Please welcome our newest DCist contributor, Elisabeth Meinecke.
Steaks won’t be the only thing sizzling this Sunday in Texas.
The Patient: The Skins’ defense is warming up (just ask Kurt Warner, who was sacked twice and hurried seven times by the Skins last Sunday), Jason Campbell is hot (this week’s quarterback rating came in at 112.2, topping his Week 2 rating of 104.1), and the team is on fire after a pair of nail-biting wins under rookie coach Jim Zorn.
The Problem: Dallas looks even better. They don’t just put stars on helmets – they put them in helmets, which is why Jerry Jones’ club now boasts more weapons than a national guard armory. The 3-0 Cowboys rank 1st in total offense and topped ESPN.com’s power rankings again this week. Marion Barber had a career-high game Sunday of 142 yards rushing and one touchdown, and the Cowboys have averaged 440 yards per game (111 more than the Skins) this season. Football analysts seem reluctant to fall into the “best team in the NFL” cliché going into Week 4, but their reports show Dallas is the team to beat.
The Diagnosis: So how do the Redskins do it? The Redskins have the turnover advantage — their +5 take-away/give-away differential leads the NFL. While Dallas turned the ball over five times in three games, the Redskins have only one turnover and six takeaways this season. But pressuring Tony Romo – who is responsible for 40 percent of the Dallas turnovers – gets harder with Jason Taylor sidelined Sunday due to a calf injury (Taylor had surgery Monday and should be fine, but no return date has been set . Demetric Evans, a former Cowboy, will start for him this week). The Skins need Santana Moss to build on his 276 yards this season and London Fletcher to cool Marion Barber (Fletcher’s 31 tackles are 4th in the league). History, however, is on Washington’s side with Barber. DallasCowboys.com staff writer Edward Lewis reports Barber has carried the ball 46 times and averaged only 3.3 yards per carry in five career games against Washington. The Redskins also have cornerbacks Rogers (groin) and Smoot (hamstring) listed as probable, but banged-up secondaries are little better than sitting targets for Romo & Co.
