Troy Aikman: Cowboys dominated Seahawks; Fox broadcast fumbles key late play

Admit it: When Thom Brennaman asked Troy Aikman to talk about the significance of a potential Cowboys victory over the Seattle Seahawks with 1:18 remaining in Sunday’s game, you at least winced. Probably cringed.

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Surely more than one of you threw something at the television screen.

Aikman’s first response: A nervous giggle.

Yes, the Cowboys were about to take a 30-23 lead on a Dan Bailey field goal. Yes, the Seahawks, who had been outplayed all game, were out of timeouts. Yes, Brennaman had offered a disclaimer.

But hey, these were the Cowboys he was talking about. The same Cowboys who have wandered in the desert of despair and disappointment for more cursed seasons than anyone might ever have imagined. What Cowboys fan doesn’t remember Detroit 31, Dallas 30 last season?

But Aikman sucked it up and forged on. That, after all, is why Fox pays him the big bucks as its lead analyst.

He delivered with words only the most optimistic Cowboys fans could have imagined three hours earlier.

“I think they came into this game with house money,” he said. “No one expected them to come in and be able to win. It think it was a game (that was supposed to be) more of an evaluation of where exactly they stacked up against the defending world champs and one of the game’s best.

“Instead they come in here and they dominated this game. If you take the special teams play out of this, this game was not even close…It was a domination on both sides of the ball on the line of scrimmage. It is a great win for Jason Garrett and this Dallas Cowboys team.”

Fortunately for the Cowboys and their fans, they held up nicely.

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The Foxies also provided a great camera angle to show wide receiver Terrance Williams got his toes in bounds on the crucial third-down and 20-yard completion to keep their final touchdown drive going. Seattle challenge was denied.

But the Foxies did fumble at game’s end. They never identified what the penalty was and who committed it on the third down that stopped the clock just before Bailey’s 31-yard field goal. It gave the Seahawks precious extra seconds. It could have been just the dagger some were expecting. “That’s a big penalty,” Brennaman said. But he said no more. There was no replay. For the record, left tackle Tyron Smith was called for holding.