The Cowboys won the battle upfront against the Eagles two weeks in the row. They didn’t win the battle upfront against the Minnesota Vikings and that caused the old Tony Romo to show up.
Add to that some tremendous throws by Brett Favre and big time catches a big, physical target, Sidney Rice and that was the recipe for victory.
The same defenders that the Eagles were unable to beat, Rice used his size to get open against.
We also saw Romo under the heat and he folded up like Donovan McNabb, Tom Brady, Phillip Rivers and all the other accomplished quarterbacks who were ushered out of the playoffs by dominating defensive fronts.
If you can put consistent pressure on a quarterback, you can make a future Hall Of Famer look like a rookie, not to mention a questionable guy like Romo.
The Vikings held Dallas to only three points and pressured Romo into three turnovers, an interception and two fumbles and sacked him six times.
Andy Reid is right about football games being won and lost upfront.
If I were going to get rid of McNabb it wouldn’t be becasue of the two losses to the Cowboys because the offensive line was so thoroughly dominated that there’s no way a quarterback would have been able to get much done under the heat.
If you look closely at the highlitghts you will see Favre completing passes to Rice on blitzes. I thought Wade Phillps and the Cowboys panicked when they started blitzing.
I thought they should have stayed with their four man rush.
Every time they sent the blitz, it meant that Rice was in a one on one sitatuon and might be able to use his size to make a play.
Favre was smart enough to throw the ball up for grabs each time he spotted Rice in that situation.
