The Redskins Blog

Hail! Finds The Solution To ‘Turfgate 2.0′

Yesterday, we looked back at the synthetic drama that came out of game one against the Cowboys this season.  Now that Cowboys center Phil Costa and Redskins defensive end Stephen Bowen have solved their barking differences, “Barkgate” is in the past.

In this week’s Hail! comic, Ben Ceccarelli figures out how to eliminate “Turfgate” for Sunday’s game as well:

The Myth Of The Snap Count Violation

AP Image

Of the many storylines that came out of the Monday night loss to the Cowboys, perhaps the strangest was the explanation for the botched shotgun exchanges between Cowboys center Phil Costa and Tony Romo.

ESPNDallas.com picked up the story, as proclaimed by Costa and Romo after the game, and suggested that former Cowboys defensive end Stephen Bowen was responsible for the early snaps.

“We’ve got to get the snap thing worked out,” Romo told the media after the game. “Costa said the D-line kept calling out the snap count. We’ll tell the league and see if that’s something that can be fixed because you’re not supposed to be able to do that.”

The next day on a radio show on ESPN 103.3 in Dallas, Costa backed down from the Bowen accusation, but attributed it to a nameless defensive players “barking out the snap count,” on the line.

“[Bowen] wasn’t really doing it, but whoever was doing the snap count or whatever,” he said.  ”And y’know, we’re hearing the D-line barking a little bit, and either way, it’s on me.”

So was it an issue that “we’ll tell the league” about, or is it “either way, it’s on me?”  I’ve heard Bowen, and I’ve heard Romo, and they don’t sound anything alike.

Must be those pesky barking spiders on the field.

Sitting in the press box at a game, I’m about as far removed from the action as you are at home, so I can’t say for sure what happened on the field.  But given that these violations are something that officials are trained to look for, and assigned to look for, I had to approach these accusations with a degree of journalistic skepticism.

So I turned to Redskins defensive end Kedric Golston for clarity. Read more »