The result was the same for Cowboys. After two convincing victories in Dallas against Philadelphia the team traveled to Minnesota and laid down.
The offense could get nothing going and with Tony Romo turning the ball over as fast as he turns over women the game eventually found itself out of hand in the fourth quarter. Romo fumbled the ball three times, recovering one while losing two. The Cowboys running game was hardly on track. While Felix Jones ran for 69 yards on 14 carries, Marion Barber went no where collecting just 14 on 8 attempts.
The simplest but true reason for the Cowboys defeat is that the offensive line could not stop the Vikings from wrecking havoc in the backfield and the aforementioned players had little time to make any plays happen.
Here’s a kicker. Shawn Suisham missed two kicks in the game. Again something must be down at the kicking position.
There was the usual excitement around the Cowboys in this game. They were playing good football and had finally won a post season game. However perhaps we over looked the teams they had beaten.
Dallas beat New Orleans, correct. But after that they thumped Washington and Philadelphia. Washington that had already made it know they were looking for a new head coach about 10 weeks earlier and Philadelphia featured a secondary that had more duck-tape on it then the shelf at your local hardware store.
Last week’s playoff win again came at the hand of the Eagles.
Late in the year there were questions to whether the Cowboys would even make the playoffs. With aid for the New York Giants laying down and the Eagles having no defense to speak of they not only made the playoffs but won their division.
In the end they finished with 11 regular season wins, 5 losses. (New York Giants twice,Denver, Green Bay San Diego) They finally won a post season game, but looked over-matched the following week in a loss.
A lot is being made of a late Vikings touchdown on a fourth and three play that extended their lead to 31 late in the fourth quarter but what everyone should be looking at is all the plays that led to the Vikings having a 24 point lead. Much of which had to do with lack of execution on the Cowboys part.
Despite being a Cowboys fan I watched little of the second half. I was already convinced by what I had seen in the first half that this team was sunk. I didn’t need Troy Aikman and Joe Buck to remind me this was the playoffs and I had no desire to watch Brett Favre strut around with a goofy fisherman’s had on.
A disappointing end for the Cowboys but one we should have expected. Minnesota is simply a better team and the Cowboys did themselves no favors in this one to disprove that.
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Ed Werder of ESPN is reporting that Wade Phillips will return to the Dallas Cowboys as their head coach in 2010. Phillips guided the team to the NFC East crown and the organizations first playoff victory in 13 years.
