There were 76 seconds left to be played, and one play – 10 yards out – was going to be the difference between the Dallas Cowboys completing another inexorable collapse or delaying said inexorable collapse until later. Tony Romo and DeMarco Murray decided that a rain check was the better option.
The two Cowboy stars hooked up on a 10-yard touchdown pass on fourth-and-goal late in the fourth quarter as Dallas completed a come-from-behind 24-23 victory over the Washington Redskins and set up a winner-take-all game for the NFC East crown with the Philadelphia Eagles next week in Arlington. But again, as the Cowboys pulled out their season – and many people’s jobs – out of the fire, one can only wonder if this game, with plot twits for almost every second that elapsed, really meant anything. And the same goes for next week’s contest, win or lose.
Don’t worry. Romo, Murray and the rest of America’s Team will cash that check, and soon.
Honestly, what really is the difference between a 23-point collapse at home that puts a season on the brink (last week) and a come-from-behind victory after losing a second-half lead and getting ready for a brawl for it all with a division title at stake (today)? Seven days and uniform colors, but that’s about it.
“It felt like an elimination game for us,” Tony Romo said. “Obviously, we knew that we needed to in this football game, as a playoff game. Guys kept having belief, and we came out on top, so that was good to see.”
Obviously, we all knew that. Obviously, we all know it doesn’t matter as well. “Playoff games in the regular season” are what the Cowboys specialize in taking a part of. Depending on which side you’re on – sometimes even regardless – schadenfreude abounds from fans and press members alike when Dallas gets ready to perform in crunch time. That’s almost become a rite of passage. Today’s game offered the same Greek tragedy storyline.
The first time Dallas touched the ball, Micheal Spurlock (signed to the team just four days ago as regular return man Dwyane Harris missed the game due to a hamstring injury) returned a punt 62 yards to Washington’s three. On the next play, wide receiver Terrance Williams dropped a Romo pass in the endzone on a slant. The next play, Murray powered in a run to give the Cowboys a 7-0 lead.
It was the good, the bad and the ugly; back-to-back-to-back. As always with Dallas, the only mystery was the order of which each would occur.
It got better for America’s Team, holding the Redskins in the first half to only two field goals despite Washington getting inside of the Dallas 30-yard line three times in the first 30 minutes. Oh, and what would a good Cowboys story – good and bad – be without Dez Bryant? Bryant made a leaping catch and tip-toed his feet inbounds before falling on the end line on a third down to give Dallas a 14-6 lead with 4:37 to go in the second quarter.
Waiting for the bad and the ugly part, huh? Don’t hold your breath too long then.
Washington scored 17 unanswered in the second half to take nine-point lead at 23-14, with the rally starting after Cowboys fullback Tyler Clutts fumbled after catching a Romo pass on the first drive of the third. Josh Wilson forced the fumble and recovered it at Dallas’ 28, and seven plays later, Kirk Cousins (making his third career start) found Pierre Garcon in the middle of the field for an eight-yard score that cut the Cowboys lead to one. For Garcon, that was one of his 11 catches for 114 yards, a stat line good enough to set a new single-season receptions record in Washington team history (107).
Waiting for a Dez Bryant-related story on the bad side? Don’t hold your breath too long then.
On the next drive, Dallas gained a first down on a third-down run by Murray, and had good field position at their own 41. Romo stepped back in the pocket and uncorked a pass to the left sideline for Bryant – only for Bryant to slip out of his break on the patchy sod and letting DeAngelo Hall record an interception and return it to the Cowboy 41. The ensuing Washington drive resulted in six, as Alfred Morris highlighted the seven-play drive with four consecutive punishing runs, the last a four-yard plunge off of left tackle to give Washington its first lead at 20-14 with four minutes left in the third.
So now it’s the fourth quarter, and here’s where the collapse – in the game and for the season – becomes complete, right? Well, not exactly, but you already knew Dallas was capable of a great “playoff-style game in the regular-season” comeback.
Kai Forbath made a 48-yard field goal to begin the fourth to give Washington a two-possession lead at 23-14, and that’s when Dallas engineered two of its best drives of their season. A 15-play drive was punctuated by a 25-yard Dan Bailey field goal – after Romo overthrew an open Bryant five yards deep in the endzone – and Dallas’ deficit was six. Cousins and the Washington offense were not able to sustain a drive against a Cowboy defense missing three defensive starters due to injury (linebacker Sean Lee, linebacker Ernie Sims and cornerback Morris Claiborne), and Dallas got the ball back with 3:39 left.
So was it time for good, bad or ugly? All of the above it turned out – but again, you already knew that was coming.
Dallas drove from its on 13 to Washington’s 21, with a 51-yard pass on a broken play from Romo to Williams getting the Cowboys in business. On the next play, Bryant turned a four-yard hitch into a 17-yard gain to get the Cowboys a first and goal at the four.
One play later, it was second and goal from the one. Two plays after that, it was fourth-and-goal…from the 10. Murray, running left on third-and-goal from the one, tried to reverse field and only found burgundy-clad defenders and was buried for a nine-yard loss.
After that play, and after a Dallas timeout, Romo, the highest-rated fourth-quarter passer in the history of the NFL (take that for what it’s worth), made the play. He was helped by a non-existent pass rush from Washington, but Romo stayed alive long enough to first direct Murray from the right flat to go further down the field, then throw a soft strike to Murray, who caught it at the two-yard line and dove across the plane for the winning score.
“That’s how the game went,” said Cowboys head coach Jason Garrett in the postgame press conference. “We certainly had a lot of difference circumstances that we had to overcome today. I was really proud of our football team and how we just kind of stayed focused on what the task was.”
Or, in Cowboys and football layman’s, the same old stuff with us, just a different week. Nothing will change. The ups and downs will be there next week…and the week after that (if they live to see another week in the 2013 NFL season).
Only the Dallas Cowboys can turn their most important win of the season and the game where they showed the most fortitude into an exercise in football redundancy. See you next week: same bat time, same bat channel.
