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The Dallas Cowboys (7-9) close out the season on Sunday against the Washington Commanders (11-5), who are headed to the playoffs under first-year coach Dan Quinn.
Washington is on a four-game winning streak since losing to Dallas as a double-digit favorite at home just before Thanksgiving.
Will the Cowboys claim the season sweep? The Dallas Morning News’ columnists and beat writers make their predictions:
The Commanders went from last in the NFC East to first for much of the season before settling behind Philly and clinching a wild card spot last Sunday. With Jayden Daniels as the obvious Rookie of the Year at QB, this is a team on the rise. The Cowboys might spring Trey Lance on us for a while Sunday, which could be a fun show if a bit of a roller coaster. Dallas will be trying to win because it has too many coaches and players hoping to save jobs, but a sweep of Washington doesn’t seem like a fitting ending to this lost season.
Commanders 27, Cowboys 19
The Cowboys’ playoff hopes were realistically extinguished when QB Dak Prescott was injured in Week 9. We’ve been playing out the string and waiting to hear about coach Mike McCarthy’s fate ever since. That decision will come soon enough, but for now there is one more game against the Commanders, who still have postseason goals within reach. About the only intrigue for the Cowboys will be whether backup QB Trey Lance makes an appearance.
Commanders 27, Cowboys 17
An argument can be made that the Cowboys would be better off losing this game since they won’t make the playoffs. It will improve their draft position. Washington, meanwhile, has the potential to improve its playoff seed with a win. Motivation is clearly on the Commanders’ side. But when has logic ever applied in this rivalry?
Cowboys 24, Commanders 21
The best thing that could happen in this game is the Commanders let quarterback Jayden Daniels work some of his magic before benching him to protect him from a playoff-preventing injury. Washington’s rookie is a sight to behold, running or passing the ball, and seeing him on the field will make the ticket price well worth it. The Cowboys will want to go home with a win, but the Commanders are best equipped, emotionally and physically, to win the regular season’s final game.
Commanders 24, Cowboys 14
The fact that the most intriguing aspect of the Cowboys’ final game is whether Trey Lance will play tells you all you need to know about this season. No one should care about a third-string QB. We shouldn’t even know who he is. But here we are. Dan Quinn will beat the Cowboys and Jerry Jones will say nice things about his former defensive coordinator and soon we’ll get to the real business of the next head coach. The most disappointing Cowboys season of this century is about to be a wrap, and it can’t come soon enough.
Commanders 27, Cowboys 20
The season is finally over and the next two weeks will show us what the future holds for the Cowboys. Before we get to that point, Dallas and Washington will play a wild game. We say this because that’s just something we want to see in the regular season finale. Washington is moving on to the postseason and Dallas is moving toward the draft and making decisions on the coaches. As for the game, we’ll take the visiting team.
Commanders 31, Cowboys 27
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The Washington Huskies saw one of their most hotly contested offensive line targets in the 2027 class go elsewhere on Saturday afternoon when four-star offensive lineman DaJohn Yarborough announced his pledge to the California Golden Bears
The 6-foot-5, 340-pound product of Basha High School in Arizona, who is ranked as the nation’s No. 426 overall prospect and No. 25 interior offensive lineman by the 247Sports Composite, picked coach Tosh Lupoi and the Golden Bears out of a final four that also included Florida State, Mississippi State, and UW.
Although his junior year was cut short due to a fractured ankle, Fisch and offensive line coach Michael Switzer kept up a strong relationship with the hulking prospect, who has the size, physicality, and skill set the pair looks for from early contributors up front. However,
“The big man slides smoothly in pass protection and balances his weight well, always finding himself on the winning end of collisions with defenders,” Huskies Wire’s Alex Katson wrote in an evaluation of his film. “With such prototypical size and technique, Yarborough profiles as a player who could find himself in the NFL rather quickly with the right coaching staff during his time in college.”
As Washington continues to build up its offensive line for the rigors of the Big Ten, Yarborough would have been viewed as a promising building block alongside Freshman All-American John Mills, former five-star Kodi Greene, and former four-star Champ Taulealea, who should make up the core of Switzer’s unit in 2027.
While the Huskies had consistently been viewed among the top suitors for Yarborough’s services, but Lupoi’s staff has shown early that it can make a big impact quickly on recruits all over the West. Without Yarborough, Washington’s 2027 class consists of three offensive linemen: four-star interior prospect Gecova Doyal, four-star center Reis Russell, and three-star offensive tackle Tye Kennedy.
Jazz Chisholm Jr. hit a two-run homer in the ninth inning to lift the New York Yankees over the Washington Nationals 5-3 on Friday night.
WASHINGTON (AP) — Jazz Chisholm Jr. hit a two-run homer in the ninth inning to lift the New York Yankees over the Washington Nationals 5-3 on Friday night.
The Yankees and Nationals rank 1-2 in the major leagues in home runs, and all but one run in this game came via the long ball. Ben Rice hit his 29th of the season for the Yankees, and Jasson Domínguez and Austin Wells also went deep for New York.
Keibert Ruiz and James Wood homered on consecutive pitches in the seventh to give Washington a 3-2 lead, but in the ninth, the Nationals brought in left-hander Matt Krook — who had allowed 22 earned runs in 12 2/3 big league innings dating to 2023. Krook (0-1) yielded a one-out single by Domínguez, and Chisholm followed with his 13th homer.
Wells added a solo shot off Justin Lawrence to make it 5-3.
David Bednar (3-3) won in relief, working the final two innings. The Yankees remained four games behind first-place Tampa Bay in the AL East.
Rice homered in the first off Carson Palmquist, but the New York designated hitter fouled a pitch off his right leg in the fifth and was shaken up. He was able to stay in the game.
By that time, Domínguez had given the Yankees a 2-1 lead with a homer off Zack Littell (8-6) in the fourth.
The game was delayed two hours at the start, and a wet field might have prevented Washington from tying it in the sixth. New York starter Ryan Weathers allowed a one-out double to CJ Abrams. Then Jacob Young followed with a single. Abrams looked likely to score, but he slipped rounding third and had to stay there.
Fernando Cruz then replaced Weathers and struck out the next two hitters to strand both runners.
New York’s Paul Goldschmidt singled in the first to snap an 0-for-34 drought, and he also reached on an infield hit in the sixth.
Amed Rosario of the Yankees struck out in all three of his plate appearances and made two errors at third base before being lifted for a pinch-hitter.
Cam Schlittler (9-5) was scheduled to start for New York on Saturday against Miles Mikolas (3-7) of the Nationals.
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OLYMPIA, Wash. — Party platforms are typically lengthy documents intended to define political values, not enact law.
But language adopted by the Washington State Democratic Party is drawing scrutiny from Republicans, some Jewish community leaders, and even some Democrats who say they were left out of the conversation.
The debate centers on two planks in the party’s newly approved platform: one supporting continued work on a state reparations study and another linking a recent rise in antisemitism, in part, to actions by the Israeli government.
Stephen Reed, a spokesperson for the Washington State Democratic Party, said the platform is developed every two years by delegates selected from communities across the state.
“They develop the platform. They write all the planks. They debate the planks,” Reed said.
Last month, the Washington State Democratic Party announced that more than 1,000 delegates at its 2026 convention in Spokane unanimously adopted language supporting reparations for descendants of victims of U.S. chattel slavery. The party described the move as the first such addition to a state Democratic Party platform.
The approved language says Democrats support “the study and implementation of reparative action, remedies and reconciliation” for descendants. The party also said Democrats had previously passed a 2024 resolution urging Washington leaders to create and fund a statewide study on reparations, which is currently underway and being managed by the Department of Commerce. A final report with recommendations is due in June 2027.
Reed said the party’s platform does not settle the question of whether Washington should provide direct payments as reparations, noting that other proposals include offering free college tuition to descendants.
But it is the platform’s language on antisemitism that has prompted criticism from both inside and outside the party. The approved platform states: “There has been a dramatic resurgence in antisemitism in recent years on all sides of the political spectrum, due in part to actions taken by the Israeli government. History shows us the dangerous repercussions suffered when collective action to combat antisemitism and promote understanding is not taken. We must ensure that the Jewish community is protected from misinformation, harassment, and violence.”
It is unclear whether the Washington State Jewish Democratic Caucus was consulted before the language was adopted. The Jewish Federation of Greater Seattle criticized the provision.
“By ascribing the rise of antisemitism in the United States, even partially, to the actions of the Israeli government, the Washington State Democratic Party has rationalized, and given cover to, the actions of antisemites rather than full-throatedly condemning them. At a time where the Jewish community, which makes up only 2% of the U.S. population, is the target of nearly 70% of religion-based hate crimes, we urge the Washington State Democratic Party to do everything in its power to reduce antisemitism rather than justify it,” Solly Kane, president and CEO of the Jewish Federation of Greater Seattle, said in a statement to KOMO News.
The State GOP, which is no stranger to incorporating national public policy into its regional platform either, criticized the Democrats.
“I read the Washington State Democratic Party platform, and it’s a banquet of trust-fund leftist nonsense,” Washington GOP Chair Jim Walsh said. “A lot of it is just not grounded in any real policy issue facing Washington families.”
Walsh said the platform contains “very little coherent stuff about tax reform or safe communities or improving K-12 schools,” while highlighting what he called “a very bizarre commitment to reparations for slavery.”
Asked why the Washington Republican Party’s 2024 platform includes language calling for limiting federal funding for programs that support critical race theory or The 1619 Project and for ending birthright citizenship, Walsh said, “We’re talking about not spending public resources. That means forcing taxpayers to pay for programs of various controversial sorts.”
“There is really no moral equivalence here,” he added.
Reed said he personally interprets the Democratic platform’s language as criticism of the Israeli government, not of Jewish people.
“I take this language personally to mean that the government of Israel is engaging in actions that are making Israel less safe, that are causing untold harm in the Palestinian community, especially among civilians,” Reed said. “That simply isn’t the right behavior for an ally of the United States.”
Reed acknowledged that the language has prompted concern and debate. He said the party has a Jewish caucus and that party officials tried to provide proposed platform language to caucuses before the convention, but he conceded the process may have fallen short.
“We did our best, and we hear that we may have come up short in those outreach efforts to give them enough time to digest everything,” Reed said. “If we fell short, we apologize to those communities.”
Reed said party platforms are designed to show voters where the party’s grassroots stand, even when the issues are complicated, controversial, or beyond the scope of state government.
“It’s a statement of values,” Reed said. “This lets Washingtonians know where the Democratic Party’s grassroots are, how they’re thinking, and the values they’re going to bring.”
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