It Was Ugly But, A Win Is A Win

The Washington Redskins have to be one of the luckiest teams in America. There is no way they should have left Tennessee Sunday with a win. But, some how, some way, they pulled it off and came away with a 19-16 Overtime win versus a very good Tennessee Titans team led by Vince Young and Chris Johnson. The AFC South has to be one of the toughest division in the NFL and the NFC East has been struggling against them. But Washington and Lady Luck showed up in Nashville Sunday to snatch victory from the jaws of defeat, thanks in part to the Redskins Defense who has showed up more times than not and, they did it again this past Sunday.

Let’s get one thing straight, Tennessee is a very good team led by Vince Young who looked good for the most part Sunday, Chris Johnson who is a TD just waiting to happen on every play, Kenny Britt who was injured and couldn’t play and Randy Moss who the Redskins took away from the Titans Sunday. Give that team some time to gel and we could be easily looking at the AFC Conference Champions. With all of that being said, Washington did a great job of keeping that potent Offense off of the field, but sustaining drives and running the ball. Washington dominated the clock with Time of Possession (T.O.P.) 40:09 to 26:34. Usually when your opponents have the ball almost twice the amount of time that you’ve had it, the results are not good. And although Chris Johnson had 130 yards on 21 carries, he never once crossed the goal line. How many teams can say that? The Redskins fought like a team clinging to their Playoff hopes. But even though the Redskins won, they lost a lot of players.

In all seven players were either hurt or injured. Derrick Dockery, Casey Rabach, Clinton Portis, Rocky McIntosh, Kedrick Golston and Anderson Russell who started in place of the injured LaRon Landry were among the players who left the game with various injuries. There is a concern about the long term affects of Sunday's game. LaRon Landry, Ryan Torain and Carlos Rogers were already hurt going into Sunday's game and one can only hope to have them return by next week. The one thing that Washington has been able to do is avoid the injury bug. Well, it bit the hell out of them Sunday and they were still able to win. The sad thing is Vince Young seems to be trudging down the same winding road that Redskins’ QB Donovan McNabb had to go down.  And it looks like his ride will be a bit more bumpy than Donovan McNabb’s.

Vince Young will never be appreciated for what he brings to the table in Tennessee. It was just last season in which the Titans started 0-6. Insert Vince Young, the Titans finish 8-8 and one game out of the Playoffs. Right now the Titans are in the thick of the AFC South divisional race and Young has played well for the most party. He struggled against the Redskins and was greeted with a course of boos from the home crowd. I guess people thought that the Redskins’ Defense wasn’t good. Well I don’t know what tape they were watching but this Redskins Defense, talent wise, can swing with any team in the NFL. And certainly one game should not be an indictment on the young man, but I’ve come to realize that there are a different set of rules as it relates to Black QB’s. Just ask Donovan McNabb.

It was just three weeks ago, the “experts” had Donovan on his way out of D.C. and suiting up for either the Minnesota Vikings or the Arizona Cardinals. The Chicago Bears were even thrown around for good measure. Then a funny thing happened on the way to the stadium for Donovan last week. He signs a 5-year, $78 Million contract. Now some speculate as to the terms of the contract and how the Redskins can get out of it with minimal risk(s). But with all of that being said, it says something about their plans for Donovan McNabb. A guy who was never really appreciated by the “experts,” and even some Eagles fans. But I’ll tell you one thing, McNabb finds ways to win games. He doesn’t get style points for pretty wins, but he does win. Brett Favre gets a free pass for a lot of things, but let’s not act like Brett has as many rings as Tom Brady. Brady, in my opinion, should be the standard for QB’s. He just wins games, and Super Bowls. Granted Brady is 3-1 in Super Bowls, but that is 4 Super Bowl appearances in 10 years. Peyton “the Great” has only 2 appearances in his 13 years, and one win, and Brett has 2 appearances but both were over 10 years. In a league that asks, “What have you done for me lately,” how is it that Favre gets a free pass? McNabb, with very little talent around him for the most part, has 5 NFC Championship appearances, one NFC Championship and Super Bowl appearance, just never seems to do enough. But after watching him in Tennessee this past Sunday, I’ll take a guy that wins games any day of the week over a guy with records. Because at the end of the day, and a career, people only remember Champions, and if McNabb can win one Super Bowl before he retires, should he not be mentioned with the Manning’s (both Eli And Peyton), the Favre’s, the Marino’s, the Kelly’s, and the Tarkenton’s?