ARLINGTON – An emotional and outraged Dez Bryant made his return to the field on Sunday in a 13-12 loss to visiting Seattle, but focused his postgame conversation on accusations that he mocked and celebrated an injury scare to Seahawks special-teamer Ricardo Lockette.
“I would never, ever, ever, ever wish bad on a player who’s been knocked down,’’ Bryant said, first calmly and then increasingly angrily. “Stop with the bull…not one time did I say ‘That’s what you get.” I got down on one knee and prayed for that man. Don’t put clips together (to make it look otherwise.)”
During the first half, Lockette was knocked unconscious after a hit by the Cowboys Jeff Heath. Lockette stayed on the field for seven minutes before being taken away on a stretcher. The team later reported that he sustained a concussion but has full motion in his extremities.
While Lockette was down, Bryant was seen jawing with Seattle’s Bruce Irvin. Bryant said that’s all that happened…and that seconds later, he teamed with Seattle’s Earl Thomas and Richard Sherman to get players from both teams back to their respective sidelines.
As for the game itself, the Cowboys blocked a field goal, held a quality foe to 13 points, got an interception out of Greg Hardy and held Marshawn Lynch to 3.4 yards per carry…but without Tony Romo, who’s still out from a broken collarbone, they are being bus-driven to the land of mediocrity (he can begin practicing on Wednesday and play on Nov. 22 at Miami). This game the driver was Matt Cassel again, with only 97 passing yards, looking not unlike the previous bus driver Brandon Weeden.
Bryant’s mood was likely impacted by a performance (two catches, 12 yards) that he conceded to me was “not good enough…that’s fair to say.” In truth, after missing six weeks with a broken bone in his foot, maybe expectations for Bryant were too high for his first game back. But not as high as his emotions, as his team falls to 2-5 and he’s shouldering an extra burden of characterizations that are unfair.
