The Cowboys defense will be trying to rebound from their second half meltdown against the Packers when they face the Redskins this week and they’ll be doing it without cornerback Morris Claiborne.
The 2012 first-round pick will miss his fourth straight game as a result of the hamstring injury he aggravated against the Giants in November. Claiborne had missed the previous two games with the same injury before returning briefly against the Giants.
The team was hoping to get Claiborne back this week, but he had a chaotic week last week that saw him go to Shreveport, Louisiana to be with family after the death of his father before heading back to Dallas for the birth of his daughter. That left Claiborne behind in his rehab and, as a result, he won’t play in Week 16.
“Last week, we were shooting for this week, but since we missed a week, last week, getting treatment and not being here to do stuff because I had to go home, it set us back,” Claiborne said, via ESPNDallas.com. “It was a big setback. I sat down with the trainers, I feel like I’m good. I’m in the same sense of where I was the first time. So I sat down with the trainers and we talked about it and it could go either way. ‘We need you. But we’re not going to play you this week.’ [It] gives it a little bit more time and see what happens for the last game.”
Claiborne has not lived up to his position as the sixth overall pick in last year’s draft to this point. He’s missed a good chunk of time with injuries and frequently been ineffective when he’s on the field, although the Cowboys could really use every available hand on deck to fill out a defense that’s been far too giving to the opposition this season.