NFC East Update (October 12, 2004)

Now if you're a Redskins' fan, you gotta figure, Sunday night, at the half, you're feeling pretty good about things. Okay, Baltimore ain't too good on offense, but the 'skins defense looks fairly strong- playing for once with alacrity and passion (hmmmm..... am I the only one that thinks the skins' look an awful more disciplined on defense without Arrington being able to free-lance all over the place). And yeah, okay, the Redskins' offense is horrible, but God bless'em, they punched it in when they had a chance. That's 10 points for the "O" at the half- add another potential ten in the second half- and this is an impressive 20-6 or so win against a Ravens football team no one would be surprised make the play-offs. Your mind fitfully wanders.... win this one and I know our "D" can handle the mess the Bears call an offense next week. That gets the men to 3-3.

We can make a run from 3-3! We have Gibbs after all!

But this is Washington- and has ill-disciplined losing oh so deeply ingrained in them. Couldn't you almost see the resultant fumble and return for a touchdown as Brunell ran for his life. Yo! Mark! This is the National Football League- or "NFL" for short. If you are running from blind-side pressure, you first priority is protect the football- not try to throw some pass that probably has no chance to be caught anyway. You are a veteran for crying out loud. I mean, we can maybe survive your grotesque 13-for-29 for 83 yards- but we certainly cannot have idiotic turnovers. Right Mark? Isn't Portis putting the ball on the ground enough just by himself?

Then throw in the traditional semi-monthly kicking play disaster, and all ingredients are in place for yet another crushing home loss.

The coach, yet again this week, bluntly deserves a lot of blame. On that kick return you can watch the Redskins blow containment after that rather weak fake. Again, blowing coverage lanes stops being excusable on a team around about, oh say, varsity high school football. I shudder to think of my titanic furor had that happened at Queen Of Peace. And what is with this offense? There are clearly some talent issues here, but the skill position players ought not to be this bad. Seriously, I am this close to taking it upon myself to fly to Washington and call Portis out- particularly since no one in Washington seems to have the guts to. Seriously, it is embarrassing our precious League- and I will not stand for it.

It was Gibbs himself who pointed to Brunell and said pay this guy $20 million over the next two years. Gibbs definitely pulled the trigger on Portis- who unequivocally really hasn’t been good. You can hear the rumblings that he was a product of that great tailback producing system in Denver- and nothing more- and the great Joe Gibbs got taken. They even gave up an extra draft pick. Shudder.

But hey, this is Washington, where there has been zero accountability demanded by both the fans and organization for a long time. Another stupid loss and another week with zero changes. Would it kill Gibbs to waive a guy on that punt coverage team for example- to drive some sense of on-field responsibility into these guys? But no. The same losers will be rolled out there for seemingly 100th Sunday in a row in Chicago- where they will in all probability lose again to a bad Bears team they ought to whip.