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COLUMN By TIM COWLISHAW / The Dallas Morning News
wtcowlishaw@dallasnews.com
ARLINGTON – The Cowboys were barely three minutes away from victory and only 11 yards away from securing that win with what would have been – incredibly – their fourth touchdown of the second half.
Only a great play from Saints safety Malcolm Jenkins and another sad chapter in the star-crossed Roy Williams saga kept it from happening.
Jason Garrett, the coach, was this close to giving Cowboys fans their biggest and most improbable Thanksgiving victory since 1994 when Jason Garrett, the third-string quarterback, threw for more than 300 yards in an NFC player-of-the-week performance against Green Bay.
It didn't happen.
The final scoreboard reading of Saints 30, Cowboys 27 should not be the kind of thing – in fact it can't possibly be the kind of thing – that keeps Garrett from getting more opportunities to provide startling victories in 2011.
Against the Super Bowl champions, who have hit their stride in the last month, the Cowboys found themselves trailing 17-0 before the first quarter was over. Strangely enough, in a total departure from what this Cowboys team would have done a month ago, the game was not over.
"The obvious thing to me as a coach was that we continued to fight. The offense picked up the defense and the defense picked up the offense, special teams got involved and we got back in it," Garrett said.
So much in it that they turned a 20-6 halftime deficit into a 27-23 lead with Williams racing towards the Saints' end zone in those final minutes. Williams said he knows it would have been better to slide to the turf once he was well past the first-down marker, but he said it's not in his nature to do that.
It's not in any receiver's nature to do that. But with barely three minutes to play, it's something they all might want to consider.
The fans who want Williams exiled after Thursday's mistake or perhaps shipped back to Detroit didn't watch the blocks and the catches (five for 83 yards) and the effort he supplied all afternoon, but they should.
Sometimes the other team makes a play. Sometimes, in a closely fought battle that comes down to a missed 59-yard field goal try (a very close miss, at that), the other team wins.
If you want to contend that Super Bowl champion Sean Payton outcoached Garrett on Thursday, be my guest. But you would be hard-pressed to make that case by citing any sort of strategy chosen or decision made in the second half.
"This is a game of momentum," Payton said, "and clearly that momentum had shifted from what was ours in the first half to theirs in the second half."
Even in failure, you had to appreciate Garrett's approach. We know he talks constantly about adversity to his players, and it doesn't get much more adverse than Saints 17, Cowboys 0 with 49 minutes to play.
Instead of getting ugly, instead of the approximately 30,000 Saints fans in the crowd of more than 90,000 at Cowboys Stadium having one of their all-day parties, the Cowboys turned the game upside down.
Backup quarterback Jon Kitna directed a very balanced attack that kept the Saints defense on the field for long stretches. Even when the Cowboys managed only field goals on their first two scoring drives to make it a 20-6 game at halftime, the game was turning Dallas' direction.
"Obviously when you play the Saints, you try to keep Drew Brees on the sidelines," Garrett said.
The Cowboys did that a lot Thursday but not quite enough as Brees' totals (23-for-39, 352 yards) indicate.
One thing Garrett won't fix overnight – in fact, it's unrealistic to think he can do much of anything about it this season – is a secondary riddled with holes. Even on a day where the unit made some big plays, they still got shredded for 9 yards per pass attempt including a back-breaking 55-yard catch by Robert Meachem against Terence Newman in the last two minutes.
The Cowboys are playing harder for Garrett than they did for Wade Phillips. But a 3-8 team regardless of the level of play or the coaching involved has serious issues.
In a memorable game that supplied an abundance of moments to cheer for fans of both teams, the Cowboys took a step in the right direction even in defeat.
One or two moral victories against Super Bowl caliber competition are acceptable. At least they should be for an interim coach.
wtcowlishaw@dallasnews.com
ARLINGTON – The Cowboys were barely three minutes away from victory and only 11 yards away from securing that win with what would have been – incredibly – their fourth touchdown of the second half.
Only a great play from Saints safety Malcolm Jenkins and another sad chapter in the star-crossed Roy Williams saga kept it from happening.
Jason Garrett, the coach, was this close to giving Cowboys fans their biggest and most improbable Thanksgiving victory since 1994 when Jason Garrett, the third-string quarterback, threw for more than 300 yards in an NFC player-of-the-week performance against Green Bay.
It didn't happen.
The final scoreboard reading of Saints 30, Cowboys 27 should not be the kind of thing – in fact it can't possibly be the kind of thing – that keeps Garrett from getting more opportunities to provide startling victories in 2011.
Against the Super Bowl champions, who have hit their stride in the last month, the Cowboys found themselves trailing 17-0 before the first quarter was over. Strangely enough, in a total departure from what this Cowboys team would have done a month ago, the game was not over.
"The obvious thing to me as a coach was that we continued to fight. The offense picked up the defense and the defense picked up the offense, special teams got involved and we got back in it," Garrett said.
So much in it that they turned a 20-6 halftime deficit into a 27-23 lead with Williams racing towards the Saints' end zone in those final minutes. Williams said he knows it would have been better to slide to the turf once he was well past the first-down marker, but he said it's not in his nature to do that.
It's not in any receiver's nature to do that. But with barely three minutes to play, it's something they all might want to consider.
The fans who want Williams exiled after Thursday's mistake or perhaps shipped back to Detroit didn't watch the blocks and the catches (five for 83 yards) and the effort he supplied all afternoon, but they should.
Sometimes the other team makes a play. Sometimes, in a closely fought battle that comes down to a missed 59-yard field goal try (a very close miss, at that), the other team wins.
If you want to contend that Super Bowl champion Sean Payton outcoached Garrett on Thursday, be my guest. But you would be hard-pressed to make that case by citing any sort of strategy chosen or decision made in the second half.
"This is a game of momentum," Payton said, "and clearly that momentum had shifted from what was ours in the first half to theirs in the second half."
Even in failure, you had to appreciate Garrett's approach. We know he talks constantly about adversity to his players, and it doesn't get much more adverse than Saints 17, Cowboys 0 with 49 minutes to play.
Instead of getting ugly, instead of the approximately 30,000 Saints fans in the crowd of more than 90,000 at Cowboys Stadium having one of their all-day parties, the Cowboys turned the game upside down.
Backup quarterback Jon Kitna directed a very balanced attack that kept the Saints defense on the field for long stretches. Even when the Cowboys managed only field goals on their first two scoring drives to make it a 20-6 game at halftime, the game was turning Dallas' direction.
"Obviously when you play the Saints, you try to keep Drew Brees on the sidelines," Garrett said.
The Cowboys did that a lot Thursday but not quite enough as Brees' totals (23-for-39, 352 yards) indicate.
One thing Garrett won't fix overnight – in fact, it's unrealistic to think he can do much of anything about it this season – is a secondary riddled with holes. Even on a day where the unit made some big plays, they still got shredded for 9 yards per pass attempt including a back-breaking 55-yard catch by Robert Meachem against Terence Newman in the last two minutes.
The Cowboys are playing harder for Garrett than they did for Wade Phillips. But a 3-8 team regardless of the level of play or the coaching involved has serious issues.
In a memorable game that supplied an abundance of moments to cheer for fans of both teams, the Cowboys took a step in the right direction even in defeat.
One or two moral victories against Super Bowl caliber competition are acceptable. At least they should be for an interim coach.