Dallas Cowboys vs. Washington Redskins Review: Special Teams & Defense

General Observations and Thoughts

- We all know that Special Teams and field position are important, but rarely do we see a game in which so much of the scoring was an immediate product of a quick change in field position.

Of the 51 points that were scored, I think that at least 30-35 were scored on short drives of less than 65 yards; the short fields resulted from turnovers and special teams play.

The first two Redskin TD’s came off a shanked 23 yard punt and a long punt return.

- It is hard to imagine Dallas winning this game without the Redskins turning the ball over twice and the Boys not committing a turnover.

Special Teams

- The good news is that Matt McBriar almost never shanks punts, so the chances of it ever happening again are infinitesimal.

- Bruce Carter made his first big play as a Cowboy.  He shed a blocker to make a TD stopping tackle on one of several long punt returns.

- On another long punt return, Matt McBriar made a saving tackle.  When your punter gets in on the tackle, it is never a good thing.  The rest of the coverage team should pay some sort of fine that gets collected and passed on to McBriar for doing someone else’s job.

- The punt coverage was about as bad as it could be without giving up a TD.  The Skins returned 3 punts for over 90 yards.  I would expect that both Garrett and ST Coach Joe DeCamillis will be focused on the coverage units this week in practice.

- In years past, management has shown a willingness to let excellent special teams players leave as free agents.  I don’t remember noticing any serious problems with the coverage units yet this year, so perhaps the Skins game was an aberration.  I will certainly be paying more attention to the coverage units in the coming weeks.

Click on the link to read about the Defense.