The Takeaways, Week 7: Dallas at Washington
October 27, 2020
by Steve Thomas
What a game, huh? I certainly didn’t predict such a dominating performance as the Redskins Washington put on Sunday against the rival Dallas Cowboys. Washington finally found a team that was a bigger mess than they are and properly put a beat down on them. Washington won’t be able to do this every week, as we’ve seen, but this is definitely a step in the right direction. Yes, Dallas has been in free-fall recently and had a ton of absolutely devastating injuries, but who cares – Washington finally beat Dallas, and that deserves some measure of celebration. It was a solid victory for a team that sorely needed one. The game obviously has a number of takeaways for the week. The Takeaways are my attempt to identify and discuss the big-picture story lines that come out of each week’s game. Let’s get started.
Domination in the trenches
This game was won in the trenches, first and foremost. Dallas’ offensive line was in terrible shape heading to this week, as bad or worse than what the Eagles had to trot out against WFT Washington in week one. Dallas was down to their second and third string tackles and a rookie center, with only one guard being their original starter. That’s not to degrade what Washington’s defensive front did at all – the defensive line, which I’ve been a bit hard on for a long time, finally went out and dominated a weaker opponent for a full 60 minute game. The defensive line hasn’t looked very good at times this year, particularly against good teams, but this group today, perhaps for the first time, played like a group of highly-drafted first round picks should do. Let’s hope that they can approach this level of performance more often. Washington’s offensive line was a much bigger surprise: this rag-tag group actually went out and put on a similar level of domination as did their defensive line counterparts. Dallas was known to have the worst run defense in the NFL, and the offensive line group took full advantage of that weakness, opening up big rushing lanes all day. More importantly, they also kept Dallas’ quality pass rush at bay for the most part. Together, Washington’s offensive and defensive lines were the biggest factor towards the big win. It’s amazing how much better the rest of a team can look when the guys in the trenches play like they did on Sunday. Congrats to both groups on a job well done.
Antonio Gibson’s coming out party
Gibson had by far the best game of his short career, gaining 128 yards on 20 carries for 6.4 yards per carry, 1 touchdown, and a long of 40. Hopefully this game can prove to be a springboard of sorts for him. He obviously won’t be able to duplicate this kind of production every week, because if he could then he’d be Eric Dickerson, but an impressive, highly productive 20 carry performance was exactly what a struggling team with a young quarterback needed. Washington needed to take advantage of Dallas’ horrible run defense, and Gibson did just that. He’s still a young player who needs to continue to learn, but Gibson put the NFL on notice that he can do very well if he’s given half a chance. That will hopefully cause future opponents to respect Washington’s run game more. If so, then that in turn will result in a more open passing game. At least in theory.
Terry McLaurin once again proves that he’s an elite receiver
What more can be said about this guy? He’s an elite #1 receiver. Also, if you haven’t seen the video of his post-game locker room speech to the team, I urge you to track it down, because it also shows his leadership abilities. Dallas’ beleaguered secondary knew full well that Washington had no real receiving threats besides McLaurin, but they still couldn’t do anything to stop him. McLaurin had 7 receptions for 90 yards and one touchdown on the day, which at this point is almost an average performance from him. Thank goodness he’s on this team, because he’s been the lone bright spot on an offense that’s been bad all year up until this week. Bold prediction: at some point in his career, McLaurin will become the first Washington player in a generation to receive First Team All-Pro honors.
Washington’s secondary had no obvious busts
Each game this season has been marred by multiple busts in zone coverages and killer missed tackles by the Washington secondary. None of that happened today, and this position group should be commended. Granted, Dallas’ CeeDee Lamb had a bad day, clearly dropping two balls and had one other that he probably should have caught. Regardless, though, Kendall Fuller, Ronald Darby, and company played their most complete game of the year against a Dallas team that had probably the best receiver group they’ve faced all year. Did anyone hear the name Michael Gallup on Sunday? I didn’t, despite the fact that Gallup played 51 of 56 offensive snaps, and that’s because Washington’s corners erased him from existence. Sunday’s performance wasn’t just about the pass rush making up for weaknesses in the defensive backfield: the secondary played a great game in their own right. More of this, please, and less of what we saw in earlier weeks.
Kyle Allen effectively ran the offense
In the short term, there’s no doubt that Allen, not Dwayne Haskins, is the quarterback who can get the offense running at its best. We’ll save the long term discussion for another day, because I’m still not totally convinced, but the point is that on Sunday, Allen effectively ran his team down the field on multiple long drives to put up 23 of the team’s 25 points. It’s amazing how much easier everything runs when the team has a productive running game. I don’t know if Allen will still be around next year, but for the here and now, he showed against the Cowboys that he can get the job done if he has enough support around him. Stay tuned.
Jonathan Bostic deserved what he got and more
Except for what appears to be an achilles injury to Landon Collins, Jonathan Bostic’s hit on Dallas quarterback Andy Dalton was the worst thing to come out of this game. Bostic speared Dalton and hit him directly in the head, which put Dalton out of the game with a possible concussion. I’m sure that Bostic would probably say that he didn’t intend to hit Dalton like that, but regardless, that was as blatant of an illegal hit as you’ll ever see. It wouldn’t surprise me to see the NFL assess Bostic with a fine. He doesn’t have a history of dirty play as did other players who were suspended for this kind of hit, such as Vontaze Burfict, but Bostic probably needs to get his wallet out. There’s no place in the game for this kind of play. Enough said.
That’s it for The Takeaways for this week. Washington in on their bye for week 8, so I will be back after Washington’s battle against the New York Giants in two weeks.