Tight end Jason Witten burnished his tough guy credentials when he played in the season opener despite being barely recovered from a lacerated spleen and he did it again on Sunday, although in less happy fashion.
Witten had three drops as part of the total system failure experienced by the Cowboys in Seattle’s 27-7 win on Sunday. Witten isn’t in the habit of dropping passes, as evidenced by the fact that he became the third tight end in history with 700 catches on Sunday. That led to questions about whether the spleen injury or a couple of hits he took from Seahawks defenders contributed to the uncharacteristic performance. Witten didn’t bite.
“I just didn’t catch the ball,” Witten said, via Todd Archer of ESPNDallas.com. “Opportunities were there, just didn’t do it. That had nothing to do with it.”
It was a bad day all around for the Dallas offense, but Witten isn’t someone that’s likely to be a chronic problem for them going forward. He has not been easily pushed around over the course of his career, something that can’t be said many of his teammates in Seattle on Sunday.
When the Cowboys beat the Giants, they were able to remain tough physically and mentally throughout the game. Sunday’s loss saw them come up short on both counts.