Close... But No Cigar!!

It wasn’t easy to watch, but the Redskins put up a fight Sunday against the Eagles in a losing effort, 27-24. I still stand by what I said earlier, in that we have an 10-11 win team. But, when you have Albert Haynesworth, Clinton Portis, DeAngelo Hall, Jeremy Jarmon, Chad Rinehart, Mike Williams, Chris Cooley, Ladell Betts, Chris Samuels, Randy Thomas and even Mike Sellers either get hurt was already hurt coming into the game, you are going to have some problems. It would be en vogue to blame the owner, blame the playcalling, blame the GM and blame certain players, but we are supposed to have enough veteran leadership to counter all of that.

I have watched our Defense, which was ranked in the top 5 going into yesterday’s game, have communication breakdowns, resulting in long TD catches. DeSean Jackson got loose again yesterday. You can’t blame Carlos Rogers for that one folks. It is funny though. People who claim to know football can’t really explain what happened on those long TD’s. I don’t claim to be an expert so I wait for explanations on certain things before I open my mouth. And yesterday’s long TD catch by DeSean Jackson looked like, and for the most part, sounded like there was a breakdown in communication again. I couldn’t really tell if we were supposed to be in Man or Zone. Anyone care to chime in and let me know what the assignments were? I would like to know. In the meantime, I will tip my hat to Donovan McNabb, again.

I know people don’t like him. I know people don’t think that he is smart. I know people think that he is not accurate. I know people think that he is not a Franchise QB. I know people think that he needs to run more. I know people want him to sit in the pocket more. But what people don’t know is that I would like you all to SHUT UP!!!! Donovan wins games, PERIOD!!! I have never in all of my 25 years of watching football heard one player get scrutinized more than Donovan McNabb. Michael Vick and Vince Young gets scrutinized just as much, but not more. I’ll say it again. Philly is still missing key pieces of their team in TE Cornelius Ingram, and LB Stewart Bradley. This is one dangerous team. But the guy that is running the show, who finally has enough talent around him to make some noise is Donovan. I am not going to take away from his win yesterday by saying we gave them the game. Donovan did what he needed to do to win the game. If this were Tom Brady, Carson Palmer, Phillip Rivers, Eli Manning or Peyton Manning, they would be getting praised so I am praising Donovan McNabb.

Yesterday’s game shed light on a lot of things. First of all, Jason Campbell should have received a Roughing The Passer penalty call on the last Redskins' play. Had that been Tom Brady or Peyton Manning they would have made that call. And don’t anyone dispute it, because we watched a guy trip near Tom Brady, not even touch him, and get called for Roughing The Passer. Jason Campbell got slammed, what’s the excuse? But I digress. As bad as everyone claims the Redskins are, they have not been getting blown out of games. People are asking for Washington to be competitive, and for the most part they are. This team has a lot of heart. I have only been frustrated with Washington one time in all of my years of watching football and it was the 1993 season where I felt we underachieved big time. I feel that if we can re-sign Jason Campbell, draft a Left Tackle, draft a Free Safety (moving LaRon back to his "natural" position), sign/draft a CB, sign/draft a backup QB, use Ladell Betts a bit more, higher a new GM and keep the coaching staff in place, we, again, have an 11-win team on our hands. I know everyone disagrees, but riddle me this. Aren’t the Tennessee Titans the same team that went 13-3 last year? The only person that they lost was Albert Haynesworth. Are you going to tell me that the Titans have more talent than the Redskins? If so, why are the Titans 5-6? What changed? Could it be that the QB that they were looking for was one that was already on the roster? Just something to think about. For right now, the Redskins are 3-8, but I am going to say it again, this is not a 3-8 team by any stretch. Keep your head up fellas.