Monday, October 27, 2008

Taming The Lions

Week 8
Skins vs Lions
This weekend was a weekend of firsts for me. I had to work a half day on Saturday. Haven't done that in over 15 years(qualifies as a first in my book since that many years have passed). Went to sleep on Saturday night at around 9:00pm. Haven't done that since I was a kid. I watched this game at home with my daughter. Yep. I stayed home. It wasn't of my own choice, however. For reasons unbeknownst to me, my sister-in- law sent me a text message on sometime between Saturday afternoon and Sunday at noon informing me that I was no longer welcomed in their home to watch the games. To add further insult to injury, when I inquired as the reasons why, I was totally ignored (twice btw) by both her and my b-i-l. I spent most of the day wracking my brain as to where this came from and decided that it's their loss and I will survive. I was hoping my luck wouldn't transfer to the team.
After watching the first half, I thought, "so much for that bit of hoping, I guess luck is transferable".
Penalties and predictable play calling were par for the course. It was frustrating to say the least. It seemed at every turn, we'd find a way to shoot ourselves in the foot!
I don't know what the "issue" with Portis and Zorn was on the sidelines but lets' get it fixed and move on.
And they did. (Whew!)
The 2nd half was a much better sight for sore eyes. We dominated in every aspect of this game.
  • Time of Possession - check
  • Total Offense Yardage - check
  • QB rating and stats - check
  • Score - check (but not until later in the game)

Time after time we continued to give the Lions hope. We didn't shut the proverbial door and they kept peeking their beady eyes and large heads through to see what we were doing.

Ironically, special teams actually saved us this week. Suisham was 4/5 and 1 extra point for a total of 13 points. Santana Moss returned a punt for 6 bringing the special teams point total to 19.

The offense scored one (1) TD and we tried a 2 pt conversion. Not sure why we did that and it was unsuccessful. When these work, coach = genius, when they don't, not so much.

While it wasn't a "blowout" by any stretch of the imagination, we piled up yards and stats to beat the band:

  • Total Net yards - 439
  • Time of Possession - 35:45
  • Portis - 24 carries for 126 yds 0 TD
  • Campbell - 23/28 for 328 yds and 1 TD and 0 INT's
  • Moss - 9 catches for 140 yds 1 TD
  • Cooley - 6 catches for 74 yds
  • Randel El - 3 catches for 47 yds

Yoder, Thrash, Portis, Thomas and Alexander all had 1 catch. So the ball was spread around pretty well.

A 'W' is a 'W' and that's what's important. We're 6-2 midway the season. A nice feeling and a sense of pride because it was more than anyone expected.

I'd like to see a few of the FG's be TD's, a few defensive turnovers would be nice along with some pressure on the opposing team's QB. My list isn't too "pie in the sky" as far as I'm concerned. What does concern me however, is the fact that we're moving into the back end of the schedule and we have some pretty decent teams yet to face. We're going to need more points to defeat the likes of Pittsburgh, New York, Dallas and Philly.

Let's hope they get if figured out before the Steel curtain(old skool alert) comes to town.

Hail.

Monday, October 20, 2008

Dawg Day Afternoon

--Week 7
Skins vs Browns
Mirage. Fluke. Optical illusion. All words that could be used to describe what happened last Monday(Oct. 13th) when the Browns handed the Giants a sound whipping.
After seeing with mine own eyes, the juggernaut that was supposed to be Cleveland, I thought, "how did they pull that off?", "Evidently the Giants were asleep at the switch."
Another Sunday was upon Redskins Nation. I felt strangely detached from this upcoming game for some reason. Not really sure of a win but not really thinking we'd lose either. After all, the Browns had just put a beat down on the defending Super Bowl champs less than a week ago.
Dread was lying deep within my belly, stirring up the acids into overdrive. I tried to go about my business like nothing important was on the horizon but my heart knew better.
10:45am -- Went to church with very little sense of urgency about me. A late game makes for a leisurely trip to the House and back. Plenty of time to mingle and actually listen to folks as they chat it up.
1:30pm -- Home. I pick out the clothes that will be worn for battle(Cooley storm jersey, gray Skins sweatpants, gray Skins hat, and gray and white Nike's). Cooked up some cheddar cheese melt Hamburger Helper (not bad...a trip down the palatable memory highway). Served it with mashed potatoes(homemade tyvm! I'm a southern gal what can I say?) and biscuits(canned..I just can't get the homemade version of these down). Rib sticking good!
2:00pm -- Enjoying the happenings around the league. St. Louis is beating Dallas to the tune of 21 - 7 at the half! That's always a pick me up for a Skins fan.
2:30pm -- Ran out of the front door as my across the street neighbor motors up to his driveway(He's a Cowboy fan). I seize the moment! I can't help myself. I say, "How bout dem cowboys?"
"Shut up" he says. I wave him off as the bandwagon fan that he is. A half hour later he's knocking on my front door saying and I quote, "you know your team is playing bad when they switch to another game in the middle." "Welcome to mediocre football", I say. He leaves with his tail tucked between his legs. Top o' the world Ma! Top o' the world!
3:15pm -- I throw on the battle gear, jump into the Escort, start my journey to my Sunday home, my b-i-l Andrew's house.
3:45pm -- The gang's all here! We're ready for a rebound! Let's beat those Browns!
4:15pm -- We have lift off! We kick. That means getting the ball to start the 2nd half. YAY! That's a plus for me!
5:30pm -- Halftime! FINALLY! I think I may have dozed a few times! It was like watching a tennis match. Back & forth...back & forth. "No, you take it...No...you take it". Lots of punts by both teams. On a positive note, that enabled the Skins to get a gander at the leg of our newly acquired punter. A 240 lb bruiser of a punter. Not a bad performance considering he was signed less than a week before this game.
We even got treated to seeing Shaun Alexander 2.0. Seemed funny seeing him in the burgundy and gold. Odd to cheer for someone that I've always hoped would fail during our games.
2nd Half -- We finally show some signs of having a pulse. Clinton Portis, again does what is quickly becoming a habit for him. Another 100 + yard game. (175 yds on 27 carries, 1 TD). He, unfortunately, coughed up the ball at the worse possible moment in the game but I gave him a pass for that because 1) we won, 2) the guy stripped him from behind while trying to get extra yardage. Not much you can do to prevent that.
Campbell had a pretty decent game once again. Solid. No picks or fumble from him yet. He's in record setting territory here. Spreading the ball around ensured Randal El, Cooley and Moss each having 4 catches for a combined 163 yds. Getting Moss involved again proved to be the icing on the proverbial cake. He moved after the catches very well and was rewarded with a TD that ultimately won the game.
London Fletcher = tackling machine! (7 tackles) 'Nuff said!
Defense played a great game! Holding Cleveland to no touchdowns until the 4th quarter.
Carlos Rogers laid the smacketh down. Horton still looks amazing living up to his nickname, "The Predator". That is no optical illusion for sure. The goal line stance was amazing. They gained a lot of respect with that series. If not for the untimely Portis fumble, the defense would not have given up a touchdown again this week. But with mistakes comes payment. The Browns scored and then got 2 on the subsequent conversion. Can we expect them to hold everything? Yes..can they? No. As good as they are...they're only human. Well , except for Horton and Fletcher that is.
Special teams still need work. Randel El isn't the answer on returning punts. And our coverage needs to be better.
For the first time in a while, we actually had to sit on the edge of the sofa, hoping the Browns would be...well...the Browns. They took one last gasp of O2 and tried to kick a 54 yd field goal to send the game in to OT.
The Browns are who we thought they were! Derek Anderson missed receiver after receiver after receiver. His numbers told the tale: 14/37 for 136 yds and 1 TD. Jamaal Lewis was their only bright spot on offense and even then you had to squint to see it. He had 80 yds on 19 carries. It made for a long afternoon for Browns fans I'm sure.
7:00pm -- The End! Redskins seal a win to improve to 5-2 overall. We high five all around and are glad that we rebounded from last week. We relax and eat some pizza. We get ready for football night in America. We laugh a lot at Dallas getting beat and now don't feel so bad that we lost by 2 to the same team that just rolled over them 34-14. The Rams winning in that way makes the blow to our egos a little softer.
We start to think ahead to next week and decide that's best left for another day. We bask in the afterglow of taking the #2 spot in the NFCE, just ahead of the 4-3 Cowboys.
HOW SWEET IT IS!

Monday, October 13, 2008

Body Snatchers

Skins vs Rams
Week 6
All NFL fans experience this phenomena at some point in their "fandom". some teams' fans experience it more often and for longer period of times than others.
As a Redskins fan, this phenomena has been "how we roll" for more years than I care to admit.
Let me clarify the "Body Snatcher" experience. This occurs when a team takes the field on any given Sunday and looks nothing like the team they were the week before. Sometimes it's a good thing...sometimes not.
This phenomena reared it's ugly head in DC Sunday. The win less Rams came to town to face a high stepping, chest thumping, Redskins team that had beaten 2 divisional opponents in their stadiums on back to back Sundays. Unbelievable!
Now the history of this team suggests that at no time should they ever "overlook" an opponent at any time. But most of us, I think based on the previous 4 games, thought that the Redskins would win this game. We had played with an intensity not seen in quite some time around these parts. But the team that took the field Sunday looked entirely different from the team that had beaten Dallas and then turned around and handed it to Philly.
Flat. No fire. No expectation of winning. Could they have actually bought into the media hype? Did they actually look past an 0-4 Rams team? Several things occurred here.
  1. Butterfingers --(Not the candy bar.) Turnovers were the order of the day. 3 fumbles in the 1st half. After 5 weeks of no offensive turnovers, the Redskins committed 3 in the 1st half. Cooley, Kendall, and Rabach/Campbell all coughed up the ball. Kendall's was definitely the most costly as the Rams scored their only TD after returning that fumble 75yds.
  2. Dropsy -- Too many dropped passes on the offensive side of the ball + 2 dropped INT's by the defensive side = here a drop, there a drop, everywhere a drop drop.
  3. Punting -- Bring the punter, he'll do what we need him to do. Oh wait that was another season. I will admit that I thought Brooks was the real deal after seeing him boot that ball during training camp(I know...it was training camp..but still). But he has yet to "get 'er going". And from the rumblings out in cyberspace, Mr. Brooks(not the movie)may be sent on his merry way. We still need improvements on kick coverage and field position.

We took some dings to our egos and to our personnel. The knees have it with Betts, Samuels and Thrash respectively, sustaining injuries. A groin strain to Smoot(SMOOOOOOOOOT!..I love his name) and an ankle strain to Horton<gasp>.

So when you really look at everything and realize these guys are the actually the same people as last week, what does that leave you with? A team that has a virgin head coach with his own brand and style of coaching, players that looked as if their reserve tanks had been emptied the previous weeks and fans that crashed back down to earth in .623 seconds.

Does this mean this team is done? Is this the beginning of the so-called end? I think not! It is what it is. A loss. The fact is that if we had taken a loss in Dallas or in Philly there wouldn't have been so much as a passing glance in our direction by the powers that be. There would be no fan meltdown or disappointment. But when you are flying as high as we were prior to Sunday's shenanigans, it's a big, belly whopper of a return to planet earth.

The measure of this team will be how it responds to this adversity. If this is what I think it is then next week we'll return to "pre-Ram" form against the Browns. Thank God the Browns have 1 win.

Fight on Sons of Waaash-ing--ton! Rah Rah Rah!

Friday, October 10, 2008

In the Rearview Mirror

I remember, as a kid riding in our car to see relatives, asking my Dad, "why do you keep looking in the rear view mirror?". He answered, "so I can see where we've been". As a long time Redskins fan, I have a tendency to glance in that mirror from time to time. Hoping the past is getting further and further in the distance as they try to get themselves to the top of the NFL heap. I get struck by the view in that mirror when this team plays well enough to attract national attention. Will it be "Ground Hog Day" yet again? This team I love, back in the day, was always in the headlines. I am lucky enough to have witnessed the 3 Super Bowl victories and the numerous playoff runs that seemed unending to a kid like me. Those were the good ol' days. But every since that glorious 1991 season, this team has been nothing more than a spoiler for the most part. Players came and went, coaches came and went and fans even came and went. No one was left but those of us often referred to as "diehards". Kick us when we're up, kick us when we're down. We'll still keep coming back for more. Year after year, season after season. We can't change. It's who we are. Redskins fans! We got used to being disrespected. We expected to lose games that we were supposed to win. We accepted mediocrity as a way of life. Sometimes embracing a 9-7 record with the excitement of a kid at Christmas time. We clung to any signs of improvement as if our very lives depended on it, only to be plunged back into the abyss by the lowliest of teams that were on our schedules. But as of late, I've sat in the living room of my favorite in-laws' house and watched my beloved team start to resemble my beloved team of days gone by, it suddenly occurs to me that I've become timid in my "fandom". I've gotten excited numerous times before and suffered for it. After being bitten by a dog so many times, you learn to tip toe around it to get where you're going. While I watched this team poke holes in "America's Team", I realized that I don't like what I've become. Afraid to believe, afraid to talk trash! I find myself almost wanting to push success away for fear of failure. The "hair of the dog" remedy has repeatedly failed me over the years. I could hardly believe what I saw 2 weeks ago in Texas. I certainly couldn't convince myself that we would cruise into Philly and pull the rug out from under McNabb & Co. But we did it! Then came all of the "what if's": "What if...Shaun Suisham had missed those field goals?", "What if ....Cooley had dropped that pass thrown to him by Antwaan Randel El?" STOP IT!, I tell myself. Just stop it! You've waited all these years for this and now you won't allow yourself to enjoy it! The play calling, the execution, the determination, the tenacity have all come together to make the Redskin faithful downright giddy and confident. All of the pieces have fallen in to place thus far. Just like the movie of the same title, "The Perfect Storm", all of the elements necessary for doling out devastation to other teams have manifested in this team at this moment. But will it last? Can it last? History dictates to this Redskins fan to say a resounding "NO!". So forgive me when this team rushes out of the gate and takes the NFL by storm and I say, "Hold on a minute". I temper my excitement because of what I see when I look into the rear view mirror. I must let go of these images that keep cropping up in my mind's eye. I must reach out and grab the prize while the grabbing is good or I'll miss the most excitement this team has dished out in years. Let's not miss what's in front of us because we're looking at where we've been. Let's embrace this new "Zorn'd out" team with it's new found confidence and old skool swagger! Since we're the most loyal fan base in the NFL, we deserve a season like this. It's the price we pay to wear the B&G! Good or bad, win or lose, I am a Redskins fan. No pain..no gain. HTTR! (But let's not get too cocky..it's bad karma!) 35-14 Redskins over the Rams! Can you say 5-1? Hail!

Monday, October 6, 2008

A Bird in the Hand....

Week 5
Skins at Philly
After many years of frustration, impossible losses, penalties at critical times, etc. etc., a Redskins fan can sometimes be hesitant to take that leap. You know, the leap that allows you to believe that the team you've loved for so long, has finally, seemingly started to click on all cylinders. We were coming off of the high of beating "America's Ho's"(did I just type that?) in their backyard. We all heard the dismissiveness from all of the "ho" fans: "You only won by 2 points", "you guys cheated", "you got lucky", blah blah blah. I sat and watched that game. Saw every down, every pass, every score! Celebrated with my fellow skins fans. Pranced around all week, waiting, wishing, wanting a Cowboy fan, any Cowboy fan, to approach me and say something stupid(and they inevitably did). After that game, the family and I talked about how cool it would be to go into Philly this coming week and steal this game. How awesome would that be? VERY AWESOME! We all agreed. But years of being conditioned by this team to not take anything for granted, I couldn't bring myself to actually even fathom that a win in Philly was remotely possible. I couldn't even allow myself to think it much less believe it! Hoped it could happen. Wanted it to happen but not actually believe it! Not in my Redskins scarred heart! So...I wake up Sunday morning feeling excited but scared. Waiting for that other shoe to drop. For the Redskins of 2007 to somehow resurrect themselves in the bodies of the 2008 Redskins. I go to church...say a prayer for them (yes..I pray for them), leave early, rush home, change clothes (attire for the day: Redskins baseball jersey, Redskins shorts, new $5 Wal Mart Skins hat, new reebok Skins socks and my ever present Skins clogs), gave my hubby his lunch (BBQ chicken, mac & cheese and biscuits), ran out the front door, set out for the in-law's house. Got caught in some kind of traffic jam. Got upset because I didn't know what the hold up was and got to the in-law's and they're not home! YES...NOT HOME! What kind of jack legged set up was this? I text him and he said.."I'm on the way". So I waited for the hosts and it got a little warm..so I ran over to the local drug store to get an iced tea (Gold peak...sweet w/no lemon..this is good bottled tea), turned on the radio upon returning to the parking lot, ate some peanuts, got out the Redskins camping chair and had a mini, solo tailgate. That's the way you improvise if you're a real fan! It was fun..even if I was all by myself. I could have stayed there for the remainder of the game. FLASHBACKS - The first 5 or so minutes of this game had me reeling back to those days of yore and by yore I mean last season. Playing lights out one week , playing in the dipsy dumpster the next. 14 - 0 right out of the gate! But wait! What is this funny feeling I'm having? There's no gastric upset, there's no gnashing of teeth, no feeling of doom. I have a vision. A vision of a world with no panic. I'm calm and cool and hear myself say, out loud mind you, "it's early yet, 1st quarter, we have time". As soon as I said it, I looked around to see who said it. 2nd quarter - Things began to look a little better. "We can still pull this out" I hear myself say. Half time - The first half went by so quickly. 3 field goals..uuuggghhh! 14 - 9. Within reach. Not bad. 3rd quarter - Wow! Wow! Wow! 4th quarter - Wish we could have scored a few more TD's. But the bad guys never got a chance to make a run for it. We didn't allow them back on the field. We took over with a little over 7 minutes on the clock and ran it out. 4th & 1 - got it! I liked it! The whole team, with a few exceptions here and there, played very well. We have ourselves a real football team here ladies and gents! It felt good! It felt invigorating! Free to believe in this team again. To allow myself to believe the dream that I thought was still a few seasons away. They're impressing everyone with their confidence, composure and execution. Good, solid football is what I'm seeing. Get punt coverage beefed a little, get the punter to kick it up a notch, give Randel-El some sticky for his hands and we'll be set! So what did we learn from this game? Let me tell you what I learned. WHEN YOU HAVE A BIRD IN THE HAND....YOU CRUSH IT! Especially when it's of the Philly variety. 4-1, back home to face the lowly Rams. Can we look ahead yet? Ummmm ....no! Old habits are hard to break.