Film Review for the offense.
QB - Heh. Brad Johnson was awful. He threw the INT on the slant pattern right to the defense. T.O. worked his way off press coverage that slowed him up a bit, but he created space and Brad flat-out blew the throw. He tried to go deep to T.O. once and threw it out of bounds, threw another ridiculous INT and held the ball too long for a sack. He did manage a couple of good throws, including the one where Roy Williams made the circus catch, but it was a pitiful performance overall. Brooks Bollinger was a little better, at least his passes had some zip on them, but still wasn't a good performance. He threw the INT on his first pass, even though a blitz did disrupt his ability to step forward. He also threw a near-INT that the Giants dropped, threw a couple of other ducks and threw a terrible pass on a fade route in the endzone. He managed to put one drive together that looked competent, ending with a nice TD throw on a slant. He also converted a fourth down and made a couple of throws against the blitz. But let's face it, neither of these guys are the answer.
RB - Marion Barber was running hard and managed a few good runs. He got outside on a couple of sweeps, showed good patience on another run that end up gaining yards and converted a third down on a draw. He also does a good job picking up the blitz, but he had a few poor choices on some cuts that he probably wishes he had back. His biggest problem was he was too often avoiding defenders before he even got to the line. Tashard Choice showed a nice burst through the middle on a couple of runs late in the game and probably should have gotten more touches over the time that Felix Jones was out. That's another questionable decision by the coaching staff.
FB - Deon Anderson didn't get a lot of opportunities as the Cowboys used Tony Curtis a lot in the backfield or two TE's on the line. He made a good tackle on a kickoff return and got a good downfield block to open up a lane for MB3.
TE - Jason Witten didn't see a lot of action because of the injury. He did totally whiff on a run block that killed a play and didn't appear to be in good form at all. Martellus Bennett mixed in some good seal blocks on the edge with a couple of poor efforts in the run game. He's still learning but shows good potential. He caught a few passes including one where he showed great effort in stretching to convert a third down. He also caught a lucky rebound for a long gain late in the game. Tony Curtis was used in the blocking game and was OK but I didn't note anything special in his play.
WR - Note: All the WR's suffered from poor QB/OL play. Terrell Owens had a couple of catches that were short to intermediate and caught a TD pass. He only got one opportunity downfield and the pass was way off target. He also fumbled the ball in the redzone which is highly unusual for him and he dropped a pass on third down. Patrick Crayton had the best game of the WR's, catching passes for a third down conversion and a fourth down conversion. He also caught a few others along the way and made a nice hustle play to make a tackle after an INT. Roy Williams only got a couple of opportunities but made a spectacular one-handed catch along the sideline for the longest gain of the game. Miles Austin really didn't play as a WR but was very good returning kickoffs.
OL - Flozell Adams is not playing well at all. I got him down for four plays where his pass protection was poor, one leading to a sack and the others causing QB's to throw early or forcing the QB to move into traffic. He also got a false start call and wasn't a force in the run game. Cory Procter is not good. He got beat for a sack, had two other plays with very poor pass protection, got pushed into the backfield to kill a run and missed a block on the linebacker to kill another run that had a lot of potential. Andre Gurode missed a block on a linebacker that killed what would have been a big run, missed on two other run blocks and picked up a false start (how does a center get a false start?)
Leonard Davis was slow to pull on a run block, whiffed on another run block that killed a third and two play, and had one bad protection. He did manage a couple of good run blocks. Marc Colombo was actually pretty clean compared to the rest of the line. He was slow to get out on a pull and had one bad pass protection that allowed the defender to hit the arm of the QB and the pass was a wounded duck. Montrae Holland got a little time at the end and the only thing I noted was one awful run block. One of the disappointing parts of the line play was they never blew the Giants off the line, at best they were battling to a stand-still on their better plays. I'll have more on the play of the offensive line when I discuss the problems and how to fix them for this Dallas Cowboys team.