0
0
Ugly, ugly, ugly. The rain, the wind, the offense—all ugly. But still, it was a 10-6 win for the Patriots over the only thing uglier than the elements, the Dallas Cowboys.
I remember the dynasty that was Dallas, full of great players and coaches. Think Emmitt Smith, Troy Aikman, and Jimmy Jones if your hair’s not all gray. Think Tony Dorsett, Roger Staubach, and Tom Landry if you’ve paid your AARP dues.
But these Patriots won this game in large part because Bill Belichick, who went to college at that well-known football factory, Wesleyan, is the Einstein of professional football. Unfortunately for the Cowboys, Jason Garrett, proud alumnus of mighty Princeton, is the league’s Bart Simpson.
It’s the fourth quarter, when games are won and lost. After a Patriots 42 yard field goal with about nine and a half minutes on the clock, the Patriots are kicking off into a gale. The Cowboys returner, neither smart enough to figure it out on his own nor well advised by anyone in the Cowboys “brain trust,” awaits the kickoff on the goal line. You didn’t need a degree in meteorology or physics to know that this ball is going to be knocked down by the wind and land far short of the end zone. Sure enough, the ball lands where everyone but the Cowboys knew it would, bounces around, and the Cowboys start with terrible field position on their own 11 on a day when long touchdown drives are going to be impossible.
Then, after the Cowboys had driven 78 yards to the Patriots 7, the first time that Dallas had done anything consistent on offense all night, Bart Simpson struck again. Knowing that a only a touchdown would give them a chance, and being a lot closer to the end zone than ever before, Jason Garrett, Princeton class of ’89, called for a field goal on fourth down rather than going for it. Brett Maher kicked it through from the 27 for three points, but the Boys were still down four. Poor Troy Aikman, in the TV booth, was apoplectic. I breathed a sigh of relief.
And then with just a lucky second left on the clock, did the Boys from Dallas have a trick play to attempt a miracle? Could they do what the Dolphins had done last year and win with a combination of guile and luck? No–because Dak Prescott threw a short pass and the receiver simply went down. Where was the old hook-and-lateral play? Where was the cross field backward pass? Where did we see any evidence that this team had ever practiced what to do in that situation?
But instead of thanking the Cowboys for their assistance, let’s look at the Patriots positives. The defense was spectacular, again. Yes, they gave up some yards on the ground, but Ezekiel Elliott couldn’t doing anything consistent or disastrous. What, no sacks? Well, as much as we all love that stat, Dak Prescott was running for his life all night and was so harried and hurried that he missed open receivers when occasionally there was one. Amari Cooper, the Cowboys star receiver, had a grand total of 0 catches on the night. Not surprisingly, he was covered, actually totally blanketed, by Stephon Gilmore. It’s tough for a DB to throw a shutout two weeks in a row, but Gilmore was the key element in this pitcher’s battle.
While we’re handing out praise, let’s acknowledge Matthew Slater for his punt block on a full-out stretch that scratched the punt with little more than a finger nail. Here’s to N’Keal Harry who caught the only TD pass of the game on the very kind of back shoulder throw he was drafted to make, and to Jakobi Meyers for looking like he could actually be a legitimate NFL wide receiver. And kudos to Marcus Cannon, who reportedly was sick as a dog all week but gutted it out in the wind and rain.
With the exception of that (almost) magical 2007 season when the Pats were simply a terror on both sides of the ball, Bill Belichick teams have never worried about winning on style points. But yesterday they were the better prepared team, far more ready for the elements than their fair weather friends, the Cowboys. And win they did—ugly.
