It was a crushing defeat for the Dallas Cowboys as they fell 20-17 to

Washington. They had a bad performance from their offense once more as the road continued to be terribly hostile to them. The Cowboys mounted a last minute charge Dallas Cowboys Hats , only to miss out on sending the game to overtime by mere inches.The table was set for this game by the defeat of the Philadelphia Eagles by the Carolina Panthers in the early slot. The come-from-ahead loss, where the Eagles gave up a 17 point lead in the fourth quarter, meant that the winner of this game would be all alone in first place in the NFC East. It came down to who wanted the division lead the most.But that turned out to be Washington, who dominated the line of scrimmage all day. Speaking of which, Adrian Peterson lived up to his AD nickname, getting almost 100 yards while Ezekiel Elliott was stymied, only totaling 31 yards on 14 carries. Dak Prescott was under constant pressure, including the back-breaking strip-sack touchdown given up late in the fourth quarter, while Alex Smith was only sacked once by the Dallas pass rush. It was a continuation of the road woes that have plagued the Cowboys all season. There were clear breakdowns in communication on the offensive line, and multiple big plays for Dallas were called back by holding penalties. After showing so much promise in the win last week, things reverted back to the bad, and once again this looks like an 8-8 team, at best.There was a brief flurry by the offense as time wound down in the game, including converting a fourth and 13 on a pass to Blake Jarwin. But it took too many plays to score, leaving only 1:37 on the clock. The drive was gritty and determined, but also too little and too late. Dallas managed to get it down to a field goal attempt, but a false start added five yards to the attempt Dallas Cowboys Hoodie , and Brett Maher doinked it off the upright. The Cowboys got off to a bad start in the game. On their first possession, a 22 yard run by Dak Prescott was wiped out by a Tyron Smith hold, and Dallas wound up punting. Washington took advantage of an uncharacteristically bad punt by Chris Jones to quickly march in, getting a 23 yard touchdown on a screen pass to Kapri Bibbs. Things kept going badly as Elliott struggled to gain yards, then on fourth and one, the ball was knocked loose from Prescott just as he got the first down, giving Washington the ball on the Cowboys’ 45 yard line. There was a very scary moment late in the first quarter as Prescott tried to run for the first down sticks and took a blow right to the head on the sidelines just short of the sticks. He had to go through the concussion protocol, but was cleared and returned to the game on the Cowboys’ next series, and threw a 22 yard strike to Michael Gallup on his next pass. And on a third and four play, he showed he was not afraid to run after his hit, diving to get the first down on a scramble. Meanwhile, Sean Lee returned to the field after missing three games due to injury and looked back to his normal self, snuffing out a screen play early in the second quarter to help stop Washington. That is perhaps even more important after Leighton Vander Esch left the field with an injury in the second half.However, the struggles were real for the Cowboys. Smith continued to struggle as he and Connor Williams were still having communications issues. Penalties kept hurting Dallas, and even Chris Jones was having a bad day with short punts or putting them into the end zone for touchbacks. Meanwhile, Peterson looked like he was 23, not 33 Youth Customized Dallas Cowboys Jerseys , at times, making something out of nothing and putting some wicked moves on Dallas defenders. Pass protection was also in the home team’s favor in the first half, as Prescott was sacked while Smith wasn’t. An indication of how self-inflicted the damage was for the Cowboys was that they controlled the ball in the first half, notching a 17:07 to 12:53 advantage in time of possession, and limiting Washington to only one third down conversion in the first two quarters.But inside the two minute warning of the first half, the offense finally came alive. After Elliott barely converted a third and one, Dak got some protection and hit a streaking Michael Gallup down the left side for a 49 yard touchdown to even things up at 7-7 with a minute left to play. After having far too many mistakes, and Washington just missing on a couple of touchdown throws as the first half wound down, Dallas went into halftime tied, with the division lead still up for grabs.The Cowboys quickly let the momentum from the Gallup touchdown dissipate in the second half. First, Washington got the ball on the kickoff and drove down for a field goal. Dallas would be totally ineffective on offense, only running six plays in the third quarter as the pass rush kept the pressure on Prescott and Elliott continued to struggle. Then Washington would add another three points early in the fourth, but again the defense held in the red zone to prevent a touchdown. According to the CBS announcers, that made seven consecutive times the Cowboys’ defense has held opponents to just a field goal on red zone trips. Finally, Dallas got a little something going on offense to set up Brett Maher for his own 47 yard field goal. Then on the next Washington series, Sean Lee showed up again, to stop an option play that had worked earlier for and get the ball back for the offense with 6:18 left in the game. But disaster would strike. After a third down conversion to Cole Beasley was called back on a hold by Connor Williams www.cowboysauthorizedshops.com , Dak would get sacked on the goal line and stripped of the ball, which was recovered for a touchdown by Preston Smith. That pushed the lead to ten points with not enough time for the Cowboys to come back. It was another road flop for Dallas, and a golden opportunity squandered. Drew Brees has met Dez Bryant on several occasions, including in the Pro Bowl. The Saints quarterback starts working with the team’s new offensive toy Thursday when the star receiver practices for the first time.“Dez has been a really good player in this league for a long time,” Brees told reporters Wednesday, via video released by the team. “There is certainly a skill set that he has that is going to be beneficial. I look forward to getting to work with him. I look forward to building a rapport with him. I look forward to getting him involved in this offense and for him just to become a complement to all the guys we already have. I think he’ll see that, too, when he gets here. I’m sure he’s been watching from afar. It’s just how he’ll integrate into this offense. I think he’ll be a great addition.”The question is: How quickly can Bryant integrate into the offense? Bryant has spent his career playing in Jason Garrett’s offense in Dallas. Signing in the middle of the season, Bryant has days, not weeks or months, to learn enough of the playbook and get enough timing down with Brees to contribute.“It’s not like you just hand him the playbook and expect him to learn it overnight,” Brees said. “It’s one of those things that’s a process. I think for any new guy coming in, especially a skill player, it’s new verbiage. I don’t know how much carryover there will be from what he had in Dallas. Probably not a lot. I think that’s a process, but you bring him along, and you want to put him in positions to succeed, right? You want to take the stuff that he’s really good at Dallas Cowboys Womens T-Shirt , and then integrate him into the offense accordingly. We’ll have a plan for that as we go along.”Bryant has not had a 1,000-yard season since 2014, and he has gone 23 games without a 100-yard game. With a cast of playmakers, the Saints don’t need him to accomplish either. That’s why Brees expects Bryant to fit right in with his new team and his new teammates despite Bryant’s reputation of being a “big personality.”“I think this locker room is one of the best locker rooms I’ve ever been a part of as far as the type of character and type of leadership and that kind of thing,” Brees said. “If you talk to free agents and guys who have come here over the last couple of offseasons, I think they would be the first ones to tell you that that has a lot to do with the reason why we are successful, and we’ve been able to build a culture that we have is because of the type of guys we bring in here.“Listen, there’s all kinds of different personalities when it comes to exactly that, just personality or competitive nature or this guy’s a jokester; this guy’s that; this guy’s that. Everybody when it’s time to work, it’s time to work; when it’s time to have fun, it’s time to have fun. I think everyone complements one another. I think we all want to win, so at the end of the day, if we can bring somebody in here who can help us win, then that’s great.”The Saints began talking about Bryant after the Cowboys released him in April, Brees said. But they did not have a need for him until this week. www.nflshopoutlet.com/cincinnati-bengals