The Washington Commanders are putting their long-standing label of laughingstocks behind them with their winningest season since the 1991 campaign.
That season also marks the franchise’s most recent Super Bowl title. The current squad clinched a playoff berth last weekend and looks to finish the regular season in style when it faces the Dallas Cowboys at Arlington, Texas.
The Commanders (11-5) are seeking their fifth straight win. A victory would mark just the fourth time in franchise history that Washington has won 12 or more games in a season.
The Commanders also can clinch the No. 6 seed in the NFC with a victory, giving them something for which to play as the NFC seeding sorts itself out.
The last team to beat Washington is the Cowboys, who delivered a 34-26 win over the host Commanders in Week 12.
That began a stretch in which Dallas (7-9) won four of five games before it was walloped 41-7 by the host Philadelphia Eagles last weekend.
What remains to be seen is whether or not this is Mike McCarthy’s final game as the head coach of the Cowboys. McCarthy’s contract is about to conclude.
Dallas owner Jerry Jones spoke favorably of McCarthy this week but the coach sidestepped a question pertaining to his future.
“I need to make sure I’m doing exactly what I’m asking everyone else to do. We need to finish the race,” McCarthy said in reference to the season finale. “It’s been a challenging year, based on our contract situation for coaches. It’s stating the obvious, but we’ll have time to talk about that next week.”
McCarthy is 49-34 in five seasons with the Cowboys. His teams were 12-5 and made the playoffs in each of the three previous season.
But quarterback Dak Prescott sustained a season-ending hamstring injury during the team’s eighth game of this season. When McCarthy went 6-10 in 2020, Prescott was lost after five games of that season due to his horrific ankle injury.
Cooper Rush is 4-4 as the Dallas starter this season but there is no guarantee he will start Sunday. McCarthy said he’s also considering Trey Lance (seven passing attempts this season) and Will Grier (zero attempts). The latter was signed to the practice squad in mid-November.
“The reality of it is, we’re going to work all the guys,” McCarthy said of the quarterbacks.
Washington has no issues at quarterback with rookie Jayden Daniels exceeding all expectations. He was named to his first Pro Bowl team on Thursday.
Daniels, the No. 2 overall selection, has passed for 3,530 yards, 25 touchdowns and nine interceptions and has also rushed for 864 yards and six touchdowns.
More importantly, he has energized a franchise that hadn’t experienced a winning season since 2016. Even when Washington made the playoffs in the 2020 campaign, it went 7-9 in the regular season.
But now the Commanders have elevated the quarterback position after having guys like Sam Howell, Taylor Heinicke and Carson Wentz start games over the previous two seasons.
“He’s the most mature rookie I’ve ever been around. He exudes a quiet confidence,” Washington tight end Zach Ertz said. “He’s not a rah-rah guy. We all know how good he is and how much confidence we have in him. He doesn’t need to say anything.”
While Ertz (second with 61 receptions) brought veteran leadership to the offensive side of the ball, linebacker Bobby Wagner (team-high 124 tackles) did the same for the defense.
“You saw that grow throughout the season,” Wagner said of the bond on the unit. “When you get a lot of guys confident and believing in one another, it makes the team scary.”
Center Tyler Biadasz (ankle), right tackle Andrew Wylie (groin) and backup tackle Cornelius Lucas (groin) were among the six Commanders who missed Wednesday’s practice due to injuries.
Linebacker Nick Vigil (foot) and cornerback Kemon Hall (hamstring) sat out for Dallas. The Cowboys also parted ways with veteran running back Ezekiel Elliott at his request earlier this week.
Dallas has won three straight meetings between the teams and six of the past seven.
–Field Level Media
