The 5 O'Clock Club: Early reactions to the Cowboys game

The 5 o’clock club aims to provide a forum for reader-driven discussion at a time of day when there isn’t much NFL news being published. Feel free to introduce topics that interest you in the comments below.

One of the final shots of the TV broadcast showed Jay shake Kirk's hand after the QB had thrown the INT that sealed the Redskin loss.

I concur with Jay Gruden. Yeah, it was a loss, but Kirk Cousins played tough.

Despite having no healthy offensive linemen by the second half, the Redskins played a gutty game. But there were just too many mistakes to be overcome today. I’d have to go back to watch again to make a proper list, but some plays that jump out:

• Obviously the blocked field goal
• The dropped pass by Josh Doctson
• The dead ball foul by Zach Brown (was there another key foul by D.J. Swearinger? I’m not sure)
• The fumbles giving the Cowboys short fields
• The illegal touch penalty (totally unnecessary) forcing the re-punt
• The Roullier snap that went between Cousins’ legs
• The Nick Rose missed extra point

For the third time this season (Eagles, Chiefs, Cowboys) there was a cheap touchdown on a desperation drive or bad call by the officials allowing the opposing team to end the game with a defensive turnover & touchdown to make the final score look worse than it really was.

Given that the Redskins offensive line was (I think something like) Tyler Catalina, Arie Kouandjio, Chase Roullier, Orlando Franklin and Morgan Moses (on two bad ankles), plus having only one healthy tight end by the 2nd quarter, it’s hard not to admire the fact that the Redskins were in this game with less than two minutes to play. A fractured hand for Matt Ioannidis was as costly as any Redskins injury, especially after losing Jonathan Allen to IR last week. The pair of DL injuries (Allen/Iaonnidis) weakened the interior DLine play and helped Dallas stay just ahead of the Redskins throughout the second half.

Gutty effort. Forget the loss. Get healthy and let’s go get a conference win in Seattle this week!

The Cowboys have the Chiefs, Falcons, Eagles in the next three games. They're likely to go 0-3 or 1-2 in that stretch. The 'Skins have 9 games left to get a few players healthy and win some games.

This season isn’t over by any means.