News: DC: Don’t Forget About These 5: Untimely Sack, Dropped Picks, Holding & More

[NewsBot]

EAST RUTHERFORD, N.J. – The Cowboys didn’t look like a team that had won 11 straight games Sunday night. Penalties and miscues hurt them all evening and they couldn’t overcome the setbacks in this 10-7 defeat to the Giants.

But like all games, there were a handful of plays that could go unnoticed, but yet changed the outcome of the game.

Let’s take a closer look at five that affected this game.

Holding wipes out punt return – Several penalties on special teams hurt the Cowboys all night but none more than Byron Jones’ holding call late in the second quarter. The Cowboys led 7-0 and had a chance to open the game up after Cole Beasley returned a punt 28 yards to the Giants’ 29. But Jones was flagged for holding while the punt was in the air. The difference in field position proved to be 38 yards and the Cowboys had to punt the ball back to New York after it appeared they would begin a drive already in field goal range.

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[WoodysGirl]

No Troll the Nation this week... It was a good run. Let's hope the team can start up a new one.

 

[Aven8]

In previous weeks we made most of those plays. It happens. The dropped ints have been going on for years with this D however!

 

[J_Allen]

Special Teams cost us the game just as much as the Offense did. It's the same story every week with them. Blocks in the backs. Holds. Poor decisions on returning or kneeling down. It finally cost us a game.

 

[Eddie]

The penalties were huge. Fix those and we win the game.

 

[BlueStar22]

The penalties were huge. Fix those and we win the game.

The loss of field position was pretty big. The offense rarely got a short field to work with.

 

[movaughn88]

The penalties were huge. Fix those and we win the game.

Especially in a sloppy game like that one, it seemed we lost so much field position to stupid mistakes and penalties. We just never finished many drives or got stalled by mistakes. Such a frustrating loss since the Giants offense was terrible as well.

By the way, I wonder if anyone has studied kickoff returns in the new 25 yard era. I think if I was a head coach I would tell returners that ANY kickoff fielded in the end zone is downed, period, no thought. I can't imagine any returner in the league is averaging past the 25 on end zone returns.

 

[ksadler1]

The loss of field position was pretty big. The offense rarely got a short field to work with.

Actually, we started around mid field 2 or 3 times. They got to cute and quit running. You can come away with O when starting at the 50.....

 

[khiladi]

We had a couple fumble recoveries and the INT by Brown as far as starting field position of those drivrs.. the defense gave the offense plenty of opportunities, despite the fact Church can't catch..

 

[MrPhil]

Thanks for posting WG, those missed opportunities kept me up last night.

While it was certainly not an offensive performance to brag about across the board (ok, it was downright putrid), a different outcome on those plays could have completely changed that game.

Ahh well, onto Tampa.

 

[HappyOnions]

Forget about all the untimely missed opportunities. This team had more than enough chances and didn't capitalize on any of them.

No excuses, the offense played like garbage tonight. These kind of games happen, but lets just hope it doesn't linger on into next week.

 

[DFWJC]

Even mentioning dropped ints should you get someone an electric shock penalty.

The defense absolutely balled out last night.
I'm sorry, you gift 3 turnovers to your offense, get some sacks, stop the opposing team all night on third down, and hold them to 10 freaking points?
Come on.
They FAR exceeded what they needed to do get a win.

And good ol Bailey almost nailed that 55 yarder in cold weather. Punting and coverage weren't atrocious. Really, the special teams held up ok. Game of inches for sure.

This one was all on the offense.

 

[aikemirv]

The loss of field position was pretty big. The offense rarely got a short field to work with.

Got it plenty of times in the first half and did nothing with it. We lost this game in the first half!

 

[BlueStar22]

Got it plenty of times in the first half and did nothing with it. We lost this game in the first half!

They had one play in Giants territory in the 2nd half and zero points.

 

[aikemirv]

They had one play in Giants territory in the 2nd half and zero points.

They had two Eli fumbles that had them in a great position with momentum and laid an egg.!

 

[DeaconMoss]

Man those 5 are stinkers and probably the most telling of the poor game we played. Too many mistakes.