There is a lot of blame to throw around for the Dallas Cowboys' loss to Arizona and most of it lies on the play calling and time management of head coach Jason Garrett. However, there is someone else that should take a lot of blame for the loss as well. Against Washington, Dallas went into overtime and stopped the Redskins before kicking the game winning field goal. In the Arizona game, they couldn't stop the Cardinals and lost.
Look no further than Terrance Newman.
Dallas led the game 13-6 at the start of the fourth quarter of play. The Cardinals took over at the 21 yard line, and on the second play of the drive, Kevin Kolb threw a pass to Andre Roberts that gained 40 yards. Breaking down the play, it is easy to see where it all went wrong.
For one thing, Mike Jenkins covered the best Cardinals' receiver Larry Fitzgerald. Terrance Newman lined up against Roberts. Roberts faked a curl and turned to Kolb, causing Newsman to bite and try to race to the ball. However, it was a fake and as soon as Newman was out of position, Jenkins spins away and races to the sidelines. Newman could not get back to him and the safety assistance was helping with Fitzgerald. Kolb threw the ball to Roberts at the 49 and by the time Newman caught him, he was all the way to the Cowboys' 33.
Four plays later and Arizona was in the end zone with the game tying score.
Head into overtime and Newman kept it up.
On the first play of overtime, Roberts fooled Newman again for a 14 yard gain. Three plays later, with Arizona facing a 2nd-and-19, Newman committed a pass interference that only would have given Arizona a nine-yard gain but instead gave then an automatic first down. Finally, on the 52 yard touchdown pass and run by LaRod Stephens-Howling, guess who the first line of defense was? Newman was there but was blocked out by Roberts and the game was over.
Andre Roberts had only eclipsed 100 yards receiving one other time in his career. Against the Cowboys, he caught six passes for 111 yards and made Newman the goat of the game for the Dallas defense.
Author Shawn S. Lealos has a bachelor's degree in journalism from the University of Oklahoma (2000) and has been a Dallas Cowboys' fan since he was a child. His favorite players range from Roger Staubach and Tony Dorsett to the Triplets of the 90s and he enjoys talking about all Cowboys' related news, good or bad
Source: Yahoo! Sports
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