Recap Cowboys vs Redskins

The Cowboys have learned that coming back to win games is not their specialty. This was almost a repeat of the Browns game, down big in the first half, and then make a come back in the second. But this time they lost. The Cowboys only scored 3 points in the first half, while RGIII put up 28 points. In the second half, Romo lead the Cowboys to get 28 of his own points, but RGIII got 10 more and the Cowboys failed to get closer to the Giants in the standings. Here is what happened in the game.

When looking at the stats from this game, and comparing the 2 teams, the Cowboys did better in almost every category. They gained more yards and had more third down conversions then the Redskins, but the Cowboys lost in the most important category, turnovers. Once again the Cowboys shot themselves in the foot by turning the ball over and allowing RGIII and the Redskins to get up big. The only way the Cowboys will ever make the playoffs is if they stop the turnovers and play football. If Romo hadn't thrown half of the interceptions he did this year, he would be considered one of the best quarterbacks. He is second overall in pass yards per game, the only problem is his turnovers.

There are 2 more main things I said the Cowboys needed to do in order to win this game, one was to watch out for the deep ball. And they did exactly the opposite. 2 of the 4 touchdowns passes from RGIII were over 50 yards, and one of the others went for 29 yards. The Cowboys can not allow big plays like those to happen, it puts the offense in a huge hole.

The other thing was having a balanced offense. And yet again, the Cowboys did exactly the opposite. Romo threw for a career high 441 yards. Unfortunately, it was from 62 pass attempts. The Cowboys only rushed 11 times the entire game. A reason is because the Cowboys got down by so much they couldn't waste any time. But when they have too throw it 62 times, bad things will happen. Romo threw 2 costly interceptions, with out them the Cowboys could have won. One thing is for sure, the Cowboys need Murray back as quickly as possible. Without him the playoffs look far out of sight.

Now there are 3 other smaller problems that can affect the game greatly if the Cowboys don't fix them.

Offensive line
The offensive line only allowed 2 sacks the whole game, but Romo was still under pressure and took 9 hits. And then the run game couldn't get going behind the blocking from the offensive line. The line needs to at least protect Romo if the run game isn't there so that he has more time to throw and make the right decision.

Penalties
The Cowboys each week are going in and getting too many penalties, they keep hurting the chances of winning and need to be stopped. This is yet another example of the Cowboys shooting themselves in the foot.

Defense
In the second half the Cowboys defense arrived to the game, in the first half they were very late. They allowed RGIII to put up 28 points. Then they only allowed 10 in the second half, this is just like the Browns game. The defense needs to show up for the whole game in order to get the win.

And then there are the very few good parts of the game.
Dez Bryant produced the third turnover by fumbling the ball. The only reason why he wasn't critiqued so much is because he made up for it by getting 145 yards and 2 touchdowns. While on the defensive side of the ball Spencer showed why the Cowboys placed their franchise tag on him. He had 10 tackles, 2 tackles for loss, and 2 sacks. And Peprah got the only turnover of the game for the Dallas Defense by picking off RGIII.

Over all it was the second game in a row that was very sloppy. Luckily the Cowboys play the Eagles next, who hurt themselves even more then the Cowboys in games. The Cowboys should be able to get the win and try to make a run to the playoffs.

Go Cowboys!