Undefeated No More

Well, I didn’t get a chance this weekend to post my pre-game thoughts of yesterday’s Cowboys-Deadskins game. However, if I did, I would have said that I thought Dallas would win by 14-18 points and would handle Washington with relative ease. But that was anything but the case yesterday as the Cowboys were outplayed and outcoached for much of the game. This was only Washington’s 2nd win at Texas Stadium in 13 visits but they certainly looked like the better team…at least yesterday.

The first quarter generally looked like the other 3 games Dallas had played except for the fact that they didn’t score on their first possession. Maybe that should have been a hint of things to come. But, by the end of the first quarter, Dallas got their offense in gear and Romo threw a touch down to Jason Witten and it looked like Dallas was off to the races. However, in the 2nd quarter, Washington clamped down and started to play with more energy. That, coupled with poor defensive play by Dallas, allowed Washington to score 17 second quarter points. Terrance Newman did not have a good game as he fell down on the touch down to Washington wide out James Thrash and was AWOL on a 53 yard completion to Santana Moss, who has had some of his best games against Dallas and had 8 receptions for 145 yards yesterday. Almost every big passing play Washington had was to Moss. Dallas simply has problems stopping him.

The Cowboy’s run defense was also not very good yesterday in giving up 161 yards on the ground…121 of those to Clinton Portis as helped salt the game away in the 4th quarter after a Romo interception. At the time, Washington was only leading 23-17 and they seemed content with just pounding the ball with Portis to take as much time off the clock as possible. Washington completed the 12 play, 55 yard drive with a field goal to make it a 2 score game and that was basically the game. Dallas scored a late touch down to make it a 2 point game but needed to successfully execute an onside kick, which they almost did, but the ball went through the hands of Sam Hurd. Game over. But the defense is what lost the game for Dallas yesterday as Washington scored on 6 of its final seven possessions going back to the middle of the 2nd quarter.

I really didn’t understand the play calling of Jason Garrett during the game. Last week vs. Green Bay, Dallas pounded the ball with Marion Barber to the tune of 120 yards. They used Felix Jones effectively, as a change of pass RB, and mixed in passes to Witten and Miles Austin as well. Yesterday though, Dallas really didn’t even try to run the ball. Of the 58 offensive plays Dallas called, 47 were passes and 11 were runs. Of Dallas’ last 38 offensive plays, they ran 4 times and passed 34 times (and 2 of those runs were a scramble by Romo and an end-around by Owens). So really, Garrett called 2 true running plays in their last 38. Garrett said after the game that the Washington defensive scheme dictated more passes. Correctly me if I’m wrong but I’ve always heard that, as a coach, you dictate the tempo, and style of play, to the other team and not acquiesce to your opposition. The amazing part of this is that Felix Jones got 0 plays called for him during the game…0. Felix is an amazing talent and we have all seen the type of speed he possesses. Why not mix him in a little bit and try to get him the ball in space? Try a screen pass to him or and end-around or even split him out in the slot to divert attention away from Witten and/or Owens (that is how Witten got his 1st quarter TD…Felix was sent in motion which took attention away from Witten and left him one on one with a linebacker). Felix needs to be more involved, period.

Another thing I think Garrett did was force feed Owens. I don’t know if he was trying to correct not getting TO involved more in last week’s game vs. Green Bay or what but there were 17 passes thrown Owens way and he caught 7 of them for 71 yards and 1 TD. And I don’t care what Owens says, they got him involved (or at least tried) and his production at the end of the day was decent. You can’t have 100+ yard receiving days every week in the NFL. I could go on but I think I’m just going to wrap up here.

The Deadskins came into Texas Stadium yesterday and played with more aggressiveness and urgency (on both side of the ball) than Dallas did. No excuses…Dallas got outplayed, outcoached, out fought, out everything by a team that is simply not as good although you wouldn’t be able to tell that from yesterday’s game. The next three games (Cincinnati, @ Arizona and @ St. Louis) are all very winnable and Dallas should be a heavy favorite going into each one so this is their chance to pad their record a little. But they need play a lot better than they did yesterday if they want to get to Tampa in February.

In some cases, a loss can be a good thing because it brings the team back down to the ground and shows them they aren't invincable. I think that's the case here. I think the players started believing what everyone was saying about them being the "Super Bowl favorite" and the "best team in the best division in football", etc. Maybe now they will see that ANY team, especially in their division, can beat them on a given week.