Cowboys shut down Giants

Romo leads the 'Boys to a win over the G-Men

Throughout the course of the week leading up to the Cowboys game with the Giants all anyone could talk about was the trouble in the Dallas locker room. One story after another emerged whether it was Terrell Owens angry at Tony Romo or T.O. nearly coming to blows with Jason Witten, and by game time on Sunday night many were sure the Cowboys would lose more due to their infighting than to their opponent. But by the time the game was over Romo, Witten, and T.O. were all smiles and the best of buddies after knocking off the defending champs and posting a tremendous win toward their bid for making the playoffs.

Basically there were two reasons why the Cowboys beat the Giants; a tough defense and a tough quarterback. After enduring a week of headlines about his disputes with Owens as well as some labeling him as a choke artist, Romo show true grit, perhaps like never before in his young career. In the first quarter, with the game still scoreless, Romo was sacked and took a knee to his lower back. For a while it looked as if he might not return and was seen telling Brad Johnson to get ready on the sidelines. But Romo did return and on his first series back from the injury, connected with Patrick Crayton for 34 yards and a touchdown to break the scoreless tie.

Meanwhile, on the other side of the ball, the Cowboys defense continued to look as good as they have over the past few weeks. They dominated the Giants offensive line, putting constant pressure on Eli Manning and shutting down New York’s vaunted rushing attack. Manning was sacked seven times, three of them going to Demarcus Ware who leads the league with 19, and the Giants running backs were held to 72 yards on the day. New York was unable to do much of anything on offense all day and although they were without Brandon Jacobs, the Dallas defense had a lot to do with why their offense wasn’t working.

At the start of the second half the score was 7-3. The Giants defense kept the game close as they also were able to contain the Dallas running game and pressure Romo. But late in the third quarter the Cowboys began putting another drive together. Romo got his team to the Giants one yard line and then hit Deon Anderson on a play action pass for a touchdown. The Cowboys had upped their lead to 14-3, but on their next possession they were pinned back at their own 6. Romo was sacked and fumbled the football in the end zone. Had he not reached out and batted the ball out of bounds the Giants would have ended up with a touchdown. Instead they got two points on a safety.

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This was the Giants best and last chance to get back into the game. After the free kick from the safety New York got in position for a field goal to cut the Dallas lead to 14-8. They needed another stop and a chance to drive for the win. Would the Cowboys hang on or blow it like they did the week earlier against Pittsburgh? Tony Romo had the answer. He got to the Cowboys to the Giants 49 and on a third and nine found his most reliable target, Jason Witten, for 11 yards and a first down. It was the play that pretty much ended the game as the clock was under three minutes, but Tashard Choice broke a 38 yard touchdown run just to make sure. The Cowboys went up 21-8 with a little over two minutes remaining.

The Cowboys showed a lot of resiliency in bouncing back from a devastating loss to the Steelers to win a game against arguably the best team in the NFL. If the playoffs were starting today Dallas would have a lock on a wild card spot at a record of 9-5 and by virtue of tiebreakers over the Falcons and Buccaneers. But there are still two very tough games ahead against the Ravens and then Eagles. Time will tell whether the locker room disharmony will have a negative effect on the Cowboys, but right now they have to be feeling pretty good about their situation.

By Steven Mondelli
ProFootball-fans.com Dallas Cowboys Correspondent