Anonymous feet outdid the famous arms on the field as ten total field goals were kicked in a 18-16 Dallas win. Nine of them were good, six of them by Dallas’ Dan Bailey. A mishandled snap on a Graham Gano attempt provided the game’s winning margin.
This is what the famed Dallas-Washington rivalry has come to — kicker drama.
The Redskins appeared to be a half step ahead of the Cowboys in a battle between the twenties, though neither offense lived up to pregame hype.
Steve Young daringly called Rex Grossman a “top ten quarterback” before the game. Dallas didn’t respect him like one, though, rarely sending extra rushers at him. Rob Ryan gambled that he could get Grossman to beat himself by flooding the zones with coverage.
That strategy found limited success between the twenties, as the Redskins were able to collect a fair amount of first downs. But in the red zone, Ryan’s gamble paid off as Washington was not able to find a difference-maker on offense to lean on. The lone Redskin touchdown came on a short pass to Tim Hightower, arguably the star of this offense.
Dallas’ offense also struggled on the night, for much of the same reasons. With Miles Austin sidelined and Dez Bryant hobbled, arguably the team’s #1 option at WR is former Rams castoff Laurent Robinson. Felix Jones put in work in the second half with a few nice runs, but after that the box score lists a lot of names doing very little.
Under Ryan’s guidance, though, unheralded names on Dallas’ defense carried the day. Linebacker Sean Lee finished with a game-high 8 tackles and had a hand in two crucial Grossman turnovers, including the game-clinching fumble caused by fellow linebacker Anthony Spencer.
For his part, though, Romo moved and threw remarkably well, and took a number of hits from the Washington defense. All things considered, the win feels better than it looked.
