The Other Trainwreck

Now when they talk about O & D in Dallas, they're talking about TO

I am so happy I watched Monday Night Football last night. For me, it was like A Christmas Carol, and the Cowboys were the Ghost of Christmas Yet to Come, appearing to Redskins fans to show us what happens when the team literally falls apart and they start playing for the future. As with Ebenezer Scrooge, we do not want to go to that future.

When Bledsoe was benched for Romo, ESPN panned the crowd, looking for reaction and cut to many fans going nuts (although I thought I heard as many "huh?"s as I did cheers). Romo comes out and throws a pick on his first play. Gives the Giants another 7 points. Camera 1 cut to Bledsoe on sideline, ok, cue up camera 2 on Parcells with a frown, ok, ok, cut to camera 2, ok, split screen Bledsoe and Parcells. That's good TV.

I want to take a breath here on the Redskins, step back and really think on where the team is going and what should happen leading up to the next game (against the Cowboys). Bear with me a mo and let me know your thoughts on this.

Let's look at the Cowboys game as an experiment. Last night, the Cowboys had no running attack, no passing attack, no run defense and no passing defense. Sound familiar? Whether the Giants played great D on the line or the Cowboys just could not get off the run block, Julius Jones looked small next to Tiki (Wahoowa!). And again it was shown that if you can get to Bledsoe, he makes bad decisions.

So what was Parcells' great halftime adjustment? Bench the veteran, bring in the heir, who throws 3 INTs. Statistically, Bledsoe did not have a bad 1st half, 7-12 for 111 yards and an INT. You can recover from that. Putting in Romo in that situation essentially alienates Bledsoe from the team. Theismann echoed the conversation my neighbors and I were having after the first Romo INT when he said perhaps Parcells is man enough to go over to Bledsoe, call a 'my bad' and put him back in. Not doing so cost them not only the game, but Bledsoe and likely the season. The Dallas-Fort Worth Star-Telegram is asking for an apology from the team, and Curly R trading partner Blogging the Boys is turning on Bledsoe after supporting him as the starter just two weeks ago. Echoes of the Brunell argument.

(LaVar Watch rubbernecking moment: made two excellent plays, including that incredible blitz-sack of Bledsoe for the safety. Then just when Tirico and Kornhole were announcing LaVar's Return to Relevance, his achilles pops and retracts up into his calf like an overextended window shade flapflapflap. Sorry to hear it LaVar and the Curly R wishes you well in your recovery).

Thrown in TO getting the balls he wanted and not performing (TimesSelect, DFW Star-Telegram) (WTF with the wide open drop on 4th down?) and you have all three phases (QB, RB, TO) of the Dallas offense in meltdown. Dallas' next two games are on the road, at Carolina (4-1 since Steve Smith came back) and Washington (who watched last night's game and said, wait, they're the worst team in the division -- let's go out and punch them in the mouth!), and they could be looking at 3-5 after two more games.

So what's the lesson I'm trying to get at? When you need a spark, a stick of dynamite is too much.

Parcells should not have been worried about Bledsoe, but rather about the Cowboys defense. They couldn't stop ketchup. With the Tiki revelation coming to light, the old Parcells would have told his team that no way is that guy going to walk into Texas Stadium for the last time and walk out a hero. Yanking Bledsoe and then Romo putting the defense right back on the field was as demoralizing to the defense as it was to the offense. So instead of talking about the pride the team showed in shutting down Tiki, he's talking about how ashamed he is. Parcells just killed the team.

As for the change of QB itself, I have never been a 'now or never' guy on Jason Campbell, just a 'not now' guy on Brunell. But maybe in light of the Cowboys trying to usurp the Redskins' place as the NFC Beast cannon fodder, maybe the Redskins should stay the course, make some adjustments tactically, but not strategically. Don't bench Brunell. Spend the week off working on downfield passing and run defense. If defenses can't crowd the box, the running game opens up. If offenses know the passing attack is the only way to move the ball consistently against the Redskins, they can try and trap teams into making bad throws.

The Giants may now be in first place in the division, but I'm not yet sold on them as a top shelf team. They for sure are solid though.

NYT game wrap. DFW Star-Telegram game wrap.

Once again, Curly R will be trading 5 questions with Dave at Blogging the Boys next week. For some schadenfreude, head over there and read his excellent coverage of the Cowboys fading fortunes.



TO getting potted by Brandon Short: Harry How / Getty Images