Dallas Cowboys vs New England Patriots Match Player Stats On Oct 16, 2011

SportsDirect Inc. staff
Oct 16, 2011

Tom Brady threw an 8-yard touchdown to Aaron Hernandez with 22 seconds left and the New England Patriots extended their franchise record to 20 straight regular-season home wins with a 20-16 victory over the Dallas Cowboys on Sunday.

Wes Welker caught a touchdown pass for New England (5-1), which hasn’t lost a regular-season home game since 2008. Brady, who missed all but the opening game that season due to injury, extended his NFL record streak of consecutive regular-season home wins to 31 games.

Harassed for most of the day, Brady calmly engineered his 24th career fourth-quarter comeback. In the process, he and Bill Belichick tied Don Shula and Dan Marino for the most wins by a quarterback-coach combination (116) since the 1970 merger.

The teams traded three-and-outs after rookie Dan Bailey’s third field goal gave Dallas (2-3) a 16-13 lead with 5:13 left.

Brady then led a 10-play, 80-yard drive that ended with him finding Hernandez on a slant. Brady completed 8 of 9 passes on the drive.

It was a surprisingly low-scoring affair between two of the best offenses in the league. Dallas became the first team to hold the Patriots under 30 points since Cleveland, led by current Cowboys defensive coordinator Rob Ryan, beat the Patriots 34-14 on Nov. 7, 2010.

New England had scored at least 30 points in 13 straight regular-season games - one shy of tying the NFL record.

Both teams turned the ball over twice in sloppy first half.

Brady’s 5-yard touchdown pass to Welker gave the Patriots a 13-3 lead, but Dallas responded with its best drive of the season. Tony Romo capped an 11-play, 93-yard march with a 1-yard touchdown pass to Jason Witten with 33 seconds left in the half.