Monday Night Football Week 13: TV Schedule, Live Stream for Cowboys vs. Redskins

The Washington Redskins and Dallas Cowboys have a combined eight wins between them this season, but their Monday Night Football matchup holds significant NFC East implications.

After the New York Giants again forgot how to play football during the fourth quarter, Washington enters its Week 13 bout leading the division by half a game. But the Philadelphia Eagles' upset over the New England Patriots crowds the division's standings. A Washington victory would extend the club's edge to a full game while gutting a dagger in 3-8 Dallas, who is once again stuck without Tony Romo.

In his second game back from a lengthy absence, the Cowboys starting quarterback fractured his collarbone, which will cost him the remainder of the regular season. They failed to win any of their seven games without Romo, and they now can't afford to lose any at all.

This is hardly a marquee matchup, but like the MLB All-Star Game, it unfortunately counts. Somebody has to win the subpar division, and Monday night will help determine if one of these two squads sneak into the playoffs.

Game Details

When: Monday, Dec. 7, at 8:30 p.m. ET

Where: FedExField, Landover, Maryland

Watch: ESPN

Live Stream: WatchESPN

Tickets: ScoreBig.com

Preview

Michael Ainsworth/Associated Press

Hey there, Matt Cassel. So I know you think you saw us doing cartwheels and crying tears of joy upon Romo's Week 11 return. Someone might have said something along the lines of "It's over. Brandon Weeden or Cassel are gone forever." All jokes. We still believe in you!

On the bright side, the 33-year-old replacement's second go-around can't go much worse than Romo's revival. The Romo who typically only exists in the imagination of angry Twitter commentators hardly looked fit to see the field, surrendering five interceptions through two games.

Turnovers have plagued all three quarterbacks, who have thrown a combined 14 picks. Before Week 13, only Peyton Manning's Denver Broncos had relinquished more, and Dallas also registers an NFL-low minus-12 turnover differential due to a league-worst seven takeaways.

Cowboys head coach Jason Garrett decried the vast turnover discrepancy to the Dallas Morning News' Brandon George:

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The most important statistic for our football team this year has been the turnover ratio. Regardless of who is playing quarterback for you, if you have success in that area, the chance of you guys having success winning ballgames are high. And certainly if you don't, it's much more difficult to win games. That's one of the best things we did last year, we took the ball away, we were second in the NFL, and obviously we haven't done as good of job at that.

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Cassel is responsible for five of those interceptions, three of which came in his season's first start against the Giants. Averaging 6.54 yards per pass attempt, he won't challenge Washington's secondary deep. Instead, the Cowboys will look to run Darren McFadden often behind a stout offensive line.

The former Oakland Raider, however, hit a major wall on Thanksgiving, gaining 11 yards through 10 carries against the Carolina Panthers. As noted by ESPN.com's John Keim, Washington can also shut him down by stuffing the box:

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Running back Darren McFadden is averaging 3.8 yards per carry, but when the Cowboys run him versus six-man fronts he’s much more effective. In those situations, on 69 carries he averages 4.7 yards per carry. As a warning: the Redskins allow 5.3 yards a pop when using only six-man boxes. But against a seven-man front, McFadden averages just 2.4 yards per run. 

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At 5-6 with a minus-26 point differential, Washington would be no more than an ancillary postseason cast member. If it's lucky, it can edge out a Wild Card Weekend victory at home, but a squad winless on the road isn't going through Carolina, Arizona or Green Bay.

But hey, it's a huge step for an organization that went 3-13 in 2013 and 4-12 last year. After knocking down the Giants, it climbed to No. 15 in Football Outsiders' Defensive-adjusted Value Over Average. No other NFC East's team ranks within the top half of the league.

Starting Kirk Cousins was a suspicious decision, but he has rewarded the organization's confidence (or covered up its bizarre lack of confidence in Robert Griffin III) by entering Week 13 second in completion percentage (68.4) behind Philip Rivers.

Although fueled by poor opponents and a small sample size, Cousins has clicked at home. In six games at FedExField, the 27-year-old quarterback has completed 74.7 percent of his passes with 11 touchdowns and two interceptions. 

Pierre Garcon, Jordan Reed and Jamison Crowder give him possession targets to move the chains, but he now has an explosive vertical threat. DeSean Jackson has made his presence felt over the past two weeks, recording a 56-yard score against Carolina and corralling a 63-yard bomb versus the Giants.

As observed by ESPN Stats & Info, he has made a lucrative living burning secondaries deep:

If Washington can get Alfred Morris and Matt Jones going on the ground, it suddenly has a potent offense. Playing at home and against Cassel, look for the nation's capital to celebrate a .500 first-place team.