Sunday, apparently, was Bruce Coslet throwback playbook night at Gillette Stadium.
The Cowboys' offense self-destructed almost as much in Sunday's 12-0 loss to the Patriots as the former Cowboys offensive coordinator's did last year. The resulting storyline was also a throwback. The defense kept the Cowboys in the game. The offense kept them out of it with turnovers and mistakes.
None of the problems are exactly new. Sunday was just the first time it cost them.
"How many times does the skunk need to hit you in the face before it stinks?" running back Troy Hambrick said.
Don't say coach Bill Parcells didn't warn them.
He said, at least a half-dozen times last week, that the Cowboys could not expect to win many games in the NFL scoring only 10 points and losing the turnover and penalty battles. So it goes without saying that the goose egg the Cowboys' offense laid against the Patriots was not going to be enough, and the three turnovers and 10 penalties were going to be too much to overcome.
"I don't know. I don't know," Parcells said, when asked if he felt the Cowboys had a good shot to be a playoff contender. "I think we have a good opportunity, but we are going to have to play a little bit better than we've been playing offensively."
The Cowboys had averaged 25 points in their first six games. They have 31 total points in their past four, which include shutouts by the Patriots and Buccaneers, two games Parcells had approached as the measuring-stick variety.
What the stick showed them is while their defense is good, it isn't capable of working miracles. They need something from the offense.
What they got against the Patriots was a lot of fits and starts, but a big bag of nothing in terms of getting into the end zone, through the uprights or on the scoreboard.
Not that the Cowboys were bereft of opportunities. They had at least two drives with potential.
Their best chance came near the end of the third quarter and started on their own 44. Quarterback Quincy Carter scrambled for 11 yards. He completed passes to Terry Glenn and Richie Anderson for another 15. Adrian Murrell took the next three handoffs for another 11. And, just like that, the Cowboys were at the Patriots' 19-yard line, which has been automatic for kicker Billy Cundiff this season.
The Cowboys seemed guaranteed at least a field goal, possibly a touchdown. Either would have made it a one-score game.
It is hard to know exactly who to blame for the ensuing interception. Patriots linebacker Willie McGinest came on the blitz and was on Carter so quickly he barely had time to think. He threw it to tight end James Witten, who would have needed to make a nice play to come down with the ball. Instead, Ty Law made a great play to come down with the interception.
"I thought maybe there late in the third quarter, we had that one decent drive in there, and if we could have got on the board there we might have made it close," Parcells said. "But, as happened all night, we just kind of self-destructed."
It was the Cowboys' first turnover of the game. But when a team is trying to win with a conservative offense designed not to put its defense in harm's way, one is too many. Carter threw another one later and another as time expired.
"We had some costly turnovers that didn't help us win this game," Carter said. "It seemed every time we got something going we had a penalty or a turnover."
The Cowboys' next-best chance, in the second quarter, illustrated Carter's point.
They started at their 8-yard line and got to the Patriots' 36-yard line, before penalties to Flozell Adams and Larry Allen on the same third-down play knocked them back 10 yards and they ended up punting. It was the second time on the drive a penalty by the offensive line had taken them back 10 yards.
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