You know it's a bad game when you can't identify the main reason for losing a game. It means you have too many candidates to choose from. So I'm proposing five candidates. Which one do you think was the one that shaped this game into a Dallas loss? These are presented in no particular order.
Instead, Washington beat Dallas, 22-19, on a field goal with no time left.
So put this loss on T.O.
Others will focus on the blocked field goal try that set up Washington's winning kick, the 153 yards in penalties or the silly decision to go for two points in the first quarter.
None of that matters if Owens doesn't drop a sure touchdown.
Penalties, including Kyle Kosier's facemask.
"It's killing us. It's killing us," the Cowboys guard said of his team's proclivity for penalties. "How many penalties did we have?"
Two lockers down, center Andre Gurode sat in a chair and looked up, saying, "A lot."
If a season-high 11 penalties for a season-high 153 yards is "a lot," then Gurode is right. And if the third-most penalty yards in team history is "a lot," he's double right.
Parcells charts a bad course with an early 2-point try.
Parcells said he goes by the chart regardless of the quarter.
"I go by the chart," Parcells said.
The Cowboys also would have taken a 20-12 lead in the third, which would have likely forced Washington to go for two points after its final touchdown early in the fourth.
The blocked FG
Vincent, a 15-year veteran who signed with the Redskins less than three weeks ago, made the first field-goal block of his NFL career.
"I hadn't even played on special teams since the late 1990s," Vincent said.
[snip]
"I got the ball off in the same amount of time I always get it off in, and I hit it good," said Vanderjagt, who has had nine kicks blocked in his NFL career. "For a guy that's kicked thousands of balls in his life, I knew it was going in just by the way it came off my foot. ...I felt like we were off to the races in winning the game."
Bad secondary play, again.
[snip]
Roy Williams and Anthony Henry did make some plays, but it's the plays they didn't make at FedExField that will be remembered.
Of the Cowboys' 11 penalties, four were on the secondary. Two on Henry and Williams totaled 77 yards.
Williams made the biggest penalty among the secondary players when he failed, again, to track the flight of the ball on a deep pass and was called for interference.