After getting rolled by the Packers last week, I don’t need to tell you that your Dallas Cowboys have no business overlooking any opponent for the rest of the year, even during the two-game run of Washington and Oakland in front of them. Clearly, the Cowboys have it in them to play down to virtually any opponent, causing you to hurl blunt objects at your TV screen as the Cowboys commit penalties and turn the ball over a billion times.
That’s an especially treacherous quality to possess coming into this week’s game against the Skins. Now, this has been a terrible year for the Redskins. They’re awful. They have the worst offense in football not residing in Cleveland or Oakland. They’re coach is a dead duck. The fans are in revolt. The offensive line is a shambles. This has been the worst year of the Snyder Era, and that’s saying quite a bit.
I’ve spent a lot of time in the DC area in my life. And if there’s one thing I know about Redskins owner Daniel Snyder, apart from the fact that he is grossly incompetent, arrogant, aloof, utterly tone deaf to fans’ complaints, and megalomaniacal, it’s that he places an astonishingly disproportionate amount of importance on winning the two Cowboys games every year. It’s baffling. Danny Snyder really does think the NFL is exactly like college football, where any season can totally be redeemed, so long as you beat your hated rival. His fetish for beating Dallas borders on the bizarre. I’ve long believed the Dallas-Washington rivalry means far more to Washington than it does Dallas, and Snyder has made that gulf even wider in his decade of ownership. And while I like a good NFL rivalry as much as the next person, the fact of the matter is that Redskins-Cowboys is no more important than the other four intradivisional games both teams play each year. You don’t even get a trophy if you win the game, like a wooden bucket or something.
But don’t tell Danny that. He hates being told he’s wrong. He’ll do anything to win the two Cowboys games each year. So BEWARE, Dallas. The Skins, who looked lively in beating Denver last week, have only these two games with Dallas to redeem their season in the eyes of their nutjob owner. Jason Campbell back there or not, you’ve been warned.
