TAMPA — After a pair of excruciating last-second losses, the Dallas Cowboys on Saturday night found the perfect remedy for their ailing playoff hopes.
The Tampa Bay Buccaneers.
Nothing like 60 minutes of football against arguably the NFL’s worst team to get back on their feet — and just in time for must-win contests against the Philadelphia Eagles and New York Giants that will determine their postseason fate.
This time, the Cowboys made sure they couldn’t gave away any late lead by building a 28-0 advantage by halftime and closing with a 31-15 victory over hapless Tampa Bay before a rare sellout crowd of 65,162 at Raymond James Stadium.
The Bucs showed a brief pulse in the third quarter, but the game was nowhere as close as the final score suggested. Put it this way: By halftime, the Cowboys held an advantage in first downs of 19-1 and an edge in total yards of 279-55.
And Dallas quarterback Tony Romo had directed four touchdown drives in the first five possessions, throwing scoring strikes to three different receivers (Miles Austin, Dez Bryant and Laurent Robinson) and plunging in on a 1-yard sneak for the other.
When it was all over, Tampa Bay had lost its eighth straight game to fall to 4-10 — a humiliating defeat in a game the Bucs had hoped to play the spoiler role and salvage some respect in a game televised nationally on the NFL Network.
Instead, they stumbled to a third straight lopsided loss (outscored 110-48 in their last three outings) that won’t do anything to help head coach Raheem Morris’ shaky job status.
The Cowboys, on the other hand, got exactly the kind of confidence-boosting victory they needed with a home game coming up Saturday against the Eagles, a team that routed them 34-7 Oct. 30 in Philadelphia.
Dallas raised its record to 8-6, a half game ahead of the Giants — for the moment — atop the NFC East. But New York hosts the struggling Washington Redskins (4-9) on Sunday and can move back into first place with a win.
That means Dallas will likely need to beat Philadelphia and beat the Giants on the road in the regular-season finale Jan. 1 to assure itself of a playoff berth.
“We really needed to get back on track, and this was an important game,” Romo said.
“Really, the playoffs (have) started for us, and that’s the way we approached it. The guys came out with great energy, and it was a great week of practice. We just had to go forward, and I thought the guys did that.”
Tailback Felix Jones certainly did, moving back into the starting role following the fractured ankle that sidelined rookie DeMarco Murray last week in the 37-34 loss to New York. Jones powered the running game with 108 yards on 22 carries, and newly added Sammie Morris bolstered the attack with 53 yards on 12 rushes.
But nobody did more than Romo, who completed 23 of 30 passes for 249 yards, with three touchdown passes and a hand in all four TDS, plus a stellar quarterback rating of 133.9.
“Offensively, we’ve been doing some good things,” he said. “I think we’re just going to continue to keep doing some of the stuff, and I think we’ll figure it out a little bit. We’re healthy. This is the healthiest we’ve been this year as an offensive unit. If we continue to have that, it will help a lot.”
Dallas’ defense did plenty to help the cause as well, overwhelming Tampa Bay quarterback Josh Freeman and holding the Bucs offense to only seven first downs (compared to 28 for the Cowboys) and only 190 yards of offense.
Freeman completed 17 of 27 passes for 148 yards and a touchdown, but was sacked three times and forced into a costly fumble that undercut a promising opening drive. In addition, the Dallas defensive unit shut down Tampa Bay tailback LeGarrette Blount, holding him to 21 yards on nine carries. With no running game to speak of, the Bucs’ passing game was doomed.
“I thought our defense played really, really well throughout the ball game,” said Dallas head coach Jason Garrett.
“When you get into the second half, you get into more of managing, dealing with the clock as much as you’re dealing with anything else. So they were spreading us out and they were able to complete the passes and move the ball a little bit more than they had been able to do in the first half. I thought they (the defense) came out and played really lights-out in the first half and then handled the situation in the second half really well.”
The Bucs defense lost standout cornerback Aqib Talib in the first quarter after he aggravated a hamstring injury that had sidelined him in last week’s 41-14 loss to Jacksonville. But Talib would not have made a difference on this night.
“Obviously too little, too late,” he said. “Not enough in the beginning. You can’t dig holes like that for yourself, and you can’t play that way on third down (5-for-12 for 42 percent).
“We’ve got to play better in the red zone on defense especially. In that first half, we’ve got to figure it out a little bit faster, shake those jitters, come out and play like the way we did in the second half on defense and play consistently the whole game. Until we do that, we won’t win football games.”
Indeed, it didn’t take long for the Bucs to establish their familiar dreary, self-destructive style of play.
They started off with a little tease, with Freeman scrambling 25 yards on the third offensive play of the game to produce a first down at his 49. But on the next play, he took off running again and wound up losing the football when Dallas linebacker Anthony Spencer punched it loose. The fumble was recovered by linebacker Bradie James, and the Cowboys were suddenly in business at their 44.
They quickly took care of it.
Romo moved his offense down the field with ease, hitting all four of his passes for 40 yards on a seven-play scoring drive. He capped it with an eight-yard touchdown strike to Austin on third and goal from the 8 — a play that was remarkable for the enormous amount of time the elusive quarterback had to find an open man. He even bumped into one of his own lineman while darting around and still faced no defensive pressure, finally allowing Austin to slip loose at the goal line and make the catch with 8:57 to go in the first quarter.
But that was only a sneak peek of what was to come.
After stopping the Bucs cold on their next series — keyed by a third-and-1 stuff of Blount at his 29 — the Cowboys went right back to work. Romo’s 28-yard completion to tight end JasonWitten produced a first down at the Tampa Bay 41. And seven plays later, he found a wide-open Bryant in the back of the end zone for an eight-yard touchdown to help make it 14-0 with 25 seconds left in the quarter.
The Bucs’ defense couldn’t have looked more disorganized, even getting flagged for 12 men on the field at one point in the drive. Somehow, it summed up the miserable state of affairs for Tampa Bay perfectly.
And it only got worse from there for Tampa Bay. After two straight three-and-outs for the Bucs offense, Romo engineered a seven-play, 89-yard scoring drive — aided by a tripping penalty on Bucs’ nose tackle Roy Miller and a tackle-breaking, 38-yard scamper by Jones. The clincher came on third and 5 from Tampa Bay’s 9, when Romo once again connected with one of his receivers completely alone in the back of the end zone, this time Robinson. With 4:51 left in the half, it was officially another blowout at 21-0.
But the Cowboys weren’t content with a mere three-touchdown advantage. They got back the ball at their 38 with just under three minutes remaining, and Romo proceeded to complete his next five passes to reach the Bucs 4. And two plays later, he did the honors himself, sneaking in from the 1 to help make it 28-0 with 22 seconds on the clock.
The Bucs finally gave their fans something to cheer about in a crowd that featured a heavy contingent of Cowboys faithful. Moments into the third quarter, Dallas found itself facing a third and 19 from its 11. Romo dropped back to pass and was sacked by rookie defensive Adrian Clayborn, who stripped the ball loose. Linebacker Dekoda Watson scooped it up at the Cowboys 7 and plowed into the end zone for the touchdown. Connor Barth’s PAT made it 21-7 with 13:19 remaining in the quarter and the Bucs had the emotional lift they desperately needed.
The Cowboys threatened to douse the celebration when Romo moved his offense from its 20 to the Tampa Bay 12 on the ensuing drive. But the Bucs defense tightened up, forcing Dallas to settle for a 30-yard Bailey field goal and a 31-7 lead with 6:43 left in the third quarter. Then things got interesting.
After getting sacked for six yards back to his 19, Freeman bounced back and orchestrated a 12-play, 75-yard drive that ended with his third-down, 13-yard touchdown to Dezmon Briscoe. And following his two-point conversion pass to tight end Kellen Winslow, the Bucs had a veritable pulse, trailing 31-15 with 32 seconds still left in the quarter.
But the Bucs couldn’t get anything else going against Dallas’ defense, and the Cowboys headed for the locker room with a win that put a big smile on the face of owner Jerry Jones, who quickly turned his thoughts to next Saturday in Dallas.
“I have such respect for the Eagles, especially after the loss we had in Philadelphia,” he said in a corner of his team’s locker room.
“I have respect for them when they have (Michael) Vick at quarterback, and they’ve got him. We’ve got to figure out a way to defend him in the areas we’ve been challenged. … Now that they have Vick back, it’s the fifth quarter. It’s the sixth quarter. The only thing is, we have a chance to start back at zero. We have our hands full in a big way.”
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