Saturday Night round up

Saturday nights game is done so let's have a round up: Cowboys 24 @ Saints 17 -- You couldn't script it any better. The team that cant win in December, wins in December, against a team that so far this season hasn't been beaten. Well, so much for the undefeated season. And with it goes my pick for the game. But I don't care. I am now looking forward to a week of listening to people coming up with excuses as to why the Saints lost. No doubt the same people who have conveniently overlooked all the little things, the lucky breaks and bad calls, that have helped the Saints to go undefeated in the first place. It's poetic justice at its finest. But excuses aside, there are some very legitimate reasons why the Saints lost. A huge part of the Saints offense relies on play action passes to generate space behind the secondary for all those deep balls. Looking at it, the Cowboys just didn't bite as hard as most teams do. They stayed with the receivers and were rewarded with just 2 minutes left in the first half when Drew Brees under threw a pass to Devery Henderson and Mike Jenkins came up with the pick. Then we have the respective run games. If we exclude QB scrambles, then the Saints tallied just 11 run plays compared to the Cowboys 32. Even though 'Americas Team' notched just 145 net yards on the ground, the key thing is they burnt the clock and kept the explosive Saints offense off the field. That's how you beat the Saints. Though there is one last element needed.... DeMarcus Ware. One of the reasons I took the Saints was because Ware was listed as Questionable. That usually means 'if he plays, he'll be rubbish'. Ware however looked on fine form and bagged himself 2 sacks, both causing fumbles, using his patented 'push and then duck under' rushing technique. OLB Anthony Spencer also helped the cause coming up with 2 sacks of his own. That's 4 in one game, compared to the Saints previous grand total of 15 in all of their previous 13 games. And what a surprise. Who would have thought that sacking the QB of a pass heavy team would help you beat them. But it nearly went off the rails for Dallas.... 2:14 left in the 4th quarter, Dallas leads by 7. They get down close to the Saints end. Then get stopped. There's nothing more they can do. It's a 24 yard chip shot field goal and then hope that the 10 point lead holds up. Onto the field walks much maligned kicker Nick Folk. The snap is good.... ball down.... kick is up and on the way and it is..... NO GOOD!! OFF THE INSIDE OF THE UPRIGHT!!! At this point Cowboys fans probably couldn't believe what they'd just seen, Wade Phillips was probably calling the GM to arrange for someones pink slip to be waiting for them in the dressing room, and Saints fans were sitting in the stands going "That happens all the time for us, how else do you think we're still 13-0?" Luckily for the Cowboys DeMarcus Ware got his second sack and forced fumble of the night on the ensuing Saints drive, allowing Jay Ratliff to dive on the ball and wrap it up for the Cowboys. But we're not quite done yet, there's still one last person left to poke some fun at. Namely Cowboys WR Roy Williams. Williams has made a regular point of telling the media he's Mr #1 in Dallas. The reality is he's a close third or fourth. Austin is #1. Romo is #2. That's that. Austin caught 7 balls for 139 yards and a TD. Witten caught 5 for another 44 yards. Williams caught 1 for 14 yards and dropped a clanger on a potential 3rd conversion. When you look at the Cowboys as a whole, I'd favour Patrick Crayton over Williams 10 times out of 10. So that's that done and that's me 1-1 for this week, though I can't help but smile at tonight's result. It's gonna be a good week I think. Take care all. Miles Austin