For most of the day, he struggled against the Giants, who were hell-bent on stopping the Cowboys running game. A review of the play, however, led officials to reverse the call as playback showed Bryant dropped the pass as he fell to the ground. The fact that the defeat at the hands of the New York Giants was so agonizingly close just makes it worse. Their first drive was an omen of what was to pretty much the benchmark of the entire game.
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But they did win their most important battle against the Cowboys’ offensive line, considered perhaps the NFL’s best unit, holding Elliott to 51 yards on 20 carries (2.6 average).
The Giants stuffed him, as NY showed the best defense Elliott has faced since Michigan State held him to 33 yards on 12 carries last November – his only sub-100 yard game of the season. We’ve just got to get back to work and get better next week.
First, this was the first game since the season opener past year where he was fully healthy, and despite his often brilliant work in training camp, he may still have been knocking off some of the rust. No other wide receiver totaled more than 45 yards. “It’s fun scoring touchdowns and having a lot of excitement but obviously you would like to get the W, it would mean a little more”. And he had a front row seat for his first live salsa, taking a knee to soak in Cruz’s celebration. He played about as good as any Dallas Cowboys rookie quarterback could have played in his first game in the National Football League. Brown was credited with one tackle but also got beat on a wheel-route touchdown catch by Sterling Shepard. Every time you’re out there, you want a home run, but that’s not going to happen all the time. And now he’s finally back out here. If he would have gotten out of bounds this would have set up about a 63 yard field goal which I think that Bailey would have been able to hit. “So I can only imagine what it feels like for him”.
Sep 11, 2016; Arlington, TX, USA; Dallas Cowboys wide receiver Dez Bryant (88) can not catch a pass while defended by New York Giants cornerback Dominique Rodgers-Cromartie (41) in the fourth quarter at AT&T Stadium. But, as an old Cowboy “Dandy” Don Meridith used to say, “If ifs and buts were candy and nuts, we’d all have a Merry Christmas”. The Washington Redskins are going to be waiting for us at their place at 1 o’clock Eastern Time on Sunday. He made plays with his feet; he made a lot of smart plays, and handled different situations that came up over the course of the game very well.
Manning chided his seven-year veteran receiver for actually running the wrong route on the winning play. Cornerback Brandon Carr obtained his first interception in almost two years. Manning’s throw was beyond the reach of diving linebacker Justin Durant. When he makes some explosive plays for us, typically we’re able to score points. There is plenty of season left and many more positives to take away from the game.
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The result, and Cruz’s overarching role in it, even imbued the game with some sense of tribute on the 15th anniversary of the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001. His dad died in 2007. “You think about that moment, you think about where you were on that day, you think about the emotions that went through your body on that day and you relieve those moments”. It was exactly 700 days since Cruz went down with this devastating injury.
