Laurent Robinson has done some nice things since he got to Dallas, but this surely was not the plan. At times during Sunday night's blowout loss, the Cowboys passing game went almost exclusively through the No. 3 wide receiver.
The philosophy of taking what the defense was giving is one the Cowboys and a lot of NFL offenses follow, but the Eagles' game plan worked just as they had drawn it up on Sunday night. Philadelphia jammed both starting wide outs, Dez Bryant and Miles Austin, and forced Tony Romo to get rid of the ball quickly with constant pressure up front. Romo was sacked four times.
Robinson finished with five catches for 103 yards and the Cowboys' only score, a 70-yard touchdown after the game had long been decided. The free agent signee may have won a number of his individual battles, but the Eagles won the war, with corners Nnamdi Asomugha, Dominique Rodgers-Cromartie and Asante Samuel leading the way.
"We were trying to attack what they were doing," Robinson said. "They were playing off on my side . . . They've got three former Pro Bowlers. It's just a big challenge for us. But we've got to come to play, and we've got to make more plays than we did today."
Bryant, who finished with three garbage time catches for 28 yards, was not even targeted by Romo until more than halfway through the third quarter. Austin, who also had three catches, for 27 yards, was first thrown to on the Cowboys' opening drive of the second half, but wasn't targeted again until the midway point of the fourth quarter.
Jason Witten was targeted a game-high 12 times, but made only four catches for 28 yards.
Jason Garrett said the Cowboys never had an opportunity to let plays develop downfield.
"I think the biggest issue was they put some pressure on the quarterback, and we didn't have a whole lot of time to throw," Garrett said. "They have very good cover guys on the back end, there's no question about that, and just a combination of the pressure and the cover guys, I think limited our opportunities to throw the football.
"We never really got anything going consistently on offense throughout the game."
