Cowboys Dismantle Bears
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CHICAGO — Perhaps the post-Thanksgiving blahs are over for the Dallas Cowboys, assured of their first winning season in five years after a 41-28 thumping of the Chicago Bears Thursday night.
“We’ve had enough 8-8’s,” said quarterback Tony Romo, who, on a very efficient night, completed 21 of 26 passes for 205 yards and three touchdowns.
Dallas, which always hosts a holiday game, finished at .500 the last three years in large measure because of an 8-11 record after Thanksgiving. But in this, the Cowboys’ first post-Thanksgiving game of 2014, they built a 35-7 lead after three quarters and coasted to improve their record to 9-4, including the NFL’s only perfect road record (6-0).
Chicago fell to 5-8 and saw its already-slim playoff hopes virtually extinguished.
“We’re not doing the things in all three phases that we need to do to win on a consistent basis in this league,” Bears head coach Marc Trestman said. “We couldn’t hold up stopping the run. … When we did have a chance offensively, we didn’t move it consistently. … We’re making too many mistakes, too many penalties in all three phases, certainly tonight, which debilitated us.”
NFL rushing leader DeMarco Murray gained 179 yards on 32 carries and
caught nine passes for another 49 yards for the Cowboys, who, from early in the second quarter, scored touchdowns on five consecutive possessions and scored points on seven consecutive possessions.
“He did a good job being persistent,” said Jason Garrett, the Dallas coach. “Like a lot of great backs, he gets better the more he touches the ball.”
The Cowboys started slowly. In a scoreless first quarter, their first two drives ended on a third-down sack and a third-down overthrow by Romo when tight end Jason Witten was wide open down the middle.
But that was the extent of Dallas’ misplays while the game still was competitive — and also the end of the Cowboys’ third-down misfires; at one point, they converted six consecutive third downs into first downs.
Leading 14-7 at the half, Dallas began to put the game out of reach with its next score, set up when defensive end Anthony Spencer knocked the ball out of Matt Forte’s grasp after a Chicago screen pass near midfield. Cornerback Sterling Moore picked up the loose ball and returned it 16 yards to the Chicago 31-yard line.
On third down from the 24, Romo scrambled away from pressure toward the right sideline and threw a perfect pass to Cole Beasley, who got behind safety Chris Conte, for his second touchdown of the game and a 21-7 lead.
Chicago’s ensuing possession was a 3-and-out and, even after a Dwayne Harris punt return for an apparent touchdown was nullified by penalty, the Cowboys struck quickly. Romo threw to Dez Bryant for 43 yards on the first play and then, on third down, Romo threw a 6-yard touchdown pass to backup tight end Gavin Escobar.
Before the third quarter ended, Dallas scored again on a 17-yard run by Joseph Randle to make the score 35-7 — and the game was never in doubt even though Chicago scored three touchdowns in the first nine minutes of the fourth quarter. The comeback attempt, too little and too late, ended with an end-zone interception by Orlando Scandrick with 1:29 remaining.
Jay Cutler, the Bears quarterback, had a statistically effective night — 32 of 46 for 341 yards and two touchdowns � but more than half his yardage came in fourth-quarter garbage time after the game essentially was over.
Cutler’s playoff history is not unlike Romo’s; he has reached the postseason game only once in eight previous seasons and apparently won’t this year, either, although the Bears thought they were ready to make a run for it with an offense that was re-tooled a year ago to become one of the best in the league.
Given expectations, Cutler was asked where this season would rank among career disappointments.
“Probably number one,” he said.”
Perhaps mindful of their recent December history, it was apparent early on that the Cowboys were going to play aggressively. Early in the second quarter, Garrett ordered the offense to remain on the field on two consecutive fourth-and-one situations, and Murray converted both of them with runs, the second producing the game’s first touchdown.
Dallas had gone for it on fourth down only four times in the season’s first 12 games.
“You want to be aggressive, and that’s the style of football we want to play,” Garrett said.
