Is Cowboys' Close Victory Over Redskins Reason To Worry?

by James Williamson on Nov 23, 2009 2:35 PM CST

The Redskins-Cowboys rivalry has always been intense.

The Redskins have three Super Bowls to go along with their two NFL Championships, while Dallas has five Super Bowl wins of their own.

However, to my great delight, the Redskins have struggled greatly as of late due to the ineptness of owner Daniel Snyder, who makes Al Davis not look half bad, and general manager Vinny Cerrato, who has neglected several key positions.

The Redskins have had a repugnant offense this season. Before the Cowboys game, they had 140 points over nine games.

Dallas, however, had one of the best offenses in the league, averaging nearly 25 points per game.

For Sunday's matchup, the Redskins offense did not have Chris Samuels, Clinton Portis, or Chris Cooley.

In other words, the Redskins' offense was supposed to struggle against the Cowboys. They did just that.

However, what appalled this writer more was the fact that the Dallas offense, for the second week in a row, had only one touchdown.

7-6 was the final. The Dallas defense saved the day after Tony Romo made a clutch touchdown throw to Patrick Crayton.

Regardless of the fact Dallas won that game, they should be utterly disgusted with themselves for not blowing out the 'Skins.

Why is it that Dallas was losing for three and a half quarters before they pulled out a win? They can get away with this against the Redskins, but what about other teams like the Eagles or the Giants?

What's wrong with this offense?

The football player in me says they all failed, but the analyst in me is able to point a couple fingers and criticize those guys who need to do their jobs.

Roy Williams is still not a bust, but he is ticking me and a lot of my friends off. He missed multiple opportunities for big plays in that game. Tony Romo may not had the best pass at times, but those balls were certainly catchable, and Roy Williams did not catch them.

I still believe Williams has the ability to get on the same page with Romo and make these plays like he did in Detroit. The question is when will the chemistry click?

I can possibly give Miles Austin a break. I understand he was double covered a large amount of the time.

Austin came through in the end with four catches for 47 yards.

Could it be that the Skins were just pumped for this game because of the rivalry? Yeah, but I still think Dallas is better.

Dallas should have been pumped for this game. If I'm Jason Garrett, I want to run up the score and make the Skins realize that they belong at the bottom of the NFC East.

It didn't happen though.

I don't understand what happened, but it has to change. Maybe it is the playcalling. Maybe Romo needs to spend more time practicing with Williams. Or maybe the Cowboys need a swift kick in the rear.

Dallas won that game by a nose.

Now, they have they face the Raiders on Thanksgiving. Oakland is coming off a big win against the AFC North-leading Bengals.

I don't want my turkey messed up by an anemic offensive attack.

This team has got to do better. They need to diagnose this problem and get an aggressive treatment for it before it bites them in the heel in two days.

Two days. That's all the Cowboys have.

Should I be this worried? It is the Raiders, right? Sorry, I don't underestimate the Raiders, and the fact is they have benched JaMarcus Russell.

If Tubby the QB was playing, I'd be a little less worried. But they are going up against Bruce Gradkowski, who is definitely an upgrade over Russell at the quarterback position.

Also, count on Austin to struggle because the Raiders have the best cornerback in the league, in my opinion, in Nnamdi Asomugha.

The guy is a textbook shutdown corner and he'll be on Austin for sure.

Which means our main target will be Roy Williams. Uh oh!

Should Dallas fans be worried? Absolutely. My advice is for the religious one to start praying, because they'll need all the help they can get.

James Williamson is also featured on http://www.nfltouchdown.com/ among other sites.

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Comments

Every team has slumps, you just dont hear about it as much. I’m not worried, defense has played GREAT. We just need to get them off the field. Roy is fine. Easy win on Turkey Day

by BoysRBackNTown on Nov 23, 2009 4:59 PM CST reply actions

A bit of an overreaction

This is the second week in a row the team COULD have put the opposition away, but instead failed to capitalize on opportunities. That’s an issue, but one that can easily be overcome. I don’t think any of our receivers are inept or incapable of being play makers.

Epic Fail since 1985

by the red scare on Nov 23, 2009 6:33 PM CST reply actions

That article is a pretty bigoverreaction that gives no credit to a washington D that is solid

We should’ve done better yes, but all we had to do was score points where we should’ve scored points and we’d have at least 13. It wasn’t the worst offensive performance of the year. We were worse against Denver. GB was similar to this game in that we had opportunities and didn’t take advantage. The Philly game we weren’t much better offensively but we did take advantage of opportunities.

by foyesboys on Nov 24, 2009 2:09 AM CST reply actions

It's not an overreaction

It’s not an overreaction if Garrett can’t figure out that the offense should be funnelled through all 3 backs, and rely less on the shotgun, because if he doesn’t, all we’ll see is a replay of other offensive failures just like other big games we lost when the chips are down.

"Amongst the enemy's Lair, there will always be a DallasPalace!"

by DallasPalace on Nov 24, 2009 10:34 AM CST reply actions

Unfortunately, I've read in many places this year

That even though our line is HUGE, they are not that good at straight ahead run blocking. The shotgun draw is by far our most effective run. Did you ever stop to think that maybe Garrett is calling plays based on the shortcomings of our OL?

by mhuff13 on Nov 24, 2009 11:10 PM CST up reply actions

Are you saying mhuff13..

that Garrett isn’t responsible for putting together an offensive line that is curtailed to what the offense wants to do? He is the offensive coordinator for 3 years now? There can be no reason to say he hasn’t had time to compose the team the way he needs for the reason of running the offense the way he wants. If our offensive line isn’t that good, then it furthers my belief that we should have drafted offensive lineman as a priority, as well as furthers my belief that maybe he doesn’t know what he’s doing withh the Cowboys running offense.

It also unfortunately means that defensive coordinators calling him one-dimensional may just may be correct.

"Amongst the enemy's Lair, there will always be a DallasPalace!"

by DallasPalace on Nov 25, 2009 12:04 PM CST up reply actions