Romo shines, Eli misfires in wild Cowboys win over Giants
Admit it. You thought Tony Romo was going to blow it, throw an interception or fumble the ball away or otherwise gag up Dallas’ game against the New York Giants in some cinematic fashion.
Nope. Instead, Romo threw a game-winning touchdown with just seven seconds remaining, the latest such touchdown in Cowboys history, and Dallas escaped with a signature win against New York, 27-26.
In a game that was uglier than your singing voice, both the Giants and Cowboys had chances to play hero. Romo rose to the challenge; Eli Manning threw his opportunity out the back of the end zone.
This was a strange game, there’s no other way around it. Dallas controlled possession of the ball throughout the game, holding Odell Beckham Jr. to exactly zero cinematic catches. But Dallas also gifted New York 17 points off turnovers, and for most of the game looked underachieving, lost and not at all like the gleaming, sleek 2014 model.
Dallas’ vaunted offensive line remained as strong as ever, but for the first 55 minutes of the game, it was a stone wall protecting a petting zoo. Romo and the Cowboys didn’t mount a sustained, effective drive until only five minutes were left in the game to close a 10-point gap to three. Bryant was unavailable for long stretches of the game, first with dehydration and later with a foot injury. DeMarco Murray has moved on to Philadelphia, and his replacements, Joseph Randle and Darren McFadden combined for a largely unremarkable 81 yards.
Against a better team, Dallas would have gotten barbecued. The Cowboys vultured this one because of a complete mental misfire by Manning and the Giants coaching staff; on the Dallas 1-yard line with 1:37 remaining, New York inexplicably called a pass play. With nothing available, Manning threw the ball away, killing the clock and giving Dallas an additional 40 seconds or so to play with.
“That was 100 percent on me, bad clock management on that whole deal,” Manning said. “That can’t happen.”
The Cowboys needed every moment. Romo had 90 seconds to drive 72 yards, and that’s exactly what he did, connecting on five of six pass plays and orchestrating a masterful march downfield. For all the grief that Romo has drawn throughout his career, some deserved, some not, he’s the absolute heart and soul of the Cowboys, the centerpiece of the team and the man most responsible for keeping the team pointed ever upward. He closed off the winning drive by finding longtime safety valve Jason Witten for an 11-yard touchdown pass.
“When you’re in that situation, you’ve got to get calm and pick it up,” said Romo, who threw for 356 yards and three touchdowns. “You trust your guys to do their job, and they did a hell of a job.”
On the other side of the ball, Manning and head coach Tom Coughlin will be feeling the heat from New York fans and media this week. This wasn’t just a winnable game, this was a game the Giants had already won. New York won’t get many of these opportunities to knock off a playoff team, particularly a division rival, and this one’s going to burn in the standings right on through December.
Despite the victory, the problems for Dallas are multifold. The Cowboys can’t count on other teams throwing away victories. More important, the team has lost both Bryant and rookie defensive end Randy Gregory for several weeks. Dallas will have to figure out how to jumpstart an offense that stalled for long stretches of the game, and to compensate for the loss of Murray. Still, a win like this will help the team believe, and for a guy like Romo, that’s enough spark to light a fire.
“We didn’t play great in a lot of areas,” Romo said, “but utlimately at the end of the day it comes down to the final eight minutes every week. Our team is very comfortable in that situation.”
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Jay Busbee is a writer for Yahoo Sports. Contact him at [email protected] or find him on Twitter.
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