DeSean Jackson taketh away from 'Skins
LANDOVER, Md. - This gaffe was not as egregious as the one DeSean Jackson made as a rookie wide receiver for the Eagles in 2008.
LANDOVER, Md. - This gaffe was not as egregious as the one DeSean Jackson made as a rookie wide receiver for the Eagles in 2008.
Jackson lost what would have been his first NFL touchdown when he celebrated too early and flipped the ball behind him at the 1-yard line.
After a challenge by the Dallas Cowboys, what was initially called a touchdown was overturned.
It was an embarrassing lesson for Jackson but not costly to the Eagles because they scored a touchdown on the next play.
On Sunday at FedEx Field, Washington wasn't as lucky. The 'Skins lost, 35-18, to Green Bay in a wild-card game and a blown touchdown by Jackson played a big role.
In the second quarter, Washington had momentum from a safety and Jackson appeared to have caught a 15-yard touchdown pass from Kirk Cousins. As Jackson ran for the pylon at the front corner of the end zone, he had the ball in his hand farthest from the goal line. With Green Bay safety Ha Ha Clinton-Dix close enough to hit the speedy Jackson but not stop him from scoring, Jackson pulled the simultaneous score-but-tiptoe-out-of-bounds move to avoid contact. The play was initially called a touchdown, but on review it was ruled that while Jackson had crossed the plane of the goal line, he stepped out of bounds without the ball having crossed the plane.
The score was reversed and Washington got possession on the half-yard line.
Again, this wasn't boneheaded level like the play in 2008, but Jackson could have run through Clinton-Dix or simply extended the ball past the goal line. He did neither. Jackson simply miscalculated what he needed to do to get the six points and didn't go hard after them.
It was a cavalier mental error that became exacerbated when Washington failed to get a touchdown on the next three plays and had to settle for a field goal.
Shortly after, CBS showed Jackson, who did not speak to reporters after the game, acknowledging his error to fellow wide receivers Pierre Garcon and Ryan Grant.
Perhaps mindful of the sensitivity of his mercurial receiver, Washington coach Jay Gruden downplayed the impact of the reversed touchdown.
"It was great because we went and scored," Gruden said. "We still got three and they ended up winning by a couple of touchdowns or whatever.
"What's bigger is we should have been able to score from a half-yard. We had three cracks at the half-yard and ended up kicking a field goal from the seven, which is not good enough."
OK, it was early in the game and it was not the only big moment, but if Jackson does what he is supposed to do, Washington doesn't need to worry about those missed "cracks at the half-yard."
Against a quarterback like Green Bay's Aaron Rodgers, miscues on prime opportunities have a way of coming back to haunt you.
Giving Rodgers life is simply asking him to put a dagger in you.
"I talked a lot the last couple of weeks about being able to turn it on and a lot of you probably thought that was lip service," said Rodgers, who was 21-for-36 for 210 yards, two scores and no interceptions. "We just needed a game like this to get our mojo back and confidence going.
"It just takes one performance to get us back in the right direction and believing we can make a run."
The Packers needed something positive to happen to change momentum. If Jackson scores, the lead is potentially 9-0 instead of 5-0. Washington scored a touchdown but missed the point-after attempt. So instead of having a 16-0 lead, the hosts led just 11-0.
The Packers got points on five straight possessions, outscoring Washington after that, 35-7.
Perhaps more damning than the failed touchdown was the way Jackson disappeared from the game after it happened. His first catch was for three yards at 8:07 of the first quarter. The 14-yard non-score happened with 6:53 left. Jackson finished with those two catches for 17 yards. Of the 46 passes Cousins attempted, just five were intended for him.
The impact of Jackson's mistake was not an area of much discussion in the locker room. Cousins, who passed for 329 yards with one touchdown instead of two, talked about a fumble he had at midfield being frustrating but did not mention the reversed touchdown.
"Those kinds of plays are the ones that will frustrate you when you go back and you kind of have to live with it for a while because you know that if we avoided that, who knows which direction the game goes?" Cousins said.
One of the few Washington players who acknowledged that the lost touchdown hurt was defensive end Chris Baker.
"Without a question, we came out firing on all cylinders," Baker said. "I wish we would have scored that touchdown that they called back.
"With a team like Green Bay, you can't have slipups. If you're supposed to score a touchdown, you've got to score. You can't leave points out there."
You can't have them taken back, either.
Columns: ph.ly/Smallwood