For a long while on Sunday afternoon, it sure looked like the Kansas City Chiefs, who were playing as the Dallas Texans of yesteryear, would find a way to defeat a franchise they never faced during their AFL days — the Dallas Cowboys.
The Chiefs, whose status as a horrible franchise hasn’t gotten nearly the attention it deserves, had lost 27 of 29 games entering Sunday’s “legacy” contest. Though many of those failures didn’t happen on the watch of the new regime, Scott Pioli and Todd Haley are stuck with those numbers, just like Lions coach Jim Schwartz was saddled with a 19-game losing streak when he only had been employed for only two of them.
After holding a ten-point lead for a large chunk of the game, the Chiefs gave up 17 unanswered to the visitors, who finally took the lead on a 59-yard touchdown pass from Tony Romo to Miles Austin with less than 2:30 remaining in regulation, only three plays after a 53-yard field goal try by the Chiefs was blocked.
It was Tony Romo’s first touchdown pass in three weeks. And, unfortunately for the Chiefs, not his last.
Kansas City showed incredible grit in the final two minutes, driving down the field and pulling within a point after Dwayne Bowe hauled in a 16-yard touchdown pass on fourth-and-seven.
(I wonder whether Matt Cassel knew that it was fourth down.)
And that was the moment that the incredibly conservative Chiefs, who already are reflecting the personality of their ultra-quiet, shirt-and-tie G.M., should have realized that opportunity wasn’t just knocking — it was kicking and pounding on the door.
The Cowboys have more talent on both sides of the ball, and the Cowboys had been moving the ball well, outgaining the Chiefs 418-284 in regulation. So, after scoring from the 16 on a last-gasp play to get the score to 20-19, the Chiefs should have gone for the juggler (nod to Professor Emmitt) and played for the win, not the tie.
Instead, the Chiefs settled for overtime — and with each team getting two cracks at the ball, Cowboys receiver Miles Austin topped his 59-yard score by a yard.
Though the Cowboys have plenty of problems as they enter their bye week, all of which stem from a complete void of leadership, they can take solace in Austin’s performance on Sunday. He generated more yards than that guy on the 1-4 team in Buffalo ever gained while playing with a star on his helmet.
Indeed, Miles Austin’s 250-yard performance in one game exceeds Terrell Owens’ entire output for five games by 48 yards.
Still, the Cowboys can’t count on one guy to do that kind of thing every week; they need total team efforts sparked by a coach and/or a quarterback who can get the players to perform at a level matching the sum of the individual parts.
Cowboys stink. They’d have gotten their a$$es handed to them if they weren’t playing one of the 4 worst teams in the league.
Vox, congrats on the big win.
I love it how the team and ownership celebrated after this game as if they had won the superbowl. Ah, how the might have fallen.
talk about an overrated team. how many close calls with bad teams will it take for people (namely, the bs media) to start realizing it
strctlylo says: “I love it how the team and ownership celebrated after this game as if they had won the superbowl.”
When you haven’t sniffed a playoff win in over 14 years, every win probably feels like a Super Bowl. I’m still waiting for Florio and all the other sock puppets to realize, while Romo has not played his best, it’s Dallas’ D that has been real problem. Teams march right down the field on them at the end of games – even teams that have lost 27 out of their last 29. Unless Romo starts to play DB, he isn’t responsible for the constant end of games collapse.
kc should have gone for 2. if u watched this game, there was no way KC was going to win in OT. it was so obvious that when Bowe caught the 4th down TD pass, the crowd barely moved. they knew it was just delaying the inevitable loss. oh and memo to j page #44 and m leggett #31; you will not be on this team next year, or maybe even the nfl. in the nfl, you must T A C K L E. u remember tackling right? u did it in middle school; that was prob the last time.
Far be it from me to pick on the statements of the master, but I don’t think anyone quite understands the word “unaswered.” The Cowboys scored 17 straight points, not 17 unanswered. Had the Cheifs not scored in the last minute of the game, those points, would’ve been unaswered, but since they did, they were not unanswered points. Thank you that is all.
Chiefs stink and Herm Edwards ruined the franchise.
can we have a discussion about the cowboys without mentioning “the player” he is gone ….. now lets work on the forgotten part
phred
Anybody with a clue knows that KC didn’t almost beat Dallas. Dallas almost beat themselves again. 13 penalties. 2 to’s leading to scores. Watch the game if you’re gonna comment.
“Juggler” — now that’s funny. I think you are a turd, Florio, but that was funny. Go “Boys”!
“how many close calls with bad teams will it take for people (namely, the bs media) to start realizing it”
How about more than one? The Cowboys two other wins were against mediocre teams, Tampa Bay and Carolina, but they beat them by 13 and 14 points, respectively. Hardly “close calls”, neither game was particularly competitive.
Their two losses, on the other hand, both came against 5-0 teams, and both came down to the last few seconds of the game.