Clarence Hill: 5 Things the Dallas Cowboys need to do beat the Washington Commanders
The Dallas Cowboys will not be scoreboard watching during Sunday’s game against the Washington Commanders.
They will be focused on winning the game, achieving their team-record tying 13th win on the season and gaining some momentum for a playoffs, which they hope will end with their first trip to the Super Bowl since 1995.
The Cowboys (12-4) still have a chance to win the NFC East title and gain the No. 1 seed in the NFC for the postseason.
In addition to beating Washington, they need the Philadelphia Eagles (13-3) to lose to the New York Giants to win the division title and for the San Francisco 49ers (12-4) to lose to the Arizona Cardinals for the top seed.
“Our focus should be beating Washington,” Parsons said. “If we don’t finish what we’ve go to do this week, what does it matter what the Eagles do? I think everyone’s focus should be on Washington.”
The Eagles game will be played at the same time as the Cowboys game. Cowboys coach Mike McCarthy said it won’t impact how he will attack Washington before or during the game.
“You can’t go into the game and think you’re going to shift gears, I just think for the principal alone,” McCarthy said. “We’re going to do everything we can to win this game.”
They have have already achieved back-to-back 12 win seasons for the first time since 1994-1995 and they have made back-to-back trips to the playoffs for the first time since 2006-2007. He is first coach to do it since Chan Gailey in 1998-1999.
Bill Parcells took the Cowboys to the playoffs in 2006 and Wade Phillips was the head coach in 2007.
“I don’t want to be ignorant here, but I think anytime you can say you’ve done something that aligns with the franchise, that’s a huge compliment, especially with the Dallas Cowboys,” McCarthy said. “Talk about the greatness of the teams and individuals before us. I don’t want to play that down.
“I’ll just speak for myself personally: I’m looking at bigger things. The focus is tight to get to that 13th win. We’ve put ourselves in a position where we want to be, and that’s playing for a division championship and all those things. We just want to come out of this game with a win, healthy, and get ready for these playoffs.”
5 Things the Cowboys need to do beat the Commanders:
Tony Pollard trying to get 1,000 yards, Zeke Elliott too?
Cowboys running back Tony Pollard will play against Washington after missing the Titans game with a thigh bruise.
Pollard, who leads the Cowboys with 988 yards rushing, needs 12 yards to reach 1,000 rushing yards for the first time in his career. He would become the ninth Cowboys running back to reach 1,000 rushing yards in a season.
And the Cowboys badly want him to reach that milestone, especially fellow running back and two-time NFL rushing champ Ezekiel Elliott.
Elliott will not lead the rushing for the first time in his career but he is Pollard’s biggest cheerleader and supporter.
“It mean a lot to get Tony to 1,000,” Elliott said. “He need what (12). I mean, he’s going to get it.”
Elliott has 866 yards rushing. He and Pollard are already the first tandem in Cowboys history to both top more than 800 yards. With 34 yards, they would become the first tandem to top 900 yards.
But he has loftier goals. He’s looking for a 1,000 also.
“Yeah, I’m shooting for it too,” Elliott said. “I’m about like what 140 yards. We’ve talked about it. There’s still light for it to happen. It would be cool.”
It would take Elliott’s best game of the season for it to happen. He has not had 100 yards in any game in 2022 and if doesn’t get it against Washington it would make the first time in his career that he has topped 100 yards in a game.
Why does Dak Prescott own Washington, NFC East
Dak Prescott has a 27-6 record against the NFC East since becoming Cowboys quarterback in 2016.
And that includes a 9-1 mark against Washington with a 67.9 percent completion percentage with 2,407 with 18 touchdowns.
Owner Jerry Jones has an answer to why Prescott does so well against Washington and the NFC East.
Dallas is 10-1 against the NFC East in the last two seasons, tied with Kansas City for the most divisional wins during that span.
“I think it speaks to his leadership — and I speak tongue in cheek when I say this — of when the nation’s capital gets involved, which I think a lot of leadership, following them as leaders, when the nation’s capital gets there, he knows how to give them some capital punishment,” Jones deadpanned.
Prescott has 24,815 passing yards in 96 games. With 185 Sunday, he ties for 3rd fastest in NFL history to 25,000 yards, per ESPN.
Matthew Stafford (90 games) and Dan Marino (92 games) lead the way. Prescott would tie Jared Goff and Hall of Famers Kurt Warner and Peyton Manning at 97.
Hot CeeDee Lamb on record-setting tear
CeeDee Lamb, who has reeled in 102 catches for 1,307 yards and eight touchdowns this season, is on the breaking of history.
Lamb, 23, is already the youngest player in Cowboys history to reach both 100 receptions and 1,300 receiving yards in a single season.
Lamb (102) is the third player in team history to reach 100 receptions in a season. He needs nine catches on Sunday to tie Michael Irvin (111 in 1995) for the Cowboys single-season reception record.
Lamb, who has recorded career-long streak of three straight 100-yard receiving games, would be the third Cowboys receiver to record four straight 100-yard games, joining Terrell Owens in 2007 and Michael Irvin’s seven-game streak in 1995.
And consider he already has three games this season with 10-plus receptions, tying with Jason Witten (2010) and Michael Irvin (1995) for the most 10-catch games in a season in club history, Irvin’s catch record is within reach.
And he wants it.
“That’s a huge step, you know what I’m saying. That’s big,” Lamb said. “All records are meaningful to me considering they’ve been put in place by someone who is obviously doing a great job before me. Going out there, yeah, there’s always a mentality to break it. But I want to come out with a win. Because I can have the record and lose and it won’t feel the same.”
Lamb has 60 catches for 751 yards and five touchdowns in the last eight games.
Cowboy getting offensive line ready for playoffs
With center Tyler Biadasz suffering right ankle injury against Tennessee and questionable for the playoffs, the Cowboys will look to the Washington game to get some continuity on the offensive line before heading into the postseason.
Left guard Connor McGovern will replace Biadasz at center. Rookie top pick Tyler Smith moved from left tackle to left guard.
Jason Peters, 40, came off the bench to play left tackle.
That’s how they ended the Tennessee game.
And this comes three games after perennial Pro Bowl left tackle Tyron Smith, who missed the first 14 games of the season with torn a hamstring, had to take over at right tackle in place of the Terence Steele, who is out for the year with a torn ACL.
The only constant has All-Pro Zack Martin at right guard.
“It’s part of the ride. It’s part of the journey. It’s part of the game,” coach Mike McCarthy said. “We’re going to line up to play to win the game against Washington. But also we are cognizant of playing different combinations just to make sure we’re as ready as we possibly can be to be ready going into the playoffs.”
Be ware of the unknown rookie quarterback Sam Howell
Washington Commanders coach Ron Rivera is turning to rookie fifth-round pick Sam Howell to make his first start in the final game of the season.
It’s his third different starter this season after going between Carson Wentz and Taylor Heinicke until they were eliminated playoff contention last week. It’s the eighth differerent starting quarteback for Rivera in the last three seasons.
He is turning to Howell to see if he can be an option for the future. and has made the Cowboys do a little extra film study going into Sunday, going over tape from the preseason and his college days at North Carolina.
“Obviously, we don’t have a lot of looks on [Howell],” linebacker Micah Parsons said. “Watching him when he was at North Carolina, being in the same draft class, I understand he has a great arm talent and deep ball. I thought he was a pretty good quarterback coming out and that he would go a lot earlier than expected.”
“This is our matchup, but it doesn’t change the fact we’ve gotta get to the quarterback and make plays,” he added.
Said defensive end DeMarcus Lawrence: “It’s about them as the Washington Commanders football team. I don’t think a coaching staff can change the whole playbook in one game because of the quarterback. I feel like whatever they were running, beforehand, Sam Howell will be there to run the same thing.”
