Break Out The Brooms And Cue Up The Band

SKINS PLAY IT COOL-EY, BEAT DALLAS 35-7

Chris Cooley, Ladell Betts and 90,588 Redskins fans celebrate Cooley's third touchdown of the game

Once and awhile, a Sunday comes along that reaffirms your faith in the religion of football. This was one of those days.

For 60 minutes, the Washington Redskins played like they were the best team in the NFL. To make things even sweeter, they dominated the Dallas Cowboys. Yeah, those same Cowboys who have tortured the Skins for the past ten years. The 28 point win was the largest margin of victory for the Redskins in the 92 game rivalry between the two teams. The 35-7 final still didn't indicate the true Redskin command of this game. And then, to cap off the day, the out of town scoreboard flashed good news from the other hamlets in the league. Three weeks ago the Redskins were dead in the water. Now they control their fate.

This was a Joe Gibbs type game. The play-calling was nearly flawless. The domination in the first half was a result of better game planning. The offense finally opened up a little. For most of the first quarter, the Redskins tried to attack downfield. It didn’t work, but Gibbs put the threat of a deep throw in the minds of Dallas. And since the Boys already lost once to Washington on long bombs, they backed off the line. Then Gibbs turned to Clinton Portis. When the Cowboys adjusted to stop him, they went to the screen passes and underneath throws to the stormin' mormon, Chris Cooley. When Dallas brought the safties back up in the box, the Redskins went back downfield for two big plays. Throw in a couple of lucky bounces and poor Cowboy tackling, and the Skins opened up a beat down of hapless Dallas.

The defense was unbelievable as well. Greg Williams attacked Bledsoe from the first snap. Poor Drew never had a chance. Philip Daniels (who gets the Mark the Predictor Game Ball) and Cornelius Griffin lived in the Dallas backfield all night. Marcus Washington was everywhere. Walt Harris, who has been much maligned in this blog, played a great game in relief for the injured Carlos Rogers. Overall, it resulted in four turnovers, seven sacks, and a whole lot of nothing for the Dallas offense.

And because they played so well, maybe we can stop hearing about all this luck nonsense that everyone screamed about after the first win against Dallas in September. Actually, Daniels put it best after the game:
"People kept saying it was a fluke that first game. I think we showed today it was no fluke."

And as well as Washington played, Dallas looked terrible. A lot of that had to do with the Redskins gameplan. But it also had to do with poor blocking around Bledsoe and failure to cover Cooley at anytime during the game. It was great to finally see another team kill itself with penalties and turnovers and poor blocking It was great to see another team being outcoached and outplayed in every facet of the game. It was great to see another team self-destruct in front of the nation’s eyes. And because it was Dallas, it was ten times more enjoyable.

To top it off, the hatred in the rivalry is back. Going to games and hanging out among other Redskins fans the last few years left me worried. Most of the fans disgust was saved for the Eagles. When Dallas week came up, fans weren’t excited, but worried. Today, there was pure hatred in the stands at FedEx Field (which is beginning to sound a lot like RFK Stadium). This rivalry is back where it belongs. No longer can anyone doubt the importance of this game and this rivalry to the NFL. It is truly the best hate fest in the game. And I love it.

Unfortunately, the win came with a price. Pro bowl guard Randy Thomas is now out for the year. This is going to be a costly loss for the Redskins. It will hurt almost as much as losing Jon Jansen did last year. But we will save that for another day and another post (like the Redskins-Giants preview later on). This week calls for a celebration. The Dallas monkey is off the Redskins’ shoulders. The playoff picture is shaping up nicely. And the Washington Redskins are back! Sing me no sad songs this week. Just tell the maestro to cue “Hail to the Redskins” and enjoy…