Thank the football gods for Nick Folk. What a stud! The guy – who is a rookie, mind you – comes into his first MNF game and not only goes 4-4 on field goal attempts but seals the deal with :01 left on the clock. What was great about his performance at the end was that he nailed not one but two 53-yarders to give the Cowboys the win. Drills the first attempt right down the middle only to have it called back because the Bills tried the tired (and largely ineffective) “ice the kicker with a timeout trick”, then proceeds to do it all over again on the second try. The kicker (pun intended) is that his longest field goal made during college was 52 yards. Gotta love the way Nick Folk stepped it up with the game on the line. So, despite Tony Romo’s best Rex Grossman impersonation, the Cowboys still managed to pull off the victory, which was huge considering it sets up a matchup of unbeatens next week between Dallas and New England. What I liked most about the victory last night was the way the defense played. Buffalo’s three touchdowns came from their defense and special teams, and the Cowboys D held the Bills to under 250 yards of total offense. This game notwithstanding, the Cowboys offense has been stellar, and all that was needed was for the defense to tighten up for things to really start clicking. Now the ‘Boys look to take down the Pats, who themselves are in the midst of a great run and have put together a string of dominating performances this year. The Pats find themselves 5.5 point favorites despite the fact that they are on the road in Dallas, though I can’t say I disagree with the oddsmakers here. The Cowboys certainly have their work cut out for them, and if Romo melts down against the worst defense in the league, I can only imagine that even worse things await him this Sunday when he faces Bellichik & Co.
In other news, did anyone see Keith Olbermann’s shout-out to my hometown of Garland, TX on NBC’s Sunday night football pre-game show? Gotta love it when your little hometown gets some recognition, even if the point being made involved marveling at the obscurity of the city itself.
Other fun sports news involves a corrupt Mexican politician taking his cheating ways to a marathon in Berlin, faking his way to first place with a superhuman “effort” in the 55-and-over age group. Definitely warrants a good chuckle.
