The Tums Bowl

Rafael,
I dont see a blowout coming, but man i feel a little better hearing about their injuries.

It hasn’t been much of a rivalry the last few years, I don’t even have a hate for them like Philly and NY. If they beat us again I will have a strong hate again.

My hate came surging back when brunell threw up 2 prayers that got answered in spetember and they cut to snyder dancing around in the press box and gibbs getting the gatorade bath on the sidelines. i wonder if BP shows that to his boys this week.

Weather report:
It was bitter cold here this morning, and it looks like snow tomorrow. Sat is suppossed to be sunny. Sunday calls for mostly cloudy and just above freezing. The kick off is 4 local so the game will go into the evening and the temp will likely dip below freezing, but it will be dry.
The chefs will like the sunny weather on sat.

amen jarhead (the 2 prayers game) i’m MAD at the Redskins again and it makes me feel kinda good to be honest :) – I would love nothing more than to watch the Cowboys demolish the skins in their own back yard…and get to see the smug little smirk wiped off the face of ole danny boy – welcome to the blog Toast and Jarhead by the way…

Raf u bring up good points – it would seem in today’s NFL, with parity and free agency – any team can win on any given day and emotion plays such a huge part of any game….i think the Boys will be pumped – we never know what’s gonna happen with our o-line from week to week, but personally i think bledsoe (the one we saw against KC) is here for the remainder of the season – if he gets some time back there watch out!

I can only hate snyder so much. He is a questionable decision maker at best and has kept the skins mired in mediocrity which is a good thing.

If you told me at the beginning of the year, “jarhead, you’ll be swept by the skins but you’ll make the playoffs and make a run,” i would have taken it (see 1995).

We have dominated them lately, but so what? we havnt done much else. Yep, we need the win baby, but either way, Im more excited about the boy’s potential for the first time in a long time.

aw,

I had gotten used to the automatic two wins against the Skins every year. I kind of liked seeing them on the schedule.

board,
Parcells has been quiet on the topic of what happened last time vs the Skins. Are his players gonna give it for this game and he is just flying us under the radar??

A blowout either way looks unlikely, but Brunell may have started focusing too much on Moss, and he has thrown some recent interceptions. Cooley looks dangerous. On the other side, if Harris, Rogers, and Springs all are unhealthy, the starting corners could be Ade Jimoh and one of the guys from the practice squad(Burns or Patterson).

was checking out cowboys.com a few min. ago, and saw that the skins are ranked #27 in the league in sacks – good omen for the o-line and for Drew to have another barn-burner day?

i predict the boys win by at least 12 points. i think the boys will drive the ball easily on this defense. look for the receivers and witten to have a big day with bledsoe as their corners are injured. bledsoe will have more time than usual which will make a big difference also. im sure parcells wont let moss run free at all this time. and i like barber more than jj at this point but jj is still starting and i think jj will finally have a big day for some reason.

cowboys 27
skins 13

Okay, I can deal with the loss of “hate” but please, PLEASE don’t tell me that any of you lost the joy of crushing the Redskins twice a year. If so, I may have to question your fanhood.

I say we win by 10 points and the only reason we don’t win by more is that this team has proven over and over this season that they don’t know how to put people away when the opportunities arise…which I believe will be our downfall in the playoffs.

Our running game will be so-so but servicable. Our passing game will boom (see last week) due to poor pass rush by Deadskins. Our rush d will make Clinton look more ridiculous than his failed and obviously contrived weekly get-ups aimed to garner the attention his lack of playmaking loses him. Brunell, unfortunately, will hit a couple of big plays as our pass d stills tries to find its way back from the fog of injuries and declining pass rush.

Give me a big swig of Sean’s kool-aid and give me a 27-17 Cowboy victory. It’ll be closer than it sounds.

Not many inkured players anymore, Springs, Rogers, Harris, Salave’a and Samuels (the starter at LT) are now listed as probable for Sunday. I guess full staffs will meet on the field on Sunday, it’s OK, I didn’t wanted any excuses…

OFFENSE: QB DREW BLEDSOE, DALLAS COWBOYS
The Dallas Cowboys earned a thrilling 31-28 win over the Kansas City Chiefs on Sunday in what some considered one of the NFL’s best games of the season. Quarterback Drew Bledsoe had a starring role in the win, completing 22 of 34 attempts for 332 yards, three touchdowns and no interceptions, posting a 126.1 passer rating. Trailing 28-24 late in the fourth quarter, Bledsoe drove the Cowboys 68 yards in 14 plays, capping the drive with a 1-yard touchdown pass to tight end Dan Campbell. Bledsoe’s three touchdown passes give him 241 in his illustrious career, moving past Len Dawson (239) into 15th place all-time. Bledsoe’s 22 completions bring his career total to 3,700 passing Fran Tarkenton (3,686) and Vinny Testaverde (3,688) for fifth-most in NFL history. The Cowboys improved their record to 8-5 with the win, one game behind the NFC East-leading New York Giants.

In his 13th season from Washington State, this is Bledsoe’s ninth career Player of the Week award and second of 2005 (Week 1).

if dallas wins this game im more than sure they will be in the playoffs, as the panthers, the bucs, and the vikes all have extremely tough schedules to deal with these last 3 games. if dallas wins out the final 3 games they have about a 50% chance of stealing the division

aw,
nice post.

Chandus,
like you said, no excuses.

Good Reverand,

I’ll take a big chug of that Kool-Aid and join you at 27-13 in favor of Big D.

reasons for VICTORY and a BLOWOUT.

Dallas failed to socore a field goal to make it 16-13…….watching that game unlucky hung in the air well like the unlucky number that it is. I had that feeling……….

Enter Billy the Kid.

Dallas shutout Washingtons D except for those two plays. Those two plays don’t happen this time around.

Dallas 24 Washington 7

Their offense is pathetic, their D is beat up and their cornerbacks are gone. Remember what happened to us with injury at the CB position last year. We could not stop anybody from passing all over us. Washington and Gibbs don’t have anybody left to cover. Two good safeties………but not a Corner in the whole house.

Look for Witten, KJ, and Glenn to have big days. JJ and MB will mop up the rest……and D Ware and company find a way to catch up to the lefty.

On the otherside of the ball Dallas has gotten Henry back at half speed and Aaron Glenn who knows his condition. Nonetheless look for Parcells to continue to use Newman on Punt returns and in WR sets occassionally. One more thing to confuse the opponents as we approach the playoffs. Time to send Joe Gibbs a Christmas card and let him know he can go back to racing in January cuz the redskins are DUN!!!

Quite frankly, Dallas hasn’t been nearly as good on the road as they are at home. I tend to think they are far less agressive in their play calling on the road. This trend makes it absolutely essential that the Boys run the ball well. Or is it? As we know the Redskins have a very good defense against the run. I don’t think Dallas will just run at the heart of their defense all day. So should we look for Glenn down the field? Again I don’t think so. Washington’s defensive coordinator can be blitz happy, and looking deep early and often can end up being very ugly. So what do we look for? I would expect Sean Payton to try to get the ball to the RBs beyond the line of scrimmage. In recent weeks Jones, Barber, and Polite have had some catches from out of the backfield, with pretty good results. This type of offensive philosophy will allow Parcells to stay conservative, but at the same time give his RBs a chance to make plays past the line of scrimmage. .. Parcells called Dallas’ game winning drive against KC “the best drive of the year”. In that drive Marion Barber showed his pass catching skills. First hauling in a low pass from Bledsoe on a critical 3rd down and 8. (Can you imagine the frusterated chorus of sighs by the Cowboys’ faithful if he had not reeled that pass in? “Here we go again” would have been the collective thought.) Then Barber caught another, and had his wits about him to get out of bounds. Thus saving the Boys to rush to the 7 yard line and also saving a down as the Cowboys would have probably spiked the ball there. In all though, I say expect some more from our RBs catching passes against Washington.

Blits/put pressure on Burenell the entire game and double cove the little fast guy (moss). That should do it.

Sorry about the spelling folks.. I should stop trying to type faster than 20 words per min… I still haven’t got over our first meeting with the skins. played aggressive for 57 min and then started to play preventive winning style… leaving Brunell alone to take his sweet time and pass it to moss… Need to put pressure on him all the time.

We should win this one. I’m not going to say by a blowout however.

I went to each games stat sheet to look at the pass/run ratios for home & away games. Here’s what I found. The pass plays also include the sacks in it.

We have passed more than run the ball on the road(197 passes -187 runs). At home we run just slightly more(245 passes to 247 runs).

We average 6 more offensive plays per game at home than on the road.

Not sure what it means, but I really expected us to have a much higher run-pass ratio for road games. Maybe the play calling isn’t as conservative on the road as I thought.

Anyway, Dallas 17 Washington 12.

JUST SOMETHING TO KEEP IN MIND,THE REDSKIN OFFENCE SCORED A WHOPPING 10 POINTS AGAINST THAT MIGHTY ZONA D AND IF THEY DONT LUCK OUT WITH THAT RETURN,THEY LOSE.

OH YEA,COWBOYS 24 INDIANS 14…GO COWBOYS

’Boys 20 – Pigskins 13

I’m afraid to look.

Hey Raf,

Jets are probably going to have a fire sale after the season. Cutting Martin, Pennington, and maybe releaseing Abraham…….rumor is Herm goes to KC to replace his old coach Vermeil……and the new regime in NY will decide to start over. Pennington is too much cap space for a guy with a bum shoulder.

Abraham, Pennington and Martin. Sounds like a rock group……anyway all ex Parcells draft picks and a guy that could bookend Ware! I doubt Parcells goes after Martin or Chad but if the Jets really do go into rebuild phase……why not an FA for the OLB spot instead of a rookie! We got cap space, but need to resign Campbell Witten and B James.

Dave,

When we talk conservative, just take a look at how some games opened up. At home against Philly, at home against NY, Denver, and KC … in the first half the Cowboys threw the ball down field and either converted that into points or opened up defenses and drove the legth of the field. In a lot of road games they haven’t started games with long pass attempts, but short passes and running plays. In their last 4 road games the offense has scored 13-10-14-10. They have been in all those games, but I just think they might want to open it up a bit more as they lost 3 of em and really should have lost all 4. .. I think this offense is best when they force the defense to cover the entire field. In this game getting the ball to the RBs past the line of scrimmage would put a lot of pressure on Washington’s safeties, and force their secondary into making tackles. Just don’t think its best to run right at their strength.

Hey Eric notice Canty’s start over your boy Ellis?

Cash,

I like Canty as well. He is very good against the run, probably the reason for the start, although it didn’t show last Sunday. BTW, Canty, Spears, and the Boys lack of size at LB was the reason I thought Ellis would move there in the first place.

Ellis is still a good pass rusher, but he can’t take the constant pounding of a 3-4 DE. You do notice who leads the team in sacks? Also who is out there for the coin toss? .. “My boy” as you call him, Greg Ellis.

Cash,

Also, its still my opinion that we could use him out there at LB. Look at how KC pounded us, and for specific teams like the Chiefs (who run very effectively), I would put Ellis out there at LB to try to stop their running game. He could add some size, to make it harder for run oriented teams to push us around. .. It doesn’t look like it will happen, so its just my opinion. From the beginning of this arguement, I thought a few snaps per game on first downs, or ideal running situations couldn’t really hurt to try Ellis at LB. .. But obviously I was wrong.

I’m an old-school Cowboys fan, back from the George Allen – Tom Landry days. I dislike EVERYTHING about the Redskins – their silly band, the late idiot owner of the team (George Preston Marshall) that tried blocking NFL expansion to Dallas in the late 1950s – early ‘60s, the team’s proximity to and inevitable political involvement in all things DC, etc etc ad nauseaum…

…the ONLY teams I dislike MORE than the Redskins are the Beagles and those Joisey Giants.

Sorry. No forgiveness here. Trample them Injuns.

I HATE THE DEADSKINS!!! I LIVE IN THE DC AREA AND YOU SHOULD HEAR ALL THE TRASH THEY ARE TALKIN,BUT THATS OK CAUSE WR ARE GOING TO WHIP THEIR A-S!!FROM TOP TO BOTTOM,I HATE THAT TEAM,WEATHER THEIR GOOD OR BAD,I HATE THAT TEAM!!!OH YEA,IN CASE YOU DONT KNOW,I HATE THAT TEAM!!! GO COWBOYS

How do the ’Boys blow out the Redskins? Let me count the ways.

1. Redskins Offense – They have clearly declined, as Brunell is doing his yearly tank job. They haven’t been good all year, and their last 4 games show a marked decline. Our Defense should shut them out.

2. Redskins Defense – They’re not what they used to be. I’ve never really thought that their talent level was all that good. Taylor is a monster, but the corners are injured and playing very average. Good LB corps, but a very average front four. If they come out aggressive, they’ll keep it close for a while, but sooner or later, it will cost them. TG will burn them for one or two deep and that will be that.

3. Emotion – They’ve got it. DC is a crazed town that will put way too much pressure on their youngsters. I see ’em trying to “open it up” on us early and getting burned. Once down, this team will NOT repeat the Monday night debacle.

4. Preparation – We’ll be prepared. They won’t.

5. Talent – We got it. They don’t.

Cowboys 27, Redskins 10.

And it won’t be as close as the score suggests.

Injured Players All Listed as Probable

By Jason La Canfora
Washington Post Staff Writer
Thursday, December 15, 2005; Page E07

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/12/14/AR2005121402169.html

joey2zs:

I deleted the writer’s article and replaced it with a link – we may get into legal trouble for a copy/paste of another person’s article without permission.

woops. sorry about that.

i should’ve paraphrased it. But copying and pasting is so easy.

I don’t want to jinx us, but I truly believe we can blow them out this time. The spirit of redemption will flow through our defense and in particular our defensive secondary. After being embarrassed on MNF, I guarantee the DB’s are going to be playing gritty and very aggressive. I really hope they can control themselves enough to not pick up too many interference or holding calls.

On the offensive side of the ball I see the injuries in the Redskins secondary as being a potentially huge factor in the game plan. They have a good defense, but not much pass rush, which is good for Bledsoe. The Giants rolled them up, so we know they can be beat badly. For once I hope the Boys come out gunning from the start and use the pass to set up the running game instead of the other way around. Test their corners early, often, and deep. What a sweet revenge that would be to bomb a few back on them!!

I see the key to shutting their offense down in stopping Clinton Portis. We have been ran all over the place the past three games, and I bet Gibbs and his gang have been watching the film on it all week. Hopefully Zimmer will make sure the Boys front 7 are ready to rise up and stymie their running game.

No one was predicting that the Giants would clobber the Redskins so bad earlier this season. I think the revenge factor is huge in this one and the Cowboys registering a blow-out would not surprise me. The law of averages says the Boys are due for one sometime!!

I think Roy Williams is going to tell TNew to let Moss get just one…….with him delivering a BIG HIT from the SS position to remind Moss that Roy is lurking. Moss will be lucky if he ain’t seeing stars after that and Brunell is going to be under fire all day and benched before it is all over!!!

Redskins secondary is beat up and suspect……Witten and Glenn will have big days as will JJ and MB on Draws and Screens after we make the Safeties play deep.

I think Drew will have another 300+ 2TD day……i dont play fantasy but if i did I would take Bledsoe this week against their secondary.

Look for another trick play from Bill against Joe. He loves em…….not sure what it will be the end around with an option for Crayton to run or pass……..but Bill will sneak one in there……..my hope is the ole end around to Crayton then Bledsoe sneaks down the sideline opposite of the WR…..and Crayton hits Drew for a TD!!! I remember ole Danny White catching one back in the day……looks like a nubmer 11 in the pattern again.

I think Parcells will put Newman on Moss. If you noticed shortly after the 1st Skins game Dallas experimented a bit with matching up their CBs to certain WRs. .. I had put the decision not to match up Newman with the Redskins’ Moss as my biggest disappointment of the first half of the season. .. Henry has his strengths, but Newman has the speed that he lacks to keep up with Moss. Its a no brainer to me.

Parcells is always talking about how players remind him of other HOF and guys he drafted in the past.

Well sometimes 41 reminds me of 21. Not the old broke down one we had but the young one that toiled in Atlanta in futility. No more so than when he started returning punts and more recently lining up as WR. TNew is healthy and has been solid all year…he even runs like Deion….He finally has the help at the other Corner spot that he missed last year……don’t discount the value of Henry Glenn and TNew on our Sacks and turnover ratios……these guys have been solid all year. Newman is even starting to bait some Qbs ala Deion……he is getting more and more confident in his abilities and has played solid against the best in the league. Also Parcells has been saving the best for last and letting Newman get touches in PR KR and WR duty is just another example of how he plans to open it up and let it all hang out to make the playoffs and win in the playoffs.

If Henry was 100% I don’t think it would matter as much cuz he is physical and fast enuff…..but with the injury and not being 100% I would let Tnew and Glenn shadow Moss……..and let Roy bring it with or without the ball! Make em hear the FOOTSTEPS MAN!!!!

We played the Redskins good for 56 minutes. We will play em better than that for 60 this time around. That is the only game that I felt like our Defense let us down. Again if Cortez makes a 30 something field goal we win 16-14……oh well.

Petitti and Tucker play much worse on the road, which is why we have struggled. They need to have big games but neither is a rookie or lacks experience this far in the season and in Tuckers case his career…….time to step up boys every game is the playoffs from here on out………actually in the NFC East every game all year is basically a playoff game…….like I said this division is about to produce a few Super Bowl winners over the next 5 years…..and the Dallas Cowboys will win a few of those!!!!

THE BOYS WILL BE IN THE PLAYOFFS THIS YEAR!!!!

Jon:

That’s a good point about the NFC East. I was just thinking about that earlier today. Not too many people have pointed out that over the years the NFC East has been the dominant division in the NFL.

I don’t think any division in the league can lay claim to as many Super Bowl victories or appearances (thanks in large part to the Cowboys). With the exception of the last few years it is usually the most competitive division in the NFL too.

Competition makes everyone better, hopefully Seattle and Chicago’s lack of it this year will catch up to them in the playoffs.

Let’s not get too far ahead of ourselves boys… The Redskins are not an opponent we should take lightly. Yes- they may be a bit banged up, but they have done a great job with their personnel and always find a fix. Portis scares me a bit against our suspect defense against the run, but overall I think we match up pretty well.

I would give the coaching edge to the Hall of Famer Gibbs over Parcells.

The atmosphere at FedEx is going to be very load and very hostile. Their fans are probably the most spirited and loudest in the league.

I hope the Cowboys don’t make the mistake of underestimating them the way most of you have done on this blog.

All said- it is going to be a close one, the BOYS need to bring their A-game and a little luck to make it out of there with a “W”!! Can’t wait to see!!!!

Sterling,

A Seahawks fan was talking up his team to Bryan Cox and saying how they beat the Cowboys and Giants.

He shut em up and said they would have lost both of those games if they were on the road and if they were in that NFC EAST Division they would be beat up and lost more than having to play the Rams, 49ers and Cards twice.

The East even in its down years has better programs year in year out than St Louis, or Arizona or Seattle.

Honestly looking at who will be good for next year and the next five I see the Cowboys and Giants up there. Cowboys are younger…….Giants are getting old at some key positions with Strahan and Tiki…….but a young and improving Eli and a good coach in Coughlin……….if Joe Gibbs can turn DC around it really will win the East and Win it all!!!! Carl Banks called it the black and blue division and it is tough defense, ball control running attacks and good special teams…..and good Coaching…….that has been the case with the likes of Vermeil, Ryan, Landry, Johnson, Parcells, and Allen and Gibbs.

Tough division……really it always has been. When Dallas dominated in the mid nineties the playoffs seemed like a walk after beating up on Philly, NY, Wash and even a pesky Cardinals team.