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Technically.
For 58 minutes, the Week 13 edition of Monday Night Football was brutal, physical, terrible anti-sports. Though both teams showed flashes of moving the ball between the 20s, points came in long, slow, three-point drips.
Washington quarterback Kirk Cousins choked up on the metaphorical bat: He completed 71 percent of his passes for an average of 7.1 yards per attempt. Meanwhile, Cassel tried to hit the home run. He completed just 55.2 percent of his passes but racked up a longer 7.7 yards-per-attempt average. Both teams split a moderate diet of rushing attempts between three tailbacks, but neither team dominated on the ground. Both offenses racked up first downs; Dallas had 16, and Washington 15.
For all of the back-and-forth, though, neither team could score.
There's a case to be made that this had more to do with quality defensive play than poor offense. Both defenses—whose coordinators, Rod Marinelli and Joe Barry, are father- and son-in-law—brought it every way they knew how, with massive disruption and wild house blitzes resulting in a combined 7-of-25 third-down conversion rate.
There were also, however, plenty of offensive mistakes. There were six total fumbles between the two teams, four of which went for turnovers. The teams' star wideouts, Dez Bryant and DeSean Jackson, were almost completely invisible.
Then, far from the first time this season, the last two minutes became a breakneck, back-and-forth drama that had to be seen to be believed. Heroes became goats, goats became heroes, and the script flipped one more time. A game that opened with a scoring drought of 23 minutes and 29 seconds and had just 18 collective points scored before the final two-minute warning closed with two touchdowns and a field goal in the final 1:14.
It began with a disastrous punt return by Jackson, who reversed field, ran almost all the way back to his own end zone, then got smeared at his own 10-yard line, giving up a critical fumble:
Cowboys tailback Darren McFadden, whose redemption is one of the stories not told enough this year, finally got the better of Washington's front seven and blew up the middle for a six-yard touchdown run. A 41-yard return on the ensuing kickoff, though, set up immediate redemption for Jackson, who hauled in a beautiful 28-yard touchdown pass from Cousins four plays later.
Twitter wags who'd just finished saying Dallas had left Cousins too much time suddenly realized Cousins struck too quickly, too: After a long return of their own, the Cowboys started their drive on their 44 with two timeouts.
They didn't even need both of them.
Cassel hit Bryant twice, for gains of 12 and eight yards, setting up a 54-yard field goal for outstanding kicker Dan Bailey. He hit it, and the Cowboys kept what was supposed to be a Super-Bowl-or-bust season from busting.
As NFL Media's Gregg Rosenthal wrote on Twitter, it was the kind of meritless thrill ride that richly rewards pro football's true diehards:
"I thought we were pretty evenly matched," Washington head coach Jay Gruden said in his postgame press conference, as broadcast on ESPN. "Our defensive line against their offensive line, our offensive line against their defensive line. We just had the inability to make big plays."
Despite the painful home prime-time loss, Gruden had the right perspective on the rest of the season.
"We're all in a division where we're 5-7, and we're all in it," he said. "Our goals are still reachable."
He's right: His squad is in a three-way tie for the NFC East lead, just four weeks from the finish line. But the win puts the Cowboys just one game back at 4-8. If Washington is still alive, isn't Dallas?
The Cowboys think they are.
"We're excited," Cassel told ESPN's Monday Night Football analysts on-air after the game. "Obviously this is a huge win for us, we picked up a game-and-a-half in the division. After all the ups and downs we've had, that we're still in the race with only four wins, there's hope in that locker room."
Sadly, there isn't much hope for the Cowboys outside that locker room.
They're one game back with four to play, yes, but they're one game behind three other teams. Moreover, their next three games are against the Green Bay Packers at Lambeau Field, the New York Jets at home and back on the road to face the Buffalo Bills. Oh, and Week 17? They'll have to face a Washington team set on revenge.
Technically, mathematically, the Cowboys are still alive. But they'll have to play much better than they played Monday night—and much better than they've played all season—if they're going to jump the three teams ahead of them for the NFC East title.
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