We need a down to earth recap of game

[Kaiser]

from Romo who just chucked it up and ducked for cover Eli Manning style.

We are all celebrating here, did you have to use the "M Word"?

 

[Fletch]

We crapped away a ten point lead with about 9 minutes left.

Yeah. Sorry we couldn't blow the game for you!

 

[Vtwin]

How did Hitchens play? The Texans announcers on Sirius were complementary during the short time I could listen. Also sounded like Church and Wilcox were making some plays in run support.

 

[Derinyar]

The offense was good but shot itself in the foot for most of the game, allowing it to be a game. And I do say shot itself in the foot. Dropped balls were the order of the 1st half, otherwise this isn't a game at half. The defense was mostly solid. Their running game got going later in the day, mostly coinciding with Ro McClain having a flare up of his groin issues. The special teams had issues with holding all day.

Over all we won a badly played game on our side. Their defense was alright, made a few plays. Their offense was alright, made a few plays. If that team had a legitimate NFL starting QB I think they'd be scary.

 

[Fla Cowpoke]

Dallas controlled this game. Both defenses played very good. Dallas offense kept the Texans in it with 2 turnovers in redzone. Defense came up big in overtime and offense took what houston gave in ot and put it away.

This pretty much was the story. We shot ourselves in the foot with another Murray fumble, this one in the red zone and in int on a great play by the Texans DB also in the red zone. Our offense had almost 500 yards so it isn't like we couldn't move it.....both on the ground and through the air. I think if we play this game 10 times we beat them 9 of them.

Scandrick had a nice athletic int. Defense played well for first three quarters. Gave up a soft TD to tie the game but that came after offense had chance to run out the clock and didn't do squat. That was the biggest disappointment. In OT, D got a stop and offense made the plays to win game. Half empty or half full, depends on you.

Watt had 4 tackles, no sacks. Blew past Tyron on one play and had a kill shot bead on Romo, except Romo danced out of it somehow, Watt went flying, Romo whirled and found Williams 60 yds downfield in the end zone. ROmo is close to 100% folks.

Foster was ok most of the game, had two runs back to back for a total of about 80 yds. Outside of that, he had a few decent runs but not a back breaker.

 

[Fla Cowpoke]

Church whiffed badly on a couple of runs but also had some nice plays. Wilcox had a couple nice stops, one where he saved a big gainer. McClain made a diving save to stop a conversion late. We are giving up some yards but continue to make some timely plays.

 

[ConstantReboot]

We played well to win but shot ourselves in the foot with the turnovers and some idiotic decisions during crunchtime. If we didn't turn the ball over this game would not have been this close and would could have beaten them with at least 2 TDs.

Texans have a good defense and caused us to play it a bit conservative. But our oline was still able to run on them when we wanted to.

Basically the entire Texans defensive backfield was injured and its unfortunate that we didn't capitalize more on it. I would have expected more passes to our receivers to take advantage of that.

 

[CrownCowboy]

Turnovers were the story of this game.

Murray's fumble hurt alot.

It's good to see our team still pull out a win despite turning the ball over like that. Hopefully we'll learn from it and get it cleaned up.

 

[ROUSH8692]

Watch the game online, record it, god this is 2014

 

[ROUSH8692]

Its free to watch a game....

 

[ScipioCowboy]

Yeah. THAT is the story of the game. SMH.

Don't waste your time with that one.

 

[ScipioCowboy]

The Cowboys beat a 3-1 team despite being -2 in turnovers. That says something.

 

[Eddie]

We won

Ill let the experts take it from here.

Super Bowl threads to follow.

 

[Eddie]

The Cowboys beat a 3-1 team despite being -2 in turnovers. That says something.

Partly because Fitzpartrick wouldn't start for an elite college team. Ok, ok ... 150 yards passing, some of it was on us and some of it was on him. But I guarantee, if we go -2 TO's next week ... Seattle beats us by double digits.

 

[xwalker]

How did Hitchens play? The Texans announcers on Sirius were complementary during the short time I could listen. Also sounded like Church and Wilcox were making some plays in run support.

He seemed OK just based on my initial impression. I'll review him in detail when I re-watch the game. He had good awareness to almost get an INT and almost made a good play to prevent a 1st down.

 

[diehard2294]

Watt was all over the place. Not a lot of stats to show for it but he was disruptive. Dallas Secondary look pretty good but the front 7 got gashed in the run game. Fitzpatrick did basically nothing and was terrible for them.

The key theme of the game to me was the turnovers. Romo made a number of huge plays but also had a bad interception where he somehow didn't see the safety. Murray fumbled again and Harris fumbled. Both the Murray and Romo turnovers directly took points off the board.

They also had a bad delay of game penalty when they were attempting to run out the clock with a 7 point lead. One first down would have sealed it.

After the Texans scored Romo drove the team down with 43 seconds on the clock. Then Dan Bailey missed a 53 yard fieldgoal.

Basically this game would have been one sided if not for Dallas shooting itself in the foot.

I don't think watt was disruptive for Watt.. He was double teamed a lot and had to come out of the game because he was gassed several times. To think he had no big plays against us says a lot for this offensive line

 

[ScipioCowboy]

Partly because Fitzpartrick wouldn't start for an elite college team. Ok, ok ... 150 yards passing, some of it was on us and some of it was on him. But I guarantee, if we go -2 TO's next week ... Seattle beats us by double digits.

You don't generally win with a negative turnover differential no matter who is playing quarterback for the other team.

I have never seen so much consternation over a team that is currently the top seed in the NFC.

 

[DiResta]

JJ who? In all seriousness, he had 1 or 2 good plays.

Dallas got really conservative at the end and couldn't stop Foster. Our 2 turnovers in their territory really hurt us. IMO, we should have attacked their corners more.

McClain saves long runs from happening. Durant looks like he's susceptible of getting eaten up by blockers.

Wilcox & Scandrick looked good. Car was average.

Carr was excellent early when he was pressing Andre. They moved him over to Moores side later

 

[DiResta]

Church looked bad as well, joked out off his socks by Foster!

Believe it or not Foster was a beast before he got hurt last year. ugh I hate saying that he rushed for 1500 yards plus lots of tds. hes no scrub.

be he does suck

 

[kramskoi]

for those of us who couldn't see this week game - can we get a recap. Was Dallas tired, scared at end? Was Watt blowing things up? How did Dallas CB look and did McClain LB play in this game. Thanks

The Cowboys need Murray to be the 12th man of the defense. The Texans defense had to defend over 80 snaps today, which tells you that absent the -2 turnover differential, Dallas could have had a much easier go today if it had avoided turnovers. It seemed that each phase of the game had it's share of problems...defense, offense, special teams, coaching. They all contributed horrific gaffes at key moments of the game. If ever there was a team loss, today would have been a text-book definition...key players on both sides of the ball committing grievous errors. The Cowboys simply adapted and overcame in a game they could so easily have lost.

Today was more about Dallas not putting Houston away early than the stellar play of JJ Watt, who was still pretty active (when he wasn't getting oxygen on the sidelines). That said, the amount of real havoc he was able to apply was rather limited, as Murray again pushed the pile for well over 100 yards. However, the real star must be Dez Bryant, and his circus catch in overtime, putting the Cowboys deep enough in Houston's territory to let Bailey redeem his missed opportunity to end the game in regulation.

This team will not go unchallenged this year, and the defense still cannot produce sacks when it counts. In a replay of the Saints game, they allowed a late game rally that could have proved costly. That said, a second straight week of only 17pts allowed was certainly welcome, as even a gaffe-prone Dallas offense was able to put up 3 points more. They cannot repeat this performance in Seattle. The final results will be quite different if they do.

Murray had 31 carries today and you wonder if that type of workload can continue, but Randle is not ready for prime-time blocking assignments. Murray's fumbling woes resurfaced and the Cowboys can only hope that it does not become more deleterious to the offense. Witten continues to be a sort of unsung hero, going about the dirty job of blocking for the running game. The offensive line kept Romo pretty clean considering the presence of JJ Watt, who did get loose on a few plays. That they contained him in said manner is a huge plus on the confidence side.

The real battle lies not in Seattle, but the division games that immediately follow, where Dallas will get a better idea of their ability to challenge for the division this year. If linebacker issues would just subside into some stability, the defense might be less prone to late game letdowns. They are playing above themselves right now but the offense can make their task that much easier with long, multiple eleven-play drives like they had today.

I hate to say this, but as Murray goes, so will this season. The guy is in beast-mode right now and he is the 12th man of the defense, as he is reducing the number of snaps they need to defend. If they lose him, then Dallas is back to square one if Randle can't be more than replacement level as the starter. The blocking will suffer and the tough yards will be much harder to make with consistency.

Still, as improbable as it may have seemed after game one...they are riding high at 4-1, and any Cowboys fan would have taken this at the start of the season! Enjoy!