Morning After Wk 12 - Wild Win And Smiles
There hasn't been much to enjoy in '24, but Washington offered a truly ridiculous win.
I suppose clichés exist for a purpose. There must be some truth for them to become overly used, right?
“You can throw the record books out the window when these two teams play” is one that we always use in football when longtime rivals get together and for as long as I have covered the NFL – eight years covering the Washington-Dallas series from Virginia and now 27 years covering the Cowboys – I have thought about it nearly every time I have watched these two teams play. Washington and Dallas have a series that defies logic. They also seem to produce some of the most absurd games where, as the rules dictate, ultimately someone has to win.
The better team always seems to trip and fall and the sillier team stumbles to a victory. A victory, mind you, where its own fanbase seems mixed about receiving, but a win nonetheless. And, even better – given that this season clearly is what it is – an exciting one, too. It comes with the feeling that you helped Washington slow their roll on how their new day has dawned if Dallas was able to steal a very important game off of their cause and continue a three-game losing streak for a Commanders side that desperately needed it.
This is why we play the games.
Now, first to summarize briefly what happened in this game before we address any mixed fan emotions. I am not sure when we have last seen a game this ridiculous.
It was 3-3 at halftime. The entire first half was a comedy of errors in both directions with special teams silliness, football follies out-takes, and what appeared to be two teams just trying to ruin everyone’s afternoon who dared to watch the NFL on a beautiful day, instead of doing literally anything else.
Each team had a single third-down conversion in the first half, but both teams were at a horrid 16% conversion rate on money downs. They were both moving the ball, only to have a moment of poor execution rob them of the proceeds. Sometimes it was a dropped pass or a snap over the QBs head, other times it was a bad penalty or a missed block on a 3rd and 1. Either way, it was plenty of trips up and down the field that signified nothing.
Amazingly, Dallas tied the game last in the half and 3-3 seemed like a great summary for a half of football that will not be remembered aside from the clear special teams incompetence that the Cowboys have been turning out. You seldom get to ponder your side getting a field goal and a punt blocked in the same half of football. Hard to pull off that double play, but the Cowboys did it and added a Brandon Aubrey miss off a the goal post to make it three significant blunders from your special teams that conspired to secure what would surely become another loss.
Alas, the football gods had other ideas in the second half.