Dallas Week. When you come out on top in a meaningful contest vs. the Cowboys, as a fan, you feel like you are on top of the world. When you lose, it's a gut punch like no other. Unfortunately for the Burgundy and Gold faithful, on Sunday afternoon, we took several early gut punches that were just too much to overcome. A quick 18-0 hole and a 24 point halftime deficit was the worst possible way for our team to come out against Dallas. As has been proven in several contests early in the year for the WFT, it's a recipe for disaster. While you give the team some credit for showing up in the second half and amazingly having an opportunity to tie the game late in the 4th quarter, the Burgundy and Gold gave us too much of the same mediocre play we have seen in big moments over the years on Sunday. On a positive note, everything is still out there in front of them for the WFT to qualify for the playoffs. The question becomes if the injuries will be too much to overcome at this point, despite the tenacity and fight the team has shown since November...only time will tell. Let's get right to our studs, duds, and hat tips for the week.
Studs:
1. Cole Holcomb: #55 has been a pretty solid player over the course of the year and has steadily improved during his tenure in Washington. He's the type of hard-nosed player you could envision sticking around for the long-term and being a valuable contributor for years to come. His interception return for a touchdown in the 4th quarter was the first defensive score for the team in 2021. It brought the WFT within 7 points of the Cowboys and made for an interesting finish in a game that looked like it was going to be a blowout for much of the day.
Duds:
1. Offensive Line: John Matsko has worked wonders all season long with a group of linemen that has used numerous combinations of starters all season long. Parts have changed, but we had been able to maintain a solid level of success. The line played a huge role in the team's turnaround and has undoubtedly been our most consistent unit on the team throughout the season. Unfortunately on Sunday, we had an awful day at the office up front. Dallas' aggressive front bullied us all day, we couldn't establish the run game, and Taylor Heinicke was under plenty of pressure. It essentially spelled disaster for our team. Do we have enough healthy bodies up front to hold up for at least another four weeks? That's going to be something to keep an eye on at this stage in the season, where physicality up front becomes an even bigger difference maker.
2. Taylor Heinicke: Washington/Dallas in a meaningful game with major playoff implications is huge for the fans and the players feel the magnitude of the moment as well. The moment seemed to get the best of Taylor Heinicke on Sunday. He didn't have it, plain and simple. Give the Cowboys credit - they did not allow Antonio Gibson to become a factor on Sunday and challenged Heinicke to be the catalyst for our offense on Sunday. He couldn't muster up an answer and fell into the trap of trying to press too much, a trait we saw early in the year that would often get him into trouble. If he truly is going to be a long-term starter for Washington, he needs to especially be able to produce against the NFC East opponents and cause fits in the division. We need far better from Heinicke in Philadelphia next Sunday.
3. Antonio Gibson/Terry McLaurin: You want your best players to be your best players in the biggest of moments and on the grandest of stages. Washington/Dallas in December is indeed the grandest of stages and both of these guys had a stinker on Sunday. While Gibson wasn't helped by the offensive line play, after the team gained a bit of momentum in the 3rd quarter and closed the gap to 24-8, Gibson fell into the bad habit of fumbling again. It's absolutely unacceptable to fumble so consistently in the most inopportune of situations. At some point, #24 needs to decide if he wants to be a great player in this league, or just another guy. As for Terry, it pains me to say it, but he has now had less than 60 yards receiving in 5 of his last 6 games. Obviously, he left with an injury today, but he was shut out completely in the stat category on the day. We needed him to come up with an answer on a day where the Cowboys were going to force us to do damage through the air and it just wasn't there today.
4. Coaching Staff: the coaches deserve a TON of credit for the team's turnaround this season. It's amazing that they have managed to get this group to stick together, stand tall, and continue fighting. That being said, they too were off on Sunday. Scott Turner seemed to have absolutely no answer for the consistent pressure Dallas was applying to Heinicke. We repeatedly used empty sets on 3rd and long early in the game and repeatedly got ourselves into trouble doing that. As for Ron Rivera, I thought he too deserved some criticism for going for it early in the game on 4th and 3 down 11-0. Obviously, that decision turned out to be disastrous with the Cowboys intercepting Heinicke and returning it all the way for a TD. The game went sideways for a while after that and made any sort of comeback highly unlikely. It felt like a desperate panic move too early in the game. The team was rattled at that juncture in the game, and Rivera seemed to be as well. At a time when we likely would have been better served showing composure and patience, we unraveled, and that started with Rivera.
Hat Tips:
1. The Defense: if somebody would have told me before the game started that we were going to hold Dak to 211 passing yards, intercept him twice, hold Elliott to 45 rushing yards, hold Cooper/Lamb to 111 combined receiving yards, and have a defensive touchdown, I would have said that we were beating Dallas 8 days a week. The Cowboys' 27 points were a combination of 1 defensive score on their part, 1 offensive touchdown, and 4 field goals. Our defensive group did more than their share to make this a winnable game against one of the top offensive units in the league. In some regards, it was a missed opportunity. Complimentary football was missing in action in such a critical point in the season today. Unfortunately, like we experienced, that usually means you will find yourself in the loss column on Sunday. Is it fair to expect our defense to contain the Cowboys' offense again two weeks from now? Let's hope that's the case.
2. Ron Rivera: I mentioned Rivera in the "duds" section, I am also going to give him a tip of the hat for the team's ability to fight until the very end of the contest. A 27-20 final score line with a unit decimated with 2nd half injuries was a feat in and of itself. This team has a lot of pride and refuses to go down without a fight. That starts with Rivera.
3. Cam Sims: a really nice job was done by Sims going up to make a difficult catch on our first touchdown of the day. He now has 2 TDs on the season. Can he step up and be a meaningful contributor in the final four games? With McLaurin's status unknown for next week, we sure could use Sims' contributions more consistently.
That's it for this week. While this was extremely difficult to write today, I hold out hope that we can show up in these final four division games. I truly do believe that any combination of winning 3 of our final 4 games gets us into the postseason. That said, next week at Philadelphia in many regards is the season. A loss leaves absolutely no margin for error the rest of the way and I am not sure you want to put yourself in that spot considering we travel to Dallas the week after. Do you agree with this week's list? Disagree? Who did we miss?
Keep throwing stones.
Studs:
1. Cole Holcomb: #55 has been a pretty solid player over the course of the year and has steadily improved during his tenure in Washington. He's the type of hard-nosed player you could envision sticking around for the long-term and being a valuable contributor for years to come. His interception return for a touchdown in the 4th quarter was the first defensive score for the team in 2021. It brought the WFT within 7 points of the Cowboys and made for an interesting finish in a game that looked like it was going to be a blowout for much of the day.
Duds:
1. Offensive Line: John Matsko has worked wonders all season long with a group of linemen that has used numerous combinations of starters all season long. Parts have changed, but we had been able to maintain a solid level of success. The line played a huge role in the team's turnaround and has undoubtedly been our most consistent unit on the team throughout the season. Unfortunately on Sunday, we had an awful day at the office up front. Dallas' aggressive front bullied us all day, we couldn't establish the run game, and Taylor Heinicke was under plenty of pressure. It essentially spelled disaster for our team. Do we have enough healthy bodies up front to hold up for at least another four weeks? That's going to be something to keep an eye on at this stage in the season, where physicality up front becomes an even bigger difference maker.
2. Taylor Heinicke: Washington/Dallas in a meaningful game with major playoff implications is huge for the fans and the players feel the magnitude of the moment as well. The moment seemed to get the best of Taylor Heinicke on Sunday. He didn't have it, plain and simple. Give the Cowboys credit - they did not allow Antonio Gibson to become a factor on Sunday and challenged Heinicke to be the catalyst for our offense on Sunday. He couldn't muster up an answer and fell into the trap of trying to press too much, a trait we saw early in the year that would often get him into trouble. If he truly is going to be a long-term starter for Washington, he needs to especially be able to produce against the NFC East opponents and cause fits in the division. We need far better from Heinicke in Philadelphia next Sunday.
3. Antonio Gibson/Terry McLaurin: You want your best players to be your best players in the biggest of moments and on the grandest of stages. Washington/Dallas in December is indeed the grandest of stages and both of these guys had a stinker on Sunday. While Gibson wasn't helped by the offensive line play, after the team gained a bit of momentum in the 3rd quarter and closed the gap to 24-8, Gibson fell into the bad habit of fumbling again. It's absolutely unacceptable to fumble so consistently in the most inopportune of situations. At some point, #24 needs to decide if he wants to be a great player in this league, or just another guy. As for Terry, it pains me to say it, but he has now had less than 60 yards receiving in 5 of his last 6 games. Obviously, he left with an injury today, but he was shut out completely in the stat category on the day. We needed him to come up with an answer on a day where the Cowboys were going to force us to do damage through the air and it just wasn't there today.
4. Coaching Staff: the coaches deserve a TON of credit for the team's turnaround this season. It's amazing that they have managed to get this group to stick together, stand tall, and continue fighting. That being said, they too were off on Sunday. Scott Turner seemed to have absolutely no answer for the consistent pressure Dallas was applying to Heinicke. We repeatedly used empty sets on 3rd and long early in the game and repeatedly got ourselves into trouble doing that. As for Ron Rivera, I thought he too deserved some criticism for going for it early in the game on 4th and 3 down 11-0. Obviously, that decision turned out to be disastrous with the Cowboys intercepting Heinicke and returning it all the way for a TD. The game went sideways for a while after that and made any sort of comeback highly unlikely. It felt like a desperate panic move too early in the game. The team was rattled at that juncture in the game, and Rivera seemed to be as well. At a time when we likely would have been better served showing composure and patience, we unraveled, and that started with Rivera.
Hat Tips:
1. The Defense: if somebody would have told me before the game started that we were going to hold Dak to 211 passing yards, intercept him twice, hold Elliott to 45 rushing yards, hold Cooper/Lamb to 111 combined receiving yards, and have a defensive touchdown, I would have said that we were beating Dallas 8 days a week. The Cowboys' 27 points were a combination of 1 defensive score on their part, 1 offensive touchdown, and 4 field goals. Our defensive group did more than their share to make this a winnable game against one of the top offensive units in the league. In some regards, it was a missed opportunity. Complimentary football was missing in action in such a critical point in the season today. Unfortunately, like we experienced, that usually means you will find yourself in the loss column on Sunday. Is it fair to expect our defense to contain the Cowboys' offense again two weeks from now? Let's hope that's the case.
2. Ron Rivera: I mentioned Rivera in the "duds" section, I am also going to give him a tip of the hat for the team's ability to fight until the very end of the contest. A 27-20 final score line with a unit decimated with 2nd half injuries was a feat in and of itself. This team has a lot of pride and refuses to go down without a fight. That starts with Rivera.
3. Cam Sims: a really nice job was done by Sims going up to make a difficult catch on our first touchdown of the day. He now has 2 TDs on the season. Can he step up and be a meaningful contributor in the final four games? With McLaurin's status unknown for next week, we sure could use Sims' contributions more consistently.
That's it for this week. While this was extremely difficult to write today, I hold out hope that we can show up in these final four division games. I truly do believe that any combination of winning 3 of our final 4 games gets us into the postseason. That said, next week at Philadelphia in many regards is the season. A loss leaves absolutely no margin for error the rest of the way and I am not sure you want to put yourself in that spot considering we travel to Dallas the week after. Do you agree with this week's list? Disagree? Who did we miss?
Keep throwing stones.
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