On the Cowboys' opening field goal-producing drive, Jason Garrett made sure Marion Barber, Felix Jones and Tashard Choice each got a carry. The sharing of the wealth in Dallas' three-headed backfield had begun. Then the Cowboys offensive coordinator, who transformed from Wonder Boy in 2007 to Wonder-What-He's-Thinking in 2008, went on the attack.
The result was a one-sided season opening victory and a record-setting day for Tony Romo.
Romo passed for 238 of his career-best 353 yards after halftime as the Cowboys got big-play touchdowns in the passing game from Roy Williams, Miles Austin and Patrick Crayton in a 34-21 victory over Tampa Bay.
"When we talk about attacking the defense, we want to attack them with the running game, attack them with the passing game, do everything that we can," Garrett said. "There are a lot of things we will look at and try to clean up, but we did a lot of big things well today."
Bigger than anyone anticipated, really.
I don't know anybody who saw Romo's 17th career 300-yard passing game coming against the Bucs, much less a career- high 353 yards.
It's funny that of the franchise's 70 300-yard passing games, Romo owns the most (17) but still hasn't joined Don Meredith, Troy Aikman, Danny White, Drew Bledsoe, Gary Hogeboom or Vinny Testaverde in the top 15 days.
But Romo threw just 27 passes Sunday as the hometown Bucs controlled time of possession but not the rest of the scoreboard.
This might be the last time all season in which Romo's pass attempts and the runs by Barber, Jones and Choice total less than 50 plays. Being saddled with fewer play calls than normal did nothing to keep Garrett from being the most effective coordinator on either side of the field.
The Cowboys produced four touchdowns and two field goals on six drives that covered 365 total yards.
Nothing was given to the Cowboys offense – the defense failed to register a single turnover – but the unit still managed to score consistently and at times quickly.
Touchdown catches of 80 yards by Crayton and 42 by Austin came on the second play of drives. Williams' 66-yard TD catch came on the third play of the Cowboys' first possession after halftime.
"Everybody was wondering whether we could get the ball down the field, whether or not this was a dink-and-dunk offense," head coach Wade Phillips said. "And it's not. Our quarterback and our receivers made a lot of big plays."
If there's a downside to a 13-point victory in a road opener, it's that the defense made far fewer plays than expected. Cadillac Williams and Derrick Ward ran for 159 yards and two touchdowns on 25 carries, and Byron Leftwich, in his first start as a Buc, threw for 276 yards without being sacked.
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Story courtesy of www.dallasnews.com
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