Cowboys CB Claiborne made a good play to save a bad day

Morris Claiborne didn’t sugar-coat it.

“I pretty much stunk it up at first,” the Dallas Cowboys cornerback said.

For the first 58:58, Claiborne didn’t play anything like a first-round draft pick as the St. Louis Rams quarterback Austin Davis kept picking on him.

Claiborne gave up a 51-yard touchdown pass to Brian Quick. He gave up a 38-yard completion to Kenny Britt. He gave up a 4-yard touchdown to Austin Pettis.

Shampoo. Rinse. Repeat.

But Cowboys defensive coordinator Rod Marinelli said he never considered benching Claiborne, even with Sterling Moore standing on the sideline.

“We have faith in every guy out there,” Marinelli said. “We believe in him. We’ve just got to keep coaching him.”

It was no surprise that Davis would go at Claiborne yet again with the game on the line. Even Claiborne knew what was coming.

“I just tried to stay positive,” Claiborne said. “They got some big plays early in the game, so why not go back to that and try it again? I stood up.”

With the Cowboys leading 34-31 with 1:11 to play, Davis tried a 29-yard pass to Quick. But Claiborne, who had good coverage, intercepted the pass to seal the game.

From goat to hero, just like that.

“It was huge for him,” safety Barry Church said. “He was up and down all day like our defense. Our defense as a whole was up and down all day. For him to make that game-closing interception that was great for his confidence, and that was great for our team as a whole. Gave us a victory. That was good.”

The Cowboys moved up in the 2012 draft, making a trade with the Rams, to select Claiborne sixth overall. But injuries and poor play have kept Claiborne from living up to expectations. They haven’t kept him off the bench.

“Do I think about he’s not the guy? Well, I don’t think he’s THE guy,” Cowboys owner Jerry Jones said Sunday. “But as far as the future is concerned, I think he’s going to be a really outstanding player, and he’s had kind of a unique couple of years here. But that will get leveled out, get pretty consistent with his reps, get out there and be competitive like he was in the early part of practice when we got to camp, this will give him some confidence today.”

Claiborne tried not to lose confidence Sunday after being burned again and again. Wide receiver Dez Bryant was among the players who kept tying to pump up Claiborne on the sideline.

“Let it go,” Bryant said he told Claiborne. “Let it go. There’s nothing you can do about it.”

“ … Good and bad happen, but you’ve got to let it ride. If you sleep on it, keep thinking about it, it’s going to happen again, and you’ve just got to block it out and that’s exactly what he did. He went up and sealed this victory for us.”

When Claiborne intercepted the pass, he made like Usain Bolt and sprinted off the field. Claiborne, though, didn’t sugar-coat it. He said he wasn’t satisfied. He said it wasn’t redemption.

It was a good play in an otherwise bad game.

“It just felt like you made a play,” Claiborne said. “If I would have made more, I would have felt a little bit better.”

This story was originally published September 21, 2014 at 8:55 PM with the headline "Cowboys CB Claiborne made a good play to save a bad day."