Arguably the fiercest rivalry in the history of the NFL reconvenes tonight in the nation's capital, as the Dallas Cowboys meet the Washington Redskins in a matchup of teams that are headed in two extremely completely different directions. Final weekend, the Cowboys exercised some important demons as they physically dominated the previously unbeaten New Orleans Saints in the Superdome scoring a important victory in the month of December.
Going into that game the Cowboys had been in the midst of their annual December swoon, losing close back-to-back games to the Giants and Chargers. In danger of falling out of the playoff picture, Dallas put together what was their finest efficiency of the season. With that win, Dallas is at present occupying one particular of the two remaining Wild Card spots. Meanwhile the Washington redskins are on the opposite end of the fortune spectrum, in the midst of an utterly disappointing season that lately saw them get blasted by the Giants at household on Monday Night Football.
It was the worst dwelling loss in the history of the franchise, as new General Manager Bruce Allen watched his new team look as lifeless as feasible. Washington's season is more than, but they do have the chance to play the function of spoiler to their hated foes. Dallas requirements the game too, so expect a difficult game, as was evidenced by their earlier meeting this season where the Cowboys came back to win a grueling 6-three affair.
What the Dallas Cowboys accomplished final weekend against the Saints was absolutely nothing brief of a miracle. They had been chastised all week about their habit of fading down the stretch of season, specifically in the month of December, and got was fairly substantially their most significant victory of the season. The Cowboys manhandled the Saints in a 24-17 win that was only close in the fourth quarter. Now a single could argue that all that win did was preserve them in the running for a Wild Card spot, but the significance of what that win meant to them on a psychological level was monumental. It injected confidence into this group, which last time we checked, is a highly talented a single.
Specifically quarterback Tony Romo, who has fairly just played his ass off more than the last three games, if not the season as a complete. In 2009, Romo has thrown for three,886 yards, 23 touchdowns, and just seven interceptions, even though driving the leagues third most prolific offense, producing an typical of 394.5 yards per game. The pair of Marion Barber and Felix Jones has been extremely productive thus far, and was on center stage against in New Orleans, as the combined for 120 yards and two scores on the ground. The offensive line remains a single of the most massive in the league, and is capable of developing gaping holes for either back to explode by way of. In the receiving game receiver Miles Austin and tight end Jason Witten have been the top rated targets, as the former leads the team with 1,138 yards whilst the latter has posted a team-preferred 82 catches.
Defensively, Dallas got a significant lift from their star pass-rusher DeMarcus Ware, who created life hell for New Orleans quarterback Drew Brees all night, despite spraining his neck the earlier week. Ware has eleven sacks on the season, and got two of them against New Orleans, though his opposite quantity Anthony Spencer added a pair as nicely. Wade Phillips' crew held a Saints' offense that has been a machine all year to season lows of 17 points and 336 yards. It need to be noted that the majority of those yards came in the fourth quarter when they were currently down 24-three. Dallas' run defense ranks sixth overall, as they are holding teams to a paltry 97.7 yards per game. Washington will attempt to run the ball tonight to preserve that pass-rush off quarterback Jason Campbell, but Dallas has proved that they can take it away from just about any team, making their opposition one dimensional, which will be the gameplan tonight.
In the midst of a extremely forgettable season that has seen the Washington Redskins amass only four wins, the loss to the New York Giants final week on Monday Night Football have to have felt like rock bottom. At least that is what it looked like. Washington appeared uninspired all through the contest, as the Giants quickly jumped out to a 21- lead just before the half. At a single point the 'skins had only accounted for 3 plays over halfway by way of the second quarter, as the Giants went on to a 45-12 beatdown. Nevertheless, what precisely do the Redskins have to play for? Their head coach has been a lame duck due to the fact the third week of the season, their quarterback has struggled to play behind a decimated offensive line, when productive players like Clinton Portis and Chris Cooley have been out for more than half of the campaign.
The playoffs haven't been a possibility as a different lost season is virtually more than, with a myriad of adjustments surely on the horizon. Yet, hey, they nevertheless have a rivalry with the Dallas Cowboys, and they still get to play the role of spoiler that could just be adequate to get these guys up for a Sunday, for a transform. As we stated earlier, the aforementioned Campbell has struggled, throwing for three,138 yards, 18 touchdowns and 14 interceptions, but has had had to play without having the benefit of a cohesive offensive line, which has began ten distinct player this season, two of which are undrafted rookies. Aid in the backfield has been tough to come by, as head coach Jim Zorn is on his third starting tailback, when the receiving corps has once again underachieved (like that is a surprise.).
The defense on the hand, has been 1 of the top in the NFL, in spite of getting on the field far too quite often. Defensive ends Andre Carter and rookie Brian Orakpo have been tenacious, each and every registering eleven sacks, while massive nose tackle Albert Haynesworth has performed particularly nicely, in spite of playing by way of a nagging ankle injury. The trouble right here is that this unit merely hasn't taken the ball away, forcing just 15 turnovers thus far, which is tied for final in the league. For as significantly heat as they put on the quarterback they don't make a number of plays on the back finish. In order to effectively spoil the playoff push of their nemesis they have to discover a way to make plays on defense, considering lord knows they haven't been in a position to do it on the other side of the ball.
