This Is an Offense You Just Can't Defend

IRVING, Tex. -- It's comical, really it is, to lose twice to this particular Dallas Cowboys outfit, particularly Sunday's game here in Big D. It's comical because the Cowboys aren't any good. You could make the case, quite easily, that the Cowboys stink. Vinny Testaverde will be remembered for having a long and productive career. He's been a nice quarterback for years and years, not great but serviceable. But it's over for Testaverde. He's 41 now. Yet, Vinny beat the Washington Redskins Sunday.

Half the folks who came to Texas Stadium had left the building long before the Cowboys took the lead with 30 seconds left. They had booed Testaverde when he threw an interception to Shawn Springs in the end zone, booed him when he threw horrendous passes, booed him when he was sacked three times in five plays late in the fourth quarter. The Redskins were throwing Vinny around like a rag doll somebody's daughter got for a Christmas present. They tackled him four times in six plays. A 10-6 Redskins lead appeared for all the world to be insurmountable. Former Cowboy and former Redskin Calvin Hill, who knows more about Redskins vs. Cowboys than probably anybody, said he hadn't heard a Cowboys player booed that unmercifully in Dallas since 1970, when the fans went after Craig Morton in a 38-0 loss to the Cardinals. You think Vinny couldn't hear the boos? "You hear everything," he said afterward. "My ears work."

So did his right arm for one play, that deep ball to Patrick Crayton for the game-winner, which made chumps of the Redskins again. I guess you could blame the defense. Specifically, you can blame rookie safety Sean Taylor because it was Taylor who Vinny moved inside with his eyes to set up a deep throw back to the sideline, to the outside. The Eagles' Donovan McNabb did the same thing two weeks ago. They both made Taylor's aggression work against him, and ultimately burned an otherwise sound defense. Next year, Taylor won't be so green, but on the Sunday after Christmas he was still a rookie. You can blame Taylor and blame the defense because it gave up a touchdown at the end of the game, gave up a fourth-and-10 conversion with 1 minute 9 seconds left and Dallas out of timeouts. It always looks bad for the defense when a guy gets behind you in the final minute to catch a touchdown pass. Could the Redskins have been in a different coverage? Sure. But as Joe Gibbs said afterward, "Our defense has been so good all season, I wouldn't want to second-guess anything." That seems only fair because allowing 13 points, especially on the road and even to a sorry team like the Cowboys, is hardly a sin.

The Redskins lost to Dallas for the second time because the passing game stinks. The Redskins are 5-10 because the downfield passing game stinks. The Redskins are officially out of the playoff chase because the passing game was inept when the season started, continued to be inept through the middle of the season and remained inept here Sunday when the curtain closed on another losing season.

With a 10-6 lead, the Redskins got the ball with 5:26 to play. Running out the clock with Clinton Portis injured is a bit much to ask. But it's not too much to ask for a first down. Instead the Redskins picked up six yards on three plays and had to punt.

The defense held. But Antonio Brown fumbled away a punt.

Not to worry, the defense held again.

But charged with the responsibility of getting a single first down to run out the clock with 1:46 to play, the offense failed again.

Asked what he was thinking on the sideline, Testaverde said, "I knew if they got a first down the game was over."

But the Redskins weren't up to it. Testaverde got back on the field only because the Redskins struggle to complete passes down the field and couldn't hold onto the ball. Part of the blame goes to the coaches, part goes to the players. The coaches have to devise some play that will absolutely get a first down against a mediocre team, something Patrick Ramsey, or whomever is playing quarterback, can complete for certain. Some screen pass or dump off to the tight end or H-back or whomever. And then, Ramsey has to figure out how to hit a receiver without throwing the ball 200 mph and off his fingertips. This isn't optional, it's Offensive Football 101.

What a waste to have the second-best defense in the National Football League and not make the NFC playoffs. What a waste to stop teams the way the Redskins' defense has all season, yet have just five victories to show for it. It's a sin to waste that kind of D.

Now that the playoffs are officially out of reach and there are no more silly what-if scenarios, the Redskins should start work on what matters the most: fixing the downfield passing game, the element of the team that has been a stinker all season. It's quite possible Ramsey isn't the quarterback for the future. He doesn't get the ball down the field unless it's against a mediocre defense. But maybe a full offseason of knowing he's the starter and working with Gibbs and the receivers will be the cure. Maybe Drew Brees in San Diego is the lesson to be learned. Maybe the Redskins have to be as patient with Ramsey as the Chargers wound up being with Brees, who blossomed in his fourth season, blossomed to the point where you wonder whether it's better to have Michael Vick or Brees and LaDainian Tomlinson.

In hindsight, bringing in Mark Brunell was the worst offseason acquisition in the entire NFL. Maybe Ramsey would be twice as far down the road if he'd taken all the snaps in the preseason and in practice instead of holding the clipboard while Brunell wasted everybody's time. But the Redskins can't worry about what might have been, now that the season is done. They have to worry about what is, what will be, and whether Ramsey is the guy to get them there. It's always the hardest question facing an NFL franchise: Is the quarterback good enough? The Chargers, even with Brees playing well, might have screwed it up by drafting Philip Rivers and paying him $40 million. Bengals Coach Marvin Lewis was walking a tight rope (and seems to have crossed the bridge) by replacing Jon Kitna with Carson Palmer. It's dicey, always.

It's not like the Cowboys are any better. They've got to come up with a quarterback, too, and it's likely he isn't on the roster. In fact, it would have been unthinkable 15 years ago that Bill Parcells and Joe Gibbs would have been associated with such a disaster of a game, something you'd have expected out of the Cardinals and Saints.

But at least the Cowboys could celebrate beating, once again, a team that used to be a rival. "I don't know that we've ever -- ever -- had a game where our quarterback got hit so much, got sacked so much, got booed so much, and come back and won the ballgame," Cowboys owner Jerry Jones said, not gloating but amazed.

It must be the most bitter way of all imaginable ways for the Redskins to end a season. Just perhaps, it'll help provide the impetus to start this week, in the run-up to their final game against the Vikings next Sunday, to devise an offense that's big league enough to make 59 minutes and 30 seconds of great defense hold up.