The list is long. Coach Parcells wants to bring it all down to the last play, and in some sense he's right. A team should be able to block for a 35-yard FG. But not this team.
I don't know what Marc Colombo and Jason Witten were thinking on the FG block, but Colombo blocked down, Witten blocked wide, and Troy Vincent sprinted right between them and easily blocked the kick. Is there ever going to be a time when we get on the same page with our blocking schemes? What is the deal, Dallas?
But we weren't done, we can't have a regular meltdown, get the kicked blocked and go into overtime. Nope, we turn it into one of the most bizarre endings to a game I've seen in a while. Of course, we just had to get a 15-yard facemask penalty and give the Redskins the shot at a game-winning FG on an untimed down.
Yeah, I guess you kind of did. But you weren't the only one, everybody got in on the penalty act.
Sunday's total was the highest since they had 152 penalty yards against Minnesota in 1998.
That will keep you out of the playoffs in a hurry. Besides the blocked FG, I wasn't impressed with our special teams.
Green gave us no help and looked tentative on his returns. Mat McBriar had an off day; he averaged 43 yards a punt, about 8 yards under his average, and he had two touchbacks.
But wait, act now and you get more bone-headed mistakes.
Owens, who led the team with seven catches (76 yards), took the blame for the drop, and even the loss.
"I owe this one to the team," Owens said. "I let the team down. It was a lack of concentration. I felt I had it, but it was just a drop."
That was a huge turning point; we would've been up 26-12 in the 3rd quarter. Instead, Washington marched it the other way and tied it up 19-19. Big swing. Oh yeah, that Washington TD, helped along by another dumb penalty. Roy Williams gets a 48-yard pass interference for running into Brandon Lloyd instead of tracking the ball, which looked to be going incomplete. Then Anthony Henry, who was bad in coverage most of the day, couldn't stop a pass to Chris Cooley for a TD even after he got his hands on it. Also, Clinton Portis cooked Greg Ellis around the edge for another big TD. Once again, our defense falls victim to the big play.
Pile on the dumb decision to go for two early in the game and the failure to challenge the safety call, and now the coaches get in on some of the blame.
I'm sure once I finish the film review later today, I'll have plenty more bloopers from the wacky Cowboys.
One thing I can say, though, Tony Romo has had two very good games in a row. If Dallas could somehow quit making dumb penalties, and on defense quit giving up big plays, this team could actually make some noise.