Cowboys dropped by defending Champs

Dallas struggles on both sides of the ball in 35-14 loss

Believe it or not the Dallas Cowboys, the team labeled as most talented in the league at the start of the season and most likely to make the Superbowl as the representative from the NFC, are in last place in their division. The defending champion New York Giants sent them to the bottom of the NFC East with a dominating performance from start to finish at the Meadowlands on Sunday.

On the second play from scrimmage, the Giants chose to hand the ball off to Brandon Jacobs who was promptly popped by Zach Thomas for a two yard loss. A couple plays later it was Bradie James delivering a hard shot of his own on the Giants tailback. The Cowboys seemed fired up and determined to slug it out with the Giants, but their enthusiasm would soon wear off. New York continued to move the ball down the field on the game’s opening drive and on the eleventh play Eli Manning found Kevin Boss for a 13 yard touchdown pass. A couple possessions later the Giants were going in for another score that had been set up by an interception from Brad Johnson. Cory Webster took the ball to the Dallas 27, and after a few plays Manning connected with Steve Smith to put New York up 14-0.

The Cowboys got back into the game briefly in the second quarter when rookie cornerback Mike Jenkins picked off a pass that Manning had intended for Plaxico Burress. Jenkins returned the pass to the end zone and cut the Giants lead in half at 14-7. But the Giants soon got it going again and when Manning connected with Amani Toomer for his third touchdown pass of the game, New York went into the half leading 21-7.

The Dallas offense had been almost completely shut down in the first half. One of the Cowboys hopes coming into to the game was to get Marion Barber off to a fast start. At the half Barber had 9 rushes for 33 yards and finished the day with 19 for 54 total. Brad Johnson also struggled and for the third straight week he did not look capable of leading the offense. He completed 5 passes out of 11 attempts for 72 yards and two interceptions before being replaced by third stringer Brooks Bollinger. Bollinger’s numbers weren’t much better as he completed 9 of 16 for 63 yards and one interception.

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It took only two plays on the initial drive of the second half for the Cowboys to turn the ball over. Bollinger’s first pass of the game was snared by James Butler, setting the Giants up at the Dallas 18 yard line. Back to back running plays by Jacobs, the second run a 12 yarder for the score, gave New York their biggest lead of the day at 28-7. The Cowboys would answer with their first offensive score early in the 4th quarter to cut the deficit to 28-14, but they would never get any closer and were never much of a threat throughout the entire game. The Giants defense overpowered and frustrated the Cowboys offense and by game’s end the Boys looked like a team that could use a vacation.

A vacation is just what the Cowboys will get now as they go into their bye week. Sitting two and a half games back of the Giants for first place, Dallas can pretty much figure themselves out of the divisional race. Their focus will have to be on making the playoffs as a wild card, which will be no easy task in the NFC this year. There are only two wild cards to be had and within their own division the Cowboys trail the Eagles (5-3) and Redskins (6-3). There are also five other teams in the conference with a better record than Dallas. If there’s any good news for the Cowboys at this point it’s that they will get some of their injured players back when they return from the bye, most notably Tony Romo. And it will be up to their pro-ball quarterback to get them on the right track and lead them to victory when the resume the season in Washington against the Redskins.

By Steven Mondelli
ProFootball-fans.com Dallas Cowboys Correspondent