Oh...My...Dear...Lord. The Cowboys Really ARE God's Team!

I don't know where to start. I am stunned...literally stunned. I was telling a friend of mine today that I thought tonight's game, Dallas vs. Buffalo, would be close for maybe a quarter to a quarter and a half at the very most. I thought at that point Dallas would step on the accelerator and leave the poor little Bills in the dust just like they did with Chicago a few weeks ago. Boy, was I wrong...

Tony Romo's head didn't seem to get off the plane. He was just a tick off most of the night. His first pass was picked off and returned for a touchdown. His second pass was picked off. He also threw 3 more INTs (one of those returned for a TD too) plus fumbled once. At the end of the night, Romo was responsible for 6 turnovers. He was awful, awful, awful...most of the night. But, Buffalo never put the kill shot in Dallas. Buffalo let Dallas hang around and how many times have we all seen that come back to bite the team which doesn't put the other team away? I kept thinking in the back of my mind that all Dallas had to do was get another TD and they were back in business...if Romo would quit turning the ball over.

Dallas' defense played pretty well though. Buffalo's offense only scored 3 points. The only other points scored against Dallas were the 2 INTs returned for TDs and a kickoff return for a TD. In all fairness, Buffalo doesn't have a lot to work with on offense. The one thing they do have, Marshawn Lynch, is very good and will be for years to come. Before the season I told someone I thought the Bills and the Lions would be the surprise teams of the year and the reason I said the Bills was because of Lynch. But Buffalo had 8 different starters on IR already and their QB is their backup, a rookie who was playing for Stanford this time last year. So, all Dallas had to do was keep Buffalo's offense in check...and they did. To win the game, Buffalo's offense had to get 6 points, that's it...only 6. But they could only muster 3.

So here Dallas is at the end of the game. They just scored to cut the lead to 24-22. Dallas has to go for a 2 point conversion. Romo throws a fade to TO and for a second, I thought he came down with it but the defender stripped the ball away (I wanted to kill TO at that moment). I looked at my wife, who watched the final minute with me (no doubt rethinking her decision to marry this 'Mr Hyde' ) and told her that was the game. I told her Dallas would probably try an onside kick but that those hardly ever work. And I'll be darned if it did. Romo then threw a loooooong pass down to TO who looked like he caught the ball but upon further review did not. Romo zipped another pass to Creighton who went out of bounds with 2 seconds to play making it a 52 yd field goal. Nick "Ice Water" Folk comes in and kicks the game winner and I am literally going berserk...until they say that Buffalo called a timeout just before the snap. All I could think of was that Auburn's kicker did this a few weeks ago vs Florida so hopefully Nick could deliver as well. And he drained it...silence (except the Cowboy fans) at Ralph Wilson Stadium. And this time, it was good.

Dallas had absolutely no business winning that game. The gave the ball away 6 times, allowed 2 INT returns for TD, allowed a kickoff return for a TD and never lead until after the game clock read 0:00. But at the end of the day, all that matters is that Dallas came away with one more point than Buffalo. Before tonight's game, my favorite regular season game of all time was the 1999 opener in Washington that Dallas won 41-35 in OT...but not now. This is a game that will be shown and remembered with the Hail Marry. Tonight, Dallas really did prove they ARE God's favorite team.