How did Brandon Carr do against Calvin Johnson?
I'm not going to tell you something that you didn't already see. There was no question that going into this game, the Lions, with Johnson and Reggie Bush, were going to be difficult to deal with on defense. As well as cornerback Brandon Carr had played the last two weeks, I thought he would be more physical on Johnson today, but he really wasn't. Johnson can be a vertical player like we saw, but he can also beat you inside. I thought there were times where Carr played him too soft and allowed him too many opportunities to run in space. Give Detroit quarterback Matthew Stafford a lot of credit. He knew where his money player was, and he fed him the ball. One of the biggest fears of the coaching staff was allowing Johnson or Bush to take over the game, and that's exactly what happened.
Was Tony Romo not at his best today?
I honestly believed that if the Cowboys along the offensive line had found a way to protect Romo today, they would have been able to make some plays on the Lions secondary. The protection was an issue the majority of the game, but even when he got time, Romo was off with his throws. While Romo is normally sharp, this was not one of his better games when it came to overall accuracy. I didn't quite understand all the early throws to Terrance Williams when Dez Bryant had some opportunities on routes. Maybe the postgame film will tell me different but in the second half, Romo was able to find Bryant on some routes that I thought they could have done in the first half. But again, maybe the film will tell a different story.
How costly was that holding penalty on Tyron Smith? [embedded_ad]
In a game of huge plays, that was the biggest. You had a chance to bleed the clock there, call a timeout and kick the field goal. It was one of those calls that you don't see all day, then there it is. Smith battled his rear off throughout game, and for it to come down to that call was a shame for him. Although Detroit got the ball with a 1:02 and no timeouts, it still was a terrible situation for the defense to be in. Give the Lions a lot of credit for the drive they were able to put together, but you run 35 seconds off that clock, and the defense might have had a better chance to make that stop and end the game.
