The Record Newspapers - Hometown News For Orange County, Texas

Generally, whenever Dallas Cowboys longtime owner Jerry Jones opens his mouth, 99 percent of what comes out of it is meaningless drivel.

However, after Sunday’s anguishing 29-24 loss to the New York Giants at his billion dollar emporium in Arlington he was quoted by the San Antonio Express-News of putting the game in perspective, “The big plays don’t win games as much as the mistakes lose ball games,” Jones evaluated.

The big play that would have won the game was a circus catch by wide receiver Dez Bryant in the final minute of the game that first was called a touchdown but later overturned when the slow-motion replay revealed that Bryant’s hand barely touched the out-of-bounds line in the back of the end zone.

But it was the mistakes—six turnovers including a fumble by Bryant during a punt return, a fumble by running back Felix Jones that led to a 37-yard field goal by Lawrence Tynes that ended the scoring with 3:31 left and four interceptions thrown by Dallas quarterback Tony Romo—that dropped the Cowboys’ record to 3-4 compared to the Giants’ 6-2 mark.

The Giants certainly weren’t mistake-free in this contest by any means. New York also lost a fumble and quarterback Eli Manning was picked off once. The Giants managed only 11 first downs compared to the Cowboys’ 28.

The New York defense scored one touchdown on an interception and set up 23 of their 29 points via their takeaways from the Cowboys’ fumbles and interceptions. The Giants were leading 23-0 just two minutes into the second period.

But when the Cowboys finally awakened, they came back with a vengeance and by the end of the third quarter, surged ahead 24-23 with 3:43 left in the third stanza.

Romo had a career-best 437 yards passing, connecting on 36-of-62 passes while tight end Jason Witten broke his team record by snagging 18 passes for a career-best 167 yards. Bryant and Miles Austin also topped the 100-yard barrier with 110 and 133 yards, respectively.

But Manning was able to bring his team back in the fourth period for the 20th time in his career, setting up field goals of 43 and 37 yards by Tynes that put the Giants ahead for good. The victory ups New York’s record to 4-0 in Arlington since Jones opened his new stadium in 2009 with a Giants’ victory.

“I’m very disappointed right now,” Jones told the Associated Press after the game. “I thought after all that, our defense played well enough, our offense kept going and I thought we were going to pull one out.”

The Cowboys defense played an outstanding game considering the turnovers gave New York excellent field position in the early stages of the game. The Giants scored their last touchdown on Jason Pierre-Paul’s 28-yard interception return with 13:05 left in the second quarter. The Giants didn’t light the scoreboard again until Tynes’ 43-yard field goal with 10:20 left in the game.

The win was the Giants’ sixth in seven games since the Cowboys 24-17 victory over New York on opening day. It was Dallas’ third loss in the last four games and will make the task of getting to the playoffs quite a chore. But there are nine games remaining in the season and anything can happen during that time frame.

The Cowboys have a huge task facing them in an effort to even their record at 4-4 as they travel to face the Atlanta Falcons Sunday night in front of a national viewing audience. The 7-0 Falcons are the only undefeated team in the NFL.

The Giants should have their hands full also when they entertain the surging Pittsburgh Steelers in Rutherford, N.J., who have won two in a row at stand at 4-3.

KWICKIES…The 2012 Major League Baseball season ended on a surprise note when the underdog San Francisco Giants swept Detroit in four straight games to win the World Series.

Sunday’s game was the only one in which the Tigers big bats came alive as they scored all their runs on homers.

But the Giants used “small ball” when it counted most in the 10th inning when former LSU star Ryan Theriot led off with a single, was bunted to second and scored on a single by July acquisition Marco Scutaro, giving the Giants a 4-3 win and their second world championship in three years.

Contributing to the Giants win was an RBI triple by first baseman Brandon Belt, who starred for Hudson High School in Lufkin and the University of Texas before being drafted by the Giants.

The Houston Texans swing back into action Sunday when they host the Buffalo Bills in Reliant Stadium at noon. The Texans (6-1) boast the best record in the AFC and hope to give former No. 1 draft choice Mario Williams a rude homecoming after he was lured from Houston this spring for a $100 million contract with Buffalo that included $50 million guaranteed. So far “Super Mario” has been a huge disappointment for the Bills with only 16 tackles and 3 ½ sacks for a Buffalo defense that allows 32.4 points per game.

The West Orange-Stark Mustangs’ Chain Gang Defense has allowed a total of 20 points this season in eight games, which is the fewest of any Texas high school football team in Classes 5A down to 1A. And in District 21-3A competition the ‘Stangs have defeated their four opponents by a 187-0 margin, which proves the offense is pretty good, too.

One reason the Atlanta Falcons are the only undefeated team in the NFL is the brilliant kicking of Bridge City native Matt Bryant. The 10-year veteran booted field goals of 43, 29 and 30 yards Sunday to help the Falcons defeat the favored Philadelphia Eagles 30-17. Let’s wish Matt more success than his team when Atlanta hosts our Dallas Cowboys Sunday night on national TV.

The loss by the Florida Gators to Georgia last weekend dropped them from No. 2 in this week’s BCS Poll down to No. 7 while Notre Dame jumped up two notches to No. 3, behind Kansas State which moved up on spot to No. 2. Alabama remained No. 1 and Oregon stayed at No. 4 while LSU went up one spot to No. 5 and Georgia leap-frogged from No. 10 to sixth.

However in the Associated Press Top 25 Collegiate Poll Alabama and Oregon retained the top two positions, Kansas State, Notre Dame and LSU all moved up one spot, Ohio State jumped three spaces to No. 6, Georgia catapulted five places to No. 7, Florida dropped from third to No. 8, Florida State moved up two spots to No. 9 and Clemson bumped up four places to No. 10. Texas A&M bounced up six places to No. 16 while Texas Tech dropped five spots to No. 20.

JUST BETWEEN US…Last weekend was evidence that Orange’s Thomas brothers come from the same cloth.

On Saturday night before a huge Homecoming crowd on Louis Bonnette Field in Lake Charles, McNeese cornerback Seth Thomas intercepted a Stephen F. Austin pass with 3:05 left in the game with the Lumberjacks driving for the winning touchdown and the Cowboys holding a slender 28-24 lead.

McNeese scored after the interception and upset the ‘Jacks 35-24.

On Sunday the Seattle Seahawks were leading 17-14 at Detroit and the Lions were driving for the go-ahead touchdown when big brother Earl made an acrobatic interception at the two-yard line to preserve the lead.

But Earl’s game didn’t end like Seth’s as the Lions won 28-24 on a touchdown pass with 20 second left in the game.