The Dallas Cowboys’ season ended with a heartbreaking loss to the New York Giants in the final game of the 2011 NFL regular season. Here is a look at how the offensive stars finished the game for the Cowboys.

Dez Bryant, Dallas Cowboys
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Tony Romo

Tony Romo came into the Week 17 game with the New York Giants with a bruised hand and seemed like the biggest question mark on the field. However, out of all the players in the game, Romo was the one who came to play. He completed 29-of-37 of his passes for 289 yards and two touchdowns. He also threw an interception and fumbled the ball, but a lot of his problems had to do with bad offensive line play.

Laurent Robinson

Out of all the stars on the Dallas Cowboys’ roster, it is newcomer Laurent Robinson who leads the team in touchdowns with 11. In the final game of the season, while Dallas had few stars step up, it was Robinson who caught both touchdown passes from Romo. Robinson was the Cowboys’ best offensive weapon this season.

Felix Jones

When DeMarco Murray went down with a season ending injury, Felix Jones got his chance to prove he could help the team win. He did fine but it is obvious that the Cowboys need Murray back next year bad. Jones ran for 30 yards and caught seven passes for 47 yards in Week 17. It wasn’t horrible but Dallas needs a better rushing attack in 2012.

Dez Bryant / Miles Austin

Dez Bryant led the team with 70 receiving yards in the game on six receptions in the game. Miles Austin did not do anything of note, with two receptions for 20 yards. Neither man was a solid weapon in this game because Romo had little time to wait for routes to develop before the pass rush reached him.

Jason Witten

Jason Witten finally had a decent game but fell short of the 1000 yard mark for the first time since 2008. He finished the game with seven receptions for 69 yards.

Author Shawn S. Lealos has a bachelor’s degree in journalism from the University of Oklahoma (2000) and has been a Dallas Cowboys’ fan since he was a child. His favorite players range from Roger Staubach and Tony Dorsett to the Triplets of the 90s and he enjoys talking about all Cowboys’ related news, good or bad

Source: dallascowboys.com

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With the Dallas Cowboys’ loss to the New York Giants officially ending their season, there has to be a time to look back and see what went right with the franchise. One of the best stories of the season featured a wide receiver that had never reached his potential getting another chance and exploding in 2011.

Laurent Robinson
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Laurent Robinson joined the Cowboys to help out the team when Miles Austin went down with a hamstring injury. After integrating himself into the offense in Week 3, with three receptions for 49 yards, he exploded against the Detroit Lions in Week 4. While Dallas might have lost the game at the end, they found a new star for the wide receiver corps. Robinson caught seven balls for 116 yards.

Austin returned in the next game, after the bye week, but by Week 8, Robinson made his name with the Cowboys. Against Philadelphia, in that game, Robinson caught five balls for 103 yards and his first touchdown of the season.

Over a five game stretch, Robinson caught at least one touchdown pass in each game, with two against Buffalo and Miami. He broke 100 yards again in Week 14, against the New York Giants, and then finished the season, against the Giants once again, with two more touchdowns.

By the end of the Dallas Cowboys’ 2011 NFL season, Laurent Robinson finished with season high in receptions (54), yards (858) and touchdowns (11).

Robinson started his career in Atlanta and then moved on to the St. Louis Rams. At both stops, he was supposed to be a star but failed to hold onto a job at either location. With this fresh chance in Dallas, and a Pro-Bowl caliber quarterback throwing him the ball, Robinson finally showed what he is capable of.

If anything, Robinson has shown that he has a chance to be a solid starter for a team in 2012. It would be nice to see him return to Dallas, but does he really want to play secondary roles behind Dez Bryant and Miles Austin? He said he loves it in Dallas and would love to return, though. Fans of the Cowboys will have to wait and see, but if Robinson comes back in 2012, Dallas should have one of the top receiver corps in the NFL once again.

Author Shawn S. Lealos has a bachelor’s degree in journalism from the University of Oklahoma (2000) and has been a Dallas Cowboys’ fan since he was a child. His favorite players range from Roger Staubach and Tony Dorsett to the Triplets of the 90s and he enjoys talking about all Cowboys’ related news, good or bad

Source: dallascowboys.com

Note: This article was written by a Yahoo! contributor. Sign up here to start publishing your own sports content.

Read More: Mat McBriar (P – DAL), Tony Romo (QB – DAL), Chris Jones (P – DAL), Dallas Cowboys, New York Giants

Everything is on the line when the Dallas Cowboys travel to MetLife Stadium to take on the New York Giants in a winner take all matchup for the NFC East title. So naturally every little detail is being looked at and overly scrutinized.

Brandon Jacobs has a message for Dallas Cowboys’ football fans. He said that it is not the team’s fault so many people hate them. The New York Giants’ running back said the reason people hate the Cowboys is because their fans are so bad.

Brandon Jacobs
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Jacobs even said that Dallas fans are worse than Philadelphia Eagles fans. He did back up and say it is not the way they act at games that makes them bad but it is instead the way Cowboys’ fans act in their everyday life.

This week, Dallas Cowboys’ fans are at the tip of Jacobs’ hate filled tongue.

It is nice to see that Jacobs has moved on. If you remember right, this is the same Brandon Jacobs who went face to face with Rex Ryan last week when Ryan told the running back to shut up until they win the Super Bowl. Jacobs then told Ryan he would punch him in the face and called him fat.

While Rex Ryan took a lot of grief for the confrontation, it was Jacobs who kept talking. In the press conferences and interviews after the game, Ryan said it was a private conversation and he knows that Jacobs doesn’t like him. When Jacobs was interviewed after the game, he made more fat comments and reiterated that he would punch Ryan in the face.

Someone needs anger management classes.

In interviews this week, Rex’s brother Rob Ryan, the defensive coordinator of the Dallas Cowboys, was asked about the situation. He said he respects both his brother and Jacobs and then said that he was pretty sure it was not a one-sided argument. He then pointed out that Jacobs ran for 101 yards last time the Cowboys played the Giants.

In interviews, Jacobs also claimed there was a long standing feud between the Ryan family and Giants’ assistant coach Kevin Gilbride. Rob Ryan laughed that off as well.

This is a championship game between the Giants and Cowboys. This isn’t about grudges, it is about winning the NFC East. Anyone who thinks otherwise is only trying to create problems. Of course, if you ask Jacobs, that is what Dallas Cowboys’ fans might be best at.

Author Shawn S. Lealos has a bachelor’s degree in journalism from the University of Oklahoma (2000) and has been a Dallas Cowboys’ fan since he was a child. His favorite players range from Roger Staubach and Tony Dorsett to the Triplets of the 90s and he enjoys talking about all Cowboys’ related news, good or bad

Source: dallascowboys.com

Note: This article was written by a Yahoo! contributor. Sign up here to start publishing your own sports content.

If the Dallas Cowboys continue to play without mental toughness, franchise legend Emmitt Smith thinks the team will get blew out … blowed out on Sunday against the New York Giants. Blown out.

The Hall of Fame running back told Todd Archer of ESPNDallas.com that he doubts the team has enough leadership and toughness to win the de facto NFC East Championship game on Sunday night.

“Talent-wise, I think they have it. Leadership-wise, they have some good leaders on the ballclub. Do they have enough? Probably not. Can they go up to New York and be mentally tough in this situation? I think Jason [Garrett] has done a very good job of preparing the guys to be physically and hopefully mentally tough, but I think mental toughness is the thing needed in games like this.

“Mental toughness for four quarters or five quarters, if you have to go that far. But that’s something our Cowboys have not been able to do in close games. And that’s where mental toughness comes into play.”

It was that exact mental toughness that allowed Smith to become the NFL’s all-time leading rusher, a three-time Super Bowl champion and the guy who succeeded Drew Lachey as “Dancing With the Stars” champion. He’s completely right though; as he pointed out later, the Cowboys have lost four games this season after holding fourth quarter leads. And in one of those, it was a timeout by Jason Garrett that played a hand in defeat. Is the team getting its cues from its coach?

The bright side is that the Cowboys are playing the Giants, a team whose mental toughness comes and goes without advance warning. One day they’re beating New England and hanging with the defending Super Bowl champions, the next they’re getting swept by the Washington Redskins.

Related: Dallas Cowboys, New York Giants, Washington Redskins