Getty ImagesIt's things like these ...
But to file these things away as irrelevant would be to miss the mark -- by a mile.
In December, the margin for error shrinks. The game is tighter, the stakes higher, each play more important.
There are only so many mistakes you can make. The Steelers' defense was going to make plays. Everybody knew that.
The Cowboys also had to know that helping Pittsburgh -- in the form of mental mistakes and unforced penalties -- would bury them. And it did, just like it has in the past.
And so a strong effort against a strong team circled the drain.
"We had a lot of respect for them, but we felt like we could come up here and win," said tight end Jason Witten, who took the blame for Tony Romo's backbreaking interception in the fourth quarter, which Pittsburgh's Deshea Townsend returned for the game-winning touchdown. "I thought overall, we hung in there. We fought through it."
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So go ahead and credit the Steelers for that.
But know this, too: If the Cowboys had taken care of the details earlier on, their margin of error might have been greater. Maybe they could've survived such a blow.
You know, the kind of shot the Cowboys always seem to take on the chin this time of year.
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