FRISCO, TEXAS – The Dallas Cowboys (12-4) are heading to Maryland to play the Washington Commanders (7-8-1) for their final regular season game of the season. If the Cowboys win this game it will be the first time they have had 13 wins in a single season since 2016. Kickoff is at 3:30 PM CST.
These two teams played each other in week five. Early October when the Cowboys were 4-1 and the Commanders were 1-4. Cooper Rush was leading the way for Dallas back then when QB1 Dak Prescott injured his throwing hand and couldn’t compete. Dallas rallied in the fourth quarter and took a 25-10 victory over Washington in Arlington.
Late in the season a lot of teams rest their starting players in order to give their bodies a break before they hit the playoffs. That will not be the case on Sunday for the Cowboys. Owner and GM Jerry Jones says he’s going for that no. 1 seed and wants to have a home playoff game so this is a must win game for Dallas. Be ready to see all of the starters suit up on Sunday against Washington.
“We all know the scenarios that have to happen for us to get a home game in the playoffs. Thats one, two I would certainly love to have a bye if that’s possible. So those things are very important as we look at it from this perspective today. We need to take care of business.” Jones said.
In order for the Cowboys to secure the no. 1 seed Dallas has to beat Washington and the Eagles have to lose their final two games of the season to the New Orleans Saints and the New York Giants. One has already happened, the Eagles lost to the Saints last weekend so that leaves only two more chess pieces for the Cowboys to secure the no. 1 seed entering the playoffs.
Things to look out for in the game:
Offensively, Dallas is ranked second in the league in scoring averaging 28.8 points per game. Throughout the season we have really seen this offense come together. In the first couple of weeks it was rough around the edges but they started to find their mojo with one another. Dak Prescott has had a phenomenal season despite some turnovers here and there. WR1 CeeDee Lamb has exceeded 1,000 receiving yards for the season, and RB Tony Pollard is 12 yards away from 1,000 rushing yards this season.
Defensively, the Cowboys rank 6th in the league for scoring defense, only allowing their opponents to score an average of 19.8 points per game. They are also third in sacks, Dallas’s pass rush has racked up 51 total sacks so far this season.
This doesn’t help Washington’s struggling offense. They are ranked 25th in the league in scoring offense and only average 18.4 points per game.
Washington officially named Sam Howell their starting QB for week 18 against Dallas. The entire season the Commanders have been struggling to figure out who their no. 1 QB is going to be and in week 17 they still weren’t sure.
Carson Wentz had a go of it, he started eight games of the season and had a losing record going 2-6. Taylor Heinicke played five games for the Commanders and had a record of 2-2-1.
“We’re going to start Sam,” coach Ron Rivera announced Wednesday. “I spoke with the coaches, talked with some of the team leaders…we feel that this is an opportunity to give Sam a chance to show us what he’s capable of.”
Head Coach Ron Rivera stated that they are very intrigued to see what happens this weekend in Fedex Field. Rivera did state that they will not decide on a starting QB off one game and the Commanders did not make the playoffs so it looks like they might be looking for a QB in the off season.
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