12 penalties.

It’s hard to beat the Miami Dolphins or Rutgers when you have 12 penalties much less the New England Patriots.  I’m not saying that Dallas would have won if they had zero penalties, but I guarantee you it would have been a closer game.

The pass interference call on Patrick Watkins in the end zone and the late hit by Jason Hatcher after the reversed TD call to Randy Moss didn’t rattle me as much as it did other people. I didn’t like them because it showed me that Dallas wasn’t concentrating and didn’t have that mental edge they so desperately needed. The one that just tore me up was the holding call on Kyle Kosier on fourth and inches from the Dallas 47 after Marion Barber exploded for a first down (as he’s done all year.) This forced them to punt and it just killed that drive and the momentum.

12 penalties, though? That’s embarrassing especially on such a big stage.

But, let’s put those yellow flags aside. Yes, coach Phillips probably should have gone for the touchdown instead of the field goal in the fourth quarter with ten minutes left and down by 14 points, but he didn’t.

Yes, they probably should have tried to attack downfield more with deep passes to stay in the “Big Play” race, but they didn’t.

And, yes, coach Bill “I Need Respect” Belichick could have decided to not score one more time with 20 seconds to play since it was extremely unnecessary and made Tom Landry roll in this grave, but he needed his warm fuzzies, so he didn’t.

Forget all that.

Cowboys fans, New England is just flat out mind-blowing! I have never seen a team operate like the Patriots did Sunday and have all season so far. They were crisp, impetuous, and lethal. Nothing fazed them and that is the one thing that just amazes me about Tom Brady. He does not crack under pressure and if he ever has, he does an exemplery job of not showing it so that his teammates don’t sense it.

Dallas is not there yet and has a little ways to go. The pieces are there but I think it’s just going to take time and few more trial-by-fires like we witnessed last Sunday before they can be considered a member of that echelon.

So, it is now time to pick up the pads, helmets, emotions, and shattered egos and move on. There’s a Minnesota team coming to town this Sunday that has a rookie RB who has the potential of pulling off another performance like he did last week vs. Chicago and making the designers at the Hall of Fame begin mock-ups of the Adrian Peterson wing in about 2027.