Dumb plays, penalties doom Cowboys to 1-3 start. Above: Titans wide receiver Kenny Britt (18) celebrates after scoring a touchdown in the first half. (AP Photo/Tim Sharp)It seemed like every time the Dallas Cowboys (1-3) seemed to get things together against the Tennessee Titans (3-2) Sunday afternoon, a large scale blunder would stop any built-up momentum in it's tracks.
"It was an exasperating game," coach Wade Phillips said. "It looked like we had turned a corner, then it went the other way on us. ... I don't have any qualms about our heart, but our execution needs to be better."
Penalties, miscues on both sides of the ball, and turnovers by the Cowboys sealed a disappointing 34-27 loss, 1-3 record and a last place slot in the NFC East.
The Cowboys defense, which had such a great showing before the bye week against the Houston Texans, fell apart early against the Titans. The secondary, Mike Jenkins and Orlando Scandrick in particular, made mediocre quarterback Vince Young look like Dan Marino in the first quarter.
Tennessee scored 10 points in the opening frame, seven of which came on the first drive thanks to back-to-back pass interference penalties on Jenkins (a total of 48 yards in penalties off the bat). Nate Washington caught a 24-yard touchdown pass from Young to end the drive after Scandrick got completely turned around in the end zone on the play. Tennessee declined what would have been the third pass-interference penalty of the drive on the reception.
Scandrick was beaten again in the second quarter on Young's second and final touchdown pass, a crossing pattern in the end zone to Kenny Britt, on which it appeared the Titans quarterback was throwing to another receiver. Either way, Britt beat Scandrick in the back of the end zone for the touchdown and Young finished with a season-high tying 173 passing yards and two touchdowns against a beaten and confused Cowboys' secondary.
Titans running back Chris Johnson also lit up the Dallas defense. Last season's NFL rushing champ rushed for 131 yards on 19 carries (a season-high 6.9 yard-per-carry average), punching in a couple of touchdowns from 1-yard out to tie a season high in that department. The last of his two TD's, with 3:28 left in regulation, sealed the game for Tennessee.
Embarrassingly enough, the fourth quarter plunge from Johnson was set up by an idiotic excessive celebration penalty on right tackle Marc Columbo.
After his 18-yd touchdown reception tied the game at 27-all with 4:30 left in the fourth, Jason Witten tossed the football to Columbo, who then decided to spike the ball. This counts as a two-player celebration - a no-no in the No Fun League. The 15-yard penalty forced a short kickoff, which was returned 73-yards to the Cowboys' 11-yard line. This was then compounded by a 15-yard facemask penalty at the end of the run that put Tennessee at the Dallas 5-yard line. Three plays later, Johnson dove into the end zone for what ended up being the game-winning touchdown.
"That misconduct penalty [on the touchdown] was big," Tennessee coach Jeff Fisher said. "That return probably doesn't happen if they're not kicking off down there (on their 15)."
Offensively, Tony Romo had one of the best passing days of his career. Romo threw for a career-high 406 yards and connected on touchdowns to three different receivers. Miles Austin recorded a season-high with nine receptions for 166 yards, Roy Williams caught six balls for 87 yards, and Witten recorded five catches for 84 yards. Each accounted for a touchdown as the Cowboys' passing attack shredded the Titans aggressive defense.
Unfortunately for the Cowboys quarterback, he committed turnovers at key times that prevented his team from winning the game. One interception wasn't his fault, a ball intended for tight end Martellus Bennett in the fourth quarter was tipped at the line and fell into the hands of Titans linebacker Stephen Tullock. The other two, however, were classic cases of Romo pressing at inopportune times.
Romo overthrew Bennett near the end zone in the third, the backup tight end tipped it and it landed in the hands of Titans safety Michael Griffin for the touch back. Romo should have just held the ball on the play and the turnover resulted in Dallas coming away with no points on the drive.
The final INT of the three was on the last Cowboys' possession, which ended when Romo threw a pass directly into the hands of cornerback Alterraun Verner that ended the game. There were other Romo passes that went directly into the hands of Titans defenders, but were either saved by Cowboys' receiver's (Dez Bryant in particular) or dropped altogether. It didn't help that Romo was forced to run for his life on many plays (see Under Pressure below), but these are mistakes that a veteran QB in a huge game needs to limit.
Dallas totaled 12 penalties for 133 yards against Tennessee - the most for a Cowboys team since 2006. Sacks were overturned due to down-field penalties, long plays negated due to holding or illegal hands to the face, and some plays were not run at all due to false starts - this game had it all in terms of Dallas mistakes. Combine that with three turnovers and your looking at an uphill battle few teams in the NFL could overcome.
"This is very hard to swallow right now," said Romo, who completed 31 of 46 passes. "If you're a good enough ballclub, you have to be able to overcome (mistakes). We haven't been able to."
Under Pressure
Romo was under siege against the Titans' NFL-best quarterback attack from the get-go. Tennessee, who was tied for first in the NFL with 16 sacks coming into the game, wreaked havoc in the Cowboys' backfield all game long. Romo, who had been sacked only one time coming into the game, bit the turf six times against the Titans (a career-high five times in the first half alone) and was hit 10 times by their ferocious pass rush.
Changing of the Guard
For the first time all season, Cowboys' running back Felix Jones had more carries than Marion Barber and the second-year player made the most of it with a career-afternoon. On his first carry of the game, Jones busted a run outside for a 20-yard gain - the longest rush for the Cowboys all season. Jones ended up breaking that milestone later in the game on a 34-yard scamper, and finished the game with a regular season career-high 109 yards on 15 carries (7.3 yard average).
This should be a sign of things to come as Jones showed Sunday that he is capable of at least getting another audition next week as the number one back.
What's Next
Dallas will now travel to Minnesota for next weekend's matchup with Randy Moss and the Minnesota Vikings. Minnesota is 1-3 this season, 1-1 at home, but should be a more complete team offensively with the addition of Moss at wide receiver.
Kickoff is scheduled for 3:15 p.m. central time, and can be seen regionally on Fox.
News and Notes:
- Miles Austin caught a spectacular, career-high 69-yard touchdown pass on the first drive of the third quarter between two Titans defenders. Austin was able to reach up high and snatch the ball away from the corner, and then avoid the oncoming hit from the safety before streaking into the end zone.
- With two sacks on Vince Young, Demarcus Ware has now sacked 34 different quarterbacks in his career.
- Another sign Jones should be the Cowboys starting running back for the rest of the season: his 100-yd rushing game was the first for a Cowboy in 18 games.
(Portions of this article were taken from The Associated Press)
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