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IRVING – Matthew Stafford’s fake-spike touchdown marked the second time this season that a quarterback has caught the defense napping.
Peyton Manning’s naked-bootleg scoring run in the wild 51-48 loss to Denver was the first time.
After hitting Calvin Johnson with a pass down the right seam for a 22-yard to the Dallas 1, Stafford raced to the line frantically screaming and motioning with his right arm for a spike of the ball to stop the clock. But instead of spiking it, Stafford leaped over a pile of linemen to put the Lions ahead 31-30 with 12 seconds left.
“I told everybody I was spiking it,” Stafford said. “I was screaming, ‘Clock.’ I was going to spike it. It was a feel thing. I was yelling, ‘Spike.’ They knew I was yelling spike. I saw linebackers kind of standing like this (back of the line of scrimmage).”
It wasn’t just the linebackers who were napping. Defensive tackle Jason Hatcher was going down into his stance when the ball was snapped.
“He made a very smart play there,” Hatcher said. “He kind of caught us off guard.”
It was that kind of day for the defense. Monte Kiffin’s unit registered four turnovers against the Lions, giving them 18 on the season, two more than they notched all of last year. But Dallas became only the second team in history to lose a game when recording a plus-4 turnover margin.
The Cowboys also allowed a club-record 623 yards, leaving them on pace to surrender a staggering, club-record 6,760 yards for the season. They are also on pace to give up a league-record 5,062 passing yards after allowing Lions receiver Calvin Johnson to amass 329 receiving yards, the second most in NFL history.
On top of all that, Dallas allowed the Lions to travel 80 yards in 50- seconds for Stafford’s TD.
“When it matters most, when it’s time to get off the field, when it’s time to put a dagger in them in the last drive of the game, we weren’t able to do that,” cornerback Brandon Carr said. “That’s what cost us in the end.”
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Peyton Manning’s naked-bootleg scoring run in the wild 51-48 loss to Denver was the first time.
After hitting Calvin Johnson with a pass down the right seam for a 22-yard to the Dallas 1, Stafford raced to the line frantically screaming and motioning with his right arm for a spike of the ball to stop the clock. But instead of spiking it, Stafford leaped over a pile of linemen to put the Lions ahead 31-30 with 12 seconds left.
“I told everybody I was spiking it,” Stafford said. “I was screaming, ‘Clock.’ I was going to spike it. It was a feel thing. I was yelling, ‘Spike.’ They knew I was yelling spike. I saw linebackers kind of standing like this (back of the line of scrimmage).”
It wasn’t just the linebackers who were napping. Defensive tackle Jason Hatcher was going down into his stance when the ball was snapped.
“He made a very smart play there,” Hatcher said. “He kind of caught us off guard.”
It was that kind of day for the defense. Monte Kiffin’s unit registered four turnovers against the Lions, giving them 18 on the season, two more than they notched all of last year. But Dallas became only the second team in history to lose a game when recording a plus-4 turnover margin.
The Cowboys also allowed a club-record 623 yards, leaving them on pace to surrender a staggering, club-record 6,760 yards for the season. They are also on pace to give up a league-record 5,062 passing yards after allowing Lions receiver Calvin Johnson to amass 329 receiving yards, the second most in NFL history.
On top of all that, Dallas allowed the Lions to travel 80 yards in 50- seconds for Stafford’s TD.
“When it matters most, when it’s time to get off the field, when it’s time to put a dagger in them in the last drive of the game, we weren’t able to do that,” cornerback Brandon Carr said. “That’s what cost us in the end.”
Continue reading...