Redskins Vs. Cowboys: The Good, The Bad, And The Ugly
I was tempted to watch the game on mute last night because all of the Tony Romo love was becoming nauseating. ESPN’s coverage all week of Romo’s rib and “punctured lung” and all of the poor Cowboys injuries was enough to make me want to shoot myself in the foot.
I was really hoping the Redskins were going tear him apart and shut everyone up, but sadly, that didn’t happen. Here we go:
The Good:
- Laron Landry returned to the field and had an immediate impact, making several big hits and forcing a fumble. There also weren’t any deep passes thrown by Romo last night. You’d have to assume that might have been different if Reed Doughty was back there.
- Chris Cooley was finally healthy enough to actually contribute to the offense, catching four balls for 41 yards.
- Graham Gano, aside from having one field goal blocked due to a muffed snap, had a nice game, drilling three field goals including a 50 yarder.
- And that’s…. basically it.
The Bad:
- Where to begin, well Rex Grossman didn’t have his best game (although his QB rating was higher than Romo’s), throwing a bad interception deep in Redskins territory and losing a fumble in the waning moments (he lost another that Dallas could have challenged).
- The rest of the Redskins offense was largely shut down, especially in the red zone. Tim Hightower rushed for only 41 yards on 14 carries (2.9 ypc), although he did catch five balls for 39 yards including a one yard touchdown.
- The defense, although holding the Cowboys to zero touchdowns, gave up a lot of yards (375) and didn’t put nearly enough pressure on the ailing Romo. The Cowboys came into the game with one of the worst rushing offenses in the league, but the also-injured Felix Jones exploded for 115 yards on 14 carries (8.2 ypc), as well as three catches for 40 yards.
- Rex Grossman was under pressure all night. DeMarcus Ware, Anthony Spencer, and Sean Lee made a mess of the offensive line. Tackles Trent Williams and Jammal Brown, in particular, struggled mightily.
- Play-calling on both sides of the ball was suspect. The offense didn’t have any big plays. They didn’t even really attempt any. Outside of Santana Moss, the tight ends, and the running backs, Kyle Shanahan has no one else to turn to. Anthony Armstrong, Donte’ Stallworth, and Terrence Austin were all non-factors. Jabar Gaffney is descent, but there are no gamebreakers on this roster. Where’s Leonard Hankerson? Niles Paul? Get those rookies on the field!
- On defense, Jim Haslett was figured out pretty quickly by Jason Garrett and Tony Romo. It seemed as though the Cowboys knew what was coming. They knew when the Redskins were blitzing. They knew when they were dropping back into coverage, and Haslett couldn’t adjust.
- Brandon Banks was a non-factor.
- Darrel Young was out so the Redskins used Chris Cooley at fullback on some plays. Yeah, that didn’t work. The running game suffered. Pass protection suffered, and the offense in general just wasn’t the same. Who would have thought a second year, converted linebacker fullback could make that big of a difference.
The Ugly:
- Most of the game was bad, but there was only one play that was really ugly. It was 3rd and 21 and the Cowboys were deep in their own territory. If the Redskins would have stopped them, the game was likely over. Jim Haslett dialed up an all out blitz, hoping Romo would be forced to throw short to one of his hot receivers. That didn’t happen. He scrambled and evaded pressure, Ryan Kerrigan didn’t know what to do so he suddenly stopped pursuit and dropped into some sort of shallow zone. Romo had time to throw the ball off his back foot to Dez Bryant who had beaten DeAngelo Hall for the first down. Hall also grabbed Bryant’s face mask, tacking on another 15 yards. A few plays later, the Cowboys kicked the winning field goal.
- DeAngelo Hall had probably his worst game as a Redskin. It didn’t help that he had some pretty disparaging comments after the game either…
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