ARLINGTON, Texas — Welcome back to Texas, Robert Griffin III.
Griffin threw for 311 yards and four touchdowns, helping the Washington Redskins beat the Dallas Cowboys 38-31 on Thursday.
“He’s kind of like Cool Hand Luke,” Redskins Coach Mike Shanahan said. “He doesn’t get too upset about anything.”
The Heisman Trophy winner from Baylor made the Cowboys look over matched during the decisive second quarter in Griffin’s first pro game in his home state. He got some help from his receivers, including a leaping grab and long run from Pierre Garcon and Santana Moss tapping both feet down in the end zone for another touchdown.
Tony Romo lost for the first time in six starts on Thanksgiving, despite a career-high 441 yards and three second-half touchdown passes, including the longest of his career - an 85-yarderto Dez Bryant. Romo ran in for a two-point conversion after a touchdown throw to former Arkansas Razorback Felix Jones and threw another scoring pass to Bryant to help Dallas close within 35-28 with 8:24 remaining after the Cowboys trailed 28-3 at halftime.
“I thought we had a good chance,” Romo said.
But Griffin answered - twice, actually. After Romo’s long touchdown pass to Bryant, Griffin threw his fourth scoring pass, a 29-yarder to Niles Paul. The rookie became the first Redskins quarterback to throw four touchdown passes in consecutive games.
After the Cowboys pulled within a touchdown, Griffin drove them into scoring position again, completing three passes for first downs and running over five minutes off the clock before Kai Forbath made it 38-28 on a 48-yard field goal.
“Anytime you have a guy like him, you never worry about him,” said Washington cornerback DeAngelo Hall, who set up a first-half score with an interception. “You worry about the guys around him being able to keep up with the pace.”
Dallas drove for a field goal, but Hall easily picked up the onside kick and ran untouched before sliding down short of the goal line, clinching Romo’s third loss in three career 400-yard games. It also was the Cowboys’ first loss to the Redskins in seven games on Thanksgiving.
“That quarterback is obviously a very good player, and they use him well,” Cowboys Coach Jason Garrett said. “It was challenging for us to slow those guys down. We didn’t do enough offensively to keep up with them in the first half.”
The Cowboys (5-6) actually contained Griffin in the first quarter, getting a sack and forcing an intentional grounding penalty that gave them good enough field position for an easy drive to a 3-0 lead.
Everything changed on Griffin’s first big NFL play in Texas. He hit Aldrick Robinson in stride for a 68-yard touchdown pass and a 7-3 lead to spark the first 28-point quarter in 13 years for the Redskins (5-6).
Griffin’s next big throw wasn’t nearly as accurate, but Garcon came down with it and outran the Dallas defense the final 45 yards on a 59-yard scoring play for a 21-3 lead.
“As Pierre is running on his long touchdown, and I was like, ‘Man, that was a great catch,’ ” Griffin said. “I had to throw it to only that spot, and you don’t see many guys make catches like that.”
Romo’s first interception in four games gave the Redskins a chance to get one more score before halftime when Hall returned it to the Dallas 33 with 30 seconds left. Out of timeouts at the Dallas 6 with 10 seconds left, the Redskins trusted Griffin to try to get a touchdown, and Moss kept both feet in while falling out of bounds for a 28-3 lead with five seconds left.
Griffin completed 12 consecutive passes from the middle of the first quarter to the middle of the third and finished 20 of 28.
It was hard to tell with his final numbers, but the Cowboys did manage to put some pressure on Griffin. They sacked him four times, forced him to sprint out of the pocket a number of times and delivered hard hits after several throws.
The Dallas offense, playing most of the game without wide receiver Miles Austin after he injured a hip early, never could answer in the decisive second quarter. The Cowboys had only two first downs while the Redskins were scoring four touchdowns.
The Cowboys’ best possession came right after Griffin’s first big play, but Bryant fumbled in the open field at the end of what would have been a first-down catch. DeJon Gomes returned the fumble to the Dallas 49, and Alfred Morris scored from the 1 for a 14-3 lead. Morris had 113 yards on 24 carries.
After forcing a three-and out on Washington’s first possession, Dallas quickly moved to the Redskins’ 11, but had to settle for a field goal when Austin couldn’t hang on to a third-down throw from Romo in the back of the end zone on a hit by London Fletcher. Austin took a hard fall and didn’t return.
Fletcher, who also had an interception, extended his consecutive games streak to 235 and made his 190th consecutive start. He started the day tied with Tampa Bay’s Ronde Barber for most consecutive games, and his starting streak is the league’s longest for linebackers. He left the game later with an ankle injury.
Thursday’s NFL games All times Central Houston 34, Detroit 31, OT Washington 38, Dallas 31 New England 49, NY Jets 19
Sports, Pages 20 on 11/23/2012