ARLINGTON, Texas — Even after spotting the Giants 23 points, the difference for the Cowboys came down to the length of Dez Bryant’s hand yesterday.
Dallas’ mercurial receiver sent the overflow crowd at Cowboys Stadium into a frenzy with six seconds left when he appeared to haul in a 37-yard touchdown from Tony Romo that most likely would have sent the Giants reeling with an embarrassing defeat.
But while Bryant landed on his behind, which is equal to two feet and would have made the score stand up, his hand clearly landed beyond the line in the back of the end zone — a truth subsequently verified on replay when the dramatic TD was overturned and Big Blue escaped with a 29-24 victory.
“When they took it away, my heart just dropped,” a distraught Bryant whispered during a very brief postgame interview. “I had my mind set on, if the ball is thrown to me, I’m going to come down with it. I came down with it, but my hand was out. It’s frustrating.”
The roller coaster of emotion on that one play was typical of the day for everyone in Cowboys blue and silver.
The throng of 94,067 watched in despair in the first half as three interceptions by Romo helped the Giants build a 23-0 bulge, then those same fans watched gleefully as Romo and tight end Jason Witten (a franchise-record 18 receptions) led them back to a 24-23 lead in the third quarter.
But more mistakes late let the Giants go back in front, where they looked ready to stay until Romo lofted the near-perfect throw between cornerbacks Corey Webster and Michael Coe to Bryant on a second-down play that started with 16 seconds left.
The Cowboys sideline erupted in celebration when Bryant’s catch was originally ruled good, but the cheers quickly turned into the depressing reality of a 3-4 record — and a 0-4 mark against the Giants at Cowboys Stadium — when referee Scott Green announced the reversal after a booth review.
“That’s tough, because of a lot of emotion comes out to get back into that position, and then you think you have it but it gets taken away,” Romo said. “It’s kind of a little roller coaster.”
The Cowboys got three more shots at it after the reversal, but they still couldn’t find the end zone and prevent the Giants from pulling out the heartstopper.
The crazy finish was a fitting end to Bryant’s day. The troubled former first-round pick, an underachiever in three NFL seasons, finished with five receptions for 110 yards but was targeted 11 times — an unacceptable catch percentage for a player with so much talent — and contributed to two of Romo’s four interceptions with poor decisions.
Bryant also fumbled twice, losing one of them, and was replaced as the Cowboys’ punt returner after that lost fumble in the first quarter turned into Giants field goal and a 16-0 Dallas deficit.
But Bryant nearly redeemed himself in the end if he could have kept both hands in-bounds after somehow sneaking behind the Giants’ secondary on a streak into the end zone.
“Tremendous throw by Tony and a tremendous catch by Dez, but we just came up a bit short,” Cowboys coach Jason Garrett said.