Hopefully, Commanders fans enjoyed the reversal of fortune in Sunday’s regular-season finale.
The scenario was familiar, a playoff-bound team with something, but not a lot to play for; a losing team playing for pride but not much else; the losing team doesn’t play perfectly but pays well enough to win; the playoff-bound team wins the game with a last-second touchdown pass.
Throughout the life of the Commanders-Cowboys rivalry, Dallas is walking off with a victory and heading to the postseason. Still, in a year of dramatic reversals of fortune, Washington made the play (a Terry McLaurin touchdown from backup quarterback Marcus Mariota) to beat the Cowboys 22-19 and end the regular season 12-5, its best record since 1991.
Dallas controlled the line of scrimmage the entire afternoon, dominating possession time by 37 minutes to Washington’s 22.
Cowboys quarterback Trey Lance, starting in place of Cooper Rush completed 20 of 34 throws for 244 yards. Commanders quarterback Jayden Daniels only played the first half and was largely quiet, going 6 of 12 for 38 yards. He was sacked four times, twice by Micha Parsons.
The Cowboys were able to move the ball at will in the first half, running 41 plays to Washington’s 23. Despite that, Dallas only scored six points on two field goals. A third trip to the red zone at the end of the first half resulted in a turnover on downs as time expired.
Mariota seemed to spark the offense. After a third Dallas field goal, Mariota took the offense on an eight-play 70-yard drive, culminating with a five-yard touchdown pass to tight end Zach Ertz to give Washington a 10-9 lead.
Washington fell behind after a fourth Cowboys field goal, and 12-10 once again, Mariota responded. This time with his legs, scoring on a 5-yard run around the left end. The two-point conversion attempt failed and the Commanders led 16-12.
Washington’s defense finally gave up a touchdown late in the 4th quarter. Rico Dowdle scored from the two with 4:16 left in the game to give Dallas a 19-16 lead.
The Cowboys stopped Washington on its next series but couldn’t run out the clock, giving the ball back to Mariota and the offense with just over three minutes left.
The key play came on 4th and 1 from the Cowboys 49-yard line. Mariota kept the ball on an option play with Austin Eckler. Dallas linebacker Marist Liufau was responsible for tackling the quarterback but Mariota raced past him for a 33-yard gain to the Dallas 16.
Two plays later, with six seconds left in the game, Mariota found wide receiver Terry McLaurin in the endzone for the game-winning score.
With the 23-19 win, the Commanders will be the sixth seed in the playoffs and will play the NFC South Champion Tampa Bay Buccaneers on Sunday night.
Bob Matthews is a 33 year veteran broadcast journalist, spending the last 29 years of his career in Virginia. Bob has covered both news and sports stories and for the last three seasons, the Washington Commanders. He looks forward to continuing to provide coverage to Sportsjourney.com both on the website and through his podcast, The Bob Matthews Show.
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