As a Cowboys fan I know you had to be cringing in your seat at the performance that took place on your TV's last night. In A Monday night football game, that had importance written all over it, the Dallas Cowboys gave you another reason to have doubtful thoughts in the back of your head. If there weren't questions you wanted answers to, after 2 sluggish games against Seattle and Tampa Bay prior to Monday night's debacle against erratically impressive Bears Quarterback Jay Cutler and the Monsters of the Midway, there are definitely questions to be asked now. Getting beat 34-18 at home on Monday Night Football is not acceptable for a team that must play Championship worthy Football to win in a division with the defending champion, New York Giants, a potential Super Bowl contender Philadelphia squad and a Redskins team, that will win some games with RGIII running the show. This type of performance can't be tolerated and things must be fixed immediately if we want to make the playoffs with how the rest of our schedule plays out, it gets no easier from here
The Offensive Line: Actually, the most glaring weakness on the Cowboys this season the Cowboys Offensive line looked pretty decent against Julius Peppers and an attacking Bears pass rush. Yes, the Grapevine, Texas native Henry Melton was able to get to Cowboys Quarterback Tony Romo for two sacks last night, with one of those sacks causing a strip that ended up in Lance Briggs arms for a Bears score, but those were the only two sacks of the night. No glaring false start penalties, botched snaps, or drive killing holding penalties were a big plus looking into the future for the Cowboys Offensive line.
The Defensive Line: The injuries on the Defensive line were staring you dead in the face with the Cowboys Defensive line only being able to get to an often-sacked Jay Cutler twice last night. The losses of All-Pro Defensive Lineman Jay Ratliff, Anthony Spencer and Kenyon Coleman to injuries really affected us last night. With Jay Cutler getting too much time to throw he was able to pick apart a Cowboys secondary, who suffered from "lack of pass rush you, can't ask me to stay on this receiving core for too long please help us" Syndrome. Jay Cutler was able to wheel in deal with little pressure getting in his face going (18-24, 275 yds, 2 Tds) and no interceptions last night while Brandon Marshall was able to impose his will with 7 catches for 138 and a score.
Tony Romo and the Wide Receivers: To be completely honest, despite the numbers (5 interceptions) Tony Romo really didn't play that bad last night. Yes, there were two badly overthrown potential Touchdown passes to Miles Austin and Dez Bryant early in the game. Both of those throws could have led to points, and at the end of the day 5 interceptions is unacceptable, but lets look into his performance in-depth. Tony Romo went 31 for 43 for 307 yards and a Touchdown last night with virtually no run game provided by Demarco Murray, some key dropped passes by Dez Bryant on third downs; a mis-communication with Wide Receiver Dez Bryant on a hot route that Bears Cornerback Charles Tillman turned into a Bears touchdown, a drop in the redzone turned interception by Kevin Ogletree that cost us points, and a freak "strip" ruled as an interception by Henry Melton, that had Bears Linebacker Lance Briggs looking like a 100 m athlete for another Bears score. Take out these plays in which, Romo is not all at fault for and Tony could have possibly been a hero last night. With the re-emergence of tight end Jason Witten (13 catches for 112 yds and a touchdown) and less mistakes with the same production from Dez Bryant (8 catches for 105 yds), there were a few things offensively that were encouraging. However, the run game has to be revamped and Demarco Murray has to get on track 11 rushes for 24 yards just doesn't cut it.
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