Offense had air of superiority
IRVING, Texas - They appeared to be at a breaking point and needed to come up with an answer.
Early in the third quarter, the Patriots lost the lead to the Cowboys for the first time, 24-21, the first time they had trailed in the second half this season, and it was a frenzied environment at Texas Stadium. Key point of the game? Most definitely.
Someone needed to emerge - a unit needed to elevate its performance - and the Patriots turned to their offense, which simply jammed the pedal to the floor. Those curious how lethal the Patriots' offense can be need only look at yesterday's finishing kick - 27 points later the team was celebrating a 48-27 victory.
The attack came mostly through the air, starting with a 10-play scoring drive (eight passes) to retake the lead in the third quarter. The Patriots never broke stride from there.
"I thought we were able to come back and throw it in the second half," said coach Bill Belichick. "That was a big drive to bounce back after they took the lead, no doubt. They had a lot of momentum."
After a three-and-out series to open the third quarter, which included the loss of running back Sammy Morris to a chest injury - and then having the Cowboys march down the field against a defense that appeared to be coming apart at the seams - the offense simply took over.
From that point, quarterback Tom Brady was 14 of 18 for 175 yards and two touchdowns, the team putting together five drives, three resulting in touchdowns, two in field goals.
"We answered it when we needed to," said left tackle Matt Light, who was battling flu-like symptoms. "When they went down and scored, we went back and scored some points, and when you're on the road, that's what you have to do to silence them."
When Belichick assessed the second-half surge, he felt one of the keys was the pass protection provided by the offensive line - Light, left guard Logan Mankins, center Dan Koppen, right guard Stephen Neal, and right tackle Nick Kaczur - as well as the tight ends, most notably Kyle Brady. Starting tight end Benjamin Watson left the game in the second quarter with a left ankle injury.
In the first half, the Patriots had some protection struggles, with Tom Brady sacked twice, one of which the Cowboys turned into a TD. Brady wasn't sacked after the first drive of the third quarter.
"That's a good [defensive] front those guys have other there, with high draft choices; they play tough and they're big," he said. "It took a while to wear them down."
The wearing-down process was aided by a more than solid 11-of-17 performance on third down, which sucked the wind out of the Cowboys' defense and extended drives. The Patriots won the time of possession battle - 38:15-21:45.
"They killed us on third down the whole game. We tried about everything we could, almost every coverage and every blitz," said Cowboys coach Wade Phillips. "They just seemed to have the right answer for everything."
Arguably, the most important answer, it turned out, was shoring up the protection.
"They gave us some different looks that we weren't expecting early on; it's about making game adjustments," said Koppen, a key piece in the middle of the line who helps set the protection schemes. "We were able to make those and recognize what we were doing from that point on and were able to right the ship. It wasn't time to panic and everyone knew it."
With the added time up front, Brady had time to pick apart a depleted Dallas secondary by scanning the field to find his targets.
Brady finished with 388 passing yards, with Donte' Stallworth (136, 1 TD) and Wes Welker (124, 2 TDs) his top targets. As usual, Moss was also a factor with six grabs for 59 yards and one touchdown. In addition to Brady having time to throw, the receivers made things happen after the catch.
"We worried about that passing attack," said Phillips, whose Cowboys also hurt themselves with penalties. "They are an outstanding team with tremendous matchup problems for any defense. There are only so many calls you can have. We played man-to-man, played zone, zone blitzes, we blitzed. We knew they would be tough to hold down and we knew they would throw it a whole lot."
It was that air attack that ultimately rescued the Patriots when they needed it most.
Mike Reiss can be reached at mreiss@globe.com. 