Say this for the season kickoff between the Cowboys and the Giants. Both teams’ defenses look pretty darn strong. The offenses? Well, that’s another story.
Except, that is, at the end of the first half when Cowboys quarterback Tony Romo hit a wide-open Kevin Ogletree for an 11-yard touchdown to give Dallas a 7-3 lead heading into intermission.
Romo -- who went 11 for 15 for 139 yards, a score and an interception after two quarters -- had his best moment coming out of the 2-minute warning on a third-and-1 when he nailed Dez Bryant for a 38-yard reception. Two plays later, Romo scrambled right to escape Giants defensive end Jason Pierre-Paul and connected with Ogletree in the end zone for the season’s first touchdown.
Make no mistake, though, this was a defensive half.
Romo’s least-impressive moment came in the second quarter when he faced pressure from Pierre-Paul and Justin Tuck and threw a terrible pass that Giants linebacker Michael Boley intercepted.
Boley ran it back to the Cowboys 1-yard line -- a horse-collar tackle from Dallas left tackle Tyron Smith saved a pick-six -- but the Giants couldn’t do much with it. Ahmad Bradshaw lost yardage on back-to-back runs and quarterback Eli Manning then threw an incompletion (the replacement refs just might have missed a defensive holding in the end zone) to set up Lawrence Tynes’ 22-yard field goal.
The first quarter for both offenses was even worse.
The Giants and Cowboys went three-and-out to start the game, and in the only sustained drive of the quarter -- in which Manning looked more than solid -- rookie running back David Wilson fumbled after taking a solid hit from Cowboys linebacker Sean Lee.
Altogether, both teams have combined to rush the ball 22 times for 51 yards.
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