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Romo Swats the Monkey Off his Back Against the Vikes

Who doesn’t want to forget a horrible loss to the Lions last week?  Matthew Stafford’s 1-yard TD lunge with 12 seconds left combined with Megatron going off for 329 yards receiving was enough to make even the hardest core Cowboys fan pull their hair out.  Dallas was looking for a win today over the struggling 1-6 Vikings.

Everyone knows how Tony Romo tends to be anything but clutch in the 4th quarter, and that almost happened again today – “almost” being the important word there.  With the Vikings Adrian Peterson scoring on a monster 11-yard run, the score was 23-20 for the Vikings. There was 5:40 remaining on the clock and the Cowboys were trying to put a drive together.  Dez Bryant caught a 44-yarder, but it was called back because of a holding penalty.   It was 3rd and 9 with 4:35 left when Romo threw an interception, a pass intended for Terrance Williams. The INT gave the Vikings the ball on the Cowboys 41-yard line.  The Vikes sensed victory and looked to put the game away.

But the Cowboys defense came up huge with a 3 and out, putting the ball back in Romo’s hands with time winding down.

Romo was fortunate to have one more chance to prove his critics wrong.  His offense got the ball back with 2:44 remaining, pinned deep on their own 10-yard line. With a couple of catches by Jason Witten, Dez Bryant and Cole Beasley, Dallas found themselves in Vikings territory.  Tick tock, tick tock.

The offense chipped away at Minnesota, and with 42 seconds remaining in the game, Romo and the offense set up shop on the 7-yard line.  What a moment to be in, especially on the heels of the aforementioned loss to the Lions.  Romo found Dwayne Harris for a touchdown, capping off a drive that looked much too easy.  He would, at least for this week, be able to shut up his critics with the 4th quarter comeback win. They won 27-23 over the Vikings.

Key Stats:

COWBOYS:

Romo – 34/51, 337 yds, 2 TDs, 1 INT

Witten – 8 Rec, 102 yds, 1 TD

VIKINGS:

Ponder – 25/37, 236 yds, 1 TD, 1 INT

Peterson – 25 Rushes, 140 yds, 1 TD

 

NFC East Outlook:

The Dallas Cowboys (5-4) remain in first place in the division but with the Redskins winning today and the Eagles beating up on the Raiders in a 49-20 annihilation, they both will keep the division tight. The Cowboys next game will be against the Saints. Although the Saints are playing very well, they did lose to the New York Jets today in an upset, 26-20. After their bye week they will play the Giants, Raiders and Bears which could potentially equal three wins.

Although the Cowboys did get the win today, their running game was not good. They only ran it 8 times – certainly they can’t expect to win very many games with that type of running game especially against better opponents – one dimensional usually doesn’t work out well in the NFL. Even with DeMarco Murray back starting, he only amassed a measly 31 yards rushing.  The Cowboys need to be better, but this victory does a lot for team morale.

 

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