Dallas Cowboys quarterback Tony Romo is seldom far from controversy, particularly when the Cowboys begin to stutter. Tonight the 7-5 Cowboys are playing a Monday Night Football game in December, a month often seen as Dallas’ biggest month for collapsing. Against the 6-6 Chicago Bears, a team fighting alongside the Cowboys for an NFC East playoff spot. Couple those factors with tonight’s MNF game being played in Soldier Field, and it sounds like Romo and Co. should be preparing excuses for the post-game show. Yet Chicago isn’t the team many predicted them to be earlier this season, particularly on defense, and Dallas has the NFC East title in its sights. In short, ESPN’s got a live one on its hands tonight. If you’re not near a TV to catch the broadcast, you can watch Monday Night Football online free using one of several different tools.
Chicago has delivered on offense this season, even as backup quarterback Josh McCown has had to fill-in for injured QB Jay Cutler. If you’re in Cutler’s camp and coming up on contract extension discussions, that’s both good and bad. Still, the Bears have pulled-off the NFL’s eighth-ranked total offense, anchored not by the running game (21st) but by a fifth-ranked passing attack. Interestingly, while McCown has been productive as Chicago’s starting QB, virtually willing the Bears to average more yards per game with him at the helm, the Bears are also averaging fewer points without Cutler at quarterback. With the Cowboys secondary allowing 240 yards per game passing, McCown may be able to pad those yardage stats further. But it may not matter if Dallas succeeds where it should.
The Cowboys don’t have a solid offense; they’re ranked 27th in rushing, 15th in passing and 22nd in overall offense. Yet ESPN experts almost unanimously pick the Cowboys to win tonight, and they’re favored over the Bears by quite a margin. Reason: the Cowboys’ marginal offense is going up tonight on MNF against one of the worst defenses in the league. Fourteen weeks ago, ESPN, the NFL Network and others expected Chicago to have “a suffocating defense that had traditionally ranked among the NFL’s best.” Instead, the Bears D has been “an epic disaster in all aspects.”
When you watch Monday Night Football online free, what you can expect to see is Tony Romo lighting up the Chicago secondary with passes to Dez Bryant, Jason Witten and Terrance Williams. The Cowboys ground game may also once again show signs of life tonight on MNF, as DeMarco Murray could look to take advantage of the Bears’ recently porous run defense. After allowing 102 rushing yards during their first six games this season, the Bears have imploded in the six games since, allowing 205.1 yards per game.
But if the Cowboys struggle against the Bears tonight on Monday Night Football, it’ll still come down to Romo taking the blame. Since 2009, Romo has an 11-15 record in December, and he’s thus fielded much of the blame for Dallas’ late-year collapses. With that said, as ESPN points out, Romo has 28 touchdowns and seven interceptions in 15 December/January regular-season games since 2009, seven 300-yard games, and 10 games with a passer rating north of 100.
So which Romo will we see when tonight’s MNF game is over? The apologetic one, or the celebratory one? You can watch Monday Night Football online free on DirecTV’s website if you have the NFL Sunday Ticket with MAX package to find out. The package requires a subscription, but anyone who has one can watch the live streaming version free of any game, including tonight’s MNF game between the Cowboys and Bears. ESPN also offers subscribers to their cable sports network through a satellite or cable package access to easily watch MNF online free on ESPN3, which is also available through the ESPN mobile app and ESPN app on Xbox 360. You may also be able to watch online with the Verizon NFL mobile app, which costs $5 per month.
