You’ve got to hand it to the Dallas Cowboys for their ability to lose games they seemingly had wrapped up, blowing another fourth quarter lead in their loss to the New York Giants.
Of the Cowboys six losses this season, five have come after they had taken a lead in the fourth quarter.
That’s the mark of a team that lacks good coaching and mental toughness, which are traits that fit Jason Garrett and Tony Romo to a tee.
Dallas led the Giants 34-22 with 5:41 left in the game, but the Cowboys defense looked completely helpless giving up two touchdowns and a two-point conversion to fall behind by three with 46 seconds left.
After New York scored their first fourth quarter touchdown to cut Dallas’ lead to 34-29, Romo failed to connect with a wide open Miles Austin on a third down play that would have iced the game.
On third and five from the Cowboys 25 with a little over three minutes remaining, Austin broke free and raced three yards ahead of the Giants defender. But Romo didn’t put enough air under the ball and his pass fell incomplete.
Statistically, Romo had a great game. He completed 21 of 31 for 321 yards and four touchdowns. But his inability to make an easy play that would have won the game is another in a long line of fourth quarter failures.
The Cowboys lack of focus cost them when they were flagged for four penalties in the fourth quarter, twice on the Giants’ go-ahead touchdown drive. The Cowboys have been flagged for 36 penalties in the fourth quarter this season.
Then Garrett’s inability to manage the clock came to the forefront again on the Giants last drive.
As the Giants were driving for what turned out to be the game-winning touchdown, Eli Manning completed a pass to tight end Jake Ballard that put New York on the Cowboys 1 with 1:15 left.
With the clock running and the likelihood that New York would score the go-ahead TD, Garrett allowed 15 seconds to run off the clock before using one of the Cowboys two timeouts.
Everyone from the average fan to Cowboys’ owner Jerry Jones knew that Garrett should have immediately used one of his timeouts.
Television cameras captured an exasperated Jones in his owner’s box saying, “Timeout, Jason!” as the clock ticked away.
Following last week’s clock management debacle in Arizona, you’d think Garrett would have learned a valuable lesson.
You’d think he would have ordered the Cowboys defense to let the Giants score on the next play to give Dallas more time left and keep one of their timeouts.
But Garrett obviously didn’t follow that script. On the Giants next play, the Cowboys stuffed Brandon Jacobs for no gain but forced Dallas to use their remaining timeout.
New York scored on their next play and added the two-point conversion, but Dallas trailed by three with only 46 seconds left and no timeouts.
Despite the Cowboys doing everything wrong, they still had a chance to send the game into overtime after Romo connected with Austin on two pass plays that put the ball on the Giants 29 with six seconds left.
But bad karma is the mark of this Dallas team. The Cowboys’ Dan Bailey connected on a 47-yard field goal but the play was nullified because Giants’ coach Tom Coughlin used New York’s last timeout just before the kick.
On Bailey’s second attempt, New York’s Jason Pierre-Paul broke through the middle of the Cowboys’ line and blocked the kick. Pierre-Paul also probably blocked the Cowboys from having any chance of making the playoffs this season.
Maybe Jimmy Johnson put a curse on the Cowboys after Jones drunkenly ran his mouth following Dallas’ Super Bowl XXVIII win.
Perhaps the Cowboys are merely the victims of circumstance, but whatever the reasons Dallas is going through another season in which promises of change don’t yield positive results.
It’s not necessarily because the Cowboys lack talent. Their secondary is atrocious and needs a complete overhaul, but Dallas should be no worse than 12-1 right now.
You may scoff, but that’s reality. Loses to the Jets, Patriots, Lions, Cardinals and now the Giants were all games the Cowboys should have won. Their only legitimate loss this season was against the Eagles, but we all know it doesn’t matter how you lose, it only matters if you lose.
Now the Cowboys will need a lot of good fortune just to make the playoffs, but given this team’s propensities it’s probably a safe bet that they’ll be watching the playoffs from their living rooms.
It’s going to be another very long offseason in Big D.
