That was the first win without a takeaway since 2009

[percyhoward]

Since Miles Austin's coming out party in Kansas City in October of 2009, the Cowboys had lost 18 in a row when the opponent did not turn the ball over.

 

[sureletsrace]

Wow. Crazy statistic.

 

[robjay04]

It wasn't for a lack of trying, the turnovers will come.

 

[dogunwo]

Now that's a stat. Not like the made up stat of "win or go home" games that had never been measured for any QB except Romo.

 

[big dog cowboy]

Watching Kansas City pass out turnovers like candy on Halloween sure made the Denver defense look good. I'm ready for some of that to come our way. Still can't believe we didn't pick Eli just once.

 

[JD_KaPow]

Since Miles Austin's coming out party in Kansas City in October of 2009, the Cowboys had lost 18 in a row when the opponent did not turn the ball over.

It's also the first time we've won with a -3 (or worse) turnover differential since the nutty Buffalo game in 2007. We'd lost 14 straight since then.

In their history, the Cowboys are 11-105-2 when they have a -3 or worse turnover differential. Of those 11 games...

Romo was QB for two of them (Sunday and that Buffalo game)
White had two.
Staubach had two.*
Meredith had two.
Quincy Carter had one.
Steve Beuerlein had one.
And the last one was the famous Clint Longley Thanksgiving game (the asterisk on Staubach above is because he was actually part of three, including this one, but I'm not giving him credit for it).

Aikman never pulled one out. We only had one between 1983 and 2003, and Aikman was out (the Beuerlein game above).

 

[CATCH17]

Since Miles Austin's coming out party in Kansas City in October of 2009, the Cowboys had lost 18 in a row when the opponent did not turn the ball over.

That is absolutely unbelievable.

We suck for that.

 

[Garrettop]

Interesting someone brought up the 07 Buffalo game in relation to this game, because I'm pretty sure my heart rate roller coaster was the same in both cases.

 

[percyhoward]

In their history, the Cowboys are 11-105-2 when they have a -3 or worse turnover differential.

I had actually posted 11-114-2 late Sunday night, but maybe I was counting playoffs, or maybe it was one too many Dos Equis.

Here are all 11 Dallas wins when the turnover margin was -3 or worse.

1966 31-30 at Was -3
1968 17-3 at NO -3
1974 24-23 Was -4
1976 24-6 at NO -3
1976 24-21 Chi -3
1980 14-10 Was -4
1983 21-20 NO -3
1991 31-27 Atl -3
2003 21-14 Was -4
2007 25-24 Buf -5
2015 27-26 NYG -3

 

[AdamJT13]

Since Miles Austin's coming out party in Kansas City in October of 2009, the Cowboys had lost 18 in a row when the opponent did not turn the ball over.

Before beating the Patriots in the final game last season (Brady sat out the second half), the Bills had a streak of 29 losses when the opponent had no turnovers.

 

[Corso]

That is absolutely unbelievable.

We suck for that.

Qualify that with other teams first before spouting your mouth, thank you.

 

[punchnjudy]

We're saving them all for Murray.

 

[DallasCowboys2080]

whats the significance here beyond a curious stat? are we saying that maybe our defense is coming around and something is changing in regards to that?

 

[AzorAhai]

whats the significance here beyond a curious stat? are we saying that maybe our defense is coming around and something is changing in regards to that?

Basically how rare it is to win games like that shows 2 things. 1) they were incredibly fortunate to win despite the 3 TO's differential. 2) If they want to win more games in the future, don't do that.

 

[JDSmith]

Interesting someone brought up the 07 Buffalo game in relation to this game, because I'm pretty sure my heart rate roller coaster was the same in both cases.

Still have that game on a disk somewhere. I remember Tony with the towel covering his head on the sidelines. But the team never quit and Romo never gave up, they just went back out and stole one. Didn't Witten recover the onside kick? Man, 8 years ago and we've still got some of the same people stepping up to save the day.

 

[percyhoward]

Before beating the Patriots in the final game last season (Brady sat out the second half), the Bills had a streak of 29 losses when the opponent had no turnovers.

Right, bad teams have it even worse. That streak went back to 2007. Since then, the Bills have lost 60% of their games when the turnover margin was equal. Dallas has won 60% of the time when that happens.

whats the significance here beyond a curious stat?

On average, a team turns the ball over 1.5 times per game, so when a team with no takeaways loses a close game, the lack of takeaways is one of the first things you can point to. In Dallas' case, half of those 18 losses were by one score or less, which means one takeaway could have made the difference. (As opposed to Buffalo, for example, which would have lost most of those 29 games even with a takeaway).

Here's something weird that came up when I was comparing the Bills and Cowboys since 2007 when they lose the turnover battle in a game. Since 2007, the Patriots actually have a winning record when turning the ball over more than their opponent.

 

[casmith07]

Watching Kansas City pass out turnovers like candy on Halloween sure made the Denver defense look good. I'm ready for some of that to come our way. Still can't believe we didn't pick Eli just once.

He just didn't put the ball in the air, really. After JJ Wilcox baptized Odell Beckham, Eli went to the dink and dunk strategy for basically the entire rest of the game.

 

[casmith07]

Right, bad teams have it even worse. That streak went back to 2007. Since then, the Bills have lost 60% of their games when the turnover margin was equal. Dallas has won 60% of the time when that happens.


On average, a team turns the ball over 1.5 times per game, so when a team with no takeaways loses a close game, the lack of takeaways is one of the first things you can point to. In Dallas' case, half of those 18 losses were by one score or less, which means one takeaway could have made the difference. (As opposed to Buffalo, for example, which would have lost most of those 29 games even with a takeaway).

Here's something weird that came up when I was comparing the Bills and Cowboys since 2007 when they lose the turnover battle in a game. Since 2007, the Patriots actually have a winning record when turning the ball over more than their opponent.

An interesting takeaway here is that although it's only 30%, even when we turn the ball over more we're still the #6 winningest team...so we have a better chance than most.

 

[JDSmith]

Here's something weird that came up when I was comparing the Bills and Cowboys since 2007 when they lose the turnover battle in a game. Since 2007, the Patriots actually have a winning record when turning the ball over more than their opponent.

My big takeaway from that is that the Patriots protect the ball or at least do so better than their opponents. The Patriots have 35 total games where the opposition won the turnover battle - almost every other team on the list has over 35 losses when doing so. The Packers and Patriots are head and shoulders above everyone else when it comes to winning the turnover battle consistently.

 

[sureletsrace]

My big takeaway from that is that the Patriots protect the ball or at least do so better than their opponents. The Patriots have 35 total games where the opposition won the turnover battle - almost every other team on the list has over 35 losses when doing so. The Packers and Patriots are head and shoulders above everyone else when it comes to winning the turnover battle consistently.

Its easier to hold on to the ball when it's a little underinflated.