Dallas Cowboys Shine Like An Emerald!

Photo by Willie Martin "Mr Will"

All week long this writer was confident that a clean sweep would occur for the team from Ft. Worth at Waco and that other team playing in the house of vociferous horrors.

As it were the two key players who allowed for the improbable to happen came out of the house of Baylor.

Admit it. How many of you were getting flashbacks to 9/16/12 when the Seahawks jumped out to a 10-0 lead on a field goal and a blocked punt that led to a touchdown?

And how many of you were feeling queasy when it looked like Tony Romo took a shot to the gut, thinking he was in for a long day?

Little did we realize just how tough, how resilient this team of Jason Garrett's happens to be.

Big ups to DeMarco Murray for becoming only the second runner in NFL history to have six straight 100 yards games (Jim Brown did the same in 1958). 

Little doubt that what would have been a 17-0 lead (if not for a dropped pick six from Byron Maxwell) could have been the dagger to place Dallas in a dire situation inside the really loud Clink.

Instead of laying down and being left for dead Tony Romo and the Dallas Cowboys proceeded to resort to power football with DeMarco Murray while the defense of the Cowboys looked to be more at home than the Seahawks. 

Perhaps there's something to that whole 'silent count' approach.

"I think our team now understands that we do a lot of things pretty well and I think we have the ability to kind of impose yourself on other teams," Romo said.

Jason Garrett has been harping on winning, 'all three phases of the game' for four years. If the Dallas Cowboys played their most complete game against the Saints two weeks ago then Sunday's victory was one of their best performances of smash mouth football since a 24-20 victory over the Carolina Panthers under Bill Parcells in 2003. 

Dez Bryant and Terrence Williams would come up with big catches on third down conversions. Rolando McLain came up with a big interception to seal a 30-23 upset victory over the Seattle Seahawks and the 12th Man.

Russell Wilson's 47.8 passer rating was his lowest in 42 starts. The defending Super Bowl champs looked very ordinary.

"Guys aren't going to back down," Dallas coach Jason Garrett said. "We have the right kind of guys on this team."

Having now their fifth straight victory it marks the first time the Cowboys reached this mark since 2007. A year many believed the Silver and Blue were Super Bowl bound. 

It also marked the first time since 2011 that a road team won a football game in Seattle. 

"I think that showed the maturity of this team. We expected to win," Dallas tight end Jason Witten said. "We knew this was going to be a challenge and we stayed the course."

Marshawn Lynch was held to 61 yards on ten carries while DeMarco Murray carved out 115 on 29 touches.

Russell Wilson completed 14 passes on 28 attempts with an interception. Tony Romo was 21 for 32 for 250 yards and two touchdowns as he capped off a 75 yard drive with a 3rd and 20 conversion to Terrence Williams and DeMarco Murray ambling 15 yards to erase a 23-20 deficit in the 4th quarter.

Josh Randle also added 52 yards on five carries. It's only a matter of time before Coach Garrett tinkers with a two man backfield to provide relief for #29.

And what did birthday boy Jerry Jones think about this upset?

"This win is a coaching win. It's a Jason Garrett win," Jones said. "This called on everything you could ever ask a coach to come together with a team. He answered the bell today."

Take away a Mike Morgan runback on blocked punt, a Dwayne Harris muff of a punt and the score would have been 30-9. 

Each time the Seahawks threw a haymaker Dallas had a counter punch without fail.

"They played really well and they did a lot of cool stuff for their football team in all phases, and we were not right, really, in any phase of our game today," Seahawks coach Pete Carroll said.

Noteworthy

The Cowboys held the Seahawks offense to only 3 first downs in the first half of today’s game, their lowest first half output of the season, while controlling the ball for 20:05 of the first half, more than doubling the Seahawks time of possession. Additionally, the Seahawks did not have a rushing first down in the first half, which is the first time Seattle has been held without a rushing first down in the first half since October 2, 2011 against Atlanta.

The Cowboys offense produced 401 total net yards today to mark the third consecutive game with 400-or-more yards following 445 yards against New Orleans (9/28) and 456 yards against Houston (10/5). It is the first time a Dallas offense has posted a streak of three games with at least 400 yards during a single season since the 1983 team did it (400 at Min, 10/2; 444 against Tampa Bay, 10/9; 522 against Philadelphia, 10/16), and the third overall time (1976 – four games; 1983 – three games; 2014 – three games)

The win is also Dallas’ third consecutive win on the road dating back to last season at Washington (12/22/13), marking the longest road win streak since a 10-game road win streak that began in 2006 at Arizona (11/12) through 2007 at Carolina (12/22)

Prior to October 12 no running back was able to accrue more than 38 yards on the Seattle Seahawks. Both Murray and Randle surpassed that mark.

Congratulations to Dan Bailey. His field goals of 42,56, abd 31 yards made him the most proficient field goal kicker in Dallas Cowboys history.

After a 10-0 deficit Dallas went to work on a nine play 80 yard drive culminating in a two yard touchdown pass to Gavin Escobar to make it 10-7.

While playing keep away with Seattle in the second period Dallas proceeded to knot the score at ten on a Dan Bailey field goal. A drive that took almost ten minutes. 15 plays and 71 yards.

Dallas went into the half with a 17-10 lead as they drove 80 yards on nine plays in 2:48 with a three yard pass to Jason Witten.

That was a total of 12 minutes and 33 seconds in the second quarter for time of possession.

The Cowboys controlled the football for over 37 minutes. With the NFL average at about 31 this is a formula for success when running the ball and keeping an elderly quarterback mobile.

While the offensive line controlled the tempo of this day there was one sad note. Doug Free suffered a foot injury and will be out 3-4 weeks. 

Happy Birthday Jerry. 

No one saw this coming. 5-1 after six weeks with the Giants and Redskins coming to town. If a letdown is going to happen it would be in the next two weeks.

Over and out in Big D.

Mr. Will