The Dallas Cowboys Washington Redskins rivalry is not what it used to be nowadays. The owners are best buddies, neither team has won a championship in 25+ years, and half the city of Washington are Cowboys fans anyway. It is the Philadelphia Eagles that have taken over as the Cowboys chief rival due to their recent success and the notoriety of their despicable fan base. Still, this game means a little more than most others and the Cowboys have an opportunity to start 2-0 in their division on Sunday.
On paper this looks to be a mismatch after the Redskins blew a 17 point lead to the Eagles last week while the Cowboys throttled the Giants. Yet, as most fans know, things change from week to week and some teams match up better against others. This game should present a bigger challenge for the Cowboys than the Giants presented in the season opener.
First of all, this game will be played on the road. Travelling to another teams turf always presents a unique challenge and this game will be first road game of the season for 2019 Dallas Cowboys. Despite the fact that nearly half the fans in attendance will be sporting Cowboys gear, home field advantage will still be in the favor of the Redskins.
The Redskins may be without All Pro Tackle Trent Williams who is in the midst of a contract dispute. Despite Williams’ absence in the lineup, the Redskins have a formidable offensive line and they can run the ball. The Cowboys struggled against the Giants improved offensive line in week 1 and allowed some big plays for Saquon Barkley. Last season, Adrian Peterson ran all over the Cowboys defense in their loss at Washington. The Cowboys run defense must improve in week 2 to give them the best shot to win this game.
On the defensive side of the ball, the Redskins pass rush should be a bigger challenge than what the Giants brought to Dallas last week. The injury that DE Jonathan Allen suffered could prove to be a huge break for the Cowboys but the rest of the Redskins front line is no joke led by second year stud Da’Ron Payne. The Dallas Cowboys offensive line must control the line of scrimmage in the run game and continue to protect Dak in order to keep the offense in the same rhythm as last week. Dak getting the ball out quick just like he did last week will be a huge factor there as well.
In their opening week loss to the Eagles, the Redskins secondary got burned a few times down the field. DeSean Jackson was the main culprit on a couple of 50+ yard bombs. Dak Prescott should have some opportunities to do similar damage with Michael Gallup and hopefully he can continue to connect with him. Last season, the timing between those two was off and the Cowboys missed opportunities because of it.
Despite the bigger challenge in week 2, I am confident that the Cowboys will be able to pull off the victory in this one. After witnessing Kellen Moore‘s offense go off in week 1, my optimism as a Cowboys fan is higher than it has been in years. The Cowboys defense was a tad disappointing last week but hopefully that had more to do with preseason jitters rather than any long term concern. I expect the defense to step up and raise their level of play going forward. My money is on the Cowboys beating the Redskins on Sunday by 6 pts. Final score 30-24 Cowboys.
*Photo by Kieth Allison https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0/legalcode