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Notice to all NFL teams: The Washington Redskins are the real deal. Few outside of Washington saw this coming. The Redskins upsetting undefeated Dallas on the road? Highly unlikely. The stars would have to align and then some for it to happen...

Redskins-Cowboys: Washington Makes a Statement with 26-24 Victory

by Shaun Ahmad (Columnist)

45

1031 reads

Game Recap

September 28, 2008


Notice to all NFL teams: The Washington Redskins are the real deal.  

Few outside of Washington saw this coming. The Redskins upsetting undefeated Dallas on the road? Highly unlikely. The stars would have to align and then some for it to happen. 

Who’s going to stop Terrell Owens, Marion Barber, and Jason Witten? Even if the Redskins control them for a little while, there is no way they can score enough to keep up with the high-flying Cowboys. Right?

Wrong. 

Under rookie Head Coach Jim Zorn, the Washington Redskins have shown that they are anything but a team of the past, as they defeated the Dallas Cowboys 26-24. They have also shown that you had better have deep pockets if you choose to bet against them.

This squad is fearless and relentless on both sides of the ball. While the defense has been aggressive for years under former coordinator Gregg Williams and assistant Greg Blache (now the defensive coordinator), the offense has not been a go-getter type in over a decade, perhaps longer. Now it’s a toss-up as to which side of the ball is more aggressive. 

Zorn has put trust in the hands of quarterback Jason Campbell, and rightfully so.

Through the first four games of the regular season, the Washington Redskins stand alone as the team that has not turned the ball over.

Not once.

Campbell has elected to take sacks when needed, thrown the ball away other times, or checked off for a small two-yard pass rather than force the ball into tight spots. The result?  At times, there have been punts, but there have been no costly, momentum-killing turnovers.

By not turning the ball over, the Redskins have put their aggressive defense in a position to be able to attack rather than be on their heels.

Even without superstar defensive end Jason Taylor, Washington was able to put enough pressure on Tony Romo to keep him from getting comfortable in the pocket. Had he been able to do so, he likely would have shredded the secondary the way he has in the past. 

Going back to the offense, anyone who doubts that Clinton Portis is an elite back in the NFL needs to check the game tape. His hard-style running, along with devastating blocks, makes him one of the best all-around backs in the league. Portis carried the ball 21 times for 121 yards against a very good Dallas defense. 

Santana Moss is on his way to a career year after another explosive performance, catching eight passes for 145 yards. He has caught seven or more passes in each of his last three games, and the victory in Dallas marked the first time all season that he was held without a touchdown.

The duo from Miami University (Portis and Moss) have established themselves as the biggest threats on an offense that has scored 29, 24, and 26 points in their past three games. 

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45 comments Last one added 9 months ago — Leave a Comment

  1. Tanner Kluth 9 months ago

    Great article! Let's just say I was so excited about the win that I jumped up and slamming by fists into my cottage cheese ceiling by accident. The knuckles on both of my hands were bleeding.

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    • Shaun Ahmad 9 months ago

      It's hard to describe the emotion that comes along with a win like this for Redskins' fans. But then again, bloody hands sums it up nicely!

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  2. Craig Garrison Sr 9 months ago

    Not bad Shaun.

    HOW 'BOUT THEM REDSKINS!

    I have been trying to tell everyone not to be concerned, that JC and Zorn would get it together, I guess everyone can chill out now, HUH?!

    Lots of football left to be played, but the Skins are in it now, PERIOD!

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    • Shaun Ahmad 9 months ago

      You sir, were one of the few...very few... who had been talking about the Redskins winning this game for the entire week! I had my doubts and was thankfully proven wrong.

      Much credit to you for making the right call on the Skins Craig!

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  3. Angel Navedo 9 months ago

    "Victories over the Saints and Cardinals were nice, but to come into Texas Stadium and dominate the hands-down, number one team in the league isn’t just saying something; it’s shouting something."

    That was a great line. Well-written piece here, sir.

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    • Shaun Ahmad 9 months ago

      Thanks Angel. It was a HUGE win that counts more than the one W it adds in the win column. Being a DC native my entire life, trust me when I say the ENTIRE CITY and states of Virginia and half of Maryland are going to be psyched all week.

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    • Jason Cottier 9 months ago

      Just don't get too far ahead of yourself, because it was after all only week 4, and nobody thought that the cowpies would go undefeated.

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    • Jason Cottier 9 months ago

      Before anyone tries to blast me for that, I am not a Dallas fan. In fact I think they are a bit over rated, so if in fact they aren't the greatest team of all time like some people tend to act like this year, then scoring a week 4 win over them really isn't that big of a deal right?

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    • Shaun Ahmad 9 months ago

      There's no question that everyone needs to keep this game in perspective because you are right, it was only week four.

      That being said, no one thought Washington would be the team out of the NFC East that would go into Texas Stadium and hand Dallas it's first loss. Further, Washington has shown that their offense is the real deal and not just some fluke as many thought after victories over Arizona and N.O.

      The win is a big one because it gives a young team confidence that they can play with anybody. You and I know that confidence in sports is a major component of success. So all things considered, it was a very big win for Washington.

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  4. Jim Graham 9 months ago

    I'm still confused why the Redskins have gotten so little respect up until today. This team was a playoff team last year, had almost no roster turnover at all, got totally healthy, added Jason Taylor, had a winning pre-season record, suffered no major injuries. Yet, many predicted the Redskins to be amongst the weaker teams in the entire NFL. Newsfllash: They're not too damn bad.

    They dominated the game far more than the stats or score suggest. Dallas was outplayed in all phases, and it could easily have been a 15+ point win if the Redskins hadn't been playing strategic prevent defense at the end of both halves, and had been able to run a off-tackle left without the center committing a couple of stupid penalties away from the play down on the goalline.

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    • Shaun Ahmad 9 months ago

      That prevent defense at the end gave me an ulcer.

      People very easily forget that it was the Redskins who took Seattle deep into the fourth quarter of the playoffs last year; not Philadelphia who wasn't even in it. I can't pinpoint why people sleep on the Skins, but at this point I don't care. Keep sleeping on them the way Dallas did. See what ends up happening!

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    • Gerald Ball 9 months ago

      Shaun:

      The reason why people are unwilling to buy into the Redskins are:

      1. Daniel Snyder's history of trying to buy a championship
      2. the Joe Gibbs to Jim Zorn thing
      3. Jason Campbell

      Those things are listed in inverse order of importance. The truth is that most people are not sold on Jason Campbell as a consistent playmaking QB, and until he demonstrates otherwise over a long period of time the Redskins are going to be a question mark for most people.

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    • Shaun Ahmad 9 months ago

      Good points Gerald but people forget that the Redskins managed to make the playoffs a couple of times in the past few years, one way or another.

      Either way, big wins over big time teams coupled with strong performances by Campbell and Co. will get the Skins any attention they deserve. In all honesty, I think NOT having the spotlight on this young team would be better.

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    • Craig Garrison Sr 9 months ago

      Gerald, can you state the most recent evidence that Snyder is trying to buy a championship? Loyyd and Archiletta don't count, they were not "sovior" type guys when they were signed, over payed(and bad decisions), but not saviors.

      And what about the Zorn hiring creates a question mark? Harbaugh in Baltimore, never been a coordinator of consequence, never been a head coach anywhere, Andy Reid in Philly, Bill Cowher only had exp as a special teams coordinator. What's the problem, Gibbs retired, Zorn was the guy Snyder felt was the right guy to take over.

      And if Campbell hasn't shown anybody yet, then he never will. One good game could be fluke, two good games could be luck, but three in a row, IN DALLAS, is a pattern, PERIOD.

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  5. Jack Anderson 9 months ago

    Ball control was the key. I really felt we would keep it close because of that and possibly win. Turns out that we did! The offense was so smooth. The consistency has been great and hopefully it will continue. I knew we would need to split the Dallas and Philly game, but hey, why can't we win both?!?

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    • Shaun Ahmad 9 months ago

      The Dallas offense can average 600 yards per game for all I care. If they don't have the ball, they can't hurt us!

      I'm excited about Philly who is also looking very beatable after the loss to chicago; especially with no Westbrook.

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  6. Rohit Banerjee 9 months ago

    As a Redskins fan and an ardent supporter of Zorn and Campbell...the first thing I have to say is that Campbell, so far, has been tremendously underrated. Every single game since that first disaster at NY has been the picture of efficiency and NO INTERCEPTIONS. I will say this though, the Redskins need to work on finishing their drives. You noted that there was a stretch when they scored on 6 of 7 drives (discounting the last drive) but four of those were for field goals and many with goal to go. That is at least 8 to 12 points that are being left on the field meaning this win would have been 34 - 24 or 36-24. If they can somehow capitalize on those opportunities then this is an elite team.
    I do have to disagree with what you said about Romo, he may not have had a stellar game but he did put up 300 yards and 3 touchdowns and moved the ball no problem on that last scoring drive. Great win, but lots to work on before facing the Eagles and a new look D-Mac in hostile Philly.

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    • Shaun Ahmad 9 months ago

      Couldn't agree with you more about finishing drives. That will be critical in taking the next step.

      In regards to Romo, the last drive of the game as well as the last drive of the first half was when he amassed 150 of his 300 yards passing. The common factor? The Redskins were in a very soft prevent both times giving away everything underneath in order to avoid the big/quick score. It took Romo almost 50 pass attempts (47 to be exact) to break 300 so I think the Skins played him pretty well.

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  7. Lisa Horne 9 months ago

    Oh Man, POTD!

    I'm a Skins fan, and this was suh-weet! Campbell is starting to show signs of greatness. And anytime the Skins beat the Boys, I'm a happy camper.

    Nice write-up Shaun! :)

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    • Shaun Ahmad 9 months ago

      Thanks for the POTD Lisa.

      Is it just me, or does it not feel like the Redskins have beat the Cowboys FIVE out of their past SEVEN meetings!

      Also, Tony Romo has only lost 6 regular season games in his career; three are to the burgundy and gold, as he's only beat us once. I like the sound of that!

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  8. Michael Schlossberg 9 months ago

    This NFC is very tough, the Redskins showed me they are not going to fold over for the cowboys, eagles, giants.... Giants now sit alone in first place though...

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  9. Steven Resnick 9 months ago

    They did make a statement and they also showed other teams how you beat them. Although, I disagreed with playing it conservatively and just running the clock down instead of going for the touchdown. The way to beat the Cowboys is to stop their running game with Marion Barber and to get physical with Terrell Owens.

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    • Shaun Ahmad 9 months ago

      I can't tell you how much I hate going into prevent defense and giving away yardage to "play it safe". Do what got you in the position to win the game. I can understand taking one safety and dropping him further back than usual, but don't make the corners back off 15 yards from the line.

      I won't complain too much though because a win is a win, especially when it's against Dallas!

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  10. Chris Lail 9 months ago

    Hail to the Redskins! That is all. :-)

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  11. Chris Radez 9 months ago

    Craziness Shaun... just craziness. Who'd have thunk it? Not me, I tell ya...

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  12. Tom D 9 months ago

    I'm looking at several articles on this game and have yet to see any comments on one of the most significant plays of the game. The Redskins had a 3rd and short in the 4th quarter and needed to keep the drive going. This was important enough to call for a time-out to confer with the coaches. Dallas decided that they needed (12) men on defense to make the stop, but the refs caught them and awarded (5) yards and a 1st down to the Redskins.
    How come this missed the radar of the pundits?
    Skins fan from the “over the Hill gang” era.

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    • Shaun Ahmad 9 months ago

      While that was a huge play in the game, I didn't recap many of the details. I went the route of recapping the game in a general sense and showing how it affects the landscape of the NFC East as well as the Redskins' season.

      Since we're talking about big plays, how about the no-call on Adam Jones getting his facemask nearly ripped off. Also, there was the play where Jon Jansen had the false start by a good second and a half and there was no whistle.

      There was also a questionable holding call on Casey Rabach when Clinton Portis ran it in for a touchdown, causing the Skins to ultimately settle for a field goal.

      All in and all, calls usually have a way of evening themselves out and I feel that this was the case in the Skins-Cowboys game.

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    • Craig Garrison Sr 9 months ago

      That was a big play in the game, it enabled Suisham to have a chipshot field goal rather than a bit of a long one. But there were several big plays that had a major impact on the game. During the drive where the Skins lost 2 touchdowns due to penalties(the holding call was terrible, Rabach wasn't even close to holding anybody, he fell over and blew his block). On that drive Campbell fumbled the ball on the attempted exchange with Ladell Betts but was able to just reach out a little and get it back and plow forward for a 4 yard gain. Big time play from Campbell, saving the turnover.

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  13. Tom D 9 months ago

    I enjoyed your article and agree with your big picture structure. I really was responding to another location that listed "Winners" and "Losers" where they did point out turning points in a game.
    The reason I pointed out this specific moment of the game is the unusual circumstance of the importance of the play, time of game and that it was an amateur mistake even though they had just completed a time- out.
    Officials make some bad calls or no calls every game as you correctly pointed out. This mistake was a rare occurrence in the NFL. (Even college for that matter).

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    • Shaun Ahmad 9 months ago

      Yeah and the fact that it came out of a timeout is absurd. I don't know how the coaching staff will be able to get on any of the players this week after having committed the most critical mistake themselves.

      I think it's fair to say that Wade Phillips and Co. truly underestimated the Redskins. You could tell by everyone's body language. With underestimating an opponent comes carelessness and stupid mistakes.

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  14. Samuel Bell Jr 9 months ago

    Good article, Shaun. As much as I hate the Redskins and love the Cowboys, I must admit that the Redskins masterfully beat the 'Boys Sunday. Jason Campbell flat-out outplayed Tony Romo and Santana Moss outdid T.O. This Cowboys team scares me and will continue to because of three things:
    1. T.O being his selfish self as he did in the comments he made after the game.
    2. Tony Romo being mistake-prone and throwing dumb picks like he threw to the rookie
    3. Wade Phillips being too nice to scold T.O or Romo
    If the Cowboys don't fix some things, they will fail to launch in the playoffs like they've done in the past. Gotta give Zorn, Campbell and the Redskins credit though, they earned it yesterday.

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    • Shaun Ahmad 9 months ago

      TO needs to shut his damn mouth up and not ruin a QUALITY team. Wait.. how many times have we said that in the past?

      But seriously. The Cowboys did EVERYTHING other than make him the quarterback to get him the ball. They pitched the ball to him, threw to him when he was covered... everything. He needs to shut his mouth.

      In all honesty, I think the Cowboys just underestimated the Redskins. Their body language was like, "What? Is this really happening?" They tried to turn it on late but they were overmatched.

      Good stuff Samuel.

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  15. Johnny Da Bone 9 months ago

    2 Comments:

    1) Randle El fumbled against the Saints.

    2) It is pure joy watching the JC throw a football !

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    • Craig Garrison Sr 9 months ago

      Randle El's fumble was on a punt return, the OFFENSE hasn't turned it over yet this season. Pretty good.

      And it is kinda nice seeing JC growing up isn't it?

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  1. Kevin Paul 9 months ago

    Loved watching this game yesterday - the 'Skins played well, and Jim Zorn has really got this team believing...
    Good read...

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    • Shaun Ahmad 9 months ago

      Thanks Kevin. This is a very, very confident squad now and as I heard Chris Cooley say this morning on the radio; "We are now going into the fourth quarter knowing we'll win. Not just thinking about it."

      That's a good sign for Skins fans.

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    • Kevin Paul 9 months ago

      Very good sign.

      Were you the one that I talked to earlier in the year - where we discussed that with that opening four game stretch, it would be big to see the 'Skins come out at 2-2? And here they are 3-1... that's big.

      It will be interesting to see if Westbrook is back next weekend when Philly plays Washington...

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    • Shaun Ahmad 9 months ago

      Yeah Kevin i was thinking about that yesterday. I couldn't remember who I talked about it with but now I remember that it was you.

      I know I'm making a huge mistake by getting ahead of myself but after Philly, whether the Skins win or lose, they have St. Louis, Cleveland and Detroit.

      Imagine the possibilities should the Skins win in Philly. Even if they lose, 6-2 is by no means out of the question.

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    • Kevin Paul 9 months ago

      Very true, that is a promising schedule, but as we both know, upsets can and do happen - in both college and the pros. Still, I'm sure there are countless other 'Skins fans out there that have noticed the same thing...

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  2. Dan Parzych 9 months ago

    Great article. As an Eagles fan, I was happy to see Washington come through against Dallas yesterday. It seems like everybody gave Washington no shot at winning the division after their opening game against the Giants. The Skins yesterday proved they are capable of taking the division from everybody else. I look forward to the game on Sunday!

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    • Shaun Ahmad 9 months ago

      There is no question that Dallas is a great team, but people forget that the Eagles were only a McNabb/Westbrook fumbled exchange away from beating them on the road also.

      Dallas is the Super Bowl favorite, but they aren't head and shoulders above the rest of the pack. I think all four teams have an exactly equal shot of winning the division. That's saying something considering the talent and star power of the division.

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  3. Jordan Coleman 9 months ago

    The 'Boys looked really bad yesterday. Washington played a good game and Dallas couldn't capitalize.

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  4. James Turner 9 months ago

    I've been ranting Redskins since they signed Jim Zorn. Check out my Jim Zorn article I wrote few months ago. Great article. Zorn is bringing us a ring in his stint. Trust and Believe!

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  5. mmqb 9 months ago

    Nice win by the Redskins, they earned big time props/respect for the upset.

    Of course, TO has to blame Romo and not give the Skins any credit. He should take a page from
    Randy Moss and just support his QB and give credit to the opponent, like Randy did after the Miami loss.

    I'm sure he was frustrated by only getting 4 touches and 25 yards but he handled his press conference like a pro. Cassel needs to get him the ball more if they are going to win.

    check out this video. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ydpSdaxFDnA

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  6. L D 9 months ago

    HAIL TO THE REDSKINS!! What a FANTASTIC victory - to beat Dallas in Texas Stadium !!!
    YEE-HA!! GO SKINS --- My prediction coming out of week 4: We'll be stong NFC East Playoff Contenders.

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