Redskins WR DeSean Jackson has 'roller coaster' ending
LANDOVER, Md.—DeSean Jackson waved his hands in a “bring it on” motion to pump up the crowd at FedEx Field and they rose to their feet. The excitement only grew as the punt from Dallas' Chris Jones sailed Jackson's way.
Jackson had made a career of lethal punt returns in Philadelphia, but this would be just his third—second this season—as a Redskin. With 1:44 to play, in a game tied 9-9 in desperate need of a momentous play, Jackson was ready to be that spark.
The punt went 41 yards and Jackson caught it at his own 16-yard line. As the Cowboys swarmed, the speedy receiver realized he had to reverse the field because he ran straight into traffic and didn’t have blocking. He ran backwards in a semicircle, stretching as far as the 2-yard line, but was eventually smacked down at the nine and fumbled. The ball bounced around for a second before Jones recovered at the 15.
Two plays later, the Cowboys scored to take a 16-9 lead.
“I don’t regret the decision one bit,” coach Jay Gruden said. “I’ll count on DeSean to make another big play.”
Thirty seconds later, he did just that.
On the ensuing possession, Kirk Cousins capped a four-play drive with a 28-yard pass to Jackson in the top right corner of the end zone for a game-tying touchdown. The problem with that, however, was Dallas had too much time left and was able to win the game 19-16 in the next 40 seconds on a 54-yard field goal.
“Roller coaster, man,” Jackson said, taking a deep breath as he tried to describe his emotions. “It’s a rivalry game. You do any and everything to pull out a victory and we fell on the short end of the stick this time. It’s very frustrating. A lot rode on this game and we had mistakes, so personally, I’m very frustrated. I take that one to my chin. I’m a veteran in this league and I need to protect the ball and it just got away from me.”
It wasn’t until last week that Gruden said Jackson would be integrated more onto Washington’s return teams. His has two punt returns for -5 yards. But lest anyone forget that during his six years in Philadelphia, he returned 131 punts for 1,294 yards and four touchdowns - including that electrifying 65-yard walk-off punt return against the Giants in 2010.
“I laid an egg,” Jackson said. “I messed up. I had a chance to make a play and come back for my team.
“I had an opportunity to redeem myself and you know regardless of me doing that, we still lost the game. It’s a bad feeling inside. I feel terrible right now.”