OH ’BOY, NOT AGAIN
Dallas completes 20-point comeback to hand Falcons another painful loss
FOR MOST NFL teams, this would go down as the worst loss in team history. It wasn’t quite blowing a 28-3 lead in the Super Bowl, but the Falcons’ 40-39 giveaway loss Sunday in Dallas was another outright disaster.
Atlanta flushed a 20-point first-half cushion and failed to secure a late onside kick ahead of Greg Zuerlein’s game-winning field goal as time expired before a sizable COVID-reduced crowd of 21,708 at AT&T Stadium.
“We dug ourselves such a big hole in the third quarter. Young in the football season, we are learning a lot about each other each and every night,” coach Mike McCarthy said after his first win in Dallas.
The Cowboys (1-1) fumbled four times and lost three of them in the first half as the Falcons scored the game’s first 20 points and carried a 29-10 lead into intermission.
Dallas still trailed 39-24 with under five minutes to play, but Dak Prescott hit tight end Dalton Schultz for a 10-yard TD with 4:57 to go and snuck in for a 1-yard score with 1:49 left to draw the Cowboys within two.
“I don’t know if I’ve been in many games like this thing,” said Prescott, who became the first quarterback in NFL history to throw for more than 400 yards (450) and rush for three touchdowns in the same game. “But to be able to get the win, and in front of those fans that were there, stayed the whole game, they didn’t give up on us. That was a huge difference.”
The Falcons inexplicably socially distanced from Zuerlein’s onside kick and it was recovered by Dallas defensive back C.J. Goodwin.
Zuerlein, in his first season with Dallas after playing eight years with the Rams, drilled a 46-yard field goal to send the Falcons (0-2) to another devastating defeat.
It marked the fourth time Atlanta have lost a game in which it led by at least 20 points, most notably Super Bowl LI against the Patriots.
WILSON!
Russell Wilson somehow never has received a single MVP vote during his first seven NFL seasons, but the Seattle quarterback is off to a monster start in 2020.
Wilson tossed five touchdown passes — one more than he managed in Week 1 — and the Seahawks held on for a 35-30 victory Sunday night over Cam Newton and the Patriots. Wilson completed 21 of 28 passes for 288 yards, while Newton ran for two scores and threw for another TD along with 397 pass yards for the Patriots, who were playing without running back James White following the death of his father earlier Sunday in a Florida car crash. The Pats (1-1) moved to the Seattle 2-yard line on an 11-yard pass to N’Keal Harry with three seconds remaining, but Newton was upended on a keeper short of the goal line by C.J. Collier and Lano Hill as time expired.
ON THE BOARD
Tom Brady nailed down his first win with Tampa Bay, connecting with Mike Evans for seven receptions for 104 yards and a touchdown (and 217 yards altogether) in a 31-17 home win over Carolina.
Another newcomer, running back Leonard Fournette, added 103 rushing yards and two scores for the Buccaneers, who had dropped Brady’s debut last week against New Orleans. Evans had just one catch for 2 yards in the opener against the Saints.
“Our execution was a little bit better, but I think we’re still a long way from where we need to be,” said Brady, who has three TD passes and three INTs through two games. “I think if we have the ability to make plays, consistency and dependability are going to be things that we really need. So we’ve got to get back to work.”
THAT’S TWO FOR TWO
Another relocated ex-Pat, kicker Stephen Gostkowski, drilled his second game-winning field goal in as many weeks to lift Tennessee to a 33-30 win over Jacksonville in Nashville, Tenn.
Gostkowski, a four-time Pro Bowler with New England, overcame four missed kicks to nail a 25-yard game-winner with 17 seconds remaining in a Week 1 win over Denver. He connected on a 49-yard kick