Very little in Detroit's come-from-behind win over Dallas pleased Lions coach Jim Schwartz more than shutting down Cowboys wideout Dez Bryant.
After Bryant hauled in a third-quarter pass along Detroit's sideline, he wasted no time before predictably jawing with Lions players. Bryant's hubris was premature, however, with officials ruling him out of bounds -- and then it got ugly.
Perhaps fueled by Rob Ryan's pre-game comments suggesting that he'd take Bryant ahead of Detroit's sensational Calvin Johnson, Schwartz launched into a tirade against Bryant that left FOX analyst Troy Aikman to question on-air: "What the heck is going on out there?"
"I don't think Dez Bryant had a catch after about midway through the first quarter," a more-composed Schwartz told the Detroit Free Press after the game, echoing Cowboys coach Jason Garrett's concerns about his wideout, who's still recovering from a thigh bruise.
"(Bryant) hasn't been able to practice and he really hasn't been able to run," Garrett told ESPN Dallas this week. "... Receivers need to be able to run throughout the ballgame, and when you don't practice and you don't run throughout the week, it's hard for you to maintain the pace that you need to maintain throughout a 60-minute game."
Way we see it, when Bryant's good, he reminds you why Jerry Jones handed him Michael Irvin's No. 88 jersey. When he's bad, though, he's the headache at the center of a schizophrenic Cowboys team that can't decide what it wants to be this season.
