- When: Sunday, October 13, 2013 8:30 PM (ET), Arlington, TX
- TV: NBC
- Radio: ESPN 980AM, 94.3/92.7 FM, WestwoodOne Sports
- Last regular-season meeting: Dec. 30, 2012 (28-18, WAS)
After a bye in Week 5, the Redskins resume their 2013 season in prime time Sunday night when they travel to face the Dallas Cowboys in Week 6. The match-up will mark the teams’ first meeting since their title crowning in Week 17 last season. The Redskins earned a 28-18 victory in that game on December of 2012, clinching the team’s first NFC East title since 1999. Washington swept Dallas last season, giving it the first sweep of its arch-rival since 2005. With a win tonight, the Redskins can secure their first three-game winning streak against Dallas since winning four in a row across the 1986-88 seasons.
Redskins’ fans have not forgotten last season’s successes against their arch nemesis and the fact that that final victory garnered Washington a longed-for NFC East Division championship. But the players don’t have the luxury of dwelling on this. It means nothing in 2013, especially in light of what Cowboys’ quarterback Tony Romo did last week against the Denver Broncos. In an amazing 51-48 loss at home, he completed 25 of 36 passes for 506 yards, five touchdowns and a QB rating of 140.
There were several times it looked like Dallas was going to get the win, but — as has become something of a signature move by the 33- year-old quarterback — Romo threw a late interception which setup the game-winning kick for the Broncos.
The sheer show of offense by the Cowboys has some trepidation into Redskins Nation, to be sure. But the Dallas defense, recently having transitioned from the 3-4 to the 4-3 scheme under new defensive coordinator Monte Kiffin, gave up 500+ yards that game as well and has allowed 1,265 yards and 11 touchdowns so far this season. But it should be noted that they have given up those yards to the likes of the Broncos’ Peyton Manning, his brother Eli (NY Giants) and the San Diego Chargers’ Philip Rivers. The younger Manning is having his problems this year (they are 0-6) but he is still a two-time Super Bowl winning quarterback.
Romo has thrown for 1,523 yards and 13 touchdowns and has one of the best receivers in the league to throw to in Dez Bryant. Running back DeMarco Murray has 399 rushing yards (a 4.8 yards per carry average) with two scores. This is not the same team that the Redskins played in 2012 and thinking that anything from last seasons’ successes is relevant now is pointless and dangerous.
The Cowboys are currently favored by 5.5 although at one point, the spread was seven points. It had gone down to 4.5 but has remained steady at its current spot for a few days. This is a good indicator of how hard it is to predict who is going to win this game. Whether playing at home or in Arlington, the Redskins and Cowboys almost always play each other tough. The outcome can be surprising without being a surprise. Most games between these two teams are competitive regardless of how they’ve played other teams.
Playing in “Jerry World” won’t be a walk in the park for Washington… as a matter of fact, the Redskins and Cowboys will be renewing a series that has seen 11 of the last 12 games in Dallas be decided by seven points or less.
While the Redskins haven’t been playing their best football this season and, in fact, have looked nothing like the NFC East defending champs, when they play Dallas, all bets are off. Something happens to the two teams so that it doesn’t seem to matter what should happen based on records.
When the Redskins played Dallas the first time last season, Griffin completed 20 of 28 passes for 311 yards and four touchdowns in a 38-31 win. That was the second win in the team’s seven-game streak that launched them into the playoffs last year. For the division championship on December 30, 2012, he completed 9 of 18 passes for 100 yards. RGIII’s passing yards look so pedestrian because the running game was so successful with Alfred Morris running the ball 33 times for 200 yards and three touchdowns. Griffin gained his own 63 yards on six rushes, grabbing a touchdown himself. In the two games against Dallas, Griffin III has a 111.7 career passer rating.
The key to this evening’s matchup is for Griffin to continue to get back to being the quarterback he was in 2012. While the improvement fans have seen in four games this season has been subtle, it is improvement nonetheless. Anyone who thought he would come out looking like the kid we saw in late November last season after the extensive surgery he had on his knee was being unrealistic. It’s natural that it would take him several weeks to get his timing and confidence back. Especially because he didn’t play during the preseason.
Football is not static… improvement during the Detroit Lions and Oakland Raiders went hand-in-hand with Griffin getting more comfortable on the field — so that the offense could improve on third down — so that offensive coordinator Kyle Shanahan could use more of the plays available to him.
“The only real thing that we did different versus Oakland was we got into a little up-tempo stuff,” the OC said recently during his weekly press conference. “We did a no-huddle a few times, but it wasn’t any new plays. It was just huddling up at the line of scrimmage. I think that and [against] Detroit, we were able to do more stuff than we were the first two games because we thought we were in a game and we did better on third down versus Detroit so we were able to stay on the field and run more of our offense and be able to see the coverages they were doing and make adjustments when we saw that. Those first two games were so unusual that, we got down so fast, and not playing good at the beginning and it was very limited. We’d gone through two games and felt like we had only run about 10 percent of our offense, so it’s been nice in these last two games to not be getting blown out in the first half so we can actually run an offense and be competitive.”
Griffin has a lot of really good weapons at his disposal and if Shanahan will target them all, the Redskins should have success. Receivers Pierre Garçon, Leonard Hankerson and Santana Moss should all be used today. Two-tight end sets could be a real match-up problem for Dallas with two of the three of the team’s players healthy now (Fred Davis and Jordan Reed). Alfred Morris and Roy Helu, Jr. have both proven to be dangerous runners, providing a great one-two punch. The offensive line has to continue to protect Griffin.
Washington’s defensive front will have to harass Romo if the Redskins want to win this game. If they can put the kind of pressure on him that they put on the Raiders’ Matt Flynn, there’s every indication from history that Romo will make a mistake and give the Washington secondary an opportunity.
Rookie cornerback David Amerson grabbed his first interception as a professional football player against the Raiders last week and he and fellow youngster Bacarri Rambo could really help this team if they continue to learn from their mistakes. If the front guys play like they did two weeks ago, veteran cornerback DeAngelo Hall and safety Brandon Meriweather will have more luck against the Cowboys’ Dez Bryant, who could be a real problem.
The tackling must be improved this week.
Washington’s special teams continue to be an issue. Fans were really missing former special teams coach Danny Smith and starting place kicker Kai Forbath in the first quarter of the season as they watched punts being blocked, field goals being missed, fake punts being converted for first downs, and touch backs being made. The return game has got to improve as well… currently the Redskins are ranked 27th in kick returns (20.3 yards per return) and 25th (5.6 yards per return). Running back Chris Thompson has been ostracized for putting the ball on the ground and making bad decisions but the Redskins’ options are limited. Santana Moss and D. Hall are too valuable to risk returning balls. Tight end Niles Paul and wide out Josh Morgan are both alternatives to consider.
First-year special teams’ coordinator Keith Burns has said that patience is important but his squad can make a big difference in the outcome of a game. Improvement needs to be made and hopefully the problems were addressed during the bye.
“It’s always a work in progress,” Burn said recently. “You deal with a lot of young guys; you’re changing guys in and out at the same time. We are not where we want to be but we are improving. I think the biggest thing is we have to go with the flow of the game. That’s going to allow us to have chances in the return game, the way the young guys are kicking the ball it’s tough to have a return game.”
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Veteran wide out Santana Moss always seems to have good games against Dallas. Maybe it’s in his preparation or maybe it’s just because, as a veteran, he has an appreciation for the rivalry and so he kicks it up a notch. But his knick-name, “The Cowboy Killa” is not undeserved. In his 14 career games against Dallas, he has caught 84 passes for 1,189 yards and seven touchdowns.
INJURY REPORT (as of Friday)
Redskins
DOUBTFUL: NT Chris Neild (calf)
QUESTIONABLE: LB Brandon Jenkins (ankle), TE Logan Paulsen (knee)
PROBABLE: TE Fred Davis (ankle), K Kai Forbath (right groin), RB Alfred Morris (ribs), TE Jordan Reed (thigh)
Dallas
OUT: RB Lance Dunbar (hamstring), DE Edgar Jones (groin)
STAT OF THE WEEK
Since divisional realignment in 2002, Washington’s 11 games in Dallas have been decided by an average of only five points per game.
KEY MATCHUP: Redskins’ defensive line vs. Tony Romo
Versus Oakland two weeks ago, the Redskins’ defensive front registered seven sacks. That was the most in a game since compiling seven sacks at St. Louis in Week 4 in 2011 (a span of 31 games) and, should they pressure Romo like they pressured Raiders’ quarterback Matt Flynn, they have a good chance of winning tonight. Three different players — nose tackle Barry Cofield and linebackers Ryan Kerrigan and Brian Orakpo — each finished the game with two sacks. With a guy like Cofield leading the charge, the pressure on Romo (which is absolutely necessary) hopefully will be enough to cause mistakes. The Redskins’ defensive coordinator Jim Haslett feels he has one of the better — even possibly the best — nose tackles in the league in Barry Cofield.
QUOTE OF THE WEEK
“We thought when we signed him off the Giants that it was a great position for him because he was really a three-technique shaded nose from the New York Giants. When we got him, we thought he would be an ideal guy just because of his size and athleticism. He’s smart – Northwestern grad – all that stuff. So it kind of all added up.” –
Jim Haslett on nose tackle Barry Cofield
FACTOID
If Redskins’ linebacker Ryan Kerrigan returns an interception tonight for a touchdown, he will become the first linebacker in team history to have an interception return for touchdown in three consecutive seasons.
Hail.