Even in a season where the Washington Redskins have defied all expectations by playing exciting and high scoring football on the field while simultaneously being a rock-solid model of stability off of the field, it still wouldn’t have been a fun season if the Redskins got swept by the Dallas Cowboys.
Thankfully, that did not eventuate with the Redskins bursting out of the blocks and dominating Dallas early, resulting in a 34-23 win.
In a game where multiple starters didn’t see the field, those players which did suit up did the Burgundy and Gold proud today, walking out of Jerry-World victorious as they head into the playoffs.
To recap it, as usual, here is this week’s edition of What worked, what didn’t, and what sucked.
What worked
- Going into today’s game, Kirk Cousins only needed 120 yards and 14 pass attempts to break those respective all-time Redskins single-season franchise records. He eclipsed both marks in just over one quarter of football, leaving the field at the 8:20 mark of the second quarter with a stat line that read 12/15 for 176 yards, 3 touchdowns, 0 turnovers, and a 155.1 Quarterback rating.
- Those weren’t the only records that Cousins surpassed today, and for all the details of what he was chasing, check out our post from earlier in the week.
- In a game where DeSean Jackson never saw the field, the Redskins offense as a balanced unit performed remarkably well. Both Colt McCoy and Cousins distributed the ball well to a wide variety of targets, and the ground game had a nice day today, led by Alfred Morris who finished on 100 yards rushing from 19 carries (5.3 YPC).
- Among the targets that Cousins and McCoy connected with, none shined brighter than rookie Jamison Crowder. Catching 5 balls on a team-high 7 targets, Crowder finished on 109 yards and a touchdown.
- On the defensive side of the ball, it was a battle of Wills for the Redskins today as both Will Compton and Will Blackmon had big games. Blackmon came up with not one but two huge plays with the ball literally on the Dallas goal line, first intercepting a Kellen Moore pass, and then 10 minutes later forcing a fumble on Darren McFadden as he was striding into the endzone. Compton also contributed today in a big way, recording his first ever career interception.
- Rookie Linebacker Preston Smith added to his tally of sacks for 2015, ending the regular season with 8.0 which is good enough for 1st amongst all rookies in the league. It would take an especially big game tonight from Vikings rookie Danielle Hunter to overtake Smith.
- With Trent Williams rested today, it was left to Ty Nsekhe to start at Right Tackle against Cowboys pass rusher Greg Hardy. At the conclusion of the game, Hardy’s stat sheet read 1 tackle, 0 sacks, 0 stuffs. You can notch that up as a big win for Nsekhe.
- Late in the game as the reality set in for Cowboys players that their season was over, a few of their players started showing visible signs of frustration. Huge kudos needs to go to the Redskins veteran leaders who set the example today, not remonstrating with Dallas players at any point in time. This was especially noticeable when Greg Hardy was shoving Brandon Scherff on the bottom of a dogpile. Scherff never even turned his head to look at Hardy, instead getting up off the ground and walking away as if to suggest that Hardy was irrelevant to him. Great discipline.
What didn’t
- There really wasn’t a lot that simply didn’t work for the Redskins today. The only play of note that fits in to this category today was the handoff to Morris in their own endzone that resulted in a safety. While Morris shouldn’t have looked to cut in the endzone, the play itself -a delayed Counter handoff to Morris- was not a great call in that situation to begin with.
What sucked
- Although rookies like Scherff, Crowder and Smith have drawn most of the attention this season, Defensive Back Kyshoen Jarrett has been consistently solid all season. Watching Jarrett get hurt when McFadden lowered his helmet and drove it into Jarrett’s shoulder/collarbone area absolutely falls into the category of ‘what sucked’. Early reports are that Jarrett may be okay to play next week, but if he does end up missing it would be a big loss for the Redskins.
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