Team Grades: Cowboys Break Losing Streak With Win Over Dolphins
By Shawn S. Lealos
The Dallas Cowboys lost starting quarterback Tony Romo in the second game of the 2015 NFL season and then went on to lose their next seven games without him. Against the Miami Dolphins, in the ninth game of the season, the Cowboys got Romo back and the team looked completely different. While Dallas kept close in six of their seven losses, leading in the fourth quarter of all those games before losing, they took the lead in the fourth quarter against Miami and held on for a 24-14 win to move to 3-7 on the season.
Offense: B
Tony Romo is back and the Dallas Cowboys running game looks great again. Darren McFadden took advantage of the defense's focus on Romo and ran the ball 29 times for 129 yards in the game. It was McFadden's second best performance of the season. He averaged 4.4 yards per carry and made the first downs when the Cowboys needed them. Robert Turbin, who joined Dallas this week after the Cowboys cut Christine Michael, ran seven times for 35 yards to give McFadden breathers.
While McFadden looked great, Tony Romo showed rust early in the game. He threw two interceptions, one in the end zone when he had the Cowboys in scoring position. However, he shook it off and really showed how important he is to the offense by leading them to two offensive touchdowns and a field goal. His numbers at the end were 18-for-28 for 227 yards and two touchdown passes.
He completed four passes to Dez Bryant for 45 yards and a touchdown and Terrance Williams became relevant again, catching four passes for 79 yards and a touchdown. Two of Williams' catches were very impressive, one a tiptoe catch on the sidelines for a needed first down and the second a stretched out leap in the end zone for his touchdown. Romo spread the ball around to eight players, four of them wide receivers, giving the Cowboys the offensive weapons they missed out on the last eight weeks.
Defense: A
Despite the fact that the Miami Dolphins scored two touchdowns, that was not on the Cowboys defense. The first touchdown was after an unsportsmanlike call after a Dallas touchdown gave Miami a short field to work with. That touchdown was all on the heels of two big offensive pass plays. The second touchdown, coming in the third quarter, was also the result of two big pass plays. Those four big pass plays were all that the Cowboys defense gave up in the game.
Those four plays accounted for 108 passing yards. Ryan Tannehill only completed nine passes for 80 yards the rest of the game, while being sacekd three times for a loss of 48 yards. The Cowboys also limited starting running back Lamar Miller to seven carries for 44 yards and Jay Ajayi to four carries for 13 yards. That means that the Dolphins only had 41 total plays in the game, and outside of the four big pass plays, only gained 102 yards against the Cowboys defense.
The biggest knock against the Cowboys defense this season was that they disappeared in the fourth quarter. A big reason was because they spent a lot of time on the field with Dallas' offense unable to move the ball. With Romo back, that defense remained rested and excelled in the fourth. All three sacks on Tannehill came in the fourth quarter and the Dolphins finished the final quarter with negative two yards, two punts, and a turnover on downs. Rolando McClain also finished the game with an interception for a touchdown to give Dallas their first points of the game.
Special Teams: B
The Dallas Cowboys still haven't found a good replacement for Dwayne Harris in the returns game, but Lucky Whitehead played better than he has been. Whitehead was barely averaging a yard a punt return this season. In this game, he had two returns, one for 18 yards. It still isn't enough to help Dallas get good field position, but it could be worse. The Cowboys didn't have a single kick return in the game. While it had little to do with the Cowboys special teams, the Dolphins special teams was a comedy of errors, mishandling a kickoff to force a first down on their own two and then their punter tackled Whitehead out of bounds for a penalty.
In the kicking game, Dan Bailey hit his only field goal and all three extra points. He remains the most accurate field goal kicker in NFL history. Chris Jones only needed to punt the ball three times, averaging 48 yards a punt with a long of 54. When it comes to the kick defense, the Cowboys gave up an average of 13 yards a kick return and 12 yards a punt return. The kick returns would have looked worse if not for that one muffed kick return by Jarvis Landry.
Coaching: A
One of the biggest reasons that the coaching staff deserves so much praise in this game is because they didn't put all the weight on Tony Romo's shoulders. With seven losses, it would have been easy to give the ball to Romo and tell him to throw it 40 times in the game. The Cowboys didn't do that. Even against a defensive line that was winning the battle in the trenches against the Cowboys offensive line, the Cowboys still used the running game to set up the pass and let Darren McFadden lead the way.
By the end of the game, Romo only threw the ball 28 times while Darren McFadden and Robert Turbin ran the ball 36 times. It was an interesting game plan that worked and allowed Romo to get back into the game without putting too much pressure on him. The defense was also coached well and was able to shut down anything that Miami tried to do.
Only one team in the NFL has a worse record than the Dallas Cowboys, yet the Cowboys still have a chance to make the playoffs. That is because they play in the NFC East and are only two wins behind the first place New York Giants. With the Philadelphia Eagles and Washington Redskins both losing in blowouts on Sunday, the Cowboys have a chance, but they have to get past the unbeaten Carolina Panthers on Thanksgiving. This is where Tony Romo proves his worth.
Shawn S. Lealos is a freelance writer who graduated from the University of Oklahoma in 2000 with a Bachelor's Degree in Journalism. He writes for a variety of national publications and has over 15 years of sports journalism experience. Follow Shawn on Twitter @sslealos. Examiner.com.
