The Final Monday Night Football Game at Texas Stadium

Well, I predicted a close game and that is what we got. Except that I didn’t think the game would be high scoring…that’s where I was wrong. Last night’s game became an instant classic and exceeded the hype with Dallas pulling out a hard fought 41-37 win. It took me a while to go to sleep and even though I was dragging this morning, just knowing Dallas beat Filthy gave me a little extra zip I probably wouldn’t have had if the Eagles had emerged victorious.

I really didn’t know how either team would come out and play but it was evident early on that there was going to be a tremendous amount of offense, from both teams. Romo came out hitting on all cylinders. He hit T.O. Owens on a 72 yd bomb on Dallas’ first offensive possession. That play electrified the entire crowd. He ended up having 3 catches for 89 yards and 2 TDs and even though he had a quiet 2nd half, he opened things up for Jason Witten down the middle of the field because the Eagles secondary was double covering him. Owens talent and play making ability definitely make him an elite WR. And even though Romo had a couple of pretty bad mistakes early on which turned into 14 Eagles points, he recovered to connect on 21-30 passes for 312 yards and 3 TDs with a 123.2 rating.

Speaking of Jason Witten, I’m not sure you can find a tougher player anywhere in the NFL. Last year, when the Cowboys played the Eagles on Sunday night football, Witten caught a pass and was running down field when he had his helmet ripped off his head by a Filthy defender…and yet kept running with the ball gaining another 20 or so yards. Last night Witten’s shoulder popped out of place but he popped it back into place, came back in the game and ended up with 110 yards receiving. As I said below, the Eagles don’t have much of an answer for Witten…and it defiantly showed.

Marion Barber and Felix Jones each contributed to the win as well. Barber looked a lot like Brian Westbrook last night in that he not only ran the ball effectively but did some damage catching the ball out of the backfield (63 yards rushing; 51 yards receiving). Felix took a kickoff back 98 yards for a score and had 247 return yards. I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again, Felix is going to be very special.

The offensive line did a good job all night against the Eagles defense which generally brings tons of pressure. The line allowed no sacks on the night and Filthy’s defense never got the consistent pressure they usually get against the Cowboys. They gave Romo enough time to find Owens/Witten/Barber, etc.

I would be remiss if I didn’t mention the two clutch field goals Nick Folk made. The first one was 51 yards and helped Dallas go into the locker room at half time with a bit of momentum and being down only 7 points. The second field goal came in the second half and was 47 yards. I was trying to think today about the last time Dallas had a money kicker like Folk. It’s definitely been a while and I don’t think anyone should take him for granted. Those kicks were huge.

However, not everything was rosy for the Cowboys last night. Obviously, with a final score of 41-37, neither defense really did that great of stopping their opponent. Dallas defense didn’t really get a ton of pressure on McNabb and if he had a decent group of receivers, like Dallas does, the score might have been different. Next week, in Green Bay, the defensive line better do a better job of getting to Aaron Rogers than they did of getting to McNabb or that game will be high scoring as well. The defense did get 4 sacks but those were basically coverage sacks and McNabb even ran into a couple of those.

Dallas also has got to cut back on the penalties. They had 10 for 108 yards last night vs. 5 for 44 yards for the Eagles. I know the officiating wasn’t great, on either side of the ball, last night but Dallas was one of the heavier penalized teams last year and it doesn’t look like they have changed much in that dept. this year yet. However, that has got to change.

But for now, I’m still enjoying last night epic win and probably will up until kickoff in Green Bay on Sunday evening. It was definitely a fitting end to MNF at Texas Stadium.