Emmitt Smith Proves a Point at Expense of the Redskins

Circumstances the Washington Redskins had nothing to do with conspired to bury them.

Emmitt Smith was angry, frustrated, humiliated and relatively healthy.

That, for the opposing team, spells absolute and inescapable doom.

No defense in the NFL was going to stop Emmitt Smith on Thanksgiving Day at Texas Stadium. So don’t bother blaming defensive coordinator Ron Lynn or wondering whether the Redskins could have tackled better or debating whether they should have put eight men on the line of scrimmage more often, because it’s all a waste of time. Emmitt Smith was going to get his on Thanksgiving Day. He was going to show Barry Switzer and the Cowboys coaches, the Redskins, the entire league and all the fools who thought he was sliding down a slippery slope that he can still exercise his will on a football field. This wasn’t the subplot, it was the entire story.

More than an hour after the game, a conversation with Smith drifted toward the notion that he had spent the week leading up to this game saddled with uncharacteristic anger. “Oh, don’t use ‘anger,’ ” Smith said. “How about ‘frustration’ and ‘humiliation’ and a lot of other stuff? It doesn’t happen that often that I get benched either.”

To mess with Michael Jordan, Emmitt Smith and Cal Ripken is just plain stupid. Now, you could try to build the case that Switzer got inside Smith’s head and produced just the explosion the coaches wanted. But that would be giving Switzer way, way too much credit.

Smith’s right ankle was hurt before last week’s game with the Giants, he practiced anyway, and the combination of a gimpy ankle and a really good Giants defensive game plan shut him down in a way he’d never been shut down before. The coaches put him on the bench, didn’t really cover for him like they should have -- like speaking up and saying, “Hey, he’s hurt” -- and the talk started that this was the beginning of Smith’s end.

Boy, did the Redskins walk into a setup.

“To hear all the negative stuff, people saying I was on the back side of my career, it was an insult to me,” said Smith, 27. “It cut deep, it really did. There are days when you’re injured and people don’t know how injured you really are and you keep playing anyway. ... To hear the things people were saying, it hurts. I’m human and it hurts. But if you’ve got to release some anger, better to release it on that field.”

It was a release the Redskins were in no position to stop, especially since the Cowboys’ offensive line also felt challenged, and came out with a vengeance. The Redskins, on their best day, don’t have enough defensive stuff to stop Smith running behind Mark Tuinei, Nate Newton, Ray Donaldson, Larry Allen and Erik Williams. Not gonna happen. “Look, their defense is giving up 4.4 yards a rush,” Switzer said. “We felt like we could hammer these guys. ...

Get our big people against their big people and we’d win.”

And that’s about what happened. The Redskins’ inability to score a touchdown before halftime -- coming away with a field goal instead -- and the turnover that handed the Cowboys a gift touchdown in the first half were the difference in the game. Smith made sure of that with 29 carries, 155 yards and three touchdowns. Please don’t tell me about the “best pure runner,” tell me about the best pure difference-maker in football.

Smith didn’t have a meaningless yard all day. Never does. His stats aren’t padded with 75- and 80-yard runs with all but the first few coming in sprints with no tacklers hanging from him. Smith’s runs are the four- and five- and two-yard variety where there is no daylight, just suffocation and determination making the difference.

With the Redskins leading, 10-7, in the third quarter, Smith broke off a 42-yard run, his longest of the season. Totally juiced, the Cowboys marched right in for the go-ahead score. Ball game. In a capsule, it was the story of their season.