Winning with minus-five net turnovers

[AdamJT13]

Merely by coincidence, before last night's game, the blog at pro-football-reference.com posted a list of every team since the merger that had won a game when losing the turnover battle by at least five. There was one team that won at minus-seven, two that won at minus-six and 11 that won at minus-five.

I went back and looked at the scoring for each of those games, and only three of those winning teams had allowed a return for a touchdown during the game (none allowed more than one). And four of the winning teams were aided by a TD return of their own, including two of those that had allowed a TD return.

So, we're the only team since at least 1970 (and probably in NFL history) to finish minus-five in turnovers and allow THREE touchdown returns but still win the game.

By the way, one of the teams to overcome minus-five net turnovers was the 1970 Colts, who beat the Bears 21-20 despite five interceptions by Johnny Unitas. The Colts fell behind 17-0, then rallied and finally won it on a 54-yard TD pass to John Mackey with a few minutes to play. Baltimore, of course, went on to finish 11-2-1, then beat us on a field goal with five seconds left in Super Bowl V.

 

[miamicowboy21]

We had no buisness winning that game. Only because of the pathetic bills coaching staff were we able to be victorious.

 

[Doomsday101]

We had no buisness winning that game. Only because of the pathetic bills coaching staff were we able to be victorious.

Bills coaches could have done a better job late in the game but it still took Dallas going out hustling and making plays to win that game. As far as I'm concerned this team has nothing to be ashamed of in winning that game. Dallas kept fighting and made the plays in the end.

 

[BourbonBalz]

We also played pretty well defensively.

 

[percyhoward]

We had no buisness winning that game.

That's what made it so impressive.

 

[sago1]

Romo gets much of the blame for Monday night's close game. But he certainly wasn't responsible for the poor STs play which allowed the return; the 2nd in two games.

Realize ST really stepped it up at the end of the game as did Romo. I'm just glad we walked away with a win--whether we deserved it or not doesn't matter. Sometimes it's better to be lucky then good.

Congrats to our defense for holding them to only 3 points.

Let's hope the team plays much better against NE -- particularly our offense which is the key to this game. You know Belicheat will go all out to stop Romo.

 

[Bigdog]

the cowboys have also been on the other side of losing a game after their opponents had six turnovers. Sports radio in the Bay area was discussing that the last time they could remember this happening was the 1981 championship game between the 49ers-cowboys. They were reporting that the 49ers had 6 turnovers, 4 int and 2 fumbles. I remember that game but did not recall that many turnovers by the 49ers. They could be wrong.