Things are not going well for the Dallas Cowboys. They are coming off a hugely disappointing game against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, where they allowed an undrafted quarterback to beat them despite the Bucs being 8.5-point underdogs. The defense was awful once again, and the offense decided they wanted to be awful too. It was embarrassing, and honestly, most of us felt like the season was slipping away.
Well, leave it to their NFC East divsion mates to give them new hope.
It started with an early game
in London, where the Philadelphia Eagles completely blew it at the end. After jumping ahead with a field goal with only eight seconds left in the game, Nick Sirianni made one of the most boneheaded coaching decisions we’ve seen in a while, and that says a lot. He opted to kick the ball in the field of play, allowing Jacksonville Jaguars returner Ameer Abdullah a chance to return it, and return it, he did.
Abdullah returned the ball into Eagles territory, allowing big-leg kicker Cam Little to kick the game-winner. The Jags didn’t have any timeouts left, so they didn’t have any time to run a play unless they were able to get out of bounds, which would’ve been heavily guarded. The game was essentially over, but because of Sirianni’s coaching blunder, it wasn’t, and the Eagles lost.
The three points the Eagles got with eight seconds left were the only three points the Eagles have scored in the second half over the past three games combined. It’s no surprise that Philly is falling and falling fast. Whether from retirement or trade, they lost some key parts of their offensive line this past week and were without a couple of their best offensive weapons due to injury. Their future is very cloudy right now.
So, what about the New York Giants or the Washington Commanders? The Giants entered the week 3-1, but they already had lost their starting quarterback, Jaxson Dart, for the season. The Giants are off to a good start, but can Jameis Winston carry them the rest of the way?
The Commanders were 1-3, and they just got Jayden Daniels back. Healthy or not, they have issues. So, who do we root for? Which of these teams are a serious threat to win the NFC East?
They squared off today, so one of them had to win, right? Not so fast.
Both teams certainly had a chance to win. In fact, they each should have won. The Giants drove the ball deep into Washington territory late in overtime, but then Cam Skattebo fumbled the ball, giving the Commanders new life. Just protect the ball and kick the game-winning field goal. Nope. Opportunity squandered.
But don’t worry, Giants fans. The Commanders can do you one better. Washington proceeded to move the ball down the field in what looked like a game-winning drive, but then something weird happened. Daniels curiously scrambled around and was brought down as time was winding down, but the Commanders showed no sense of urgency. The Commanders didn’t have any timeouts! It was as if they had no idea of the situation they were in. Instead of just kicking a chip-shot game-winning field goal, time expired, and nobody won.
With no team winning this week and no one showing themselves as alphas, the division is wide open. If the Cowboys can somehow find a way to get their act together, they have a great opportunity to win the division. Nobody else seems to want it. The ineptitude of the division allows the Cowboys to work through their obvious early-season growing pains. They’ll need to get better for any of this to mean anything, but at least their division foes are giving them a chance.
