Gagging It Up

Nice gag job yesterday by the Dallas Cowboys. So much for being the number one NFC seed. As a fan, losing 21-17 to the Giants at home is unacceptable. They certainly didn’t play like it yesterday, but they were the best team in the NFC all season. But they couldn’t make plays when it counted. Here were the three biggest problems yesterday as I saw it: Number one, after a 20 play drive that took 11 minutes off the clock and resulted in a touchdown Dallas cannot allow the Giants to score any points with 53 seconds left in the first half. Instead, thanks to Jacques Reeves (Dallas’ 3rd corner who stinks) poor coverage and stupid 15-yard penalty, the Giants moved right down the field with ease and put a TD on the board to tie the game 14-14 at the half. Huge momentum changer. Number two, Patrick Crayton needs to catch that wide open pass at 17-14 Dallas with a minute left in the 3rd quarter. If he does, Dallas breaks the Giants will there and probably wins the game with ease. Instead of talking all week, maybe Crayton should have taken extra pass drills. Number three, what happened to the Dallas offensive line? They couldn’t block anyone in the 4th quarter. I can’t believe I was watching the same line that pushed the Giants defensive line all over the field in the 2 regular season games and in the first half of this one. Tackles Marc Colombo and Flozell Adams just didn’t get it done in the 2nd half. Mind boggling. You add all that up along with 11 penalties and you end up scoring only 3 points in the second half and home you go. So much for the 2nd best offense in the league. Notice I did not mention Tony Romo and his Mexican siesta with a certain pop princess last week. To me, Romo played OK but he had no time to throw in the 4th quarter because his offensive line collapsed. His vacation was not a factor. That just helps media companies sell newpapers. Could he have been better? Probably, but he was running for his life in the 4th quarter. Romo kept several plays alive in this game so I can’t kill him. The bottom line is you have to have the killer instinct in the playoffs and Dallas didn’t have it. So instead of a possible Super Bowl trip this team once again has to reflect on what went wrong. Very disappointing end to the season as a fan but the team did not play on a high level and got what it deserved. It needs to learn how to close out games in the playoffs before they taste any success.