Three Key Plays From The Worst Loss Ever

I'm no believer in curses or any of that sports black magic that Dan Shaughnessy has used to build himself a summer home. But really, this Cowboys team... I don't even know what to say.

The second that Jake Ballard caught that penultimate touchdown, you and I both know the Cowboys were finished. It was simply a matter of how it was all gonna go down. Yet this team finds new and unbelievably cruel ways to blow games, outdoing themselves last night by losing in the most ironic way imaginable.

 We'll talk about poor Dan Bailey all week, but for now, there are three key plays I want to focus on from last night:

THE SAFETY. Tony Romo had two bad plays last night, and this was the first one. If Romo doesn't pull a Dan Orlovsky and take a safety for the game's first score, the Giants don't feel compelled to go for two on their final touchdown of the game. And so you would have had a 34-34 game certain to head to overtime, where I'm sure the Cowboys would have lost anyway, but STILL! At least they would have dragged out the agony to almost impossible lengths, and that would have been fun!

THE NEWMAN DROPPED PICK-SIX. Seriously, man. It was right in Terence Newman's hands and he blew it. And it's saying something about this game that this was one of the BETTER defensive plays the Cowboys made. It was all downhill for Rob Ryan after that.

THE AUSTIN OVERTHROW. Right before the Cowboys began their second-to-last possession, the folks on our KSK liveblog were busy trying to figure out just how Romo was going to blow this game. We all assumed it would be your standard Romo move, like a pick-six, or perhaps a pop-up fumble, like the one Felix Jones coughed up. Ah, but Romo opted for a much more subtle approach this time around, overthrowing Miles Austin for what would have been the winning play, regardless of whether or not Austin scored (he would have). Oh, what a perfect overthrow. Watch the replay again and you'll see jussssst miss Austin's hands, lofted for maximum pain and suffering. It's quite something.

Obviously, Romo doesn't deserve much (if any) blame for what happened last night. He played tremendous football, and this defense was utterly atrocious. But there isn't a Cowboys fan alive who didn't end that game thinking WHY DOES THIS KEEP HAPPENING TO US?! I've seen me a lot of tortured teams in my time, and certainly this franchise has more than enough history to comfort itself in the face of a tough loss. But man oh man, do these guys know how to lose in the worst way imaginable. The three plays you see above are only the beginning of the pain.


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