Redskins-Cowboys Preview

I thought about writing a Redskins-Eagles recap. It wouldn't have been in good taste so I decided to shelve it. The pen is mightier than the sword, you know? I was going to compare the Eagles Offensive Line to the Convicts' in "The Longest Yard" (You Tube doesn't have the clip, but it's the part near the end when Adam Sandler's teammates realize that he is throwing the game and refuse to block for him), but I felt like too many people were already going to criticize the Eagles and I didn't want to be one of those people. I want to take the high road. I feel kind of bad for them. The Eagles are that team- and there is one every season- whose players quit on its coach before ultimately quitting on each other. Bets going into the season would have picked the players on the Kansas City Chiefs to quit on Romeo Crennel, the Eagles players have stepped their game up (or down) to a whole new level. I think when your fans make a video like this, it really speaks to how much of a dissent there is against Andy Reid in Philadelphia.

So, yeah, the Redskins dominated a rookie Quarterback last week and won handedly. Whatever. The Redskins play the Dallas Cowboys on Thursday. That's really the only game that matters.

Dallas is 5-5 on the season, and in the midst of the NFC playoff race. A win for the Redskins would be sweet because not only would it hurt the Cowboys chances of making the Playoffs, it would significantly bolster the Redskins'. As it stands right now the 'Skins are two games out of the division lead and the New York Giants are reeling. They had lost two games in a row before a much needed bye week last week, and now they must deal with the (red hot) Green Bay Packers on Sunday Night Football. Tom Coughlin is 13-21 in November and Eli Manning has zero touchdown passes and four interceptions in his last three games so the Giants lead in the division may not be as strong as many think. If the Redskins win this game, and then next week against the Giants on Monday Night Football, it puts them in a very favorable position in the division. Will it happen? Well, they definitely need to beat the Cowboys first.

The Redskins just snapped their three game losing streak by taking the Eagles behind a woodshed and beating them to the tune of 31-6, while the Cowboys backed into a win against the Cleveland Browns in an overtime game that they almost certainly should have lost. So though one may consider the Cowboys "hot," they are only hot inasmuch as winning two in a row against Eagles and Browns makes one hot, which is to say that the Cowboys aren't very hot. The Cowboys record against Playoff teams this year is 1-5, with their only win coming in the first game of the season against the Giants. Otherwise they have beaten three of the five worst teams (Panthers, Eagles, Browns) and squeaked one out against a pre-Muscle Hamster Buccaneers. There is something to be said about beating the teams you are supposed to beat, but at some point in order to prove they are a Playoff team they will need to actually beat a Playoff team.

Playing Thursday games presents a series of challenges to NFL teams. For one, it's a short week and teams do not have a lot of time to prepare for each other. But if this is a disadvantage for one, it's also a disadvantage for the other. More significant are the impacts on player safety and injuries that these short weeks have on the players. They are fatigued, and when they are fatigued they play sloppy; when they play sloppy their technique suffers; when their technique suffers players get hurt. Thursday afternoon Thanksgiving games have been a tradition for many years now, and the players really enjoy them (Darren Woodson said as much this morning on Sportscenter), but Thursday night games every week... NFL games are brutal contests where our country's strongest and most athletic men literally clobber each other for money. Shortening the time in-between games makes injuries that much more likely and, to some extent, expected.

Injuries will always be a factor in NFL games, but on Thursdays these issues tend to compound and result in lack luster games that become battles of attrition. This short week will likely affect the Redskins more than the Cowboys because of pre-existing injury issues. Brandon Meriweather, who had missed the first nine games of the season with a left knee injury, hurt his right knee in the third quarter of the Eagles game. He is likely to play on Thursday but may not be 100%. London Fletcher is more of an issue with his ankle injury and is a game time decision (courtesy of the Washington Post). If these two don't play the Redskins have little chance of stopping the Cowboys offense. Or, I should say, have less of a chance.

The Cowboys rank 7th in the NFL in passing yards per game, while the Redskins give up the 4th most passing yards. If Meriweather doesn't play it could be a long day for the 'Skins secondary, especially if Dez Bryant shows up. Dez Bryant has been a beast for most of the season (57 rec, 735 yards, 4 TD's) but has steppe it up of late, averaging 89 yards over the past four contests and scoring 2 TD's. The Cowboys are going to throw the ball a ton this game, and if DeAngelo Hall plays the way he usually plays (poorly), combined with the rest of this weak secondary the Redskins simply aren't going to win.

The key to this game for either team is going to be turnovers. Tony Romo has thrown 13 interceptions on the season, the third worst in the NFL (only the Chiefs and Philip Rivers have thrown more), and the Cowboys as a team have a -9 turnover differential. The Redskins on the other hand have a differential of +10, one of the best in the NFL. This is due in large part to RG3 taking care of the ball uncharacteristically well for a rookie, having only thrown 3 interceptions on the season.

For the Redskins the game comes down to two things: first, can they pressure Tony Romo? If they can they will hurry his throws and force him into mistakes (remember, the only thing worse than a hurried Tony Romo is a Playoff Tony Romo). And second, Robert Griffin III needs to manage the game effectively. Last week against the Eagles RG3 posted a perfect Passer Rating of 153.8, just the second rookie ever to do so. He threw for 200 yards and 4 touchdowns, and added 84 yards on the ground. If he can come close to duplicating either of these statistics, the 'Skins can cut down and force a few turnovers, and the 'Skins can cut down on their penalty woes (13 for 80 yards), they stand a decent chance of beating the Cowboys and keeping their slim Playoff aspirations alive.

If I was being forced into picking a team I would pick the Cowboys. That being said, I feel pretty strongly about a Redskins upset. Feel free to put all your money on Red.

Hail.