By the Numbers: Washington Football Team’s win vs. Dallas Cowboys
More key numbers
32: The Washington defense held Ezekiel Elliott to only 32 yards on the ground. In the team’s three wins over the Cowboys since Elliott entered the league, they’ve held him to 33, 45, and 32 rushing yards, respectively, along with 0 touchdowns. Washington also forced an Elliott fumble early in the second half, adding a field goal off the turnover to take a 20-13 lead.
1998: The last time a rookie scored three touchdowns on Thanksgiving was 22 years ago when Randy Moss had 3 receptions for 163 yards and 3 touchdowns against, who else, but the Dallas Cowboys.
Want to feel old? Antonio Gibson, who had three rushing touchdowns in Washington’s 41-16 win was just over 6 months old when Moss last pulled off the feat.
40, 243, 4: Antonio Gibson’s stat line against the Cowboys this season. In the two games combined, he has 40 rushes for 243 yards and 4 touchdowns. He also added five receptions for 21 yards in the Thanksgiving game. Remember when fans were angry over the team cutting Adrian Peterson? Rumble, young man, rumble!
Antonio Gibson of @WashingtonNFL is the first player with 100+ rushing yards and 3+ rushing touchdowns on Thanksgiving since Barry Sanders in 1997.#WashingtonFootball
— OptaSTATS (@OptaSTATS) November 27, 2020
11: The number of rushing touchdowns Antonio Gibson has thus far this season, putting him second in the league, behind only Dalvin Cook. He also is only two touchdowns shy of tying Alfred Morris’s rookie record from 2012.
And then there’s this:
Most Total Touchdowns Per Game
— NFL Research (@NFLResearch) November 27, 2020
NFL History, Min. 10 Games
HOF Jim Brown 1.07
WAS Antonio Gibson 1.00
PIT Chase Claypool 1.00
HOF LaDainian Tomlinson 0.95
ATL Todd Gurley 0.95
HOF Steve Van Buren 0.93
@WashingtonNFL
Not bad company to be in…AT ALL.
963: The total number of receiving yards Terry McLaurin has thus far this season, after adding seven receptions for 92 yards to his total in Thursday’s game. McLaurin has already surpassed his reception and receiving yards totals from his rookie year in three fewer games, and is currently leading the NFL in receiving yards, going into Sunday’s games. All this from a player many saw as only a special teams contributor when he was drafted.
0: The number of touchdowns given up by Washington when Dallas was in the red zone. The defense played a phenomenal game overall as seen in the tweet below.
The Cowboys gained 132 yards and scored 10 points on their opening two drives. From there, they managed just 115 yards and six points. Total domination from the @WashingtonNFL defense.
— Kyle Stackpole (@kylefstackpole) November 27, 2020
The biggest momentum saving moment of the game actually came when Terry McLaurin had a DK Metcalf moment, chasing down Jalen Smith after an Alex Smith’s interception to stop a game-tying touchdown.
https://twitter.com/thecheckdown/status/1332111709964668929
After that stop, Washington’s defense stuffed Elliott for a 2-yard loss on 1st down then sacked CeeDee Lamb on second down on a failed trick play, before an incomplete pass to Lamb, which ultimately ended the drive with the Cowboys only adding a field goal.