Cowboys beat Colts in overtime
The Dallas Cowboys answered any question about their heart with a gutsy performance against the Indianapolis Colts. The Cowboys, with no hope of making the playoffs, took their pass-weak defense to Indianapolis to play against one of the all-time great quarterbacks, Peyton Manning. Dallas, and head coach Jason Garrett, showed they made the most of the 10-day post-Thanksgiving break.
The Cowboys came out of the gate strong, taking the opening kickoff and mounting an 80 yard drive, capped by Tashard Choice’s 20 yard touchdown run. Choice, filling in for the injured Marion Barber, made the most of his opportunity with 3 runs over 20 yards and finishing with 100 yards rushing to lead the team.
Dallas would extend their lead to 17-0 less than a minute into the 2nd quarter after the first two Indianapolis drives were stopped by interceptions.
Manning and the Colts would come back in the 4th quarter, briefly taking the lead, before the teams would trade scores, sending the game into overtime.
The Colts got the ball first, but could not move it. Neither could the Cowboys. Dallas got it’s 4th interception of the game on the Colt’s second OT possession, this time putting the Cowboys in position for David Buehler’s game winning 38-yard field goal.
Dallas quarterback Jon Kitna played another safe and
effective game, ending with a qb rating 25 points higher than Manning.
It was the Cowboys running game that was highlighted. Dallas ran the ball 46 times, 20 more than passes, for over 200 yards. Dallas controlled the time of possession, 40 minutes t0 27. The Cowboys held the ball over 12 minutes of the 4th quarter. Keeping the ball out of Manning’s hands was the obvious way to protect the Dallas secondary, who gave up 365 passing yards, 200 of it to Reggie Wayne.
Rookie players came up big for the Cowboys. Dez Bryant had over 100 return yards before leaving the game with a possible broken ankle. On defense, rookie linebacker Sean Lee had two interceptions to go with his 3 tackles.
Jesse Holley, star of the reality television show 4th and Long, blew an assignment on the punt team, allowing the Colt’s a clear shot at punter Mat McBriar. The Colt’s blocked the punt and fell on it in the end zone for a touchdown which gave the Colt’s their only lead of the game.
The Cowboys defense again had trouble with 3rd downs. Dallas allowed the Colts to convert on 55% of third down plays, most coming on 3rd and longer than 5 yards.
Dallas returns home to play Philadelphia Sunday night.
