The Losing Streak at Lambeau is No More

Last night, Dallas proved they can win a road game against an NFC contender even when their quarterback isn't close to sharp in the first half. Dallas came away with their first ever win at Lambeau field beating the Pack 27-16 however, the game was not as close as the score indicates. I won’t say Romo’s performance last night was as bad as the Monday night extravaganza last season vs. Buffalo, when Dallas had to overcome 6 Romo turnovers to win the game on a last second Nick Folk field goal. But Romo’s performance was not up to his regular all star, 300+ yd. passing performance.

Dallas put together a long methodical 15 play drive converting on 3 different 3rd downs. It was the kind of drive reminiscent of the early to mid 90’s Cowboy teams where they would just keep the drive going wearing down the opposing defense early in the game. However, Romo thought he could get the ball with a double covered Jason Witten and ended up throwing an interception in the end zone which promptly returned 61 yards by Nick Collins. Not a good throw by Romo…he can’t be a Jedi all the time. He even had a couple of uncharacteristic “intentional grounding” penalties. However, with the win, Romo improved to 13-2 in regular season road games. That’s not too shabby, kids.

Romo did have his moments though. He tossed a 52-yard touchdown to Miles Austin, into double coverage, down the right sideline to give Dallas a 27-9 lead with 9:17 remaining. I actually thought that was going out of bounds the second it left Romo’s hand. Austin also had a 63 yard catch in the middle of the 3rd quarter giving Green Bay yet another offensive weapon to contend with.

Green Bay did a good job shutting down TO Owens as he only had 2 catches for 17 yards. But that doesn't mean he didn't contribute. On the Nick Collins interception mentioned above, Owens was the one that ran Collins down from behind, 61 yards later. And on Felix's touch down, Owens was running stride for stride, with Felix, doing some good blocking. And we all know how fast Felix is so that just goes to show how fast Owens is.

And even though Green Bay put the clamps on TO Owens with double, and sometimes triple, coverage, that opened up other options for Dallas, such at Jason Witten. Witten had another big night and had 7 catches for 67 yards but several of those were on 3rd down to keep offensive drives going. Witten is by far the best TE in the league. He not only is a great offensive weapon with great hands but he blocks like a beast as well. Witten helped seal off the end of the defensive line on Felix Jones’ big touch down run. Witten is truly a man among boys.

The offensive line dominated a 2-0 team on the road in a place they had never won before. Marion Barber ran for a career-high 142 yards and a touchdown and Felix Jones’ 60 yard TD was a thing of beauty. Felix became the first player in Cowboys history to score a touchdown in each his first three games. He's the perfect complement to Marion the Barbarian. Jones and Barber combined for 218 yards rushing and by the end of the game, the Packers’ defensive line looked whipped.

The thing I was most impressed with though was the defense. Green Bay had several offensive drives that culminated in only a field goal. Aaron Rogers completed 22 of 39 passes for 290 yards but a lot of those yards came after the game was decided. Rogers was sacked five times and looked flustered for much of the game. After giving up 30 points last week to the Eagles (I don’t count the touch down Filthy got because of Romo’s fumble), I wasn’t sure what to expect against Green Bay. However, Green Bay only had one long completion, a 50 yarder to Donald Driver in the 3rd quarter, and for the most part kept the Packers’ offense in check holding them to 4 of 14 on 3rd down conversions.

It wasn’t a perfect game by any stretch but they came away with a pretty decisive victory, despite not playing the best. Up next is little Danny Snyder and his Washington Deadskins. Hopefully the Force will be back with Romo and the team will have the same success they did at Lambeau. I so love it when Danny Snyder experiences defeat, especially at the hand of Los Vaqueros.