The final matchup of the season between the Washington Redskins and the Dallas Cowboys features two different teams in two totally different situations.
The Redskins will look to carry whatever momentum they possibly can from this matchup, as they have a difficult playoff matchup to look forward to. The Cowboys will simply look to limp through the final game of their season, and work guys through one last game situation until the 2016 season.
Here are the three key points for each game as they head into this Week 17 matchup.
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Redskins
The Redskins' offense has been humming of late, generating over 400 yards of offense for two-straight weeks. However, the vast majority of that yardage is coming from the passing game. Kirk Cousins has been on fire, and he has proven that on a seemingly weekly basis. The Redskins should focus on running the ball to boost the running games' confidence as they head into the playoffs. With Matt Jones still questionable with a hip injury, Alfred Morris, Chris Thompson and even Pierre Thomas should try to get the ball rolling against Dallas. Morris hasn't run the ball for 100 yards since Week 1. Let's change that.
In Kellen Moore's first career start against the Buffalo Bills, he completed just 13 of his 31 pass attempts, and the vast majority of his throws were completely off target. The Redskins can do either one of two things: Disguise coverages with fake blitzes and play heavily on Terrance Williams and Brice Butler. Jason Witten isn't Moore's safety outlet: He saw just two passes come his way against the Bills, and was mostly used in the pass protection. Williams and Butler are his heavy targets (10 and nine targets, respectively).
Remember, this is essentially a meaningless game for the Redskins. Head coach Jay Gruden has said he will play his healthy starters. That's fine if he wants to try to carry the momentum into the playoffs. But if any of his main guys has even something as bad as a simple bruise, they just need to get the rest of the day off. And if he decides to play Cousins, take him out if he gets hit even once. Better to be safe than sorry.
Cowboys
If Darren McFadden runs the ball for three more yards, he will get a $300,000 bonus check. That seems like a pretty obtainable incentive, considering McFadden has rushed for 310 yards in his last three games. That's great, but when you consider the fact that he's done that on only 44 carries (an average of 7.04 yards per carry), it becomes quite clear that McFadden needs to get the ball as often as possible, especially if Moore continues to struggle.
The offense didn't do that particularly well against the Bills last week, gaining only 307 yards and generating only six total points. But what was one thing that looked pretty well? Dallas' pass protection. The Cowboys didn't allow a single sack against the Bills, and Moore was hit only once the entire game. He's still likely going to be a bit shaky against the Redskins, but if dropping Witten into a pass-blocking role gives Moore a sense of confidence, it has to be done.
The Redskins may not be firing at all cylinders against the Cowboys offensively. Regardless of the Redskins' player situation, the Cowboys should apply pressure with plenty of blitzes. If Cousins is in the game, Washington will likely call conservative pass plays and drop several guys back for pass blocks. If it's Colt McCoy in the game, the Redskins will have a quarterback that hasn't thrown a pass in the regular season all year. Why not throw as many guys at you can at either one of them?
