The Cowboys Need a Strong Dose of Anti-Venom
By Joshua Huff
I’m not going to say anything negative about the Dallas Cowboys loss to the Denver Broncos last Sunday. Quarterback Tony Romo had an amazing game and should feel very proud of himself for it, although something tells me he probably doesn’t.
Oct 6, 2013; Arlington, TX, USA; Dallas Cowboys head coach Jason Garrett yells from the sidelines during the fourth quarter against the Denver Broncos at AT
This is just the 14th time in league history that a quarterback has thrown for over 500 yards in a single game. You hear that Romo haters? Only 13 other quarterbacks in the history of the NFL have done what Romo did the afternoon of October 6th, 2013. He is also the only quarterback to do so in a Cowboy’s uniform.
Now for the shocker, of the 14 quarterbacks who passed for over 500 yards in a game, half of them still lost. Crazy, isn’t it? I remember thinking to myself in the waning seconds of last Sunday’s game, “I bet this has never happened before. No way has a team passed for that kind of yardage, and still lost the game…ever”. Well, turns out it’s exactly 50/50.
Oct 6, 2013; Arlington, TX, USA; Dallas Cowboys quarterback Tony Romo (9) is sacked in the fourth quarter by Denver Broncos defensive end Shaun Phillips (90) at AT
So maybe the snakebite’s not so bad given that statistic. Maybe we are right in the middle as far as luck’s concerned. Maybe if this was the only issue in recent memory I would believe that.
Dallas is a snakebitten team that can’t seem to catch a break. The worst possible thing happens at the worst possible time and we lose the game by inches.
What’s easily the most frustrating about these games is that we have them in our hands. Victory is right there, in our grasps, only to slip through our fingers again and again.
These aren’t games that we are simply being outplayed in. More often, these are games that we make a critical error late in the 4th, forcing us to watch the clock run out in a one possession game.
December 30, 2012; Landover, MD, USA; Dallas Cowboys cornerback Brandon Carr (39) reacts to a penalty call against the Cowboys in the final minute of the fourth quarter against the Washington Redskins at FedEx Field. The Redskins won 28-18. Mandatory Credit: Geoff Burke-USA TODAY Sports
These errors include penalties, turnovers, crucial drops, and poor quarterback protection. The most infuriating of these, in my opinion, is the penalty. This is for several reasons. Break downs in protection happen, no one is going to catch every ball thrown to them, and sometimes a turnover is completely unavoidable.
The thing about penalties is the are almost always avoidable, and they are generally committed out of a lack of discipline or just pure stupidity. That’s if we are even truly guilty of the infraction. More often than not, neither I nor the TV talent are able to find anything in the replay that justifies the flag. Other times it is something that has gone on all day long by both teams and the refs decided to penalize the Cowboys for it in the most critical point in the game, effectively costing us the win.
Whatever your theory, be it bad luck or sabotage, we are far too talented to be a 2-3 team. While there is nothing that can be done about the referees, we need to fix the issues we are capable of changing.
As far as the poor luck of the worst possible thing happening at the worst possible time…four leaf clovers, rabbit’s feet, or maybe some good old fashion anti-venom.