Cowboys wide receiver Miles Austin had been held without a catch the entire game. That is until the Cowboys faced a third-and-14 from the Eagles' 49 with 8:13 left in the game. Out of the shotgun, Cowboys quarterback Tony Romo connected with a wide open Austin down the left side of the field for the game-winning touchdown as the Eagles came up on the short end of a 20-16 outcome Sunday night.
Cornerback Sheldon Brown was lined up against Austin on the play. Even though the Cowboys needed a deep pass for the first down, Brown bit when Austin made a move inside. Austin went back to the outside and waited for Romo's pass.
"He ran a double move. We were in a Cover 1. Tony pumped. He ran a slant. I drove the slant. He got open deep," Brown said.
Why did Brown go for an inside move when the Cowboys needed a big gain to move the chains?
"If I let him catch a slant, then the ball's still going to be moving," Brown said. "If a guy catches the ball, you just expect to get him on the ground and line up to play another play."
Brown finished the game with three tackles, two pass deflections and his fourth interception of the season, which ties his career high. Brown knows that one play did determine the game's final score.
"We don't look at one play in the game and say that was the game. We play to win the majority of the plays that we have," Brown said. "We didn't execute enough, so I'm not going to say we should have won anything. You get what you deserve and today we didn't play as well as they did. We made a lot of mistakes throughout the course of the game. And then there were some plays where we didn't execute. We were still able to win, but we didn't execute."
The Eagles now find themselves at 5-3, one game behind the Cowboys for first place in the NFC East. It's a disappointing loss, sure, but certainly not one that will shape the outcome of the entire season.
"If you think this game right here is going to make or break the season, then you're crazy. A perfect example is going back to last year. Everybody counted us out and we still got into the playoffs," Brown said. "You can't hang your head and let this one loss affect the rest of your season. It's a long season. We understand that. We have a lot of guys in here who have been in the league for a while and we're just going to keep pushing on."
-- Posted by Chris McPherson, 1:46 a.m., November 9
