Williams each got one for a secondary that had a lot to prove. Jay Ratliff recovered a fumble and helped anchor a run defense that only gave up 61 yards for the game. They weren’t perfect, they gave up too many easy catches and the defensive front seven again failed to create sustained pressure on QB Trent Green. But turnovers are the kind of big plays that can cover for other mistakes and for two weeks now the Cowboys have weathered not having Terence Newman or Greg Ellis available.
The game wasn’t as pretty as last week’s but the Cowboys went on the road and hung up 37 points a week after putting up 45 points. The Cowboys offense gets better as the game goes along and in the second half of both games put the victories in the bank. Also, credit a huge punt return by Patrick Crayton that was the spark that got things going for Dallas in the second half. All things considered, the Cowboys have to be happy with their 2-0 record after two weeks.