Jean-Jacques Taylor is entirely correct about the importance of Sunday night’s game:

The time for talk – by owners or players – is over. It’s time for these Cowboys to shut up and play because the season hinges on today’s game against Washington.

Beat the Redskins and, as Tony Romo said earlier this week, the Cowboys can still achieve all the goals they set in training camp.

Lose, and the season is over.

They’ll finish 7-9, miss the playoffs and be remembered in franchise annals as the most disappointing Cowboys team ever. Then we can focus all of our attention on when Wade Phillips gets fired and whether Jason Garrett has earned the right to replace him.

Win, and the Cowboys will enter December with a three-game winning streak, 10 days of rest and the knowledge they control their playoff destiny.

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Then again, Taylor was one of the five out of eight Dallas Morning News reporters who have picked Washington to win tomorrow.  Three of the five commentators for ESPN’s Sunday Countdown also took Washington.

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The folks at MVN Outsider asked for me to write my opinion about Sunday night’s game. They asked the same of the blogger at Riggo’s Rag, a Redskins blog. Strangely, the only thing I disagree with him about is the final score. He picked the Redskins to win 23-20, while I picked the Cowboys to win 27-20.

I won’t repost all of our comments, but here are our conclusions:

David from Riggo’s Rag:

What is the single-biggest key to Sunday’s game for the Redskins, and what is your predicted final score?

The key to the game might be whether idiot Redskins fans sell their tickets to Cowboys fans. I was at the Steelers game in the lower bowl and surrounded by Steelers fans. When the game started poorly for the Steelers fans, they were quiet, but when the momentum turned it was like a home game for Pittsburgh. I was disappointed and very angry.

Assuming the stadium is the normal home game for us, the key is forcing the Cowboys into being one dimensional. The last game against the Boys, they abandoned the run early themselves. The problem with playing defense against the Cowboys when they are clicking is that you have to play your base defense or you have to disguise when you are selling out against the run or the pass because if you put 8 men in the box they’ll kill you with the pass. If you back off for the pass, they’ll kill you with Barber.

Of course, all of this is moot if Romo’s finger is worse than reported. My dream scenario is Romo plays with pain and throws three INTs and TO and Romo are yelling at each other on the sidelines.

My prediction? Honestly, I think there is a 50-50 chance we’re going to lose depending on how rusty Romo is and whether Portis can be himself. If both of them play, we’ll win a close one 23-20.

My comments, in turn:

What is the single-biggest key to Sunday’s game for the Cowboys, and what is your predicted final score?

Tony Romo’s play is the easy answer, but I think the play of safeties Ken Hamlin and Keith Davis may be more critical. Santana Moss has killed the Cowboys in the past, and with the cornerback situation the way it is in Dallas, it will be tough to stop him. Moreover, Chris Cooley has been very effective against the Cowboys, and he has been pretty consistent all season (four, six, and eight catches, respectively, in the past three games). If Hamlin and Davis could step it up a notch in terms of deep help as well as run support, the Cowboys could effectively counter some of the problems they had during the September 28 meeting.

My prediction this week: Dallas 27, Washington 20.

If the score hits 20-20 at some point, I am going to get an eery feeling– and really hope I was right.

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Accuscore

Accuscore

On Accuscore, Dallas won 60% of the simulations by an average score of 24-21. That’s a bit of a surprise. Romo averaged about 230 yards passing in those simulations.

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What If Sports

What If Sports

Dallas also won the majority (55%) of the simulations at What If Sports, and that site thinks this game will be one of the games of the week.

Will he or won’t he? This rivalry game comes down to that. On pace for over 2,000 total yards for an impressive 6-3 Washington team, a strong case can be made for Clinton Portis as the MVP of the NFL this season. Unfortunately, for the Redskins, Portis has a knee injury that actually sounds like it has worsened over the bye week. First-year head coach Jim Zorn is calling Portis “50-50″ to play, but recent reports make it sound less likely than that as Portis has a second-degree MCL sprain. If he plays and is close to 100%, Washington would be a 65%+ favorite in the simulations – even with Tony Romo’s likely return. If he doesn’t play (and that’s how we simulated it), this game gets interesting. With Ladell Betts also ailing, former NFL MVP Shaun Alexander could get the majority of carries for the Redskins. That puts quite a bit of pressure on Jason Campbell, Santana Moss and the passing game. Just less than half the time, an essentially one-dimensional Washington squad gets by a Dallas team that should be as healthy and as balanced on offense as it has been since the season started. The Cowboys, who may have simply gotten lucky to face the Redskins at the perfect time, win 53.9% of the time and by just one point, 22-21, on average.