Washington linebacker Jon Bostic will catch a lot of heat this week for his illegal hit on Cowboys quarterback Andy Dalton in the third quarter of Sunday’s meeting between the rival teams. He was ejected from the game, he’ll almost certainly receive a hefty fine, and he probably deserves a suspension for the head shot he delivered to a sliding quarterback.
But all of that could actually pale in comparison to the blowback that Dalton’s teammates will hear over the coming days about the hit they didn’t deliver. In the moments after the vicious cheap shot laid out their field general, not a single Dallas player came to Dalton’s defense. No retaliatory blows. No in-your-face exchanges. No pushes. No shoves. Seemingly not even a cross word as the 32-year-old passer (he’ll turn 33 on Thursday) lay motionless on the turf.
In a thoroughly disappointing season that has already seen historic lows, the Cowboys’ failure to defend their fallen teammate may have been the lowest moment of them all.
Even head coach Mike McCarthy was surprised at his players’ lack of response.
“It was definitely a hit that caused a disqualification,” McCarthy said after the demoralizing 25-3 loss. “We speak all the time about playing for one another, protecting one another. That was definitely probably not the response that you would expect.”
That’s a gross understatement. But nothing about the 2020 season has been close to what Cowboys fans expected. Dalton’s offensive mates standing around in silence after watching him get almost decapitated is just the latest manifestation of a season gone way off the rails.
As vicious as the hit was, NFL insider Adam Schefter reported Monday morning that Bostic does not expect to be suspended for the play.
The hit on Dalton didn’t spur the Cowboys players to action in the moment, but it was the first thing running back Ezekiel Elliott referenced after the game.
“We’ve got to protect the quarterback better,” Elliott offered to reporters. “I’m not sure how many times he was sacked today, but we’ve got to keep him upright and clean in the pocket.”
The Dallas offensive line is in shambles and has been decimated by injury; Connor Williams served as the line’s elder statesman on Sunday. But Elliott knows that he also has a huge responsibility in pass protection. He normally prides himself on his blocking skills, but, like everyone else wearing a star on Sunday, failed to put forth his best effort.
“We’ve got to stick together during these times,” Elliott said of the season that seems to be getting worse with each week. “We’ve got to have each other’s backs.”
No one, though, had Dalton’s back after the violent hit that took his helmet clean off. And media members were quick to ask Elliott and other Cowboys players why: Shouldn’t someone have defended Dalton? Shouldn’t someone have confronted Bostic and gotten physical in return?
“I think you can say that’s fair,” Elliott admitted. “But doing that, you’ve got to be careful, because we’re already down a bunch of guys. If you go in there and throw a punch, you get kicked out of the game, you can’t help the team from the sideline. You can’t help from the team from the locker room. We’ve got to find a way to not cross that line, but we’ve still got to protect our guys.
“I honestly can’t really remember the situation that well or what exactly happened. But if you’re asking that question, I guess I do wish we would have acted stronger.”
It’s not like Bostic’s hit wasn’t clearly a flagrant cheap shot. Players weren’t bashful about labeling it as such after their showers.
“Man,” wideout Amari Cooper reflected when asked if it was a dirty hit. “Yeah, I would, to be honest. Because he was sliding. It was obvious. That player could have easily avoided doing what he did.”
But when asked if some sort of retaliation would have been appropriate, Cooper was less than definitive.
“I don’t know. I don’t know.”
Defensive tackle Everson Griffen has been in that situation before, chasing a quarterback who suddenly gives himself up. And he was sure of what he saw on the play.
“Terrible hit,” Griffen stated in his postgame remarks. “He’s going to get fined, as he should. I feel like, honestly, if you see a quarterback sliding, you’ve just got to let him go down to the ground.”
Even Washington coach Ron Rivera acknowledged the reckless play of his linebacker. According to ProFootballTalk, Rivera sought out McCarthy on the field as Sunday’s game ended to apologize.
“I went up to him and apologized to him for it,” Rivera said, as per Mike Florio. “I wanted him to know that we don’t play that way, and it’s unfortunate that it happened.”
It was unanimous that the hit on Dalton was wildly unsportsmanlike. The players and coaches, to a man, also held to the party line when they all talked- yet again- about sticking together, holding each other accountable, having their teammates’ backs, overcoming adversity, and playing for one another.
Only no one actually did it when Dalton went down.
The stunning lackadaisical response by the Cowboys players will be scrutinized and criticized by every football analyst with a microphone this week.
But will it be addressed by the Dallas coaching staff during practice?
McCarthy wouldn’t even say.
“I’ve answered the question.”
But there are obviously far more numerous and troubling questions still to be answered about the woeful 2020 Cowboys.
Report Card and Week 7 Snap Counts: Cowboys got curved
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