Dallas Cowboys edge Washington on Bailey’s 54-yard field goal

But the Cowboys will take any positive they can get at this point.

So with the score knotted with 1 minute 47 seconds remaining in a penalty-marred slugfest against the Dallas Cowboys, Gruden tapped Jackson, who flapped his arms to rouse the crowd of 80,444 at FedEx Field as he awaited the punt. McFadden picked up 9 yards on first down and scored on the following play.

Following Rashad Ross’ 42-yard kickoff return and facemask penalty on the Cowboys, Washington had a fighting chance, starting 43 yards away from a tying score.

Dez Bryant’s sideline pouting aside, the receiver and the Cowboys will gladly accept the victory, because it means they’re somehow still in the thick of the playoff chase in the woeful NFC East.

“It was huge”, Cowboys quarterback Matt Cassel said of Whitehead’s return. “We’re just out there playing, man”.

In a game filled mostly with field goals, of course the winning team’s kicker will get the MVP award for the game. The last time that these teams met was on December 28, 2014, and the Cowboys trounced the Redskins 44-28, but that was a different time and Dallas had a healthy Tony Romo taking snaps, but a lot has changed since then. Some would call it a defensive struggle to that point, but that would probably be a bit generous, considering it was less about the domination of the defenses and more about the ineptitude of the offenses in this Monday Night affair. The Washington Redskins are now favored by three points, and the over under on the game is fourty-three points.

Neither team had a first down until Whitehead began the Cowboys’ third series with a 13-yard gain on an end-around. “Everybody wants to make plays and be there for their team”. Jones never thought that was a good excuse, and as much as the parade of narrow losses – two of the seven straight losses were in overtime, and four others were decided in the fourth quarter – ate at him, he insisted they weren’t as atrocious as their record.

Midway through the second quarter, with the game still scoreless, Dallas’ Jason Witten became the 12th player – and only the second tight end, after Tony Gonzalez – to reach 1,000 National Football League catches. Perhaps fittingly, a fumbled punt return by Washington’s DeSean Jackson deep in his own territory led to Dallas’ only touchdown. He was hit at the 8, fumbled, and the Cowboys recovered at the Washington 15. They would also manage to hold Washington to a missed field goal after a Devin Street fumble when he was held up and had the ball ripped out of his arms.

Dallas jumped in front on McFadden’s 6-yard touchdown run. Bryant finished with just three catches for 62 yards. The drive stalled after Cassel’s first-down pass was knocked down at the line and the Cowboys were stopped twice trying to run it up the middle. “They did a great job really throughout the ball game of limiting them from scoring opportunities and forcing them to kick field goals at the end of drives and a number of different things”. It would not be until the Cowboys’ final possession of the first half that he would finally move the team.

Despite the offensive ineptitude, neither quarterback turned the ball over and both were fairly efficient. Cassel would go on to finish with 222 yards through the air while completing 55 percent of his passes.