Going into the Sunday night game, both the Dallas Cowboys and the Philadelphia Eagles needed a win in order to play in Saturday’s contest against the New Orleans Saints. The first half was intense as both teams were equally match, but in the second half you could see the Eagles capitalized more on opportunities than Dallas and did not turnover the ball.
Dallas’s game plan was to execute a balance between run and pass to get back up QB Kyle Orton into a groove; he did not disappoint. He was reading the Eagle’s defense and was making them pay with balls that were on the money to his receivers. The only mistake that had killed the drives were turnovers. Orton had costly turnovers that could have made a big difference in the game.
After the game, questions surrounded Orton about the miscommunication with WR Miles Austin that had secured an Eagle’s victory. “I just threw a bad pass. Miles ran a great route and the same play we scored on the play before,” Orton said. “Went to Miles this time and just threw it behind him and he [the Eagles DB] made a nice catch on the ball.”
“You feel a tremendous sense of pride about how the team played, how they fought, how they scratched, how they clawed, how they battled Coach Jason Garrett said.” “But having said that, we didn’t get the job done.”
Orton, who was 30 of 46 for 358 yards with two touchdowns and two interceptions in his first start in two years, was the first Dallas starter not named Tony Romo in an elimination game since a playoff loss to Carolina with Quincy Carter under center during the 2003 season.
The cowboys have been 8-8 in three years and missed the post season 4 straight times under coach Jason Garrett and Cowboy’s owner Jerry Jones still believes that Garrett is the rightful coach for this organization. “I have spoken at a little bit of a more appropriate time here three or four weeks ago, which I said at the time that I was with Jason, and I thought that his future and what he was going to be doing with us was good.”
“Obviously there were a couple of plays in the game that he would have liked back, but if you look at the whole body of work I thought that he did a heck of a job,” said Cowboys coach Jason Garrett. “He had a great week of practice. He was prepared, he was confident. The guys responded to him said Jones. “But this isn’t the time, despite how it feels or looks, to speak to anything about our coaches.”
“It’s unbelievable, unthinkable really for me to be sitting here three years in a row and this game putting us at .500 and this game eliminating us from getting to the playoffs,” Jones said. “I had thought that some of the changes we made this year would put us in better overall shape — our defense.”
As the Cowboy’s left the field and their season, questions and concerns were asked about the status of Tony Romo and his injury; “The nature of his injury was not alarming as a result of what they saw when they had surgery. It’s not alarming as to his future. It wasn’t complicated,” Jones said.” “It was readily addressable, and it should, frankly, expect the kind of rehab and recovery he had earlier with the cyst-type situation,” Jones said. “I honestly know that he got quicker relief once he had the procedure done – he had immediate relief.”
