Tony, Tony, Tony, Has Done It Agai, er, Once! Dallas 35, Carolina 14
Posted: October 30, 2006 @ 1:07 am
Bill Parcells sees football in boxing terms. In a New York Times story published this week, Parcells told author Michael Lewis he feared his team might lack the toughness to weather an opponents flurry and respond. That seemed to be the case in recent losses to the Eagles and Giants, where early haymakers wobbled his Cowboys and left them vulnerable to late knockouts.
He probably feared the same ten minutes into the game, when a fresh round of Cowboys mistakes and some Carolina big plays put the Panthers up 14-0. This time, his fighers showed some elusiveness and heart. They counterpunched their way back to 14-10 halftime deficit, behind some quick Tony Romo jabs to Terrell Owens and Jason Witten. In the third quarter, they matched punches with their hosts and ducked a wild Panthers uppercut when WR Keyshawn Johnson dropped a sure TD pass.
This time it was Carolina who tired and the Cowboys put them down in style, notching 25 fourth quarter points and leaving Carolina dazed and bloodied, a 35-14 victim of a suddenly dangerous-looking Cowboys team.
The player at the center of the flurry was of course, Romo, who overcame a poorly thrown first half interception to finish 24 of 26 for 270 yards and a touchdown. He showed a boxer’s cool, sliding and ducking Panthers defenders all night. His most notable slip came on a third and sixteen early in the fourth quarter with Dallas trailing 14-10. Romo drifted left past a Kris Jenkins charge found and Witten in the left seam for 21 yards.
Romo had many heroes backing him up. Other fighters of note include:
Marc Colombo — He fought Julius Peppers hand to hand for four quarters and kept the Panthers star from a sack. Peppers had only two tackles on the night.
Colombo’s linemates — The Panthers ran twists. They stunted. They blitzed. The line picked them up. Two early penalties hurt but the line settled down and provided their best blocking display of the year against a quality opponent. Romo is far more elusive than Drew Bledsoe, but he also had a lot of time to throw. Carolina got only two sacks.
Oliver Hoyte — He’s a full time fullback now, folks. Hoyte started in the backfield and knocked the Panthers linebackers around. He played ILB in college and took on 300 lb. linemen. Now he gets to mash 240 lb. linebackers. It seems he got the better end of that bargain. The Cowboys backs probably think so. Julius Jones and Marion Barber gained 141 yards behind his escorts.
Jason Witten – six catches, 80 yards and a touchdown. He finally created the mid-field mayhem that we’ve waited for all season. May it continue.
Keith Davis and Roy Williams — The Cowboys safeties have gotten a lot of press lately, for all the wrong reasons. Tonight, Davis had one tackle. Williams had none. It was the best anonymous performance you could hope for. They kept the Panthers receivers in front of them and prevented any deep completions. Williams made a late interception to help seal the win.
Anthony Henry and Terence Newman — Newman drew Steve Smith all over the field. Henry got Keyshawn Johnson, all over the field. Superman Smith finished with six catches for only 55 yards. He did score on a 24 yard end around that put the Panthers up 14-0, but Newman kept him out of any rhythm. Henry, with a little bit of help from Keyshawn, held his man to one catch for 19 yards. Carolina mounted only one sustained drive all game. These guys were probably the biggest reasons why.
Mike Vanderjagt — He banged a 48 yarder off the right upright in the first quarter, but he did what he’s supposed to — he easily made two kicks under 40 yards. What’s more, he seems to have perfected a looping kickoff that drops over the wedge and takes crazy bounces. The return men had a horrible time fielding them last night. One second quarter kick was fumbled but recovered by Carolina. A second was fumbled by fullback Brad Hoover one play after Dallas had closed to 14-13. Julius Jones scored one play later and Dallas never trailed again.
Other notes:
– Dallas suffered its first significant injury of the season when RB/KR Tyson Thompson broke an ankle. Thompson was tackled late out of bounds on a first quarter kickoff return.
– There was a huge Cowboys contingent in the stadium tonight. They were quiet early but let out a huge roar when the Cowboys took the lead. Their presence increased as the home crowd thinned out.
– The Cowboys have been lining up T.O. as a fullback and springing him on linebackers of late. Tonight Terry Glenn lined up in the backfield and released on a deep post. He made a 22 yard reception on the play.
– Akin Ayodele and Bobby Carpenter got some fourth quarter reps at DE, spelling Demarcus Ware and Greg Ellis. Ayodele sacked Jake Delhomme from RE on the game’s final play.
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What a game that was!!! Great wrap-up, Raf!!
Let the Romo era begin!!!
Now I’m not a Romo-hater or a Bledsoe-apologist, but I just wonder how Bledsoe would have done with the way the O-line played tonight. Last week, they were spanked by the Giants, but this week, they more than held their own against the Panthers vaunted D-line with Peppers and Jenkins. It did seem like they were blocking with their heads up this week, looking for blitzing LBs or safeties.
Seemed like Davis had a pretty good game in place of Watkins.
I’m sure we would have won the game even without the flurry of turnovers in the 4th quarter. I like how our offense is able to mount sustained drives and just chew up the clock. Although I’d prefer if we got more TDs than FGs.
We won the game, but as Raf said, and I’m sure as all of ya’ll saw, the Panthers receivers sure didn’t do themselves any favors by dropping all those wide open passes. Hopefully the Cowboys DBs don’t get all full of themselves this week.
Well, we got the Foreskins coming up, hopefully we can have our first 2 game winning streak of the year so I can go talk some smack to my friends who cheer for them.
I thought he played with restraint, and would really like to see him ‘open it up.’
Nevertheless, he’s quite effective on two point conversions, and the fake QB draw was a highlight for me. He doesn’t remind me of any QB, but maybe a hybrid of McNabb and Steve Nash, with a pinch of Sugar Ray Leonard.
Great win for the Cowboys. I know that it’s only one game but this team believes in Romo and so do I. On the flip side, it’s a tough loss for Thompson. He’ll most likely end up on IR which opens the door for Skyler Green.
First post here, but I read the board all the time. Wow, folks… Could this game have turned out any better than it did tonight? I really liked what I saw out of Romo. I don’t want to get too excited, but he certainly looks like the real deal so far.
Mccourt, genius comparison of Romo! After hearing everything from Romo being compared to Montana to Farve, I really got a good laugh out of that one.
Thompson is a tough loss. I look for Elam to be the primary returner now. Romo was great! I’m confident for the Skins game!
TO mentioned a key ingredient that I have constantly noticed in preseasons past that Romo brings to the field ENTHUSIASM …
I enjoy watching an enthusiastic QB.
Maybe a bit of a reach but I believe that THAT enthusiasm is exactly what will motivate the support of an offensive line to protect a guy.
Turbo mentioned that Bledslow would’ve done well with that kind of protection … true … but would he have INSPIRED that kind of protection??? That has been my question all allong. You show love to the o-line when you get your part done quickly and help them save juice. And who doesn’t like to have fun playing football? NO DON’T just start carving his bust for the hall just yet … but I just have to say that he is a much more exciting guy to watch and probably play around and I thing the team will have more fun and enthusiasm with him in there and resulting in wanting to work harder for each game …
I’m just sayin’
BleedinBlue, just a tidbit to add onto your point about Romo’s enthusiasm, did anyone notice Romo jumping up and down on the side line on the third down play during the Panthers’ second drive? He’s definitely a character.
Colomb literally kicked Peppers ass. He was one mean dude tonight.
Turbo,
We wouldn’t have won with Bledsoe.
He would have been sacked 5 or 6 times.
Romo helps make the Olines job that much easier. And then in post game he gives all the credit to the Oline calling them “amazing”. The Oline are gonna love this guy.
I mean c’mon, all year good D’s have shredded us in pass protection with Bledsoe, yet tonight the pass protection was very good. What was different… Tony Romo!
Sacks were down, turnovers were down, the offense coverted third downs and kept the D fresh which helped the D shut down a strong offense, feild position was good. What was the difference… Tony Romo.
I know there were plenty of others who had excellent games too (as Raf pointed out) but in the NFL things begin and end with your quarterback play. Tonight we had very good QB play, previously this season we hadn’t. Good play from your quarterback helps the entire team! And also I think the Cowboy players believe in Romo now for sure, and that makes them play with more confidence.
I said it after the Giants game when I saw these signs in that second half… The season has just begun
great write up Raf,
however, I think you might be giving Tnew and Henry a little too much credit. Steve Smith and Johnson both dropped key passes all day. Henry got beat all day by Keyshawn. I would say that their dropped passes contributed to about 35-40% of our win tonight.
But overall, I havnt been this excited about a win in a long time. Romo looked great and we’re finally back to using Witten more. Our O-line rebounded from last week as well as our run game.
on another note…looks like Pat Watkins is going to be out of a starting job for a long while…Bring on the Redskins
By the way, if we win next week, it would be our SECOND two game winning streak this season. Just poking at you Turbo.
Let’s see if Romo can keep this up for the next couple of games, Washington is a tough environment for the Cowboys (call me Captain Obvious), let’s see how he deals with the intensity of a division rivalry in an away game.
I will say that everyone seemed to play far more inspired football this week, though we had too many penalties, that Tony managed to get us out of several times. Two straight 5-yarders on 3rd and 2 on about the Carolina 5? yard line? Jeez. Also, TO ran a couple of routes that went out of bounds as the announcers pointed out.
Overall, though, a really good game, showing a lot of patience, and no panic plays. I noticed we were trying to strip the ball on almost every defensive or special team play, or so it seemed.
Anyone else seem to have trouble gettin sleep tonight??? :-)
Feeling rough for TT. Having a great return season so far. That sucks.
Hey, when was the last time we had 35 UNANSWERED points against a team with a winning season?
Jeez, If we can get some dicipline on those penalties …. just imagine …
Good Night all … CAN’T WAIT ‘TILL WE ROMP IN OLE’ DC!!!!!
Our cornerbacks played a good game, but not consistently. Anthony Henry turned in his worse performance of the year to me. He was being bullied by keyshawn.
I hope we don’t have the “what if’s” questioning how good the team is. Just as many dropped passes as there were, there were dallas penalities. If you take those drops away you might as well take the penalties away. Those things happen every game, it’s just about who fights it out.
mdlusk:
haha, my bad, you’re right, we’ll be on our 2nd 2-game winning streak if all goes according to plan next week.
Also, I don’t think Bledsoe would have been sacked that many times, maybe 3. There just weren’t people rushing in, getting to him untouched. Again, I’m not on Bledsoe’s nuts, just pointing out the O-line played way better tonight than last Monday. Hopefully they keep up the good play.
On a side note, wonder why the commentators didn’t think TO was having one of his rants during one of those sideline shots focused on him. He was yelling, but Madden and Michaels didn’t say anything about it. Perhaps M&M prefer to keep speculation low and ESPN’s MNF crew sucks.
@Minky: You thought Henry had a bad game? I thought he was outstanding, especially in run support. He did have the PI penalty and the maybe TD had Key held onto the ball.
Excellent all-around play by Dallas. At half-time, even though we were down by 4, I felt like we were the better team and just had to stop shooting ourselves in the foot.
Turbo,
You can’t compare the rush Romo saw with what might have been with Bledsoe in the game. That’s the beauty of Romo to me. Other teams can’t just pin their ears back on every conceivable passing down. Romo’s play makes our OL better because they’re dealing with less blitzes. I’m sure Bledsoe would have been sacked at least 4 times even with the protection last night.
Turbo:
Luke’s correct — if Bledsoe were playing, the Carolina defense would have played much differently and our statue would have been planted a handful of times.
There’s not a lot of film on Romo (yet) so they had to play it close to the vest. By the time they started to blitz and try to get to him, he was able to avoid the rush and still make plays.
For all of the mediots last week who gave Dallas ZERO chance this week, I’d like to hear them now. No wonder Parcells was handing out kisses — he realized that this performance was a vindication for his move.