On Thanksgiving I thought I would trouble eating the dinner. I fellsick watching the Raiders defense get torched by Miles Austin on simple routes that could have been better defended.  In the first quarter, the Raiders hung tough with Dallas as Dallas took a 3-0 lead.  Then the second quarter looked like a whole new ball game.  The Cowboys disected and demolished the Raiders with the new weapon in Dallas, Miles Austin.  They (Dallas) kept lining him up against Chris Johnson and he kept making catches in stride and using his blazing speed to take the ball for a huge gain.  In the first half his average yards per catch was over 20.  Why John Marshall didn’t move Namdi around and have him follow Austin, I have no idea.  Also, Felix Jones had a huge TD run in the wildcat formation, his 2nd of the season.  The wildcat created big plays for the Cowboys early and often. 

     But, like in the Bengals game, the Cowboys had some screw-ups but this time the Raiders just couldn’t capitalize on them.  After the Cowboys had a great drive in the second quarter, they had penalties back them up and they had a field gaol bounce off the upright and the Raiders took over on their own 40.  The Cowboys had penalties back them up on almost every trip they made to the red zone in the first half.

     The Raiders had some screw-ups of their own, but didn’t come back on the next play with a gain of 25 like Dallas was doing.  In the first half, a Romo pass was hanging up in the air and two Raiders were moving on the ball:  SS Tyvon Branch and DE/OLB Trevor Scott.  They were both looking at the ball and they crashed into each other and the ball landed incomplete.  That was followed by a big Dallas play that moved them from their own 15 to the mid-field area.

     On the bright side, Heyward-Bey made his first career TD catch on a 4-yarder from Bruce Gradkowski in the third quarter, the Raiders only successful drive of the game.