St. Louis Rams Blow Big Lead in 34-31 Loss To Dallas Cowboys

By Blaine Grisak | Sep 21, 2014

The St. Louis Rams blew a 21-0 lead on Sunday to lose to the Dallas Cowboys 34-31 and will fall to 1-2. The Rams got off to a hot start, but missed opportunities and the inability to put their opponent away lead to the Cowboys getting back into the game.

The Rams opened the game with a 15-play game-opening touchdown drive on offense to set the tone, and then followed that up with a touchdown off of a DaMarco Murray fumble. The Rams then went up three scores when Tony Romo threw an interception that was returned for a touchdown by Janoris Jenkins to make the score 21-0 with six minutes to play in the half.

The Cowboys finally got on the board by taking advantage of a blown coverage by the Rams. Romo hit Dez Bryant for a 68 yard touchdown pass. Those were the first of 20 unanswered points from the Cowboys. With a little more than 2-minutes left to play the Rams marched down the field attempting to extend their lead in the half. A botched snap at midfield by Scott Wells gave the Cowboys the ball at midfield and instead of the Rams going up 24-7 at the half, they were up only 21-10.

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A touchdown run by Murray, who only had 100 yards rushing on the day, and a field goal made the score 21-20 headed into the fourth quarter. The Rams finally ended the 20-0 run when they kicked a field goal two minutes into the fourth quarter. The Rams missed an opportunity to score a touchdown on the drive when Davis hit a wide open Cook in the end zone, but the pass was dropped.

Cook was then seen on the sideline shoving Davis. The confrontation was diffused by Robert Quinn and William Hayes who stepped in and held back Cook.

A big play in the Dallas scoring run was a 4th and one deep in Cowboys territory. Instead of settling for a field goal, Jeff Fisher decided to go for it. The Rams offensive line had been getting good push all day, but were not able to on that play as Stacy was brought down in the backfield.

Instead of being up 34-17, the Rams found themselves only up 24-20. Needing a big play from their defense, the Cowboys converted on two third and more than ten’s. The Cowboys capped off the drive with a 12 yard throw and catch from Romo to Terrence Williams.

The Cowboys took their first lead of the game up 27-24 after being down 21-0. Austin Davis then threw a pick six on the next drive to put the Cowboys up 34-24.

The Rams would not go down without a fight however. The Rams marched right down the field and Austin Davis threw his third touchdown pass of the day to Austin Davis with a little more than two minutes left to play.

The defense then got a stop to give their offense a chance, but Davis threw his second interception of the day on the fourth play of the drive to end the game.

For Rams fans, it was the same story, different day. The Rams committed eight penalties for 119 yards, as questionable as some of them were. The Rams left way too many points on the field and eventually payed the price.

What really needs to be held accountable is the Rams defense. This group only has one sack all season, and has the potential to be one of the best groups in football. When the Rams offense puts up 31 points, you have to trust that a defense with this amount of potential will do enough to get the job done, and they were unable to do that.

Austin Davis and the Rams offense moved the ball well all game. Davis threw for over 300 yards, and completed almost 70% of his passes. Not to mention they rushed for over 100. When you do that, 9 out of 10 times you are going to win. This one is on the defense.

What also should be pointed out is the officiating, or lack thereof. The officiating was extremely inconsistent and very well decided the outcome of the game, and that doesn’t look good on the crew and isn’t good for the game. The roughing the passer penalties and inconsistency of them is ruining the game.

This is a tough loss to take in, blowing 21 point leads are difficult to overcome mentally. Luckily, the Rams will have an extra week to forget about it as they are 1-2 headed into the bye week. They face a difficult stretch ahead and will need to put this one behind them as soon as they can.