Knight, who has made four starts on the left side this season, came for Irving. Terrence Steele faced his old right instead of Martin. This combination of moves gave the Cowboys their 15th of five different starts with an offensive line, as this injury-prone season began.
Cowboys coach Mike McCarthy said, “I can’t tell you about the pride that just jumped in there, Brandon and Terrence.” “But you know, you make adjustments. Unfortunately, we have little experience of this situation this year.”
Naturally, it will be difficult to pick a worse opponent to face the compromising offensive line. The Cowboys learned the lesson back in October, when they went to play Washington without Martin and dedicated six sacks.
It wasn’t exactly six sacks on Thursday, but it was a definite advantage for the visiting team’s stability in the first round of draft elections.
The Cowboys ran 60 yards as a team, setting a new low for the season. Within that performance, Ezekiel Elliott operated just 32 yards on 10 carries – less than his mess early in the third quarter, which was later achieved by defensive face Jonathan Allen.
“Just trying to fight for extra yards,” Elliott said. “I think maybe someone kicked him in the leg from where I got down.”
The pressure was there too. Andy Dalton was fired three times a day, including twice on a third down. Throw the ladder into Lamb’s bag on a poorly imaginative game and Washington Washington ended the day with four. Dalton was also snatched out of his pocket during the evening.
“They have front seven, the great seven,” Elliott said. “The D-Line are first-rounders, so I mean they’re great. They’re a tough team, a tough front seven to stay in front of.”
It all came to a head with a pre-determined game. Led by Washington Washington, -16 34–16, with less than three minutes left, Montez Sweat erupted uncontested on the right, raised Dalton’s pass in the air, grabbed him and rallied 1 yards for the exclamation point touchdown.
Irving and Martin will be further evaluated on Friday. As he just stands up, his position is unclear. With any luck, their injuries are not long term issues and they may return to this position to provide some stability to the group.
He will hardly keep up this season, however, as the Cowboys continue to find out how bad their offense is in their fortunes.
“As I said, fortunately we have experience with some of the people who have played in many games this year,” Dalton said. “We just have to continue.”
