Halftime — Dallas 17, New York 16
Goat of the half — Tyson Thompson. Fumbling a kickoff in the last fifteen seconds of the half is inexcusable. It handed New York a free three points.
This time it worked — Marion Barber bounces everything outside and it can drive you nuts. It worked on his TD run but on the play before he passed up a sure short game, tried to bounce it wide and was dropped for no gain. It’s feast or famine, but he brought the big run on 4th down.
– Tony Romo to Terrell Owens — 4 attempts, 0 completions. A couple of plays look like blown routes by T.O. The others were poor passes by Romo.
In fact, Romo has only one completion to a WR so far.
– On the other hand, look at Jason Witten’s line:
3rd & 7 — Witten for 10;
3rd & 6 — Witten for 23;
3rd and 7 — Witten for 23;
3rd and 10 — Witten for 9 and a foot. Barber scored TD on the following play;
3rd and 10 — Witten for 12 and a TD;
Romo has a new security blanket.
– The kick coverage units are okay. All Giants returns are to the 25 or shorter.
– Jason Ferguson is out for the night with an elbow injury. Jay Ratliff has shown some grit as his backup. No news on the severity of Ferguson’s injury.
– Brandon Jacobs is also out for the night. I heard a report his injury could be serious but have no confirmation.
– Wade Phillips has a reputation as one of the best in-game adjusters. He’s tightened things up considerably after Eli Manning bombed his defense one and almost hit him for a second TD.
– That said, the coverage is better but Dallas still is missing way too many tackles in the secondary.
– New York has had some success splitting Jeremy Shockey wide and pitting him against Roy Williams. Williams has given him an eight to ten yard cushion and it’s an easy catch for Shockey every time.