NFL: Oakland Raiders Beat Dallas Cowboys 17-9
Though the Dallas Cowboys didn’t look bad out there in their first preseason game, the Raiders were simply better. The Raiders’ offense lacked teeth but the shortcoming was more than made up for by their rock solid defence.
The Raiders have tried to revamp their offense but have met with limited success. They hedged their bets on quarterback Jason Campbell, which only barely paid off. It was, however, the Raiders’ defence that kept the Cowboys from scoring a single touchdown and turned the game in the favour of the Oakland Raiders.
On four drives the Cowboys got within 16 yards of the end-zone, but the Raiders defence didn’t let them through on any of those occasions. The Cowboys were restricted to just 3 field goals. The Raiders, on the other hand, were able to score 2 touchdowns and a field goal.
Cowboys’ coach Wade Phillips, when asked about their dismal performance in the red zone, said he didn’t have an answer for it. “We work on it and we're going to keep working on it.”
The Cowboys’ quarterbacks were sacked 5 times by the determined Raiders defence. On two of those occasions, quarterback Tony Romo had made it to the 16 yard line when the offensive line let the Raiders through. Defensive ends Matt Shaughnessy and rookie Lamarr Houston each got two sacks and the fifth went to Trevor Scott. While the Cowboys’ offensive coordinator said that he didn’t want to use the word ‘concerned’, that is exactly what he must have been. “We evaluate the tapes and how guys are doing in the scheme of things. You always step back,” he said.
The bottom line is that the Cowboys’ offense needs a lot of work before the regular season opens. Jason Campbell played his part well enough. He completed 7 passes in 13 attempts for 49 yards for the Raiders, compared to Tony Romo’s 52 yards in just 4 completed passes. While the defence had done well to stop the Cowboys from making much headway, the offense still didn’t have any points on the board until the 4th quarter while the Cowboys led 6 nothing. The Raiders’ faltering offense came to life with a vengeance in the 4th quarter.
The Raiders’ first touchdown of the game came at the hands of Kyle Boller, who made an 80 yard play into the Cowboys’ end-zone. Boller threw a 4 yard pass at Nick Miller, who was heading into the left corner of the end-zone for a touchdown. The Raiders got 7 points, shrinking the lead to just 2. Sebastian Janikowski took the next field goal for the Raiders and put them in the lead.
The defence again pulled through for the Raiders as the fourth quarter neared the end. The first of two interceptions of the game came when quarterback Nichols threw a pass at Manuel Johnson, which was intercepted by the Raiders’ safety Jerome Boyd at the 48 yard line. Boyd rushed to the end-zone for the second Raiders touchdown. Cowboys were still at 9 and felt more and more helpless as the Raiders created an 8 point spread between the teams.
Last play of the game was another interception. Nichols sent the football towards Manuel Johnson again, who had made it to the end-zone but the pass was intercepted by safety Stevie Brown. The Cowboys had lost.
Cowboys’ coach Wade Phillips said that he was not happy with the results of the game. He said that the Cowboys appeared to be in complete control of the game until the fourth quarter.
By the end of the game, the Raiders had 129 yards rushing against the Cowboys’ 66 yards. However, the Cowboys lead in passing with 231 yards to the Raiders 197.
However, Dallas fans need not panic yet. This was, after all, a preseason game, and both the Raiders and the Cowboys have many tricks up their sleeve that they won’t pull out until the regular season commences.
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