57 minutes into Sunday's game, I wasn't mad at Shaun Suisham. He'd missed 2 of 4 kicks despite making all 14 of his previous tries this season.
But then Tony Romo evaded the worn down DC pass rush and found Patrick Crayton in the back of the end zone. Nick Folk's extra point made it 7-6 Dallas. And then the fat lady sang.
Now for the most part I'm a firm believer in the team concept of football: equal credit, equal blame. But not Sunday.
The Redskins had finally generated some kind of momentum. The running game had reemerged, Campbell was protecting the football, and young pass catchers were filling in adequately for injured starters.
The defense had been steady all year aside from a few lapses. Even so, they were 4th in yards allowed and 6th in points allowed.
Suisham had been reliable and Hunter the Punter had placed the 3rd most balls inside the 20 yard line not to mention adding 2, I said 2, touchdowns off successful fakes.
This simple, yet, difficult to maintain formula beat the Broncos and should have beaten the Cowboys but something was lacking: Suisham's trusty right leg.
12 points would have won it. Geeze, nine would have won it too. He missed from 50 (forgivable) and from 39 (unforgivable) and now the Skins are 3-7 and even the biggest optimists such as myself are beginning to murmur on April's NFL draft.
Aside from Suisham who failed to swish 'em, some Redskin players deserve props:
From the offense, I thought Campbell played well. He completed 65% of his passes for 256 yards with one INT that came in panic time after Dallas's late score. He moved well in the pocket, distributed the ball evenly among 7 targets (especially on 3rd down: 7 for 15), and threw several deep balls accurately.
The WRs also played better than usual. Santana and ARE each caught 5 balls and the 2008 second rounders split 6 catches for 93 yards. But MVP goes to Rock.
Arguably Washington's most passionate player and special teams captain, Cartwright, listed at 5'8,'' totaled 67 yards on the ground (5.2 ypc) and added 73 yards on 7 catches out of the backfield. After witnessing Betts and Cartwright flourish in Portis's absence, it's puzzling as to why the coaches maintain Portis get the bulk of the carries when healthy. Because according to the players, their recent performances are no surprise. Supposedly, they run like that every week in practice.
I say split the carries when Portis returns. It'll keep him fresher and might even force him to work harder seeing as the spoiled Miami product has been unjustly handed the majority of the carries since being swapped for Champ in 2004.
Apart from Rock, I thought Sunday's lone bright spot was the defense. Despite ESPN attributing Dallas's substandard offense to the disappearance of Miles Austin, it was no doubt Blatche's top 5 defense that shut down Jerry Jones's baby.
Romo was held to 158 yards passing. Despite 13 targets, Dallas WRs only totaled 5 catches. Marion Barber was hit and fumbled and Romo was intercepted. Rocky and London both had INT opportunities early in the game off tipped passes but couldn't capitalize. Ugh.
Fletch had 13 tackles and Carter and Griffin filled in reasonably in Haynesworth's absence although Dallas did move the football on the ground at times. Landry finally showed Skins fans why they drafted him 6th overall and Smoot helped shutdown overrated Dallas WR Miles Austin.
Washington plays Philly at Philly on Sunday. They're 0-5 on the road and 0-3 in the division. But, even if they reach the 8-loss mark by week 12 this season, I will NOT start mentioning April's draft 5 months before the bell rings.
Cough cough. Russell Okung. Cough cough. Left tackle. Cough. out of Oklahoma State.
Swine flu, sorry.
Happy Thanksgiving.
