After a 25-3 drubbing over the hated Dallas Cowboys that wasn’t close, fans of the Washington Football Team couldn’t have asked for a better bye week. Washington dominated in all three aspects of the game; offense, defense, and special teams. The game was over when the Team scored the first points of the game, a safety early in the first quarter. From there on out it was a rout. The only drawback was that there were so many great performances and so little space to discuss them all.
That said, here are the movers to the plus side of the team’s stock report:
OT Cornelius Lucas:
This might be a bit of a surprise. Lucas was brought in during the offseason to provide depth at the tackle position but was beaten out by Geron Christian in training camp. When Christian missed a game with a knee injury, Lucas went in and did more than a good job filling in at the position.
Granted, the Cowboys have the look of a team that has given up but when Lucas was tested, he responded. He didn’t seem to give up ground as easily as Christian had at times and he made some key blocks on big plays. It will be interesting to see who gets the reps with the ones when practice resumes.
LB Cole Holcomb:
Full disclosure: it was unclear whether the defense would miss Holcomb when he got hurt in Week 1 but this has been resolved. His sideline-to-sideline speed was in full effect Sunday as he recorded a sack (going right through Cowboys RB Zeke Elliot) and the LB had a huge interception near the goal line right before halftime.
He finished with five total tackles, one for a loss. Holcomb was all over the field and could be a key piece of the front seven going forward.
RB Antonio Gibson:
Fans have been waiting all year for Gibson to have his breakout game and Sunday was it.
The rookie from Memphis rushed for a career-high 128 yards on 20 carries with 40 of those yards coming on a first-quarter scamper that would have set up Washington’s first touchdown had the offense not bogged down on the goal line. Gibson made up for it a little later when he basically walked into the end zone thanks to some really good blocking.
Now 2-5, Washington has some work to do during the next month or so. This Sunday, they play the New York Giants, then compete against the Detroit Lions, Cincinnati Bengals, and Cowboys. If they were to sweep those, the team would be 6-5. As bad as the NFC East is this year, one more win may mean a division title and a home playoff game.
For an organization desperate for some good news after a surreal offseason, a home playoff game sounds good.