Did pregame hibernation doom Cowboys?

Associated Press

When ESPN sideline reporter Lisa Salters told us how much extra clothing the Dallas Cowboys had packed for Monday night’s bitter cold contest in Chicago, you knew the ‘Boys may have been thinking a little too much about the -9 wind chills they were facing at Soldier Field.

Brandon Marshall agrees. The Bears wide receiver told Chicago’s ESPN 1000 Tuesday he knew his team had the contest won when he saw only a few Dallas players on the field preparing before the game.

“There was only a handful of Dallas players,” Marshall said. “I looked around and I said, ‘Man, we’ve got these guys.’”

The temperature at kickoff Monday was 7 degrees Fahrenheit in Chicago, but it felt like -9 with the wind.

“The elements were already in their heads,” Marshall continued in his radio interview. “So pregame, I believe that we won. I’m pretty sure there [would have been] more guys out there if it wasn’t colder, but they weren’t out there. For us, once you start putting on sleeves and start doing things differently, you buy into the elements and the game is over.”

The Cowboys came out of the locker room hot, running all over the Bears defense for a quick score and a 7-0 lead. Dallas kept the game close for a while, but the Bears eventually ran off to 45-28 win.

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