Washington bringing customized benches to Dallas was an asinine decision

The Washington Football Team was down a litany of starters on Sunday night against the Dallas Cowboys, but that’s no excuse for turning in one of the worst performances in franchise history.

How bad was it? The Cowboys pulled the majority of their starters, including quarterback Dak Prescott, with over a minute remaining in the third quarter.

Tough to put into words how much of a rarity that is in the NFL. Typically you see teams call off the dogs midway-to-late in the fourth quarter. But before the conclusion of the third? You almost never see that.

To make matters worse, the NBC broadcast caught Jonathan Allen, maybe the face of the franchise, throw a punch at teammate Daron Payne, who seemed to instigate the scuffle by pointing his finger in Allen’s face.

Truth be told, there are an untold number of things to list off that amplify just how embarrassing this game was.

However, we can’t help but highlight Washington willingly flying their own personalized benches to Dallas for the weekend as arguably the biggest reason things went south at AT&T Stadium on Sunday night.

The Washington Football Team brought their own benches to Dallas just to lose by 42 points to the Cowboys

So let’s get this straight.

In response to the Cowboys bringing custom benches to Landover for an outdoor game (that Dallas won) two weeks ago — after receiving warning from Seattle that the heated benches provided by FedEx Field don’t always function properly, mind you– Washington went ahead and brought their own benches to Dallas for an indoor game expected to be played in a 70-degree atmosphere?

Asinine. Petty. Disgraceful. Pretty much every negative word in the English dictionary could describe this decision.

We’ll go ahead and assume this was a collective call, meaning the players and coaching staff signed off on it. If that’s the case, then both sides should be ashamed, because nothing good was ever going to come from this.

Ron Rivera’s group pulled the exact same stunt last week in Philadelphia and proceeded to lose 27-17 while failing to eclipse 240 yards as an offense and surrendering 519 yards, 238 of the rushing variety, as a defense.

At least you can say Washington played in somewhat unfriendly conditions in that game. This week, though, they played in a climate-controlled environment. Even if it was hailing in Dallas all weekend, these benches were never going to serve a purpose…other than giving the Cowboys bulletin-board material.

That’s the icing on this awful-tasting cake. Without several starters on both sides of the ball and clinging to the playoff hunt by the skin of their teeth, Washington went ahead and gave Dallas, which was already motivated to win to keep pace atop the NFC standings, further incentive to beat them to a pulp.

How did the Cowboys respond? Well, if not for a garbage time by John Bates with two minutes left in the fourth, Dallas would’ve tied their largest margin of victory in team history. Instead, they settled for a 56-14 massacre.

But hey, at least Washington had their own benches, right?

Thank heavens for that.