Soggy Redskins-Cowboys rivalry lacks fire of old

OPINION:

The rivalry between the Washington Redskins and the Dallas Cowboys used to be “to the bone,” Redskins Hall of Fame receiver Charley Taylor once told me. “To the marrow.”

Now it’s boneless.

It wasn’t Dallas week in Washington — it was just another day having to drive out to FedEx Field, and, heck, you mean it was going to rain, too, while they lost 33-19?

No juice for Redskins-Cowboys this past week in town. The Washington Nationals and their managerial dysfunction dominated attention. No pep rallies downtown. No pre-game chants of “We want Dallas” at FedEx Field, where on Sunday Cowboys and Redskins fans sitting side by side in the stands were posing for photos with each other.

And why not? The owners of both teams are best buds, illustrated in the ESPN the Magazine story this week about the NFL owners’ meetings about the national anthem protests, and how Redskins owner Dan Snyder was described as a “opening act” for Jones, who berated fellow owners about not being tough on the players for their protests, Snyder reportedly “mumbled out loud, ’See, Jones gets it.’”

Do you know how the Cowboys got into the NFL? Their owner, Clint Murchison, bought the rights to the Redskins fight song and then blackmailed Washington owner George Preston Marshall into approving the Cowboys entry into the league.

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AUDIO: Former Major League Baseball player Jerry Hairston Jr. with Thom Loverro

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Now the two owners are Martin and Lewis.

And the players? The intense Redskins cornerback Josh Norman and his equally-intense rival, Cowboys receiver Dez Bryant? Best marketing buddies, doing Samsung phone commercials together.

“I think it’s good how we can do something, make something fun out of it, and give people something fun to look at it,” Bryant told reporters. “But, at the same time, it’s still competitive, if that makes sense. I think that’s the cool thing about the commercial. We get to show our competitive side and our fun side at the same time.”

Neither the fun side nor the competitive side were seen much Sunday at FedEx Field.

Dallas did all it could to be friendly to Washington, fumbling the ball on their first possession, resulting in a 3-0 Redskins lead, then sustaining a Redskins scoring drive on a roughing the passer call with an ill-timed blow to Kirk Cousins by Dallas linebacker Damien Wilson, and then possessing the ball for nine minutes, only to come away with a 49-yard missed field goal attempt by Mike Nugent.

Meanwhile, the bruised and battered Redskins, with three offensive line starters — Trent Williams, Brandon Scherff and Spencer Long out with injuries — took advantage of the Cowboys’ self-destruction and managed to carry a 13-7 lead to less than four minutes left in the half. Washington appeared on the verge of taking a 16-7 lead when Nick Rose, already two for two in field goals for the day, lined up for a 36-yard kick. But Dallas defensive end Tyrone Crawford blocked it, and cornerback Orlando Scandrick returned it all the way to the Washington four yard line, where Ezekiel Elliott would take it in from the one for a 14-13 Cowboys lead at the half.

After that, it was just a matter of doing time at FedEx.

Dallas went into self-destruct mode once again in final minutes of the game, dropping two Cousins interception chances and then putting Washington at the one-yard line with a pass interference call, resulting in a one-yard touchdown pass to Josh Doctson to cut the Cowboys’ lead to 26-19 with a little more than four minutes left in the game.

There have been glorious moments in this Redskins-Cowboys series, well documented, from the mad bomber, Clint Longley, to the 1983 Redskins-Cowboys NFC title game, to the celebrated-in-documentary-film Redskins scab game win over the Dallas starters in 1987, to the Santana Moss Monday Night Miracle in 2005 to Colt McCoy’s win in Dallas three years ago. Strange, wonderful, unexpected things can happen when these two teams meet — at least when this series was red-hot.

Now it’s in ashes.

Sunday was one of those chances for a moment of glory, a chance to breathe fire back into Redskins and Cowboys — a decimated Redskins team, battered with injuries, facing a powerful Cowboys team that, despite having the same 3-3 record as Washington going into the game, was put in the top five in ESPN’s weekly NFL power rankings. It is games like that that can produce miracle and legends.

The last chance for miracles and legends ended when Cousins, with less than a minute remaining, no time outs and the ball on Washington’s 16, threw a pass that was tipped and intercepted by Cowboys safety Byron Jones, who ran it in for a touchdown and a 33-19 final score. Dallas moves to 4-3, Washington is now 3-4 (0-3 against NFC East division opponents) and heading to Seattle to play the Seahawks next week.

It takes a certain level of intensity to burn a legacy moment into the books — an intensity that ran through this series for decades. “It was an intense series,” Taylor told me.

Now it’s another Sunday in October in suburban Maryland, a chance for Jerry Jones and Dan Snyder to share their business brotherhood, a chance for Josh Norman and Dez Bryant to rehearse their next commercial. And another Redskins loss.

⦁ Thom Loverro hosts his weekly podcast “Cigars & Curveballs” Wednesdays available on iTunes, Google Play and the reVolver podcast network.