Falcons overcome Cowboys in second half, win 39-28

ARLINGTON, Texas There was a time in Sunday’s 39-28 loss to the Atlanta Falcons when Dallas Cowboys do-everything linebacker Sean Lee left the game to get stitches for a cut lip.

At that point, the Cowboys were without 10 of their best players in Dez Bryant, Tony Romo, Greg Hardy, Ron Leary, Greg Hardy, Jeremy Mincey, Randy Gregory, Rolando McClain, Terrell McClain and Lee.

The Cowboys are deeper than they’ve been in a while and they pride themselves on the next man up philosophy.

However, those players are starters for a reason and the reality is the Cowboys aren’t as good without them. Considering Romo is out for at least six more games, the struggle to keep their season afloat until he returns just got that much more acute.

“We don’t think that way. We had an opportunity today against the Falcons for three hours at our stadium. We didn’t get the job done,” Cowboys coach Jason Garrett said. “There are no excuses on who was there and who wasn’t there. The guys that were dressed for the game are the guys we’re playing with.”

The missing starters were evident against the Falcons at AT&T Stadium in front of a crowd of 90,345.

The fans were incredibly loud at the outset when these backup Cowboys were having their way with the Falcons, taking 14-point leads three times in the first half with the last coming at 28-14 with 40 seconds to go.

They began to get quiet when Atlanta scored 18 points to take the lead and control of the game early in the fourth quarter.

“We just have to basically look at this and get better,” owner Jerry Jones said. “And we can get better. We don’t have to wait on help to come to get better. We had a great start, and we had great effort.”

It was the first loss of the season for the Cowboys (2-1), while continuing a trend of futility for Brandon Weeden and Romo’s backups.

Weeden has lost nine consecutive games as a starter, dating back to 2012 when he was a rookie with the Cleveland Browns.

The Cowboys are 6-10 without Romo since he became the starter in 2006.

“We just didn’t get stops. They had a really balanced attack today,” Garrett said.

After completing nine consecutive passes to open the game while completing 13 of 14 passes for 164 yards in the first half, Weeden and the Cowboys came down to Earth with a thud in the final two quarters.

For the game, Weeden completed 22 of 26 passes for 232 yards and no touchdowns with one interception. But the biggest issue was not being able to get any passes to the wide receivers.

The inability to loosen up the defense outside allowed the Falcons to shut down a running game that was on record pace in the first half. The Cowboys rushed for 131 yards and four touchdowns in the first half, including 10 carries for 92 yards and three touchdowns for Joseph Randle. Darren McFadden added five carries for 34 yards and a touchdown.

There was no room to run in the second half. Randle, who had 85 yards after his first three carries of 28, 37 and 20 yards, didn’t break 100 yards for the game.

“They did a good job as the game wore on stopping the run,” Garrett said.

The Cowboys defense was helpless in stopping Ryan and receiver Julio Jones.

Jones had 12 catches for 164 yards and two touchdowns. Ryan completed 24 of 36 passes for 285 yards. Running back Devonta Freeman had 141 yards and three touchdowns.

Without their three best pass rushers in Hardy, Gregory and Mincey, the Cowboys put little pressure on Ryan.

Also, the Cowboys finished the game without injured nose tackle Nick Hayden.

“He (Ryan) is a hard guy to get to. I thought a couple of times we moved him off his spot, but for the most part, he was comfortable back there,” Garrett said.

It only took the Cowboys three plays to score on the first possession of the game on Randle’s 37-yard touchdown run to make it 7-0 with only 1:08 into the game.

Randle had a 28-yard run on the first play and Atlanta was flagged for a facemask on Robert Alford on second down before the touchdown run.

After forcing a three-and-out series, the Cowboys scored again on an eight-play, 77-yard drive with Randle scoring on a 1-yard to make it 14-0 at the 7:07 mark.

Dallas made four first downs on the drive including four-of-four passing by Weeden.

Atlanta came to life on their second possession with an 11-play, 80-yard scoring drive. Devonta Freeman, starting in place of the injured Tevin Coleman, scored on a 3-yard run around left end to make it 14-7 at the 3:00 mark.

Dallas had the statistical edge in total yards (164-74), first downs (9-7) and time of possession (8:45 to 6:15).

Dallas pushed its lead to 21-7 on McFadden’s 2-yard touchdown run. His touchdown completed an eight play, 56-yard drive with 7:25 left in the second quarter.

The first turnover of the game led to a Falcons touchdown

William Moore intercepted Weeden and returned the ball to the Cowboys’ 23.

Eight plays later, Freeman scored on a 2-yard run to make it 21-14 with 2:18 left in the first half.

Dallas answered in the final minute when Randle dove over the goal line from 1 yard out. The touchdown completed a six-play, 80-yard drive with 40 seconds left on the clock.

Aided by a 35-yard run and catch by Freeman, Atlanta covered 66 yards in six plays with Matt Bryant’s 32-yard field goal on the final play making it 28-17 at halftime.

After and exchange of punts to start the third quarter, Atlanta scored on a 45-yard touchdown pass from Ryan to Julio Jones.

The Falcons opted to go for two points and got it when Ryan hit a wide open Levine Toilolo to make it 28-25 at the 7:05 mark.

After another Dallas punt, Atlanta took its first lead of the game when Freeman ran 7 yards up the middle for a touchdown to make it 32-28 with 11:25 left in the game.

The touchdown came on an 89-yard, 11 play drive and took 6:44.

After a Dallas punt, the Falcons pushed their lead to 39-28 when Ryan passed 2 yards to Jones with 3:04 left in the game.

The drive took 6:14 and covered 62 yards in 11 plays.

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