8:25 PM EST, NBC – Line: Cowboys -1.5, Over/Under: 45.5
Storied rivals look to find a way to salvage their respective seasons while clinging to faint Playoff Hopes, as the reeling Dallas Cowboys host the Washington Redskins at AT&T Stadium in Arlington, Texas. When these teams met earlier in the campaign, the Redskins (5-6, T-2nd in NFC East) found themselves on the wrong end of a 33-19 affair, in which the home side struggled to get much of anything going in a sloppy, rain-soaked matchup. Jay Gruden’s charges relinquished a 13-7 Second Quarter Lead, helpless to stop Dallas from scoring Nineteen unanswered Points, fueled by three costly Turnovers, including a pair of Lost Fumbles. The Offense was entirely one-dimensional, with the Running Game accounting for a scant Forty-Nine Yards on Fifteen Carries. As a result, they found it very difficult to string together Drives, with just one of their final Nine Drives lasting past Seventeen Yards. Kirk Cousins wasn’t very sharp, turning in a poor performance completing 26-of-39 Passes for 263 Yards, a Touchdown and an Interception, with the veteran Quarterback under duress all day, sustaining Four Sacks, one of which lead to a Lost Fumble. In the end, Washington only possessed the football for 26:41, as their Defense was helpless to stop their opposition’s Ground Game, which punished them for 169 Yards and a pair of Scores on Thirty-Nine Carries. And it’s with that said, that eleven games into the term, that that particular meeting with the Cowboys has pretty much summed up their season to this point; the Offense remains inconsistent at best, while the Defense has been hammered in the trenches. Whether it was losing former Offensive Coordinator Sean McVay, or the departure of two of their most productive Receivers, the Offense has rarely been able to put together solid back-to-back performances. Cousins (66.2%, 276.2 Y/G, 6.80 NY/A, 19 TD, 6 INT), who once again is playing under the microscope of the Franchise Tag, has found it difficult to get in synch with his renovated Receiving Corps, particularly with Free Agent Terrell Pryor (20 REC, 240 YDS, 1 TD) on Injured Reserve with an injured Ankle, and top Red Zone Threat Jordan Reed (27 REC, 211 YDS, 2 TD) relegated to just six games due to concussions. As was the case last year, this team simply isn’t getting enough out of their Running Game (104.4 Y/G, 3.9 Y/C) to continue to expect Cousins to hold everything together with a rotating cast of characters. That feeling is only underlined with the rash of injuries that have plagued the Offensive Line; Starting Tackles Trent Williams (Knee) and Morgan Moses (Knee, Ankle) have been dogged by injuries, while Guard Brandon Scherff (Knee) has been forced into limited Practice Time. Needless to say, this is not good news, when there are another five Lineman languishing on IR, including their other Starting Guard Shaun Lauvao (Neck). The same can be said for the Defense, which before their 20-10 Thanksgiving victory over the hapless New York Giants, had been shredded in previous weeks; in their three outings leading up to last Thursday’s win, the Redskins had yielded a whopping 459.3 Total Yards per Game, including 535 Yards in a 34-31 Overtime Loss to the New Orleans Saints. Seven Defenders occupy IR at the moment, with another three likely to miss tonight’s contest, which has really tested the overall depth of Gruden’s unit. However, we can’t help but come back to Cousins, whom the Front Office seems to be going out of their way to sabotage so they don’t have to sign him to a lucrative, long-term deal. With reports coming out of Redskins Camp saying that Management was really going to inspect their Quarterback’s play over the final quarter of the campaign, it’s become clear to us that he never was their guy, and worse still, is that they have been too cowardly to come out and say it. Given all the turnover around him, and all the injuries that have robbed him of what was once a solid Supporting Cast, it’s in our opinion that Cousins is doing an excellent job of holding all the disparate strands together. He’s once again completing a high percentage of his passes, while posting a healthy TD/INT Ratio, with a stellar 6.80 Net Yards per Attempt (8th Overall), which is proof positive that he’s been able to find success downfield despite a lack of chemistry with his Receivers and an Offensive Line in shambles (Thirty-One Sacks). Hell, with Four Game-Winning Drives to his credit (tops in the NFL BTW), you could make the argument that without him, they’d be stuck in the NFC Cellar with the Giants. This looks to be a case in which the hold adage You Don’t Know What You Got ’til It’s Gone applies, for it’s a shame that a franchise that for the better part of a decade fielded nothing but mediocre Quarterbacks can’t seem to see what they have in front of them.
Meanwhile, things have become dire in Arlington, where the Cowboys (5-6, T-2nd in NFC East), who are now midway through Ezekiel Elliott’s controversial Six-Game Suspension, without a win on their ledger. That’s right, folks, Dallas was very much in the thick of things in the NFC before the Sophomore Tailback’s league-mandated hiatus, but have since lost three consecutive games due in no small part to the absence of their once-dominant Running Game. This is a case in which every facet of the team’s performance is quite literally contingent on the success of the Ground Game, which has been invisible since Elliott’s departure. In eight games with the reigning Rushing Champion, Jason Garrett’s charges went 5-3, while scoring 28.3 Points per Game, and churning out a superb 148.1 Yards on the Ground. However, with Elliott (191 CAR, 783 YDS, 7 TD) out of the equation, they’re struggling to score (7.3 P/G) while rushing for 99.3 Yards per Game. To put things in perspective, in their last victory, a 28-17 thrashing of the Kansas City Chiefs, they scored more points then they would in the following three outings combined. Furthermore, the Passing Game has struggled to function without the benefit of the Run to lean on; Dak Prescott (63.7%, 210.7 Y/G, 5.89 NY/A, 16 TD, 9 INT) had completed 62.9% of his Attempts for an average of 227.3 Yards on 7.02 Yards per Attempt, with Sixteen Touchdowns and Four Interceptions in eight games with Elliott at his back, but without him has fallen off a cliff completing 65.9% of his Passes for an average of just 166.7 Yards on 5.68 Yards per Attempt, with Zero Touchdowns and Five Interceptions. Basically, he’s had to resort to dinking and dunking his way down the field, which isn’t how he or the Offense as a whole needs to perform in order to succeed. This was no more apparent than in last Sunday’s disappointing 28-6 Thanksgiving Day debacle at home to the Los Angeles Chargers, with the reigning Offensive Rookie of the Year efficiently completing 20-of-27 Passes only to gain a mundane 179 Yards, while tossing a pair of Interceptions and taking as many Sacks. Again, everything is built on the premise that the Running Game is firing on all cylinders, and without it it’s been rather hard to watch. Granted, the Offensive Line has had it’s very share of absences to, none more so noticeable than that of perennial All-Pro Left Tackle Tyron Smith, who missed the first two games of Elliot’s Suspension nursing Back and Groin Injuries, which very noticeably hampered his play against the Chargers last Thursday. And if that wasn’t bad enough, their All-Pro Guard Zac Martin left that very same game with a concussion, leaving his status for tonight’s matchup in doubt as well. But wait, what about the Defense? After all, Elliott doesn’t play Defense, right? No he doesn’t, but that’s not to say that his presence doesn’t have an effect on his cohorts on the opposite side of the ball. The Cowboys thrived defensively in 2016 because they were rarely o the field at all, thanks in large part to the Offense chewing up Time of Possession, leaving Rod Marinelli’s unit fresh and ready for action. Without that element to benefit from, this group has gotten manhandled the more they’re on the field. Simply put, these guys aren’t the Broncos, Seahawks, or Vikings, who can hold the fort despite being on the field for long stretches. Oft-injured Middle Linebacker Sean Lee (52 TKL), a First Team All-Pro in 2016, has missed four games this season with a litany of injures, including the defeat to Los Angeles, with his latest hamstring strain expecting to sideline him until the middle of December. In four games without him, Dallas has relinquished an average of 33.8 Points on 413.0 Total Yards, including a season-worst 515 Yards a week ago. Given the current state of the team, it’s difficult to figure out exactly how they’re supposed to pull themselves back up off the mat before Elliott’s reinstatement in two weeks. How are they supposed to manhandle the Redskins like they did back on October 29th without so many key contributors? As we said earlier, they absolutely controlled the game on the ground, with Elliott accounting for 150 of his team’s 169 Rushing Yards, while Lee racked up a team-best Nine Tackles. This is a very different Cowboys team than the one that ran wild over a month ago, which could lead to a very different outcome. Somewhere, Jerry Jones is making more idle threats to the Commissioner…