That’s because the Commanders knew they needed to stop the run. But theit coaches recognized they didn’t have the personnel on defense to do it. So instead, they devised a game plan that would allow Jason Garrett’s system to stop its own running game.
The Commanders did this by calling defensive formations on sure-running downs that would force (or entice) Dallas to switch out of that run play to a pass play. Give the Commanders coaches their props for recognizing these tendencies in film study of Garrett’s offense.
So basically, the Commanders would line up to defend the run to get Romo to audible to pass play, and one they recognized Romo calling the switch they adjust to cover the pass play accordingly. And I would not be surprised if they also saw tendencies on film of which pass plays Romo was most likely to switch the play to. That would explain how well the Skins defended these as well.
Now I can’t put this scheme-deficiency on Romo because it’s Garett’s offense, not Romo's. Garret has devised the plays and the cadence for changing plays at the line-of-scrimmage and which to audible to. If you read the post-game quotes from coaches and players, it’s clear that Romo always made the right switch based on how Garrett wants his offense executed.
So then the real problem is that Commanders seemed to know better than Garrett of well to execute this as well, because they forced the adjustments and then adjusted themselves to defend the adjusted play. The last time we saw a similar result and counter to Garret’s tendencies was in the playoffs against the Giants. In the playoffs, it was experienced coaches outcoaching Garrett before the game ever started; but this time it was far less-experienced ones doing it with far less talent.
