ARLINGTON, Texas — Tony Romo and the Dallas Cowboys were awful on offense for a second straight week. This time, they were lucky to be playing the broken-down Washington Redskins.
Romo led only a single scoring drive, hitting Patrick Crayton for a 10-yard touchdown pass with 2:41 left, and it was enough to give Dallas a 7-6 victory over Washington on Sunday to preserve first place in the NFC East.
The Cowboys (7-3) avoided getting shut out the previous week by scoring with 38 seconds left at Green Bay, then almost saw it happen again at home. This would’ve been especially stunning since the Redskins (3-7) were down to third-stringers at running back and right guard and came in without their expensive defensive tackle and a star tight end. They’d also never shut out Dallas in the previous 98 meetings.
Shaun Suisham put Washington ahead 6-0 with field goals of 45 and 31 yards. But he missed a 39-yard attempt shortly before halftime and a 50-yarder that would’ve made it 9-0 with 7:06 left. Suisham had been 13 of 13 this season before those misses.
Suisham’s fourth-quarter miss was huge for Dallas. It came right after Romo threw an interception while going for it on fourth-and-2 from the Washington 39 with 12:08 left, which shows how desperate the Cowboys were to get something going.
Given another chance to come through, Romo did with the touchdown drive. Seven of his 15 completions for the game came on that series.
Washington quarterback Jason Campbell blew a chance to pull out the victory when a pass was tipped by Stephen Bowen and intercepted by Anthony Spencer with 1:52 left. He got the ball back for a final heave and it fell incomplete about 35 yards from the end zone.
Campbell was 24 of 37 for 256 yards, and kept his team in this game despite perhaps not always recognizing everyone in the huddle.
Ladell Betts started in place of Clinton Portis, then Betts injured his left knee on the second series and was lost for the game. Rock Cartwright took over and had 67 yards on 13 carries. He had 68 yards on 17 carries all season coming in.
Washington lost guard Chad Rinehart to an ankle injury in the third quarter and came in without Albert Haynesworth and Chris Cooley, both out with ankle problems.
All week, Cowboys fans were begging offensive coordinator Jason Garrett to run more and he gave them what they wanted with 33 carries compared to 27 passes. All those handoffs may have left Romo out of whack; of course, getting kicked in the back during the second drive of the game didn’t help either.
Romo was injured while tackling DeAngelo Hall following his recovery of a first-quarter fumble by Marion Barber. He didn’t complete a pass to a receiver until the final play of the third quarter.
Barber led Dallas with 20 carries for 99 yards.
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Cowboys squeak past banged-up Redskins, 7-6
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