That loud boom you heard Sunday night just might have been the Dallas Cowboys' season blowing up. Just a few minutes away from taking a two-game lead in the turbulent NFC East, Dallas fell victim to a late rally by the New York Giants and now enters Week 15 in a must-win situation on the road.
Compounding the situation is the Cowboys will have to go the rest of the way without rookie halfback DeMarco Murray who needs surgery on his right ankle after suffering the injury early in the loss to the Giants.
If there's any good news in the short-term, it's that Dallas will be facing the woeful Tampa Bay Buccaneers this Saturday night. The Cowboys' current two-game slide pales in comparison to the seven-game losing run the Bucs are currently riding.
Dallas opened as a touchdown favorite at Raymond James Stadium, with the Don Best odds screen listing 46½ for the total.
The Cowboys seemed to be in control Sunday night when Tony Romo tossed his fourth touchdown pass of the game to give Dallas a 34-22 lead with under six minutes remaining. Miles Austin had returned to the receiving corps for the first time in five weeks, catching one of Romo's two fourth-quarter scoring strikes, and Felix Jones stepped in for the injured Murray to record a nice 16-carry, 106-yard linescore on the ground.
All appeared well in Big D.
Eli Manning then went to work, however, rekindling some of the fourth-quarter magic he'd shown several times earlier this season. An 8-play, 80-yard drive that ended with a short TD pass to Jake Ballard brought the Giants within five points, and a three-&-out for the Cowboys offense gave the ball back to New York on its 42 with more than two minutes to go.
Six plays and a two-point conversion later, the Giants were back in front to stay at 37-34.
Dallas still had a great shot to tie the game on a Dan Bailey field goal with just a second left, and Bailey's initial kick was good. But the Giants had called timeout, and the ensuing try by Bailey was blocked by New York defensive end Jason Pierre-Paul.
Once again, a pesky timeout had cost the Cowboys. On the three-&-out series before New York's final touchdown, Dallas failed to force the Giants to use their last TO when the Cowboys elected to pass on third-&-five instead of running the ball.
Jason Garrett now has to answer questions about that play just as he did the week before when an ill-advised Dallas timeout played a role in the overtime loss at Arizona. At least the Cowboys head coach will only have five days to put up with the questions before Saturday's contest in Tampa.
The questions will get much tougher if Garrett and the 'Boys can't beat the Buccaneers. Tampa Bay is in an extremely stinky state right now, with a capital P-U.
Let's start with 31 turnovers for the Bucs, 20 of those interceptions and 18 of that number tossed by Josh Freeman whose QB rating sits 27th on a list of 32 NFL signal callers. Tampa turned it over a whopping seven times in Sunday's 41-14 thrashing at the hands of Jacksonville, Freeman tossing two picks and losing a fumble as part of his miserable afternoon.
As impotent as the offense has been, the defense has been even worse. Tampa Bay has surrendered more points than any team outside Indianapolis, and allowed more yards than all but three teams – the Giants, Packers and Patriots, all of which have the offenses to make up for defensive shortcomings.
Freeman is nursing a sore shoulder and is listed as probable for Saturday's tilt. The defense has been battling injuries for much of the season, with backup safety Larry Asante questionable for this game due to a bad hamstring.
Dallas and Tampa Bay have split their last six meetings straight up, with the Cowboys winning the most recent matchup in 2009, 34-21 as 5-point road favorites. That cover left Dallas on a three-game cover streak in this series, though neither team enters this game having won many friends at the window. The Cowboys have failed to beat the spread in four consecutive outings, all as favorites in the 4½-7 point range, and are just 4-8-1 ATS on the season; the Bucs have dropped three straight against the spread and are 4-9 in that department this year.
The NFL Network begins its game coverage at 8:20 p.m. (ET) with the kickoff coming nine minutes later. It should be a nice evening for football in Tampa where forecasters are calling for partly cloudy skies and a game-time temp in the upper-60s.