Redskins 20, Cowboys 17 (OT)
What a weird game.
It is Cowboys-Redskins so we shouldn't be surprised. Washington beat turnover-prone Dallas on Monday night at AT&T Stadium, snapping its six-game win streak.
The big storyline was of course Tony Romo's health. He took a shot early in the second half and it did not look good as he laid on the turf for what seemed like a few minutes. Brandon Weeden came into the game and actually played well, leading the Cowboys to three points and a tie at 10 and then a tie at 17 with a touchdown drive.
Romo came out of the locker room and was cleared to go by the doctors. I was shocked he was back on the field. I thought he was going to be done for the game and maybe the season with his history of back injuries. Amazingly, he came back into the game with two minutes left. He did not play that well, though. If I had been Jason Garrett, I would not have put him back out there for a few reasons. First, Weeden had played well on his drives and had led the team to points. He was in the flow of the game and had completed some passes. In fact, he was 4 of 6 for 69 yards and a touchdown to Jason Witten. Romo had not been in the game for awhile and was not in the flow of the game. Also, Dallas is playing for the future. If Romo went back in and got re-injured, that could be the end of a playoff run. Keeping him out would at least ensure he would not get hurt in the final two minutes of the game or overtime. When we were uncertain if Romo was OK, I said to myself I would trade a win over the Redskins for knowing that Romo was 100 percent healthy. Well, Dallas lost, and Romo appears to be healthy though I doubt he is 100 percent.
We can talk about Romo going out all we want, but it wasn't the reason Dallas lost the game. Weeden played well, like I said. Dallas lost because of a pair of turnovers that are becoming way too common for this squad. Joseph Randle had one early in the game that Washington did not turn into points because J.J. Wilcox intercepted Redskins QB Colt McCoy in the end zone, but it did take away
The next turnover was worse. It was Murray, his fifth fumble of the season, which is the huge blemish on his otherwise so far stellar campaign. The way it happened is rubbing salt in the wound. Murray was wide open on a pass from Romo and rumbled all the way down inside the 10-yard line. Instead of going out of bounds, he turned back into the field and tried for a few more yards. Big mistake. As he fought for yardage, the ball was stripped and the Cowboys missed out on a huge scoring opportunity. At that point, it was still 3-0 Redskins. You have to guess that Dallas would have either tied the game on that drive or gone ahead with a TD. That would have made the score 10-3 or 14-3 Cowboys at the half instead of just 7-3 and then we are looking at a different game. Murray, like so many other football players, should have just given up on the play when he was pretty much stopped instead of trying to be the hero and get another yard or two.
Another reason Dallas lost was because of questionable play calling. Maybe the coaches were trying to ease some of the load on Murray but there were two times in the game that stick out that I thought were running downs and Dallas instead passed. The first was on Weeden's first drive. Murray took a handoff and got all the way down to the Washington six-yard line on a 51-yard run. On first down, Murray got to the 3. The next two plays were pass plays. In my opinion, the second-down play should have been another Murray run. After that, you decide what to do on third down based on the second- down result. If Murray would have gotten down to the 1, run him again. If he would have gotten down to the 2 or had no gain or a loss, then pass. But taking the ball out of the hands of the league's leading rusher there on second down from the 3 was a mistake.
The other instance was in overtime. On Dallas' drive, Murray took a first-down handoff eight yards. On second down, the play should have been another handoff to Murray. Instead, the Cowboys ran play action and a dump off to Murray in the backfield. He lost one yard on a play that Washington sniffed out. On third and fourth downs, Dallas tried passes that failed. You could argue there that 3rd-and-3 should have been a run, too, because it was four-down territory. Dallas could not punt the ball being down 20-17. Take your chances with Murray on third-and-short, and then pass on fourth down if it was greater than one yard to go. That third-down play was not as obvious a missed playcall as the other two times, but still debatable. Murray had 141 yards and 7.4 yards per carry. For the most part, Washington could not stop him. But the Cowboys took the ball out of their workhorse's hands at the wrong moments. Hopefully these were momentarily lapses in judgement and the play calling goes back to what worked during the six-game win streak. I don't want to over use Murray either, but if a situation calls for a run, the play needs to be a run, whether Murray is in there or Randle or Lance Dunbar.
For the most part, I still feel good about the Cowboys. Getting to 7-1 with a game coming up against the hot 6-1 Cardinals would have been better, but the way the game played out does not have me overly concerned. It was a rivalry game. Sometimes you lose those and it doesn't always look like you should going into the contest. The flow of the game was disjointed with Romo getting hurt and the turnovers. Take the fumbles out, and Dallas might win. Romo never gets hurt and Dallas might win. Decide against putting Romo back in and Weeden might get it done since he was looking pretty solid. Just lots of weirdness about the game that makes me hope and think it was an aberration in what was an otherwise great first half of the season for the Cowboys.
Also, Washington actually played a good game. The defense was confusing the Cowboys all night with its blitz looks. And the Dallas defense did not have a ton to go for studying McCoy since he barely played last week. But he played well. He completed 25 of 30 passes and his arm strength, normally cited as a negative, looked good to me on some long throws to DeSean Jackson. Washington's offense had been producing well in the pass game but it was being held back by Kirk Cousin' interceptions. McCoy had one of those but for the most part, played way better than Cousins had been. McCoy has always been known for terrific accuracy. In my opinion, Dallas wins the game playing against Cousins. For the Redskins, they have two winnable games coming up against the Vikings and then a bye followed by a matchup with the Bucs. Robert Griffin III is almost healthy. If I was Washington, I would play McCoy against the Vikings and then bring RG3 back for the Bucs game after the bye week. That would give him an extra week to heal up. If McCoy plays lights out against the Vikings, I would even consider riding him until he goes cold. But if they want to bring RG3 back, do it against the Bucs, a bad team. The game after that is a road game at the 49ers. You do not want to bring RG3 back against a top defense on the road. Could be asking for trouble.
Time for the Cowboys to regroup. A loss could be the humbling that was needed. The Cardinals game next week is now huge. Win that and the team is back on track at 7-2 with a very winnable game Week 10 in London against the Jaguars before a bye week. Lose to the Cardinals, and you have to hope for a win vs. the Jaguars and then you kind of limp into the bye week at 7-3, still on the right side of what I thought during the preseason Dallas needed to be at after 10 games to have a chance down the stretch to get into the playoffs. Hopefully Romo is OK. His health for the duration of the season is important. Weeden played well. Arizona has a good defense. If Romo is a little hurt, I would play Weeden against the Cardinals. If he plays well, I would maybe even start him against the Jaguars, hoping even he can beat Jacksonville, That would give Romo another week to heal up with the bye week. Then he would come back Week 12 for a road game at the Giants. If Romo is close enough to 100 percent, though, throw him out there against the Cardinals because it is a big game.
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