Dallas Cowboys face stiff challenge against Washington defense
The Dallas Cowboys were once expected to compete for this year's Super Bowl; however, bad play and the injury bug have derailed any shot at accomplishing anything close to that. Dallas is coming off of a 38-10 home loss to the Arizona Cardinals where Cardinals quarterback Kyler Murray accounted for three touchdowns and the game […]
The Dallas Cowboys were once expected to compete for this year's Super Bowl; however, bad play and the injury bug have derailed any shot at accomplishing anything close to that.
Dallas is coming off of a 38-10 home loss to the Arizona Cardinals where Cardinals quarterback Kyler Murray accounted for three touchdowns and the game was never really in question.
The Cowboys offense — which performed as one of the best units in the league until Dak Prescott went down — sputtered and struggled to get anything going on Monday night. That was against a Cardinals defense without star pass rusher Chandler Jones on the field.
Offensive line is a huge area of concern for the Dallas Cowboys.
Losing Prescott for the season was a big blow to the Cowboys, but he was not the only important loss on the offensive side of the ball.
Both starting tackles, Tyron Smith (neck) and La'el Collins (hip), are sidelined for the remainder of the 2020 season; starting guard Zack Martin (concussion) left the matchup against the Cardinals early; center Joe Looney suffered an MCL sprain that landed him on injured reserve.
The injury report continues. Brandon Knight, who has been tasked with holding things down in Smith's spot at left tackle, will not be playing Sunday as he underwent knee surgery and will miss the next few weeks.
As things stand now — and the rest of the season, to be frank — things are not looking so great for the Cowboys in the trenches. The team will be relying on a group consisting of rookie undrafted free agent Terence Steele, rookie fourth-round pick Tyler Biadasz, second-year lineman Connor McGovern, and third-year lineman Connor Williams to block for Andy Dalton and Ezekiel Elliott.
Washington has one of the elite front sevens in all of football.
To make matters worse, the Washington Football Team has one of the elite fronts in the entire NFL. Led by a defensive line of Chase Young, Montez Sweat, Jonathan Allen, and Daron Payne, Washington consistently makes things difficult on opposing quarterbacks and offensive lines.
Washington enters this week's matchup with the NFL's sixth best defense in total yards per game (337 ypg) and second best pass defense (207 ypg). Young and Sweat form a special duo at pass rusher, and the two should have the opportunity to live in the Cowboys backfield this Sunday.
Fortunately, the Washington offense is all out of sorts, aside from promising running back Antonio Gibson and wide receiver Terry McLaurin. In theory, that should allow the Cowboys to stay in the game while the offense likely struggles, but Dallas has not proven to be able to stop any opponent this season. Weird things do happen in divisional games, though.
The Dallas Cowboys currently lead the NFC East division as the only team to win multiple games thus far this season, but Washington presents a difficult matchup for the Cowboys offense — specifically the offensive line. It appears that Andy Dalton will be in store for a long day, and the Cowboys will once again struggle to put points on the board.
Featured image via Tim Heitman-USA TODAY Sports
