Tuesday, September 16, 2008

TO and The Cowboys Ride On

If there was a game to decide the NFC East title, then this would be it. Monday Night Football on ESPN, the Cowboys hosted the Eagles at Texas Stadium and came up victorious landing the final punch in the last half. The Eagles started the 1st quarter with a field goal leading the Cowboys 3-0, but Romo and Owens answered back with a 72 yard touchdown pass putting the Cowboys 7-3. Owens, being penalized for last week's touchdown celebration, simply flapped his arms in mockery of the eagles away from the end zone (the no fun league rule, i was hoping to see a lot more). The Eagles responded to Owen's TD with another field goal kick to shorten the lead from 7-6, but then the rookie, Felix Jones, ran a kickoff return for a 98 yard touchdown to put the Cowboys at 14-6.

The Cowboys simply took over and dominated the 1st quarter hands down. Things was looking good and it seems that the Cowboys will take an easy win, that is until Romo's pass was intercepted by Asante Samuel. With the interception, the Eagles quickly played Brian Westbrook for a 6 yard touchdown to close the gap on the lead to 14-13. Things fell apart even more for the Cowboys when Isaiah Stanback caused them to begin on their own 5 yard line on a kickoff return (due to his "mishandling"). To think being on the 5 yard line wasn't enough, the Cowboys was then called for a false start. After the call, Tony Romo snapped and fumbled the ball on his way to hand it off to Marion Barber causing a string of unneeded incidents that ended up with the safety Brian Dawkins of the Eagles picking up the loose ball in the end zone giving the Eagles their first lead of the night at 20-14.

What seemed to be a back and forth game, with 7 lead changes, the Cowboys came back to take the lead after Romo connected with Marion Barber for a 25 yard pass and then later with Jason Wittin for a 32 yard pass as well. The score is now 37-34 in favor of the Eagles. The last play to put the Cowboys on top again was a 1 yard run from Marion Barber for a TD with a little over 4 minutes left to play in the 4th quarter.

McNabb was playing like he did when he led the Eagles to the NFC titles and the Super Bowl back a few years ago. He was taking his time surveying the field while the Cowboys tried unsuccessfully to bring him down. Each time someone had their hands on him, he would slip through and allow for quick passes. But in the final moments of the game, McNabb seemed to have looked like he was tired out and eventually the Cowboys' linebackers, Greg Ellis & DeMarcus Ware, both sacked him.

The Eagles came out fighting and almost defeated the Cowboys but the fumble on their last possession caused their demise. The Cowboys seemed to have overcome the adversities in the game but their focus now is on the still undefeated, 2-0, Green Bay Packers. Even though they came out victorious with this win in Week 2, I'm pretty sure they're anxiously waiting for their next meet in Philly in December. This to me was one of the best Monday Night Football games I've seen, and to think, it's only Week 2 in the season.

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