Gibbs vs. Father Time, not Parcells
Maybe Joe Gibbs and Bill Parcells should have found a tennis court -- or squash court, chess board, whatever -- on which to do battle last night since the Redskins-Cowboys game at FedEx Field was overhyped as Gibbs vs. Parcells.
Singling out individual matchups before a game can be fun. And when it's two coaching heavyweights, I guess it's hard to resist, especially when there are so few credible offensive players on the field for either team.
But Gibbs outcoached himself more than he was outcoached by Parcells.
His bungled use of timeouts in the final 2 minutes of the first half probably cost the Redskins a touchdown, though they still have to be able to punch it in with a first down at the 1, no matter what. Settled for a field goal. Ended up losing 21-18.
Unsuccessful challenges also cost the Redskins timeouts they'd desperately need in the final 5 minutes of the game, when suddenly Mark Brunell looked like Brett Favre. Just ran out of time.
One thing out of Gibbs' hands: bad officiating. Dallas got a gift TD early on a bogus pass interference call in the end zone -- well, give Parcells credit, his team CAN punch it in from the 1 -- and Dallas got away with a pass interference non-call on a Redskins deep ball late.
And so it goes, another dark chapter in the series for Washington: that's 13 of the last 14 to the Cowboys. And another Gibbs loss to Parcells.
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