dpf1123
DCC 4Life
- Joined
- Apr 8, 2013
- Messages
- 2,577
Morning After Week 12 - Wild Win And Smiles
There hasn't been much to enjoy in '24, but Washington offered a truly ridiculous win.
Bob Sturm
Nov 25, 2024
I suppose clichés exist for a purpose. There must be some truth for them to become overly used, right?
“You can throw the record books out the window when these two teams play” is one that we always use in football when longtime rivals get together and for as long as I have covered the NFL – eight years covering the Washington-Dallas series from Virginia and now 27 years covering the Cowboys – I have thought about it nearly every time I have watched these two teams play. Washington and Dallas have a series that defies logic. They also seem to produce some of the most absurd games where, as the rules dictate, ultimately someone has to win.
The better team always seems to trip and fall and the sillier team stumbles to a victory. A victory, mind you, where its own fanbase seems mixed about receiving, but a win nonetheless. And, even better – given that this season clearly is what it is – an exciting one, too. It comes with the feeling that you helped Washington slow their roll on how their new day has dawned if Dallas was able to steal a very important game off of their cause and continue a three-game losing streak for a Commanders side that desperately needed it.
This is why we play the games.
Now, first to summarize briefly what happened in this game before we address any mixed fan emotions. I am not sure when we have last seen a game this ridiculous.
It was 3-3 at halftime. The entire first half was a comedy of errors in both directions with special teams silliness, football follies out-takes, and what appeared to be two teams just trying to ruin everyone’s afternoon who dared to watch the NFL on a beautiful day, instead of doing literally anything else.
Each team had a single third-down conversion in the first half, but both teams were at a horrid 16% conversion rate on money downs. They were both moving the ball, only to have a moment of poor execution rob them of the proceeds. Sometimes it was a dropped pass or a snap over the QBs head, other times it was a bad penalty or a missed block on a 3rd and 1. Either way, it was plenty of trips up and down the field that signified nothing.
Amazingly, Dallas tied the game last in the half and 3-3 seemed like a great summary for a half of football that will not be remembered aside from the clear special teams incompetence that the Cowboys have been turning out. You seldom get to ponder your side getting a field goal and a punt blocked in the same half of football. Hard to pull off that double play, but the Cowboys did it and added a Brandon Aubrey miss off a the goal post to make it three significant blunders from your special teams that conspired to secure what would surely become another loss.
Alas, the football gods had other ideas in the second half.
We should have known this was going to get weird when Washington marched right down the field to open the second half with a convincing touchdown, only to deflatingly miss the extra point. They had already missed a field goal in the first quarter that looked like a very wounded duck and now miss another point after. As we know now, it would not be the last miss for Austin Seibert. Seibert missed a total of three kicks on the day, including his first two extra-point misses of the season and his first two since 2020.
What we saw in the second half produced many moments of wildness. But, there are two, in particular, that deserve our full attention, and they both happened roughly three hours into the contest.
First, at 2:58 pm central time, Washington kicked off to Dallas with 3:02 left in the game. They had just scored a touchdown and added a 2-point conversion to cut the Dallas lead to 20-17. They would simply kick the ball to Dallas and use their timeouts to get a stop and turn the ball over to their rookie starlet QB and secure a win against a pesky team going nowhere.
And that is when this game lost its mind. The legend of Kavontae Turpin decided to write its most ridiculous chapter yet and I submit that this is where the video is the only thing that can describe what happened next.
It is impossible to say if this has ever been tried before at the NFL-level, because I have no idea. But, the nerve of a return man in this situation to try a completely unnecessary spin 360-degree spin move after muffing the return and being at his own 10-yard line late in a game is off the charts. He absolutely didn’t have to do it and frankly, you would definitely tell him that this is not the time or place to try to impress us with your reckless creativity.
But, when he darted dead right and then planted his left foot in the ground and decided to pivot all the way around with his back to the defenders and spin in the opposite direction, it appeared to be one of those panicked moments in Madden where someone is just pressing buttons and hoping for a good result. But, this was far from random. When he spun back, he lost everyone for that split-second. And when you are the fastest man in the NFL, all he needed is that split-second, because he found a giant hole to run through and was gone.
It was the craziest thing you have ever seen. Just one week after catching a harmless slant and taking it the distance for a rare offensive touchdown, he created another touchdown - this one a 99-yard kickoff return – out of nothing more than a muffed return. What appeared to be a possession that would start deep in their own territory was now a 10-point lead again, 27-17, in the blink of an eye. Turpin, in the midst of a very poor Cowboys season, now joins the legendary Devin Hester, Dante Hall, Terrence Wilkins, and Billy “White Shoes” Johnson as the only guys since 1970 to have a punt return TD, kick return TD, & 60+ yd receiving TD in the same season.
Absurd.
Let me tell you, if you are a return man and you find yourself in a class with Devin Hester, “White Shoes” Johnson, and Dante Hall, you have had yourself an impressive season. He is a tremendous story and should be walking into a very attractive free agent market for the first time (and perhaps only time) in his career this spring. In a league that values speed and play-making, I would think his suitors will be many. Dallas would be well-served to try to get something done before the window opens in March, because any team that lacks play-maker juice must wonder how they don’t get him the ball in space as a mandatory objective nearly every week.
Was the game over after Turpin put them back up 10 points inside three minutes? Of course not. Washington took that kickoff and drove to set up Seibert for a field goal and with 1:40 left that would then make it 27-20.
After recovering the onside kick, Dallas decided Cooper Rush taking two knees would eliminate the final two Washington timeouts, but surely Rico Dowdle runs could also do that AND maybe get the final 1st down. Did they not trust him after the earlier fumble? Because the two knees by Rush gave Washington one last chance to try to go the length of the field in just 0:33. The odds were in Dallas’ favor, for sure. Washington, who had already won a home game on a miracle this year, would certainly not be able to pull another one here, right?
And then at that moment where we remember that Dallas is playing a year where everything they do turns to trash, Terry McLaurin catches a ball and reminds us why they call him “Scary Terry” and goes 86-yards for one of the most embarrassing prevent defense snaps we have ever seen.
Josh Butler had a wonderful day as a NFL corner who was finally getting his chance to play and led the Cowboys in tackles. He is also a great story and one who we will want to see more of here down the stretch, but it just about had the cruelest ending possible as he took one false step and McLaurin showed what happens at this level when a false step goes bad.
But, as would happen yesterday, just when you thought you knew how it would end, the steering wheel gets yanked again. Seibert missed another extra point when the snap skidded to the holder and the kick went wide left. Fox play-by-play man Joe Davis called it the worst special teams day in history and it would be pretty difficult to argue that point.
Dallas would tack on a second 4th Quarter kick off return which was an onside kick that Juanyeh Thomas ran back for a touchdown and gave Washington even another chance that would have disappeared if he had just fallen on the ball.
But, Juanyeh provided a little insight at that moment about what football players do when we give them a moment where they see a path to the end zone. Football players play to make plays and to try to win games.
Somehow, a 3-3 halftime developed into what would give us a 31-23 2nd half score and a 4th Quarter that alone was 24-17. Sometimes, football gets pretty weird.
Perhaps that is where this essay has taken us – to address those who were upset because “the Cowboys can’t even tank correctly.”
That, and the declining draft position, was a theme in the feedback of this 34-26 win over Washington.
I have bad news for those that think tanking is a real thing in the NFL. It isn’t. It is fan fiction and perhaps even something a front office can dream about. But, to the rank and file who take the bruises and beatings of professional football for our entertainment, they know nothing of the kind.
The players and coaches in this league are survivors. They only survive because they want something. It could be to win a rep in practice against the guy they are fighting for a job or it could be to win this week and to avoid the firing that the public wants. But, they fight because that is what they have done since they were in grade school. If you think they are willing to go on a 3-month losing streak so that you get a handsome new college lad who will then take their job immediately and maybe even end their career, you don’t understand what survival looks like.
They are programmed to win the next drill or the next scrimmage or the next series. They are competitors and competitors do not think about your mock drafts that are filled with their replacements. At their core, they are fighting against every other person in their profession, so if they find themselves playing on a sun-drenched day in Maryland and discover a chance to produce some tape of them fighting their tails off to make a play, you better believe the programming will kick in. They are all auditioning for a job in 2025 and the eye in the sky doesn’t lie. No bad tape will further their personal journeys. They know that, so they fight to survive.
Yesterday, Dallas fought hard and with some pride. Allow me to advance this train of thought even further, if I may.
Leading them were two key members of their present and future as CeeDee Lamb and Micah Parsons both showed repeatedly that they have no interest in laying down.
If Dallas is to respond quickly in 2025, it will be because Lamb and Parsons have grown into being the pulse of this organization and will begin to hold those around them to a higher standard of what is acceptable and what is not. I realize they may not occur to most as ideal leadership, but I will remind us all that Ray Lewis was one of the best “follow me” leaders in sports history and those of us on the outside wondered how that could come from a guy like that? Trust me, it isn’t about us. It is about the guys in that room.
Micah and CeeDee are where everyone of those guys want to be in terms of getting paid and being superstars. So, you better believe what they say matters. For a while, I have always wondered if they are too worried about themselves, but there are clues that the light is going on about their influence and how they can change things for the franchise. When they play like they did yesterday and say what they have been saying recently, I squint and see a future. I may be concluding too much, but if anything comes out of 2024 in a positive light, I would hope that it is the season when Parsons and Lamb took over the locker-room and filled the void in the player leadership department.
If there is no quit, then we must see it every week on the way in. If guys are out due to injury, let the new ones plug-in and compete hard. If this season is done, then let yesterday serve as a standard of what is required to be around in 2025.
I know it will not get most fans going. In fact, it will only annoy you that positive signs will hurt those precious draft pick positions. But, I think finding out that this organization still has some pride and hope remaining is more than nothing. Adversity doesn’t build character, it reveals it. I believe that.
Well, without many key pieces yesterday, Dallas upset a rival and showed a ton of character.
They fought like heck and were rewarded. Lamb and Parsons were both leaders with their play and with their words on the field and passion that was seen throughout (even the picture at the top confirms). Maybe this can be the season where the kids grew up and became adults and took over the room. That development could pay massive dividends in the future.
If you don’t believe me, check the notes about 1989. That was another time a Cowboys team was hopeless and double-digit underdogs at Washington, only to emerge with a win that made no sense.
Sometimes, we see signs of better days yet to come. We have no idea if yesterday was that, but I definitely took some notice. Now, we prepare for the quick turnaround for Thanksgiving.
There hasn't been much to enjoy in '24, but Washington offered a truly ridiculous win.
Bob Sturm
Nov 25, 2024
I suppose clichés exist for a purpose. There must be some truth for them to become overly used, right?
“You can throw the record books out the window when these two teams play” is one that we always use in football when longtime rivals get together and for as long as I have covered the NFL – eight years covering the Washington-Dallas series from Virginia and now 27 years covering the Cowboys – I have thought about it nearly every time I have watched these two teams play. Washington and Dallas have a series that defies logic. They also seem to produce some of the most absurd games where, as the rules dictate, ultimately someone has to win.
The better team always seems to trip and fall and the sillier team stumbles to a victory. A victory, mind you, where its own fanbase seems mixed about receiving, but a win nonetheless. And, even better – given that this season clearly is what it is – an exciting one, too. It comes with the feeling that you helped Washington slow their roll on how their new day has dawned if Dallas was able to steal a very important game off of their cause and continue a three-game losing streak for a Commanders side that desperately needed it.
This is why we play the games.
Now, first to summarize briefly what happened in this game before we address any mixed fan emotions. I am not sure when we have last seen a game this ridiculous.
It was 3-3 at halftime. The entire first half was a comedy of errors in both directions with special teams silliness, football follies out-takes, and what appeared to be two teams just trying to ruin everyone’s afternoon who dared to watch the NFL on a beautiful day, instead of doing literally anything else.
Each team had a single third-down conversion in the first half, but both teams were at a horrid 16% conversion rate on money downs. They were both moving the ball, only to have a moment of poor execution rob them of the proceeds. Sometimes it was a dropped pass or a snap over the QBs head, other times it was a bad penalty or a missed block on a 3rd and 1. Either way, it was plenty of trips up and down the field that signified nothing.
Amazingly, Dallas tied the game last in the half and 3-3 seemed like a great summary for a half of football that will not be remembered aside from the clear special teams incompetence that the Cowboys have been turning out. You seldom get to ponder your side getting a field goal and a punt blocked in the same half of football. Hard to pull off that double play, but the Cowboys did it and added a Brandon Aubrey miss off a the goal post to make it three significant blunders from your special teams that conspired to secure what would surely become another loss.
Alas, the football gods had other ideas in the second half.
We should have known this was going to get weird when Washington marched right down the field to open the second half with a convincing touchdown, only to deflatingly miss the extra point. They had already missed a field goal in the first quarter that looked like a very wounded duck and now miss another point after. As we know now, it would not be the last miss for Austin Seibert. Seibert missed a total of three kicks on the day, including his first two extra-point misses of the season and his first two since 2020.
What we saw in the second half produced many moments of wildness. But, there are two, in particular, that deserve our full attention, and they both happened roughly three hours into the contest.
First, at 2:58 pm central time, Washington kicked off to Dallas with 3:02 left in the game. They had just scored a touchdown and added a 2-point conversion to cut the Dallas lead to 20-17. They would simply kick the ball to Dallas and use their timeouts to get a stop and turn the ball over to their rookie starlet QB and secure a win against a pesky team going nowhere.
And that is when this game lost its mind. The legend of Kavontae Turpin decided to write its most ridiculous chapter yet and I submit that this is where the video is the only thing that can describe what happened next.
It is impossible to say if this has ever been tried before at the NFL-level, because I have no idea. But, the nerve of a return man in this situation to try a completely unnecessary spin 360-degree spin move after muffing the return and being at his own 10-yard line late in a game is off the charts. He absolutely didn’t have to do it and frankly, you would definitely tell him that this is not the time or place to try to impress us with your reckless creativity.
But, when he darted dead right and then planted his left foot in the ground and decided to pivot all the way around with his back to the defenders and spin in the opposite direction, it appeared to be one of those panicked moments in Madden where someone is just pressing buttons and hoping for a good result. But, this was far from random. When he spun back, he lost everyone for that split-second. And when you are the fastest man in the NFL, all he needed is that split-second, because he found a giant hole to run through and was gone.
It was the craziest thing you have ever seen. Just one week after catching a harmless slant and taking it the distance for a rare offensive touchdown, he created another touchdown - this one a 99-yard kickoff return – out of nothing more than a muffed return. What appeared to be a possession that would start deep in their own territory was now a 10-point lead again, 27-17, in the blink of an eye. Turpin, in the midst of a very poor Cowboys season, now joins the legendary Devin Hester, Dante Hall, Terrence Wilkins, and Billy “White Shoes” Johnson as the only guys since 1970 to have a punt return TD, kick return TD, & 60+ yd receiving TD in the same season.
Absurd.
Let me tell you, if you are a return man and you find yourself in a class with Devin Hester, “White Shoes” Johnson, and Dante Hall, you have had yourself an impressive season. He is a tremendous story and should be walking into a very attractive free agent market for the first time (and perhaps only time) in his career this spring. In a league that values speed and play-making, I would think his suitors will be many. Dallas would be well-served to try to get something done before the window opens in March, because any team that lacks play-maker juice must wonder how they don’t get him the ball in space as a mandatory objective nearly every week.
Was the game over after Turpin put them back up 10 points inside three minutes? Of course not. Washington took that kickoff and drove to set up Seibert for a field goal and with 1:40 left that would then make it 27-20.
After recovering the onside kick, Dallas decided Cooper Rush taking two knees would eliminate the final two Washington timeouts, but surely Rico Dowdle runs could also do that AND maybe get the final 1st down. Did they not trust him after the earlier fumble? Because the two knees by Rush gave Washington one last chance to try to go the length of the field in just 0:33. The odds were in Dallas’ favor, for sure. Washington, who had already won a home game on a miracle this year, would certainly not be able to pull another one here, right?
And then at that moment where we remember that Dallas is playing a year where everything they do turns to trash, Terry McLaurin catches a ball and reminds us why they call him “Scary Terry” and goes 86-yards for one of the most embarrassing prevent defense snaps we have ever seen.
Josh Butler had a wonderful day as a NFL corner who was finally getting his chance to play and led the Cowboys in tackles. He is also a great story and one who we will want to see more of here down the stretch, but it just about had the cruelest ending possible as he took one false step and McLaurin showed what happens at this level when a false step goes bad.
But, as would happen yesterday, just when you thought you knew how it would end, the steering wheel gets yanked again. Seibert missed another extra point when the snap skidded to the holder and the kick went wide left. Fox play-by-play man Joe Davis called it the worst special teams day in history and it would be pretty difficult to argue that point.
Dallas would tack on a second 4th Quarter kick off return which was an onside kick that Juanyeh Thomas ran back for a touchdown and gave Washington even another chance that would have disappeared if he had just fallen on the ball.
But, Juanyeh provided a little insight at that moment about what football players do when we give them a moment where they see a path to the end zone. Football players play to make plays and to try to win games.
Somehow, a 3-3 halftime developed into what would give us a 31-23 2nd half score and a 4th Quarter that alone was 24-17. Sometimes, football gets pretty weird.
Perhaps that is where this essay has taken us – to address those who were upset because “the Cowboys can’t even tank correctly.”
That, and the declining draft position, was a theme in the feedback of this 34-26 win over Washington.
I have bad news for those that think tanking is a real thing in the NFL. It isn’t. It is fan fiction and perhaps even something a front office can dream about. But, to the rank and file who take the bruises and beatings of professional football for our entertainment, they know nothing of the kind.
The players and coaches in this league are survivors. They only survive because they want something. It could be to win a rep in practice against the guy they are fighting for a job or it could be to win this week and to avoid the firing that the public wants. But, they fight because that is what they have done since they were in grade school. If you think they are willing to go on a 3-month losing streak so that you get a handsome new college lad who will then take their job immediately and maybe even end their career, you don’t understand what survival looks like.
They are programmed to win the next drill or the next scrimmage or the next series. They are competitors and competitors do not think about your mock drafts that are filled with their replacements. At their core, they are fighting against every other person in their profession, so if they find themselves playing on a sun-drenched day in Maryland and discover a chance to produce some tape of them fighting their tails off to make a play, you better believe the programming will kick in. They are all auditioning for a job in 2025 and the eye in the sky doesn’t lie. No bad tape will further their personal journeys. They know that, so they fight to survive.
Yesterday, Dallas fought hard and with some pride. Allow me to advance this train of thought even further, if I may.
Leading them were two key members of their present and future as CeeDee Lamb and Micah Parsons both showed repeatedly that they have no interest in laying down.
If Dallas is to respond quickly in 2025, it will be because Lamb and Parsons have grown into being the pulse of this organization and will begin to hold those around them to a higher standard of what is acceptable and what is not. I realize they may not occur to most as ideal leadership, but I will remind us all that Ray Lewis was one of the best “follow me” leaders in sports history and those of us on the outside wondered how that could come from a guy like that? Trust me, it isn’t about us. It is about the guys in that room.
Micah and CeeDee are where everyone of those guys want to be in terms of getting paid and being superstars. So, you better believe what they say matters. For a while, I have always wondered if they are too worried about themselves, but there are clues that the light is going on about their influence and how they can change things for the franchise. When they play like they did yesterday and say what they have been saying recently, I squint and see a future. I may be concluding too much, but if anything comes out of 2024 in a positive light, I would hope that it is the season when Parsons and Lamb took over the locker-room and filled the void in the player leadership department.
If there is no quit, then we must see it every week on the way in. If guys are out due to injury, let the new ones plug-in and compete hard. If this season is done, then let yesterday serve as a standard of what is required to be around in 2025.
I know it will not get most fans going. In fact, it will only annoy you that positive signs will hurt those precious draft pick positions. But, I think finding out that this organization still has some pride and hope remaining is more than nothing. Adversity doesn’t build character, it reveals it. I believe that.
Well, without many key pieces yesterday, Dallas upset a rival and showed a ton of character.
They fought like heck and were rewarded. Lamb and Parsons were both leaders with their play and with their words on the field and passion that was seen throughout (even the picture at the top confirms). Maybe this can be the season where the kids grew up and became adults and took over the room. That development could pay massive dividends in the future.
If you don’t believe me, check the notes about 1989. That was another time a Cowboys team was hopeless and double-digit underdogs at Washington, only to emerge with a win that made no sense.
Sometimes, we see signs of better days yet to come. We have no idea if yesterday was that, but I definitely took some notice. Now, we prepare for the quick turnaround for Thanksgiving.
