Happy Thanksgiving from deep in enemy territory. The Redskins continue to sport the Championship uniform off the white jersey/burgundy pant combo on the road. Meanwhile, the Cowboys are departing from their normal throwback uniform to wearing their bad luck blue jersey. Here's to their continued back luck wearing it today. 

 

 ANNOUNCEMENT OF INACTIVES

 The Redskins declared the following players as inactive: 

o   No. 2 QB Nate Sudfeld

o   No. 19 WR Rashad Ross

o   No. 31 RB Matt Jones

o   No. 57 LS Nick Sundberg

o   No. 68 T Blaine Clausell

o   No. 74 G Arie Kouandjio

o   No. 98 DE Matt Ioannidis

 

 KEYS TO VICTORY 

The Defense must stop Beasley. Joe Barry didn't have an answer for him back in Week 2. Let's hope he's learned from that.

Feed Reed. To many times Reed will get off to a decent start only to have the offense go away from him after a quarter.

Control the clock. Dallas is currently ranked 3rd at T.O.P.  The Redskins can pretty much score at will once they get their rather going, however, the the best defense is an offense that keeps them off the field. 

 

One thing I have to do though is give props to the Cowboys organization. They put out one heck of a Thanksgiving Day spread for those of us that are here covering this game instead of being home with families. 

 

End of Pre Game

 

 First Quarter 

The Skins miss the coin toss but Dallas chooses to receive. Which works for us because we tend to defer to the second half anyways. 

Opening play the Defense is burned on a 15 yard end around play. Elliot destroys them for a gain of 20 on the third play. Had space for days & a hole you could sail a battleship though. UGLY starting drive for the Defense. Elliot stopped up the middle after a gain of seven on the Red Zone & he scores on the next play. Gonna be a long day at the office. 

Redskins offense feeds Vernon Davis for a short gain to open, then converts with a Fat Rob catch. Rob grinds for three. Cousins on the run connects to DJax for 19. Great play by Kirk. Fat Rob to the left for no gain. Kirk connects to Reed for 3 yards. Third down with a LOUD crowd that Jordan Reed shuts up with a 12 yard gain. Kirk incomplete pass but Dallas is called for holding. Thompson stopped for a loss of three. Kirk under pressure throws it incomplete to avoid a sack & the OL is called for holding. 2nd & 23. Thompson up the middle for 3. Dumb call as it says we're gonna play for the field goal. Kirk connects with Crowder for 1 yard. 4th & 16. Hopkins on for a 43 yard FG attempt. Redskins take a time out. Kick is wide left & no good which is weird because Hopkins was nailing 40-50 yard kicks in warm ups.

 

 SECOND QUARTER

Redskins start the 2nd quarter in the Red Zone. They go three & out & Jordan Reed is Down in the back of the End Zone. Reed is helped up & walks off on his own. I exhale the breath I'd been holding. Hopkins in for the field goal & its good from 24 yards out. Redskins have got to start getting into the end zone if they're gonna pull out the upset here. Reed is questionable with a left shoulder injury. 

Redskins Defense seems to have tightened up some. Dallas is no longer running for huge chunks of yardage. Mid drive the Defense gets a sack & Dallas is called for holding. 3rd & 14. Defense gets torched by Beasley. I was worried about Fuller being on him & he got toasted for a gain of 18. Barry needs to make an adjustment here pronto. Prescott overthrows Butler in the end zone. 3rd down again. Norman drops a defected Pass to Dez.  Cowboys take the field goal & its 10-3 in a game that feels like it should probably already be tied up at 21. 

 

 

 AT THE HALF

After each team's opening drive of the Second Quarter, both offenses seem evenly matched. The only big difference is Dallas is getting the bulk of their yards on the ground while the Redskins are getting theirs through the air.  The big story here so far is the Redskins inability to get into the end zone. Three drives in the first half & they settle for field goals, where they missed 2 out of 3 of them. Leaving points on the field, on the road, against a Divional rival is completely unacceptable. The Defense got carved up on the opening drive, but tightened up after that. They still allowed several chunk yardage plays, but they kept them more limited on completing those after the opening drive where they were gutted at will. Then the Two Minute Warning happened & they unloaded the next play for a touchdown to take a 17-3 lead with 1:45 on the clock. Skins best bet is to play the sidelines for chunks, put the ball in the end zone for 7 & run out the clock, going to the locker room down only by 7 since they get the ball to start the 2nd half. Almost. They managed everything but the touchdown & again settle for a field goal. At least they managed to make that one. It's 17-6 Dallas at the half.

 THIRD QUARTER 

Redskins can't get anything going to open this half. However, Jordan Reed is returning to the game. On the Cowboys first drive, the Defense leaves a gaping hole underneath & Witten makes them pay for it. Dallas starts picking up 9 & 10 yard chunks again. A holding call backs them up to their 46 & its 1st & 20. Written picks 8 & the Redskins burn their first time out. A turnover would help. Skins need some kind of spark to get back into this. Only down by 11, this offense can overcome that if they can get into a good rhythm. Down, 18, that's a different story. Bree land breaks up a deep sideline shot to Williams on 3rd down. Dallas forced to punt with Crowder back to receive. Fair catch, Skins at the 10. HAVE to get 7 here. Skins get to midfield, hit a 4th & 2, convert it, continue to march into field goal range & chew up the clock. Kirk hits the fade to Reed for a first down at the 3. A touchdown here & it's a football game. A field goal & it could be the season. Skins have chewed up over 10 minutes in this quarter.

 

 FOURTH QUARTER

TOUCHDOWN JORDAN REED!!! We got a football game now. Skins down by 5 go for 2. The attempt is picked off by Sean Lee. It's 17-12 Dallas with 14:54 left. Elliot gets a 21 yard chunk of burnage followed by a catch for 19 yards & Dallas is at the 35 in two plays. Elliot finally stopped for a gain of 1. Beasley burns the D for 12. Dallas scrambles, knocked out of bounds by Breeland. Dez over the middle, tackled by Norman after a gain of 13. Ball at the 6. Day runs it in for the touchdown. Dallas struck quick & efficiently in answer to the Redskins time consuming last drive. 75 yards in under 5 minutes to the the Skins 90 yard 10 minute drive. 24-12 Dallas. 10:49 left on the clock.

DJAX ****es!!! Helluva throw by Cousins 67 yards down the sideline touchdown DJax, kick is good & Skins are back to being down by 5. Skins just went 3 plays 75 yards in under 2 minutes for that score. Skins with the onsides kick, Dallas recovers.

9:21 on the clock. If there was ever time for a Norman pick six, this would be it. Instead Dallas runs it to keep the clock running. They pick up a personal foul penalty & two plays later, Elliot is in the end zone, but wait, Dallas gets called for holding.  2nd & 10. Foster with the duplex takedown on Elliot, no penalty & the Dallas media behind me is crying about it. And then Elliot is in the end zone again two plays later. It's 31-19 Dallas with 6:29 left. Skins are forced to do what they do best now. Throw it. The Crowder/Reed show gets them across mid field, only thing stopping them was a false start penalty. A Reed strip fumble recovered for a Dallas TD is ruled incomplete pass. Next pass is to Crowder for 10. Skins convert a 4th & 1. Ball at the Dallas 29. 3:32 on the clock. Cousins hits Crowder again for 9. Cousins incomplete to Grant in double coverage in the end zone. Cousins keeps it up the middle 1st down. Cousins to Thompson gain of 3. Cousins to Reed, 1st & goal at the 8. 2 minute warning. Touchdown Jordan Reed, his second for the day. Kick is good, it's 31-26 Dallas with 1:53 left. Beasley back for Dallas as the Skins go for the onsides kick again. Ball goes out of bounds, Dallas ball at the 47. Ugh. 1:51 left on the clock. Joe Barry needs to dial up a turnover here because this down by 5, down by 12 back n forth scoring bit has gotten old. Instead Dallas comes out running the ball to kill clock, skins burn a timeout. Beasley with an 8 yard catch, Elliot up the middle, clocking running, Skins call a 30 second timeout. 2nd & 8 with 55 ticks left on the clock. Prescott takes a knee 3rd & 9. Clock runs out. Game over.

 

 

 FINAL THOUGHTS

One, Cousins ain't going anywhere. He's gonna get paid.

Secondly, we need to quit paying Joe Barry. He's had more then enough time to scheme up answers for guys like Elliot & Beasley. At times, the defense could hold Elliot for short gains but they couldn't effectively take him out of the game. 

Play calling was questionable today & deservedly so. The run up the middle on 3rd & long, the 2 point conversions, the first onsides kick...The points left out on the field. Jeebus. That one kills me. It's a problem this offense has had going back to last offseason when the starters could never get a touchdown. Don't get me wrong, this is a VERY talented offense & coaching staff. It's kinda reminds me of the knock Kyle Shanahan had here, that whole "gets to smart for his own good" rep. Two seasons in & it's like they're still trying to figure out how to put together continuous complete games. But I'm telling you, when can do that, & have a top defense, this is team is gonna be really, really, good. They're close. They're not there just yet, but they've been knocking on the door of greatness, they just don't have the password to get in yet. 

Post Game Audio

Photos