For 58 minutes, there were no touchdowns in Washington-Dallas. Then, in a span of two minutes, DeSean Jackson gifted Dallas one with a huge mistake ... and came back to score one for Washington.
DeSean Jackson had the worst punt return you’ll ever see, then redeemed himself
DeSean Jackson giveth, DeSean Jackson taketh away.
The Cowboys punted to Jackson with less than two minutes remaining in a tied game. Neither offense had scored a touchdown all night, so Jackson decided to take matters into his own hands with a sweeping, field-crossing return. It was an absolute disaster.
If Jackson simply ran forward or out of bounds, he could've given his team the ball at around the 25-yard line. Instead, he tried to make a play. He ran backwards all the way to the goal line, then got tackled about 15 yards behind where he could've gotten to. That's already bad. But worst of all, HE FUMBLED THE BALL and it was recovered by Cowboys punter Chris Jones.
In case you’re wondering whether or not Jackson was down, the NFL’s rulebook says that a player is down if any part of his arm above the wrist touches the ground. If your wrist or hand touches the ground, you’re not down. It’s Jackson’s wrist and not his arm above the wrist that hits the ground here. Therefore, he was not down. Announcers often say “the ground can’t force a fumble,” but that’s not really how it works. As long as you’re not down, anything can cause a fumble, including the ground. In this case, Jackson was not down.
That gave the ball back to Dallas at the 15-yard line, allowing it to set up a go-ahead touchdown by Darren McFadden.
But on the next drive, Jackson came right back with a game-tying TD:
Dallas ended up winning on a late field goal. We don’t want to let Jackson too far off the hook here because his foolish punt return still allowed for Washington’s loss. If he doesn’t fumble, his team has the opportunity to end the game without giving the Cowboys the ball back. Instead, he gave the Cowboys the ball in the red zone and forced his team into a frenzied drive to tie. But it was still awesome to see Jackson quickly redeem himself after a boneheaded play he probably wish never happened.
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