Cowboys 40-Falcons 39

When fans start changing channels after the first quarter, they do not want to watch this Sh** anymore. 

By A. Govea

Publisher

You can bet that things are not going well for the Boys; in fact, they were down by 20 after the first quarter. And things didn’t’ get much better in the second as they went into their locker room down 27 to 7. At the start of the fourth quarter, they were still down by 14, so it was an uphill battle all day for our hometown heroes.

This led to two fake punt attempts and another ill-advised 2-point conversation attempt. One was a pass attempt by the placekicker; it might have worked, pero his throw went short. The next ugly run on 4th and 5 were destined to fail just by looking at the person on the field. And they didn’t’ fool anyone, much less the Falcons. As for the failed 2-point conversation, the question was, why? This, of course, is the Bad and Ugly part of our story. And throw in the Cowboys defense inability to cover anyone. The only good part was at least it was the noon game, and maybe by the end of the day, the healing could start. Boos were coming from the 27 000 or so unlucky fans that were allowed into the stadium. New coach Mike McCarthy almost seemed desperate in his home debut in front of Jerry and the world. 

 But then, to quote from the early 90s movie Dumb and Dumber, “You know Lloyd, just when I think you couldn’t’ possibly be any dumber, you go and do something like this…and totally redeem yourself!” Which in the Cowboys case, means finding a way to get back into a game that had some folks leaving at half-time. Dak had a fumble, Zeke had a fumble, and one more escapes me; hey, I never said I had all the answers.  It was true enough to make most teams quit, pero what I think kept them going was, it was too early to quit, and deep down, they knew they were better than this. 

  So much better than after the dust had settled, Dak had a record-setting day with 450 yards passing,1 TD, and 3 rushing touchdowns. Rookie sensation (too soon?) Cee Dee Lamb caught 6 for 106 yards, Cooper also went for 100, with Gallup and Brown combing for 86 more yards. Zeke also seemed like a man determined to make up for his early fumble, rushing for 89 yards and 33 over the air with 1 TD. The offense never gave up on itself, and the defense, which at one looked like they could not stop Atlanta all day, woke up. Thanks to some critical stops in the fourth quarter, the Boys were now facing a 2-point deficit with under 2 minutes to go.  Next came a winner take all onside kick attempt, which I know has not gone the way of the Cowboys in recent history.  Pero, this time they had Greg Zuerlein, AKA, the leg that kicked off the ground in what was described as a watermelon roll.  C.J. Goodwin pounced on it; then it was a key 24-yard catch to Lamb that got them in position for a 46-yard attempt by Zuerlein that was true. And just like that, it became an instant classic in Cowboy lore and the good part of this story. I and many of the Cowboy fandom had to remind us that it was only the second game of the season, not the Super Bowl. I do think though it was the biggest win we’ve’ had around here in a long…time. Next week, Russel Wilson and the Seahawks do not count on having lighting strike twice, if you get behind on them, you’re cooked.