ARLINGTON, Texas (AP) — The Dallas Cowboys couldn’t win in the return of Dez Bryant, who was extremely upset for more than that afterward.
And they still have at least two more games to play without Tony Romo after their fifth consecutive loss, going without a touchdown in a 13-12 home loss to defending NFC champion Seattle on Sunday.
Bryant was held to two catches for 12 yards in his first game since breaking his right foot in the season opener.
What frustrated Bryant more than anything was a video posted to social media during the game by an outside source that appeared to show him using an expletive toward Ricardo Lockette after the Seahawks receiver sustained a concussion and lay motionless for several minutes following a vicious block on a punt return.
“I won’t ever, ever, ever, ever wish bad on a player that’s getting knocked down,” Bryant said. “Not once I said, “Hey, that’s what you get.’ I got on one knee and prayed for that man. … I mean don’t put clips together and do that.”
A few minutes later, after a profanity-laced rant directed at media near him that could be heard on the other side of the locker room, Bryant had to be calmed by team personnel.
Lockette’s injury was a scary and tense moment for both teams, with some Seattle players appearing upset at Jeff Heath, the Cowboys safety who delivered the blow.
“We’re going back and forth,” Bryant said. “I would never in my life do that to anybody. … I’m too busy trying to break it up, trying to get our players back, I’m telling Richard (Sherman) and Earl (Thomas), ‘Hey, y’all get your players back.’ I was more talking to the officials than anybody.”
Lockette was running downfield and appeared to be engaged with another player before he turned and ran into the block by Heath. Lockette sustained a concussion and was being held overnight for more observation, but had movement in all his extremities.
Heath was penalized for a blind-side hit, though replays showed the contact was with the players facing each other and to the upper body.
“I just felt horrible when I found out how hurt he was. That wasn’t my intention at all,” said Heath, who had yet to see a replay of what he called a bang-bang play. “I was just praying that he was OK. We are football players and there are collisions and stuff like that. But we’re also men, fathers, sons, and you never want to see a guy injured.”
While the last-place Cowboys went without a touchdown for the second time in their five games without Romo, Russell Wilson and Seattle (4-4) got back to .500 after an 0-2 start.
“It doesn’t feel much different than it did last year. It’s very similar,” coach Pete Carroll said. “I feel like where we are right now, we’re OK. No one else probably does, but I feel like we’re OK right now, and we’re ready to go to work.”
Romo, who broke his collarbone in the second game, won’t be eligible to return until Nov. 22 at Miami. The Cowboys are home against Philadelphia next Sunday night, then go to Tampa Bay — and likely need to win both of those to have a realistic chance of defending their NFC East title.
Seattle went ahead on Steven Hauschka’s 24-yard field goal with 1:06 remaining. The Cowboys had no timeouts, and got a quick 15 yards on a personal foul penalty against Seattle before Matt Cassel threw consecutive incompletions, was sacked and then threw another incompletion on fourth-and-21 after a false start penalty gave them another play.
“It was going to be a dirty, grindy, gritty type game. We challenged our guys with that all week long,” coach Jason Garrett said. “We knew this game was going to be like this. We’re going to keep battling, keep fighting.”
NOTES: Greg Hardy intercepted a pass and had a 9-yard return at the end of the third quarter, setting the Cowboys up at the Seattle 16. That led to Dan Bailey’s fourth field goal. … The Cowboys were held to 220 total yards, their lowest since 193 at New Orleans on Nov. 10, 2013.
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