Game 4: Redskins (2-1) at Cowboys (3-0)

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Out of the box: former Cowboy Jim Zorn is about to get his first taste of the The Rivalry as the Washington Redskins travel down to Dallas for one last, final Texas Stadium installment of The Rivalry, next season the Cowboys will be opening their new park and Redskins Stadium will no longer be the largest stadium in the league. The Redskins enter this game on a two game winning streak and with confidence, the Cowboys are unbeaten and not fearing this Redskins team (op. cit.).

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The story so far: the Cowboys are hitting on all cylinders, averaging 32 points a game, this week will be a challenge for the Redskins who are playing with house money after starting the season 2-1, no one should be down on the Redskins for losing this game, band one is in good shape and the Redskins season is in no jeopardy. The conventional wisdom, along with the oddsmakers who assigned an 11 point line for this game, is that the Redskins have no chance. They are the consensus fourth best team in a four team division, the top three teams of which are all looking like playoff teams.

Then something happened along the way, Jim Zorn started looking like a real coach, Jason Campbell started looking like a steady hand, shining in the fourth quarter, and the Redskins defense kept playing like last year.

When it is all said and done this is a division game, both teams look good and the Redskins have an opportunity to go down to Big D and score a big W.

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Curly R aside: conventional wisdom is beginning to coalesce around the notion that the Redskins did not procure great value at the top of their draft this year. Coach Jim Zorn said receivers Malcolm Kelly and Devin Thomas did not arrive to training camp in shape, both got hurt and in his first extended action last week, Devin was flagged for two offensive pass interferences and then showboated his way into the end zone on a play called back for a penalty. Malcolm has staggered from one injury to another, hamstring to knee to ankle, still cannot go (op. cit.) and likely will be inactive this week. Tight end Fred Davis may yet be a good pick, he is stuck behind Chris Cooley and Todd Yoder and the team likely will not get a huge contribution from Fred this year. Down the draft line the selections are all looking good, the top though, I just hope they get better over time.

Curly R aside continues: this is super cool, not the Redskins fan on the deathbed, that is not cool, that the team turned around a random non connected inquiry so quickly is cool.

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Oppo research: despite the obvious and prodigous talents of Terrell I did not try to commit suicide Owens, Marion Mack truck Barber, DeMarcus one eye and steel teeth Ware and the other Cowboys players, this game starts and ends with quarterback Tony Romo (ibid.), Tony is currently third in the league among quarterbacks in passing yards, second in the league in average yards per pass and sixth in passer rating. Three Dallas players have ten or more receptions and the Cowboys top four receivers all average more than 13 yards per catch.

And Tony went undrafted. Think about that for a moment.

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Trainer's table: the big Redskins injury news of the week was defensive end Jason Taylor. Jason was kicked in the calf during the Cardinals game and continued to play. Late Sunday night after the game the pain was still bad and he went to the hospital. What was characterized Monday as relatively minor surgery turns out to have been apparently life saving as Jason had what is known as acute compartment syndrome. He will miss this game for sure and the downside outage will be measured in months, not weeks.

Newly promoted right tackle Stephon Heyer hurt his shoulder against the Cardinals, was replaced briefly by Jon Jansen, the man he replaced, before Stephon came back into the game then did not practice all week until Friday and is still in discomfort. Whether Stephon or Jon starts, expect them to rotate.

Rocky McIntosh is not only fully healed from his gruesome knee injuries suffered last year, he is rocking hard and will not appear in this section for these injuries again.

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Gameplan: defensively coordinator Greg Blache and the Redskins know they cannot stop the Cowboys and their huge offensive line, only hope to contain them, and that is what they will try and do. TO will get his catches, Marion will get his yards, Tony will throw some long passes. The Redskins will try to minimize the effect of those big plays, keeping them to the middle of the field. Shawn Springs will be on TO all day (ibid.), it would be great if Carlos Rogers could build on his success in creating turnovers (op. cit.), the Redskins are currently sitting on the best turnover ratio in the league (ibid.), and with Marcus Washington still gimpy with a hip and a hamstring the linebackers will have to work doubly hard to contain tailbacks Marion and rookie Felix Jones.

On offense tackles Chris Samuels and Stephon Heyer or Jon Jansen will have their work cut out for them sealing the ends for Clinton Portis (op. cit.), the Cowboys play a 3-4 with the outside linebackers often lining right up on the line. Cornerbacks Terence Newman and Anthony Henry can both cover, the weakness this year for the Cowboys is at the safety position (ibid.), Jason Campbell will need to exploit zone seams and catch them out of position. With some luck Santana Moss will get to do a little of his deep threat catching a long pass in stride thing as well as his catching it short and zig zagging through traffic thing.

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My take in 60 words or less: the Redskins have no business winning this game. So prove me wrong and win it.

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Washington Post / AP preview, Gameday (PDF), keys to the game, the Zorn Zone. Injury report for both teams, Redskins projected starters, Cowboys projected starters. Washington Examiner preview, preview / keys to the game. Broadcast coverage map, check out that coverage.

Special coverage of the last Washngton-Dallas game at Texas Stadium: most memorable games in Dallas, photo gallery, George Solomon has some special memories.

Other previews: Hog Heaven one/two, Hogs Haven open thread, Rich Tandler live blog/preview one/two/three, Mark Newgent one/two/three, Sportz Assassin.


The party is at my house today as we host our neighbors for a football party and invite a Discovery Channel TV crew to come and try us out for some TV show.


This is a gameday open thread.