The Good, The Bad, The Ugly, and the

The Good: For a brief moment the Cowboys looked like they were going to score a lot of points when Dalton hit Cooper on a beautiful deep ball for a touchdown. At the beginning of the game the Cowboys were able to move the ball and get points but that was the end of that because once those guys went down the Cowboys were pretty much three and out or four and out. Randy Gregory with his first two sacks of the season. Now at 3-8 you can now move on from all that "playoff" talk and look forward to a top 5 or top 10 pick in next year's draft.

The Bad: As good as the Cowboy coaches called last week's game this game was the polar opposite especially Kellen Moore. On fourth and less than a foot he calls a pass play that didn't have a chance and too many times Dalton threw short of the first down marker and turned it over on downs. Zeke what is going on with you? Another fumble but this time no one even hit the ball is just came out. Once again the Cowboys can't score in the red zone 0-3 once again. Oh and what ever happened to Gallimore he was nowhere to be found yesterday.

The Ugly: That fake punt good God, maybe Wilson was supposed to throw it down field but I don't know but if it was a designed run well that's just horrible! First and goal from the four after the Smith int. and the Cowboy's offense goes backward. The fourth quarter was a disaster and the Cowboys defense is continuing to practice social distancing with wide open lanes for the running backs and wide open receivers.

The ***: *** is with all these injuries? In all my years of watching Cowboy's football I've never seen so many players go down, what are we on now our 10th and 11th offensive tackles? 2020 can't end soon enough!

Last week, 3th and 1 pass a vertical route to Gallup, 4th and 1 another pass, incomplete again.

The Good: We can stop this silly talk about winning the division and avoid the universal laughter that would accompany our playoff exit.

The Bad: Nearly everything associated with this once proud franchise.

The Ugly: You're down by 4, in the 4th quarter with 12:17 on the clock, and you're on YOUR OWN 25 yard line. It's 4th down and 10.
So not only do you go for it, understanding that if you fail to convert, you hand the ball over to your opponent, who is ALREADY in scoring territory, but you run (clearing the incredulity from my throat) A REVERSE!!!! with Wilson running as far back as our 10 yard line, giving the WFT's punt team time to reassemble and react. What in the "Pee Wee" football coaching manual is this?

Every special teams coach in the NFL had to be belly laughing at this call. We have a bunch of rank amateurs coaching what is now the experimental team called the Dallas Cowboys. A reverse punt fake in a league that values speed and having Wilson retreat an additional 15 yards to pick up 25!!!!!

This play is all you need to know about the state of the current Dallas Cowboys. Not only UGLY but LAUGHABLY UGLY!

There is no doubt losing Erving and Martin on the first drive hurt them badly. But the coaching killed this team yesterday. The fake punt was clearly a stupid call, a stupid play and completely changed the game. They need to stop going for 4th down deep in their own territory. The 4th and inches they should have had because CeeDee was clearly hit before the ball got there. The two penalties against Dallas on Washington's first TD drive were far less obvious. Still, if you take those risks you are going to lose sometimes and when you do you hand the other team momentum and a scoring opportunity.

The Commanders weakness is their secondary in pass coverage, especially on deep passes. After the TD to Cooper, the Cowboys pretty much did not try another deep pass the rest of the game. The Commanders play better closer to the line of scrimmage and all those short passes played right into their strengths. All those WR screens were the opposite of what the Cowboys should have been doing. Those plays have no worked against anyone all year.

Conversely, the Cowboys allowed the Commanders to throw short passes to RBs and TEs most of the game. How many times did the Commanders pass to a RB coming out of the backfield with no one around to cover him? 2nd and 22? No problem. Pass to the TE for 10 then a pass to a RB out of the backfield for 12 more. 1st down! Every time. Alex Smith is the master of the dump off. No adjustments. The Cowboys actually have a decent pass rush now. They should have brought their CB up tight and bumped the receivers going out. They should have made Smith hold the football so the pass rush could get there. Again, playing off the receivers played to Washington's strengths.

Finally, I said this before the game that the Cowboys inability to stop blowing coverages would allow bad teams to beat them. I should have included gap integrity in my comments because it is a big problem for them. Washington is a bad team, especially on offense. Those two TD runs by Gibson were all on Dallas. Two huge holes and no one even came close to getting a hand on him. Where are our LBs on those plays? Where is the safety? It looked to me that Jaylon Smith got caught up in the wash on both plays. We see this too often. But the worst part is the second TD run occurred when Dallas had to be looking for Washington to run and eat up the clock. You never see other teams screw up so badly against Dallas. Dallas does it multiple times a game.

We have to face the facts, this defense is not getting better. They have good games once in a while, but a good game is not giving up 30 points. They gave up 34 to Washington, one of the worst offensive teams in the league.

Any summary of this game has to include some commentary on the coaching decisions. Yesterday, the coaches were terrible. The decisions to go for it on 4th down, especially the fake punt, were ridiculous. It was as if the Cowboys were not taking the game seriously. the 4th and 10 fake punt had to be one of the worst decisions I have ever seen. Just awful. It was the kind of mistake that losing teams make. Washington is not a good offense. Dallas is not a good defense. Play field position. I am done with Kellen Moore. He needs to go. His penchant for running WR screens, reverses and 1st down draw plays in the red zone is killing this team. Those screens never work. It's as if he is playing a slot machine and losing but he keeps playing because he is certain the next time he plays he will hit the jackpot.

I never thought I would say this, but the Cowboys of 2020 are actually more poorly coached than the Cowboys of the Garrett years. The stupid play calling, the stupid 4th down decisions, and frankly, the stupid defensive schemes are worse than anything we saw last year. McCarthy defending Fassel might just be for the cameras, but Fassel is costing Dallas football games now. If McCarthy agrees with Fassel, they both need to go.

The good- still in the running for a high draft pick.
The bad- more players getting hurt.
The ugly- 4th quarter.