The Cowboys were fortunate enough to travel to Washington and a face their age old rival Redskins on a short week and riddled with injuries. Kirk Cousins is a difficult matchup for Dallas’ young secondary but with his offensive line decimated with injuries, and poor weather conditions, the Cowboys were able to stifle the Redskins offense. That was a much needed division win on the road and the Cowboys came through in a big way. It is always difficult to win on the road in the NFL, especially against a familiar foe.
The Cowboys offense struggled in the passing game as the rain poured down but they simply played to their strength and dominated the run game. Ezekiel Elliott has hit his stride and the new look offensive line is starting to gel. Aside from a fumble on Elliott’s first carry of the game, the Cowboys did not turn the ball over and that was the difference.
The Cowboys defense took advantage of the Redskins weakened offensive line and registered some key sacks. They were also fortunate to benefit from some lucky fumbles but credit them for taking full advantage. Orlando Scandrick’s performance really stood out, especially since he is still playing with a broken finger. Tyrone Crawford had a huge day. He was solid against the run, had a strip sack and made the play of the game with the blocked field goal that resulted in a 10 point swing when the Redskins were on the verge of extending their lead.
On special teams Mike Nugent had an impressive debut replacing the great Dan Bailey. I was concerned when he missed his first attempt but he was perfect after that, and in very bad weather.
The victory was not all sunshine and rainbows however. The problems in the secondary remain and Rookie Xavier Woods, who I hope will evolve into a starter at safety, made some key mistakes. His missed tackle late in the game gave the Redskins life and could have cost the victory. Those are the type of plays that have to be made to win games. The Cowboys have a really tough stretch of games ahead of them the rest of the season and at 4 – 3 there is little margin for such errors. Currently the Boys sit 3 games behind the division leading Eagles. Two of their 9 remaining games are against those Eagles so the opportunity is there. Let’s hope that rain or shine, they take advantage of it!
- Photo by Keith Allison (c) https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0/ https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0/legalcode