Sunday, January 07, 2007
How Bout Dem Seahawks
As a Seahawk fan living in the heart of Texas, nothing could be sweeter than to beat the Cowboys in the playoffs.
While everyone talks about the Romo gaffe and claims that without it we woulda lost, two plays that were every bit as important or moreso are forgotten.
1) Lofa Tatupu stopping Jason Witten at the 1 1/2 yard line on 3rd down before the ill-fated FG attempt. When the ref initially signalled first down, I screamed in disgust at the call, and the fact that somehow the Cowboys had gotten the one thing that would kill us. They had gotten the ability to be the last team with the ball in a 1-point game. If they had gotten that first down, the FG attempt would have been tried with 10 seconds left, on 3rd down, rather than with 70 seconds left on 4th down. Heck, the announcers were thinking like I was, that the Seahawks should just let the Cowboys score a TD on the next play and see if we could score in a minute. I wonder if Parcells would've taken a gift touchdown and hope his D could stop Matt & co, or taken the knee to setup the FG?
2) After we get the ball on the 1 1/2, I'm still thinking of all the things that could go wrong. How many times had Cowboy defenders been in the backfield during Shaun Alexander runs. If they did so this time, it would mean the Cowboys get a game-winning safety. And the 'Boys had three time outs. If we go three and out, we are punting the ball back to Dallas from our own end zone and with 50 seconds on the clock. Do you think our D woulda held at that point?
Thankfully, Shaun Alexander gets his only big gain of the night, getting us out of the shadow of the endzone, and more importantly, a first down that will make it so the Cowboys get the ball back with :02 on the clock instead of much more time.
Hooray that we won that game and live to fight another week. There have been some memorable finishes in football that I have witnessed this year. The Romo-Nogo, The Boise State Hook & Ladder to Statue of Liberty BCS win, and or course, the Rice Owls starting a 6 game winning streak that would send them to their first Bowl game in 45 years in a game where they threw a game-ending interception with 20 seconds left, only to see the defender try to run the ball back and fumble it to us at the 20 yard line, and 2 plays later superstar WR Jarrett Dillard catches the game-winning TD with no time on the clock!
None of these games may have an effect on the Championship (though I'm still holding out hope for the Seahawks), but each is a memory I will treasure for a long time. Especially when any Cowboy fan comes up to me after a win and says, "How about that Tony Romo?"
While everyone talks about the Romo gaffe and claims that without it we woulda lost, two plays that were every bit as important or moreso are forgotten.
1) Lofa Tatupu stopping Jason Witten at the 1 1/2 yard line on 3rd down before the ill-fated FG attempt. When the ref initially signalled first down, I screamed in disgust at the call, and the fact that somehow the Cowboys had gotten the one thing that would kill us. They had gotten the ability to be the last team with the ball in a 1-point game. If they had gotten that first down, the FG attempt would have been tried with 10 seconds left, on 3rd down, rather than with 70 seconds left on 4th down. Heck, the announcers were thinking like I was, that the Seahawks should just let the Cowboys score a TD on the next play and see if we could score in a minute. I wonder if Parcells would've taken a gift touchdown and hope his D could stop Matt & co, or taken the knee to setup the FG?
2) After we get the ball on the 1 1/2, I'm still thinking of all the things that could go wrong. How many times had Cowboy defenders been in the backfield during Shaun Alexander runs. If they did so this time, it would mean the Cowboys get a game-winning safety. And the 'Boys had three time outs. If we go three and out, we are punting the ball back to Dallas from our own end zone and with 50 seconds on the clock. Do you think our D woulda held at that point?
Thankfully, Shaun Alexander gets his only big gain of the night, getting us out of the shadow of the endzone, and more importantly, a first down that will make it so the Cowboys get the ball back with :02 on the clock instead of much more time.
Hooray that we won that game and live to fight another week. There have been some memorable finishes in football that I have witnessed this year. The Romo-Nogo, The Boise State Hook & Ladder to Statue of Liberty BCS win, and or course, the Rice Owls starting a 6 game winning streak that would send them to their first Bowl game in 45 years in a game where they threw a game-ending interception with 20 seconds left, only to see the defender try to run the ball back and fumble it to us at the 20 yard line, and 2 plays later superstar WR Jarrett Dillard catches the game-winning TD with no time on the clock!
None of these games may have an effect on the Championship (though I'm still holding out hope for the Seahawks), but each is a memory I will treasure for a long time. Especially when any Cowboy fan comes up to me after a win and says, "How about that Tony Romo?"
