MacMahon: Jerry - First half best he can recall

Cotton

One-armed Knife Sharpener
Staff member
Joined
Apr 7, 2013
Messages
120,131
Jerry: First half best he can recall
September, 29, 2014

By Tim MacMahon | ESPNDallas.com

ARLINGTON, Texas -- The Dallas Cowboys completely dominated the first half of Sunday night’s 38-17 rout of the New Orleans Saints.

The halftime scoreboard -- Cowboys 24, Saints 0 -- was no fluke. Dallas did whatever it wanted offensively in the first 30 minutes, with Tony Romo completing 17 of 22 passes for 202 yards and two touchdowns and DeMarco Murray rushing for 87 yards and a score. The Cowboys defense didn’t let Drew Brees and the explosive Saints offense establish any sort of a rhythm, holding New Orleans to only 114 yards in the first two quarters.

And Jerry Jones loved every second of it, leading him to a little bit of hyperbole.

“I don’t recall ever seeing a Cowboy team in my 25 years play better, including the effort, including mistake-free execution, than we played in the first half,” Jones said after the finishing touches were put on the 38-17 win.

This performance was particularly sweet to Jones because he was so humiliated the last time these teams met.

That 49-17 loss -- and, really, it could have been much worse if old friend Sean Payton didn’t take his foot off the gas -- had been stuck in Jones’ craw since that November night in New Orleans. Jones couldn’t help but think of that embarrassment as he watched his Cowboys stomp the Saints from his luxury suite.

“I sure did. Oh yeah, I did,” Jones said. “I didn’t want to think before the game was over, but I had thought about it all week, thought about it in the offseason. That was a rough trip home. I’ve got a lot of friends in Louisiana and there are a lot of Cowboys fans in north Louisiana. That hurt. That was embarrassing to go down there and not do better.

“This is really an important victory to us, because of the respect, because of how we fared against New Orleans over the last eight or nine ballgames. This is one of those that we kind of needed to knock the ghostly cobwebs out of our minds.”
 

ravidubey

DCC 4Life
Joined
Apr 7, 2013
Messages
20,213
“This is really an important victory to us, because of the respect, because of how we fared against New Orleans over the last eight or nine ballgames. This is one of those that we kind of needed to knock the ghostly cobwebs out of our minds.”
He's totally right.
 

jsmith6919

Honored Member - RIP
Joined
Aug 26, 2013
Messages
28,407
This was the first time we beat the Saints here since Beuerlein was qb...
 

Texas Ace

Teh Acester
Joined
Apr 7, 2013
Messages
23,473
Jerry and his hyperbole.

It was an awesome 1st half, but the best he's seen?

I think I'm gonna go out on a limb here and say that the 28 point 1st half we had against Buffalo in Super Bowl 27 was better.
 

Carp

DCC 4Life
Joined
Apr 7, 2013
Messages
15,133
Jerry and his hyperbole.

It was an awesome 1st half, but the best he's seen?

I think I'm gonna go out on a limb here and say that the 28 point 1st half we had against Buffalo in Super Bowl 27 was better.
Feh. It was one of the best I can remember...certainly the most surprising. He has every right to be excited...instead of shouting down every ounce of positivity, just enjoy it.
 

Smitty

DCC 4Life
Joined
Apr 7, 2013
Messages
22,526
To be fair, Jerry is reaching the age where he can't recall what he had for breakfast.
 

Newt

DCC 4Life
Joined
Apr 9, 2013
Messages
1,148
I can't remember a game I enjoyed this much either. It was fun to see us run the ball and dominate like that. Its been a long time since we had our way with another team.
 

Plan9Misfit

Appreciate The Hate
Joined
Apr 7, 2013
Messages
5,925
Hey, Jerry. You wanna know what the best first half I'd ever see from the team would be? You dying from a heart attack in your luxury box.
 

NoDak

Hotlinking' sonofabitch
Joined
Apr 7, 2013
Messages
23,024
Hey, Jerry. You wanna know what the best first half I'd ever see from the team would be? You dying from a heart attack in your luxury box.
hahahahahahahhahahahaha!!!

Oh, damn.... ~wipes tears~
 

ravidubey

DCC 4Life
Joined
Apr 7, 2013
Messages
20,213
I can't remember a game I enjoyed this much either. It was fun to see us run the ball and dominate like that. Its been a long time since we had our way with another team.
Dallas has benefited from some big time drops/missed easy passes in three games now. It probably didn't matter vs. New Orleans the way the Romo was playing, but against the Titans and Rams it made a huge difference.

I'm wondering if the Cowboys are getting better pressure than we thought? It's a strange coincidence in this many games. Maybe I'm making more of it than I should since as a fan I hang on every play, but the opposing team drops would have kept drives going and also would have scored for St Louis.

The biggest take from Sunday was Romo's return to health. He gets extra motivated when facing the league's best QBs as it is, but Sunday he had a great, great game.
 

Simpleton

DCC 4Life
Joined
Apr 8, 2013
Messages
17,494
I think the DL is doing a good job of pushing OL back into the QB's face and not giving the QB a clean pocket to step up into. We don't have the classic explosive pass rushers (aside from maybe Melton) who can beat their man with speed and lay out the QB but we have some guys like Crawford and Mincey who play with power and are muddying the pocket by getting good push, they just aren't finishing it off with sacks.

That's why I said if Lawrence can come back and give us that explosive element he could tie the DL together by finishing off some of these sacks.
 

ravidubey

DCC 4Life
Joined
Apr 7, 2013
Messages
20,213
I think the DL is doing a good job of pushing OL back into the QB's face and not giving the QB a clean pocket to step up into. We don't have the classic explosive pass rushers (aside from maybe Melton) who can beat their man with speed and lay out the QB but we have some guys like Crawford and Mincey who play with power and are muddying the pocket by getting good push, they just aren't finishing it off with sacks.

That's why I said if Lawrence can come back and give us that explosive element he could tie the DL together by finishing off some of these sacks.
Crawford's performance was very encouraging against about as solid an interior OL as we're going to face. Marinelli has this group believing, and if he and Murray can keep them fresh we have a shot.

Totally agree we need some explosiveness from the outside, but it's a tall order for Lawrence to fill as a rookie and coming off injury. Maybe fresh legs will do it?

I'm actually more encouraged by Josh Brent believe it or not. If he can practice and get into shape now he can really help this defense in December vs Alfred Morris on muddy grass and in the cold.
 
Top Bottom