Time for annual ritual: Giving up on the Redskins

LANDOVER, Md.

Mike Shanahan's language has become the platitudes that warm a winning locker room, but blow cold and hollow through a losing one.

His Washington Redskins fell and rose and ultimately fell Sunday in overtime, 27-24 to the Dallas Cowboys at FedEx Field. And all the "poise," "character," "effort," "fight" and "stepping up" in Shanahan's Dictionary of Short Consolation couldn't prevent a sixth consecutive defeat from further sinking another lousy season.

Shanahan could have borrowed from the Book of Gibbs and admired how the 3-7 Redskins "fought their guts out," but really, his point was made without it: In the absence of enough good players and good plays to win, the Redskins at least looked better in losing.

And that's what the money, time and exhausted patience of Redskins' customers are buying these days. This streak's not quite - yet - the seven-game lemon of Norv Turner's 1998 squad. But all this ebb, with precious little flow, is no bargain.

Poise: The Redskins scored 17 unanswered points in the second and third quarters and carried a 17-10 lead into the final period.

Adversity: Six minutes later, Tony Romo had thrown two of his three touchdown passes - including a 59-yarder to tight end Jason Witten on the proverbial blown coverage - and Dallas led by seven.

Effort: Shaking off an interception on the previous possession, Rex Grossman marched his men 89 yards and threw a professional-grade 4-yard fade to Donte' Stallworth in the final seconds to force overtime.

Adversity again, times two: In overtime, Redskins' kicker Graham Gano pushed a 52-yard field goal to the right. Moments later, Cowboys receiver Dez Bryant, as Romo danced around the pass rush, eluded falling-down cornerback DeAngelo Hall for a killer first-down catch on third and 15.

That preceded Dan Bailey's 39-yard field goal that ended the festivities.

"I slipped," Chesapeake's Hall said. "Can't slip. The way I'm playing right now, they need to go cut me. ...

"It was a great play, but it wasn't that amazing of a play. It's a play that in practice I make and I've made before. If I'm evaluating the stuff from the front office, I might be the first one to run myself out."

No platitudes for Hall, who Romo exploited most of the afternoon to little resistance, and whose constant on-field yapping minus supporting results isn't helpful.

"We started getting into it in the third quarter," said Bryant, who also scored Dallas' first touchdown, "but it was really nothing major. Just the competition of the game, that's all that is. He wants to win and I want to win."

Hall's pretty much in the wrong place then.

Not so the 6-4 Cowboys, who somehow found their happy place for the third week in a row after the prime-time, 34-7 shellacking the Philadelphia Eagles gave them at the end of October.

Dallas, as always, is quirky. Shaggy defensive coordinator Rob Ryan, a rambling con man, is way more hat than cattle. The Cowboys, bleeding over into Jason Garrett's regime from the Wade Phillips error, still play mindlessly far too much.

Romo, in fact, nearly pushed Bailey back critical yards on his decisive kick by trying to call a timeout Dallas didn't have. The Redskins, naturally, bailed him out by calling for time a fraction sooner.

"I guess you get two timeouts in overtime and not three," Romo said with the impish grin with which he leads the Cowboys into a stretch run for the NFC East title or a wild card berth.

"Stacking these wins together is what good teams do this time of year. It's just going to get bigger every game."

For the Cowboys, the next time comes in a hurry with their annual Thanksgiving Day game at home, where they get the Miami Dolphins.

The swooning Redskins on Thursday, meanwhile, they just get the bird.

Tom Robinson, (757) 446-2518, tom.robinson@pilotonline.com

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