COWBOYS’ DEFENSE SHUTS DOWN PANTHERS

The Dallas Cowboys finally got the first win in their new stadium on Sunday night.  After spotting Carolina a 7-0 halftime lead, the Cowboys’ defense took over and shut down the Panthers attack en route to a 21-7 victory.  The Dallas defense forced three Panthers’ turnovers and sacked quarterback Jake Delhomme three times to cement the victory.  The Cowboys improved to 2-1 on the NFL season with the win while Carolina dropped to 0-3.

Dallas managed to cover the NFL pointspread as -8 home favorites.  In the process, they pushed their ATS record to 2-1 while the Panthers matched their straight up futility by dropping to 0-3 against the spread.  The 28 points scored went UNDER the posted total of 48.  It was the first UNDER of the season for both teams, with each having played two OVER verdicts previously.

After the victory was secured Cowboys’ owner Jerry Jones expressed relief that the team had finally won in their swank $1.15 billion stadium:

"It certainly does feel good. The way it went so early, it just felt like maybe we ought to check this thing out for Grim Reapers living in the back someplace."

Dallas QB Tony Romo was solid, though not spectacular, in the victory.  He spoke of his mindset after the game:

"It's all about improving and doing it on the field. That was my sole focus this week, to understand why I did certain things and not make those mistakes again, and come out and be a better quarterback and help this team win."

Defensive end Terrance Newman put the game away with a 97 yard interception return, and said in his postgame comments that it was the secondary’s time to step up:

"Before the game we talked about how our defensive line and linebackers did their job last week and how we didn't do our job. So I told them 'Hey it's on us. We've got to shut these guys down.' We let this team down last week and we have to make up for it this week."

Cowboys’ linebacker Bradie James criticized the panic from the media and fans:

"Everybody on the outside was pressing the panic button, but not us. We knew we had a bunch of ball left to play. There was still a lot of time to improve."

Carolina isn’t in panic mode yet either according to head coach John Fox:

"We have lots of football left. We're not even a quarter through the season. We've had three-loss skids before. We have to stick together."

The Panthers will enjoy a bye weekend before returning to action on October 11th at home against the Washington Redskins.  They’ll play at Tampa Bay the following weekend before returning home to take on the Buffalo Bills on October 25th.  Dallas will play on the road the next two weeks, starting with a game against the Denver Broncos on Sunday.  The Cowboys are -3 road favorites with the total set at 42’.  They’ll travel to Kansas City the following Sunday before a bye week.