Redskins Prove They Aren't Ready to Make Playoff Leap After Bad Loss to Cowboys

The Washington Redskins aren't going to win the NFC East. Mathematically, this statement isn't true, but based on what we watched in their 19-16 Week 13 loss to the Dallas Cowboys, this team is clearly incapable of making the leap to playoff-contender status.

Jay Gruden's men came into this contest with a 5-6 record, and sat alone atop the NFC East—the Giants and Eagles trailed Washington by a half-game. A win would have put the Redskins squarely in the driver's seat of the NFC East.

Their opponent, a beat up Cowboys team with their third quarterback of the year, a running back who was acquired just a few weeks prior and no working tech on the sidelines to help ease their growing pains.

Easy win, right?

Wrong.

The Redskins, on their home field, were limited to 16 points—their first touchdown didn't come until 44 seconds were left in the fourth quarter—and 267 yards of total offense.

To be frank, the Redskins were a disaster, at least on offense anyway. Take a look at how the unit fared tonight against the Cowboys D.

Cowboys	Stat	Redskins
317	Total Yards	266
97	Rushing Yards	73
220	Passing Yards	193
5.9	Yards Per Play	4.4
1-of-9	Third-Down Efficiency	6-of-16
3	Turnovers	1
27:13	Time of Possession	32:47

In the interest of fairness, neither team was good on offense in this matchup, but this is about the Redskins, not the Cowboys.

Washington couldn't get anything going against Dallas, and finished with its fourth-lowest total-yardage mark of the 2015 season. In addition, the team converted on exactly zero of its red-zone opportunities—they only had one—and went 6-of-16 (37.5 percent) on third-down tries.

Over 12 offensive drives, the team mustered up just four scores, which is right in line with their 33.9 percent scoring rate—good for 20th in the NFL.

Kirk Cousins was surprisingly efficient and hit on 71 percent of his passes. Cousins also experienced success on third down and, excluding the three third-down sacks, was 5-of-12 in converting third-down pass attempts into first downs.

What Cousins wasn't efficient at, though, was putting points on the board. The 27-year-old led seven drives that ended in Cowboys territory and scored four times on said drives, but the team only amassed 16 points in the process.

Patrick Semansky/Associated Press/Associated Press

Cousins and the Redskins were able to turn just one of the aforementioned seven drives into a touchdown, and that, for a professional football team, is completely unacceptable.

That said, the three sacks and consistent pressure allowed by the offensive line was the big story. The unit allowed unabated pressure up the middle, and the Michigan State product was repeatedly given little time to make good reads and throws.

The unit's play comes as a bit of a surprise, as the Redskins O-line has been solid in terms of limiting sacks on their quarterback, and it currently ranks in a second-place tie for fewest sacks allowed in 2015. All told though, the fact that the unit was unable to keep up that trend against a team that generates a modest amount of pressure on opposing quarterbacks is disconcerting.

Then we have the bone-headed play by DeSean Jackson that nearly cost his team the game.

With the score tied, and a minute plus left on the clock, Jackson had a perfect opportunity to get his team in position to put together a game-winning drive. Instead, the Cal product did something, well, inexplicable.

Sure, Jackson would go on to catch a game-tying touchdown on the following drive, but that ridiculous kick return resulted in a fumble, and a Cowboys go-ahead touchdown. Everything after that—including Jackson's game-tying touchdown—came out of necessity, and was more about Cousins—he went 2-of-3 for 37 yards and a touchdown on that drive—than it was about anything else.

The Redskins melted under the pressure of playing a major game in a prime-time slot, and the loss was the result of collectively poor play.

Kicker Dustin Hopkins took some of the blame.

And Cousins is extraordinarily optimistic following an otherwise devastating loss:

But rest assured, this performance against the Cowboys signals one thing and one thing only; the Redskins aren't ready to make the jump to the next level and secure a playoff spot in 2015.