Vision Quest: Uh Uh UH UH Staying Alive, Staying Alive

The Redskin did their best to stay alive in the playoff race, dismantling the hapless St. Louis Rams 24-9. And with Atlanta and Dallas losing, the playoff picture looks a little brighter for the Redskins. But before we start telling the wives we will be unavailable for anything the weekend of January 7-8 a little dose of reality is in order.

This is not the 2000 Rams. Far from it in fact. Their Head Coach, Mike Martz, has been sidelined by heart problems. Their Quarterback Marc Bulger, did not play. Marshall Faulk is now a situational role player. And the Defense has more holes in it then Mexican border. And while losses by Atlanta and Dallas help, we still trail every wild card contender by one game and the NY Giants and Tampa Bay by two. We could still win every one of our remaining four games, by no means a certainty, and not make the playoffs.

We still need help. But the Football Gods help those that help themselves.



And that is what the Redskins did on Sunday. Clinton Portis helped himself to 136 yards rushing and 2 TDs and Rock Cartwright took another 118 yards on only 9 carries. Mark Brunell pitched in for 156 yards passing and a nice TD to Cooley. The Redskins helped themselves to a win and kept their playoff chances alive.

As I was looking over the NFC standings to see where the Redskins stood in the playoff race. I noticed something odd. After 12 games and 13 weeks in the NFL season the Redskins stand at 6-6. The odd thing is that they are the only team in the NFL that has achieved that level of mediocrity. Usually by now teams start defining themselves. There are good teams contending for the playoffs, there are bad teams sliding their way down to the Reggie Bush sweepstake.

And then there are the Redskins.

The Redskins have the talent to be good. And despite having 6 losses, they really have only been beaten once. That was the 36-0 throttling the Giants put on us that put a blunt end to our promising 5-2 start. Some could make a case that the Giants were playing with high emotion because of the loss of their owner and the score could have been closer. Maybe that is true, but the Giants were the first to figure out the right combination to stop the offense cold. They beat us fair and square.

The other losses are a mix of turnovers, bad decisions, and even referee error. So on one hand that is a positive thing the redskins can build from. If they could just turn it on there is no reason the Redskins can’t run the table and win out. Their victory in St. Louis shows that (btw our first road victory I must point out). A willingness to commit to the run early and often and an ability to stick with it throughout the whole game. This was a very positive first step.

Up next we have the Arizona Cardinals. Don’t chalk this up as an easy win. The redskins have proven that they find ways to pull defeat from the jaws of victories against Tampa, Oakland, and San Diego this year. And injuries are piling up, with Moss, Lavar, and Thrash still hurt and uncertain for Sunday. One could make an argument that those three are the MVPs for the offense, defense, and special teams respectively.

Arizona will almost assuredly rely on its passing game. They have two big physical wide receivers that excel in yards after the catch. Tackling has been a problem for Washington, until last week where they limited St. Louis to just 9 YAC. Arizona will not run the ball often and when they do the Redskins should stop them pretty effectively. But again it will come down to pressuring the passer, something we did effectively last week, but our Achilles heel all year.

Make no mistake about it, this is a must win for the Redskins. Although I do believe that a 9-7 team can make the playoffs in the NFC this year, it is no where near a certainty. With two tough games on the horizon in a revenge seeking Dallas and the same Giants that pummeled us earlier, we need this one. Kurt Warner must go down, and he must go down hard.

I just hope the Redskins don’t fall victim to Bird Flu.

With a Little Help From Our Friends.

In honor of the 25th Anniversary of John Lennon’s death I give you our playoff hopes rooting card:

St. Louis at Minnesota. A different St. Louis team better show up then showed up last week versus us. However Minnesota’s defense is not the Redskins D. Minnesota’s bubble has to pop sometime. Go St. Louis!!

Tampa Bay at Carolina. A win by Tampa will virtually assure that they will at least take one of the Wild Card spots and give them a chance at the NFC South. A win by Carolina will virtually lock up their hold on the NFC South and make Tampa vulnerable. This is easy, GO Carolina!!!

NY Giants at Philadelphia. God I hate rooting for Philly. However I really hate rooting for Philly when there is no chance they will help us out. No Donovan, No TO, No Westbrook, No chance. But I will still root for Philly, but I won’t pretend they have a prayer. Go Philly, I guess.

Kansas City at Dallas. Aieeee!!! I say Aieeee!! This war cry goes out to our Indian brothers at KC. KC needs to win this game to keep pace in the AFC wildcard race and that is bad news for Dallas. Dallas’s last stand comes next week, but perhaps KC can be the Sioux to our Cheyenne and end Dallas’s playoff chances over the next two weeks. Go Chiefs!!!

New Orleans at Atlanta. Man what I would give to be in the South and be able to play New Orleans twice in one season. Once would have been good as well. Vick will probably rebound and play very well on the NFL orphans. But maybe just maybe the Saints can provide some heavenly intervention. Go Saints!!

We don’t need all these match-ups to turn out our way but at least 2 or 3 have to go our way along with us winning to make the final three weeks more then just implausible scenarios.

Hail Redskins!!!!