Editor: Joe Bryant. Game Recap Contributors: Mike Anderson, Michael Brown, Chris Burtt, J.D. Caldwell, David Dodds, Bobby Elder, Jim Enochs, Joel Faulhaber, Michael Flynn, Kevin Goldblum, Clayton Gray, Bob Harris, Fred Hebert, Jesse Hilsenrad, Drew Kendall, Jeff Lewis, Joey Matusek, Justin Oliver, Steve Prosapio, David Shick, Cody Smith, Scott Smith, Jeffrey Stout. Dallas 13 at St. Louis 10 WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW Dallas Cowboys: Offensive lineman Larry Allen was back playing this week at the right tackle position instead of his usual position at guard at the start of the game. Allen re-aggravated his ankle injury in the first quarter, and was sidelined for the remainder of the game. Only one offensive lineman lined up in his usual starting position. Quincy Carter's performance today was his best all year. He spread the ball around to nine different receivers, throwing for 204 yards, and rushing for 26 more. His lone touchdown pass was to Darnay Scott on a play where the Rams defense blew the coverage and left him completely open. RB Emmitt Smith was again solid but nothing special with 58 yards. Interesting to note that Troy Hambrick and Mike Wiley played the crucial final series as Dallas drove down the field for the win. Neither Joey Galloway nor Antonio Bryant was able to get anything special going in the game. Tight End James Whalen had a number of targets and is the TE receiving target for the Cowboys. He finished the game with 5 catches and 38 yards. Kicker Billy Cundiff made a clutch 48-yard field goal as time ran out to win the game. He made two field goals in the game. The Cowboys defense played well in this game, but didn't get to the Rams' quarterbacks often. Greg Ellis had a sack and an interception in the game and safety Roy Williams led the team with 10 tackles. St. Louis Rams: The first quarter of the game was not kind to the St. Louis Rams as QB Kurt Warner left the game with a broken pinky finger midway through the quarter. He is expected to miss 8-10 weeks and will have surgery on Tuesday. Jamie Martin came in and couldn't really get the Rams offense going. He made some nice throws and had some flashes but also made a number of bad throws. Martin struggled with the two-minute offense and burned time outs. Marshall Faulk's performance was the lone bright spot for St. Louis. He was helped greatly by the offensive line, even without Orlando Pace. With the holes they were able to open up, Faulk was able to break a few runs into the secondary. He had a 4.05 YPC average. Faulk also caught eight passes for 67 yards. He seemed to be one of Martin's top targets. On his first carry, he ran 15 yards up the middle and fumbled. He was slow getting up, but seemed fine in the rest of the game and showed no effect of last week's neck injury. Tory Holt is clearly the Rams number one wide receiver, but Isaac Bruce received his looks as well. Ricky Proehl played a minor role in the offense, and Terrence Wilkins and Troy Edwards were not factors in the passing game. Holt and Bruce are the only Ram WR options to consider, and their numbers could continue to decline with Martin at the helm. Jeff Wilkins hit the upright and missed a huge field goal that may have won the game with around 1:30 left in the game. The Rams defense played strong in the second quarter. It's tough to say if it was effective defense or a poor Cowboys offense, but they didn't let Quincy Carter move the ball much at all. Linebackers Don Davis and Jamie Duncan each had seven tackles in the contest. WHAT YOU OUGHT TO KNOW Dallas Cowboys QB: Quincy Carter benefited from good pass protection early in the game, and was able to find his receivers on short patterns. He finished the first half 14 for 17 with a touchdown. While they looked pretty good, Dallas only scored 7 points in the first half. In the second half, Carter was less accurate and had only 92 yards passing. His interception was on a long ball that was effectively a punt. He made some bad throws, but mainly didn't do anything special to help his team move the ball. He finished the game with a good drive to get kicker Billy Cundiff within range to make the game winner as time ran out. Although he could have been the goat throwing a short pass across the middle to Ken-Yon Rambo with 13 seconds on the clock. Dallas was very lucky to be able to stop the clock with 1 second for Cundiff to kick the game winner. Carter also responded to the coaching staff, who wanted him to run more. He rushed 4 times for 26 yards WR: Joey Galloway made a couple of short catches early in the game and had a reverse where he was tackled for a loss. Galloway finished the game with 4 catches for 27 yards. Antonio Bryant was wide open on a stop and go route on the first series of the game, burning Aeneas Williams for a 34-yard gain. He finished with only 3 catches though. Darnay Scott was wide open on a nicely designed play for his first quarter touchdown. Scott dropped a ball in the early fourth quarter on a play that would have put the Cowboys in field goal range. RB: Emmitt Smith entered the game needing 362 yards to break Walter Payton's rushing record. After the game, he was 58 yards closer.. He did have one big 30 yard gain on a run with a huge hole off tackle. Smith ran the ball pretty well throughout the game. As usual, he didn't look great, only serviceable. Offensive lineman Larry Allen was back playing this week at the right tackle position instead of his usual position at guard at the start of the game. Allen re-aggravated his ankle injury in the first quarter, and was sidelined for the remainder of the game. Only one offensive lineman lined up in his usual starting position. Troy Hambrick's first run from scrimmage was an 11-yard gain early in the second quarter. He ran hard right up the middle and looked strong. He stayed in for a change of pace and looked to have more burst than Emmitt Smith. Both Hambrick and Mike Wiley spelled Smith throughout the game as needed. It is worth noting, though, that Hambrick and Wiley played the Cowboys final series of the game with time running out in regulation. TE: Tony McGee was not involved in the passing game. James Whalen had some catches from the TE position and is the primary TE receiving target for the Cowboys. He finished the game with 5 catches and 38 yards. K: Billy Cundiff made a clutch 48-yard field goal as time ran out to win the game. He made two field goals in the game. Cowboys Pass Defense: The Cowboys front four is the strength of this defense, and they put decent pressure on Warner and Martin to start the game. For the rest of the game, the Cowboys were held in check by a make shift Rams offensive line. The Cowboys finally sacked Martin with under two minutes left. DE Greg Ellis played well and had a sack and an interception in the game. DE Ebenezer Ekuban took a bad personal foul in the second quarter for roughing the quarterback. Cowboys Rush Defense: The rush defense looked fine in the game, considering this was against Marshall Faulk. The Rams offensive line actually played well despite the questions and opened up some holes. CB Mario Edwards was shaken up in the early third quarter making a run stop on Faulk, but returned to the game a couple of plays later. Safety Roy Williams led the team with 10 tackles. /**/**/**/**/**/**/**/**/**/**/**/**/**/**/**/**/**/**/**/**/** St. Louis Rams QB: Kurt Warner threw his first pass after four runs to open the game. His second pass was a bad decision and interception on a broken screen play. After the play, Warner left the field and trainers attended to his throwing hand as Jamie Martin warmed up. Warner broke his pinky finger on his throwing hand and Jamie Martin came in on the next series. The announcers noted that Warner missed five games during the 2000 season with a broken finger. Jamie Martin came in during the first quarter and the Rams stalled on his first drive. The Rams seemed comfortable throwing the ball with Martin at the helm and filled in admirably on the next series until a badly under thrown ball that led to an interception. Martin made some good throws but also some bad passes throughout the first quarter. Martin made a terrible decision to snap the ball and spike it with just over two minutes in the first half, leaving the Rams with a 2nd down and ten. He also burned all of the teams' time outs and was confused running the two-minute drill. Martin made a great throw in the end zone to Bruce to finish the half though. The Rams rallied briefly around Martin in the second half, and they converted a number of third down plays. He made a few nice hot reads and drew an off-sides penalty with a snap count on one scoring drive. Later, he made two consecutive bad throws from deep in the Rams zone. Throughout the remainder of the game, Martin showed flashes both good and bad. For anyone wondering if a QB change might "spark" this offense, this wasn't the case in this game. WR: Torry Holt made a nice catch over the middle to start the second quarter for 21 yards. Holt again showed that he is the number one target in the receiving game and received a lot of looks from the Ram quarterbacks. He almost made an incredible catch in the back of the end zone in the third quarter, but couldn't hang on. Isaac Bruce had only one catch for 10 yards before his touchdown at the end of the first half. It was a nice over the shoulder catch in the end zone on a perfect throw by Jamie Martin. He had a few more looks throughout the game, and a key 13-yard reverse on third and one right at the two minute warning. Ricky Proehl threw a pass into coverage on a trick play, and almost completed the pass to Holt in the end zone. Proehl looks to be the third WR for the Rams at this point. He finished the game with two catches and 18 yards. Terrence Wilkins returned kickoffs and punts, but wasn't involved in the Rams passing offense in the first half. Troy Edwards was not involved in the game. RB: Marshall Faulk - Prior to the game, the announcers speculated that the Rams would open the game running Faulk to take pressure off the passing game. That's just what they did, but Faulk fumbled on his first run of the game and was slow getting up from the tackle. He returned the next series and looked good running the ball throughout the rest of the first half. The Rams ran a number of screen passes for Faulk that were highly effective. Though he didn't score, Faulk looked more like his old self and was really the lone bright spot for the Rams on offense. He did not show any signs of his neck injury. 140 total yards on the day. Tackle Orlando Pace did not play and will be out for about three weeks according to the Fox announcers. FB James Hodgins also did not play as expected, and was replaced by Chris Hetherington. Lamar Gordon and Trung Canidate were not factors as Faulk played the entire game. TE: Ernie Conwell had a nice catch down the middle of the field in the second quarter for 25 yards. The ball was thrown well by Martin. He dropped an easy catch in the late second quarter that should have gone for about ten yards. K: Jeff Wilkins hit the upright and missed a field goal that would have won the game with around 1:30 left in the game. Pass Defense: The Rams used a speed rush to get around Larry Allen at his new position effectively early in the game. Early in the game, the Rams gave the Cowboys a first down on a fourth down attempt by taking a penalty for too many players on the field. Dre Bly made a great over the shoulder interception in the second half as if he was the intended receiver. Rush Defense: The Rams rush defense played well throughout this game. There were plays they stuffed the Cowboys and a few 10+ yard runs allowed. Overall, the defense held the Cowboys to only 7 points in the first half and under 40 yards total offense in the second quarter. The Rams defense allowed 63 rushing yards in the first half, and one 30-yard gain by Emmitt Smith. In the second half, the Rams defense tightened up. Linebackers Don Davis and Jamie Duncan each had seven tackles in the contest.