The first member of Dallas' secondary to haul in an errant pass this season, Cowboys star rookie Morris Claiborne made personal history and recorded his first career interception in Sunday's 19-14 win over Carolina.
With the Panthers on a 12-play drive that had already spanned 74 yards, Claiborne dove on a wobbly pass from quarterback Cam Newton in the endzone to effectively halt the drive and keep Carolina off the scoreboard. Though the ball narrowly missed smashing into the ground before Claiborne reeled it in, the first-year cornerback admitted that he was a tad lucky to be in the right position in the first place.
"It’s one of those things where they were going under and I was trailing a man," Claiborne told Rowan Kavner of DallasCowboys.com after the game. "Thank God the line got there and put a little pressure on the quarterback and made him do some things he didn’t want to do with the ball."
The interception ended a brutal drought by Dallas defensive backs that dated all the way back to Nov. 20 of last season, marking exactly 333 passes thrown against the Cowboys' secondary between interceptions. Cowboys linebacker Sean Lee did manage to pick off a pair of passes during that span, but the severe lack of turnovers had already started to become a real problem in the locker room for defensive coordinator Rob Ryan and his players. With the proverbial monkey off their backs, the Cowboys will hope to keep this new trend going strong against Eli Manning and the New York Giants in Week 8.