Vision Quest: Bring on Seattle!!!

The Redskins barely escaped with their playoff lives on Saturday and live to fight another day. The media and much of the NFL are in a virtual frenzy focusing on the lack of production by our offense, a measly 125 yards. Or they are focused on the phantom spit of Sean Taylor and the resulting 17K fine. And if those two things did not garner their attention they most likely were finding ways to coronate the Seahawks and wonder if they can beat any team in the AFC.

Not so fast there guys, the Redskins are coming to town.

For the life of me I can’t understand why the Redskins are not getting more respect for the upcoming game. I will grant you that one of the reasons is the nature of our win in Tampa. It was Ugly. “U-G-L-Y you ain’t got no alibi your ugly” ugly. The game was so ugly; Mike Tice was watching the game and said “Damn that was Ugly. Hey Smoot you still glad you came to Minnesota?” Fred just swore at him and went to the harbor, but before he left he eluded the deputies assigned to monitor him by clever use of a twig and a Viking’s helmet.

(Speaking of Ugly did you see the NY Giants loss to Carolina? Now that was ugly. Don’t get me wrong, Eli Manning is going to be a very good quarterback, someday. That day though was not on Sunday. What an implosion to close a season. Remember they should have lost that game to Oakland if Norv wasn’t coaching the other team. Combine that with the loss to us and to Carolina and you have a massive slide at the end of the season. Coaching is to blame for the slide for sure, but the players are to blame for giving up 300+ yards rushing to Carolina’s 2 BACKUP running backs.)

On one hand you can’t blame the self-appointed authorities in the media. The Seahawks are a very good team. They have the league MVP in Shawn Alexander who broke the league record for rushing TDs and led the league in rushing yards. They have an improved passing attack and a mature quarterback in Matt Hasslebeck. They finished the season by winning 11 of their last 12 as well as going a perfect 8-0 at home. In fact after the Redskins beat them this year they went and rattled off 11 straight victories only losing a meaningless game against Green Bay.

However the pundits are ignoring one single fact: we did beat them already this year.

They excuse that win of course with every reason they can think of. It was only week 4 of the season. The FG attempt hit the upright. The Seahawks are a better team now. The Seahawks have 13 wins, tied for best in the NFL and best in the NFC. The Redskins have no offense. The first game was at Fed Ex while this on is at the Seahawks home that they are 8-0 at. The Redskins are banged up and their streak must end. Seattle is rested and the Redskins are hurt.

If I wanted to write an article battling each one of these arguments, I could. I could point out that though it was just week 4 of the season every game is important. I could point out that the only way the Seahawks got to attempt to that last FG was because of a fluke off interception that bounced off of Portis’ hands. I could point out that the Redskins are a better team as well, and last time played Seattle without Lavar and Sean Taylor went down early to injury. I could point out that the 13 wins that the Seahawks are so proud of 9 of those games came against teams the Redskins have also beaten (St. Louis twice, San Fran twice, Arizona twice, NY Giants, Philadelphia, & Dallas).

In fact the only teams with a winning record that Seattle has beaten are Dallas who did not make the playoffs, the NY Giants who got beaten badly in the playoffs, and the Indianapolis Colts who were barely playing their 2nd stringers let alone 1st stringers. I could point out that the home field advantage meant nothing in the first round of the playoffs, ask the Giants. I could point out that the Redskin offense played against the #1 defense in the league and the offense has bounced back from miserable performances all year long to put up a large amount of points the next week. Lastly, I could point out that the Seahawks have not played a meaningful game against a talented opponent in almost two months while the Redskins have been in playoff mode during the same amount of time.

I could do all that but why bother. The league and the media will continually underestimate this team I have come to love and care about. No one gave us a chance against St. Louis, but we won. While we were the favorite in AZ, the media all lined up behind the Cowboys the following week. They were sure that is where the streak would end. But after we scalped them 35-7 they were then sure that the Skins would fall to the Eli and the Giants. After we smacked them around many still thought we would let down and lose in Philadelphia with the playoffs on the line. Then they were sure we would fall to Tampa Bay as we were lucky to even get into the playoffs.

For 6 games now the Redskins have fought hard in their quest to extend their season. They have left it all on the field of play, quite literally. Each of the wins has exacted a price. The Arizona game saw the end of the season for Robert Johnson, a young up and coming TE. Carlos Rogers hurt himself playing in Arizona causing him to miss the rest of then regular season. In the Dallas game our best offensive lineman Randy Thomas broke his leg, ending his season. The NY Giants came to town and Chris Clemons, our best 3rd down rusher, sprained his knee also ending his season. .In Philadelphia Shawn Springs re-injured his groin and missed the Tampa game. Lastly in Tampa, Renaldo Wynn, a force against the run, broke his arm ending his season.

But in each case someone stepped in to fill the void. Robert Royal had some of the best games of the year down the stretch making up for the lack of depth at TE. Walt Harris stopped playing 15 yard cushions and arm tackling and turned into a dependable corner when Rogers went down. Ancient Ray Brown has stepped in and helped pound the ball while Thomas cheers from the sideline. Phillip Daniels has turned into a sack machine now that Clemons is not able to come in for him. Carlos Rogers came back just in time and played the game of his life against Tampa Bay while Springs was out. Demetric Evans came in and had solid run support in the loss of Renaldo Wynn.


I said all season long that this is the first real team the Redskins have seen since Gibbs 1.0. And evidence of it is starting to show. After the Tampa and Philadelphia wins the players sought out Coach Gibbs to congratulate him. Fans spontaneously showed up at Fed Ex field at 3 in the morning to welcome the team back from its victory and players like Lavar Arrington stayed late to sign the autographs and give high fives to the jubilant crowd. No excuses are made and no fingers are pointed. If the Defense needs to win a game, they will. If we need a little more offense to get it done, we do that as well.

This sense of team can only come from the top down. Joe Gibbs has brought the best out of everyone, including owner Dan Snyder. When Renaldo Wynn went down with the broken arm he stayed in the Tampa locker room to watch the end of the Buccaneers game. After the game was over Dan Snyder’s wife, Tanya, escorted Wynn to a Tampa hospital to get it repaired immediately. Not finding a surgeon in Tampa qualified enough to do the surgery she called her husband. Dan arranged for Wynn, him, and his wife to use Redskin One, Dan’s private jet, and fly back to DC where his wife once again escorted him to the hospital and stayed for the surgery.

This team has faced adversity at every turn. And now they have to travel halfway across the country to play the number one team in the league. They must face down the league MVP and are a nine point underdog according to Vegas. No pundit is saying we can win this game. No one believes in this team.

Except for us, the Redskin Faithful. Except for the players, who want to win more then they need respect. And except for Joe Gibbs, who is chasing immortality.

And that is all the Redskins need.

Hail to the Redskins!!!!