Even though Tony Romo and the Dallas secondary had a bad game, and Eli Manning had a great game, the Cowboys only lost by two points. They were never dominated. They certainly came out swinging to a team many rank as one of the best in the league.
But losing to the New York Giants to open up Cowboys Stadium can make many a Dallas fan feel blue. Losing never feels good. We just have to accept those feelings and move on.
Jason Witten says it all right here:
"It’s so disappointing, and so early in the season and all that was surrounding (Sunday) but more than that to win a big football game against a huge rival," tight end Jason Witten said. "It’s very disappointing. Words really can’t describe how this team feels right now."
It is a long season. This team has much to improve upon. The Buccaneers showed us some of that last week; but, a victory full of big plays sugarcoated some of the worries. The Giants reinforced the fact that the passing game, on both sides of the ball, can be a weakness for the Cowboys.
Hopefully, by the time these two teams meet again, Dallas will have corrected its woes. If not, a long season may seem all the more longer.
More VRR after the jump.
DMN reports that Marion Barber's injury is a strained quad. It is not believed to be serious. We will definitely stay tuned on this.
Wade Phillips was reluctant to put a timetable on Marion Barber's injury because he had not been told the results of an MRI the running back had taken Monday morning.
"A quad injury, I guess I'll call it an injury right now because we don't know the extent of it,'' Phillips said at his Monday press conference. "We'll have to wait and see on that.''
Here's some reason for optimism. After two weeks, the Cowboys lead the entire NFL in rushing with a 184.5 per game average. This, of course, is not counting tonight's Colts @ Dolphins game.
MBIII is 7th in the league in rushing with 32 carries for 203 yards for a whopping 6.3 ypc average. His complement, Felix Jones, ranks 17th in the league with 13 carries for 118 yards for a whopping whopping 9.1 ypc average.
Will this be the second week in a row that Flozell Adams gets fined? Giants DE Justin Tuck, who injured his shoulder after being tripped by Flo, thinks so.
"It was bush league," Tuck said of Adams' trip. "He did it a few times in this game. I'd like to have the rest of the game to punish him for it."
Tuck vowed to play next Sunday against the Bucaneers even though he couldn't get in his stance Sunday night. He has played through a lot of injuries, so you know his shoulder had to be hurting him.
"I'm fine," he said. "I'm playing next week."
Adams, not a man prone to speaking after games, had this to say: "I didn't see nothing," Adams said late Sunday. "Did you see something?"
Other than Flo's questionable play, some love for the offensive line is in order.
Give the Cowboys offensive line some credit. They handled the vaunted Giants defensive line pretty well. They did not give up a sack. They opened holes for rushing attack that accounted for 251 yards on the ground, is the most since rushing for 271 yards at Philadelphia (10/31/93).
Roy Williams had only one catch for 18 yards. On the Lunch Break, they said that Williams was seen in the locker room at halftime getting an IV. As Raf noted, having the roof open caused the infamous Texas humidity to float into the stadium. This may be a reason why Williams was dehydrated.
When interceptions rain for Tony Romo, they pour. Cover your eyes if you do not want to see the scary Romo stat below.
Romo, as everyone knows by now, has a habit of throwing footballs to guys without stars on their helmet. Since taking over as the Dallas Cowboys starting quarterback early in the 2006 season, he had thrown 46 picks in 40 games. Make that 49.
Here you go, Mario Manningham, have 150 receiving yards on us. Mr. Steve Smith, go ahead and take 134 yards. By the way, you each get 10 catches, some key third-down grabs, and a touchdown.The Dallas cornerbacks did not have a good game last night. Perhaps Coach Phillips' idea to name co-starters at RCB is not working out.
"We are going to look at it and see," he said. "We evaluate every week as to how players are playing. We didn't cover No. 12 (Steve Smith) at all, I didn't think, very well the whole game. And we had a couple of bad breaks obviously."
Starters Terence Newman and Scandrick were both visibly disappointed with their own performances.
Scandrick knows he failed to play up to his potential last night.
"We put ourselves in bad positions," Scandrick said. "Starting off with myself, I didn’t play well. I probably had the worst tackle game and we had mental errors. As a team, we just didn’t play well enough to win."
The bad news gets worse. The Dallas defense is ranked 30th in the league, giving up an average of 438.5 yards per game. The passing defense also ranks 30th as the Bucs and Giants have averaged 303 yards against it. Zero sacks and zero forced turnovers through two weeks also indicate that something just ain't right on that side of the ball.
Let me leave you with a couple numbers that will make you feel better, or at least help put things in perspective. 48-22. Saints @ Eagles.