But Carolina came in hungry. Their 33-14 loss to the Panthers – taking their record to 3-8 – is the final nail in the coffin.
Advertisement
Romo took a hard hit against the Lions after being tackled by Panthers linebacker Thomas Davis and landed on the same shoulder he injured earlier in the year. We heard all that stuff.
“For us, it’s just be ready to go on Thursday”. That set the tone for Carolina’s victory.
Carolina led 13-3 when Kuechly and the NFL’s leading defense for takeaways put the Panthers firmly in control.
Safety Kurt Coleman picked off Romo’s second pass of the game and took it back 36 yards for a score. “I’ve got to switch it up sometimes”. Cotchery had a game-high 73 yards receiving. With this one, I said, ‘Just make the cutback’.
On the next play, Kuechly made a nifty over-the-head catch on a ball thrown to Jason Witten. Then Kuechly scored the first touchdown of his National Football League career in the second quarter and had another interception on the very next offensive play.
Prior to that devastating injury, Romo threw three first half interceptions, two of which were returned for touchdowns. Our defense battled out there and gave us chances for stretches for the outcome to be different.
“Oh man, I haven’t done that in a while”.
Newton finished the game 16 of 27 for 183 yards in the win – the 15th consecutive regular season win for the Panthers, dating back to last season.
Dallas has failed to establish an identity in the run game this season, and in doing so has essentially removed an important component of last year’s offense.
Dallas Cowboys quarterback Tony Romo re-injured his left clavicle on a sack in the third quarter Thursday in Arlington, Texas, knocking him out for the rest of the game and possibly the rest of the season. Carolina held a 30-6 lead heading into the fourth quarter.
The way the Panthers were playing, there’s little doubt the outcome would have been similar with Romo. Norman proclaimed later in the locker room.
“Their best receiver has been hurt, their tight end has been hurt, their running game is still in flux because it’s just starting to develop and the runner is getting used to the blockers, and the blockers are just getting used to the quarterback being back”, Rivera said of the defending NFC East champions.
Advertisement
And this was one game for the memory bank, a Thanksgiving triumph worth savoring. The quarterback explained later he has “diverse dance ability” and this time chose to use some of the ones he breaks out when he wants to get his grandmother up to dance with him. While the Panthers powder blues felt a lot like Tennessee’s did the week prior, Dallas went all-white… and I mean, I suppose white is technically a colour, but really defeats the goal of the colour v. colour matchups we were promised in this series.
