Quote:
Originally Posted by jgboys1
It was a tale of 2 halfs, for the O-line. 1st half we were running it down there throats and in the 2nd half Romo was running for his life.
I remember saying to myself, what the hell happened to the O-line during halftime.
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When Barber was fresh he was crashing through the Giants defense like we see Marshawn Lynch today but he wore down by halftime. Barbers legs going dead is what happened to the OL. This forced Romo to have to put it up against a Giants pass rush that was coming on like gang busters late that season. It was their improving pass rush that caused the Cowboys to come out running the ball in the first place.
Romo's game had come apart so the Cowboys changed their approach against the Giants from what they did in the first 2 meetings. Romo shredded the Giants in the first 2 games in 07 with 8 TD passes but his TD's were being replaced by turnovers the final month of the season. This caused the Cowboys to take a page out of the Bill Parcells play not to get beat book.
The Cowboys controlled the first half by running the ball but it only led to 14 points. They kept the Giants in the game which enabled Eli to manage his offense and avoid turnovers. Once Romo's game went in the toilet late that season it was over for the Cowboys. He went from throwing TD's to turning the ball over. It forced the team to start Barber and pound him rather than save him for later in the game and it backfired. Barber was never an effective starter he was a closer this is why his career faded so quickly once he became the starter.