Vision Quest: Dear Santa

(I did not have time to write an article this week, so instead I am submitting a letter to Santa from my imaginary 5 year old son Timmy. Enjoy.)

Dear Santa,

My name is Timmy and I live in Syracuse, NY. I am 5 years old and like dogs, trucks, and of course football. You see football has been pounded into me by my sometimes overbearing father. Actually he is a very nice guy most of the time. You would like him; you both are jolly and probably shop in the same clothing stores. In fact maybe you could go shopping together; however the two of you won’t fit in our Toyota Camry so bring your sleigh.

Anyways I am actually writing you in hopes you can give my Dad something to make him happy on Sundays. Since you are a Redskin fan (I am assuming with the colors of your suit you are) you have noticed that the Redskins are 5-9 and probably out of the playoffs. There is no way you can give the gift of a playoff run that you did last year, I understand that. Though if you could talk to the Easter Bunny about her gift she gave the redskins in March, Adam Archueletta, I would appreciate it. He is defective and I hope she has the warranty still.

Sorry, I get off topic a little. Of course I am five, and imaginary, so I will do that from time to time.

Back to my dad. As I said he seems so down on Sundays lately. With only two games left in the season, he sits at the TV or the sports bar with gloom on his face. This year has been real hard on him, and by extension, us. He has been a Redskin fan since the 5th grade as he watched Riggins rumble over Miami. He has stayed a Redskin fan in enemy territory for years, following them along even though he could not always see the games. Back when my older sister (She is so lucky because she is real. The oldest always gets the coolest stuff) was young he would drag her every week to the sports bar even when there was hard times, just so he could watch the games. He would return bottles so she could play video games as he sipped a soda and ate stale popcorn and hoped for a winning season. Those were the dark Norv Turner years and he rarely talks about them.

He was so excited when Joe Gibbs returned to coach the team a few years ago. He skipped around the office and came home and immediately threw me in the air in joy. Of course, being imaginary, he forgot to catch me. Just because I am imaginary does not mean the pain is not real. Ooops, off topic again. The playoff run in 2005 was filled with so much promise and the 2006 season was sure to be a return to glory for the Redskins and his Coach.

Alas it was not to be. And the dismal season will start to wind down over the next two games there are few things that can make my Dad happy. However if you could see your way to making an early stop at Redskins park to talk to the staff I am sure there are a couple of things that make my dad happy and give him a little joy as the season winds down. Here they are:

Start Rocky McIntosh. I don’t know who Warrick Holdman is, but I am pretty sure his middle name is a word that I can not use. At least that is what my Dad yells out every time he misses a tackle or is blocked by people smaller then me. If Rocky Balboa can get a 6th movie, can’t Rocky McIntosh start the last two games of the season so my Dad can stop swearing in my presence?

Win both remaining games. I am not old enough to understand draft positioning. However I do understand that winning the last three games of the season will do more to help next year be a success then any draft choice will. Also it will keep him from grounding me for no reason after the loss. Last time all I did was ask him how the game went and he looked at me like he was looking right through me. Then again, being imaginary I get that a lot.

No more Bill Maas. For some reason this announcer makes my dad want to reach through the screen and strangle someone. Probably Maas. Heck I know more about football then him, and again, I don’t exist.

Have the offense score in the Red Zone. Seriously have you seen my Dad? He is a big guy. All this hope of scoring and then futility cannot be good for his heart. Why can they play so good until they cross the opposing team’s 40 yard line and then stall? I am not old enough to do CPR, so please, score more touchdowns and no more reverses and trick plays inside the 40.

Stop the defense from killing momentum. Game after game the offense has just finished a drive and made my Dad happy with a score that either put the Redskins ahead or within striking distance only to be followed by the Defense giving up hope crushing bone smashing long touchdown drives. It almost happened at the end of the Saint game last week and it has happened almost every game this year. Either they need to start playing with Pride or Gregg Williams’ brilliant defensive playbook is as imaginary as I am.

Thanks Santa and I will try to keep my dad from eating your cookies again this year. He stays up late posting on a message board to all ends of the night and he gets hungry. I will bake them in the shape of vegetables and perhaps he will leave them alone.

Merry Christmas,

Timmy

Vision Quest: Ten Things I look forward to seeing the Rest of the Season

As the Redskins failed to come back against the Philadelphia Eagles on Sunday reality set in. The Redskins playoff hopes and 2006 season was thrown over the dock with a bunch of lead weights tied to it. And perhaps it is for the best, because thinking of what could have been is painful and depressing.

For a team that had so much hype in the off season to be reduced to 4-9 and assured last place in the NFC East. This is the worst of the three Redskin teams assembled under Gibbs II, and will rival the 2003 team as the worst Redskin team in the Snyder era. That’s the reality of the situation. All the money, all the upgrades, all the talk of vertical passing games and attacking defenses are all gone. And we are left with a redskin team that will now play out the string of games left with no hope of changing their fortunes this year.

That is why I plead with the Front Office and Joe Gibbs. Treat these next three games as the first pre-season games of 2007!!!

Now don’t get me wrong, I am not advocating tanking games or playing all your scrubs in the second half to assure losses. I, and Redskin Nation, will be much happier if we win three in a row to end the season 7-9 then losing 3 in a row and being 4-12. Sure we will have a lower draft spot, but one player is not going to fix our team for next year. And picking at #4 or #5 as opposed to 311 or #12 will not be that big a difference.

There are things we can do to get ready for next year that will not affect our abilities to win in the present, and in fact may actually enhance them. We have already started some of them. Campbell has come in for Brunell, Golston is starting over Big Joe, and Betts was resigned to a long term extension guaranteeing the duo of Portis and Betts will be back next year.

Hope Springs eternal in the NFL and there is no doubt a team can go from worst to first in any given off season. However for that to happen changes need to be made and information needs to be gathered. In 3 short weeks the Redskins coaches will start sifting through the players to resign and the players to let go. Contract decisions will be made, free agents targeted, and draft preparations will begin. We fans will face what we have faced 12 of the last 14 years, a long winter and other teams fighting for the Super Bowl.

So the three remaining games should be looked at as a chance to forestall the long winter a few more weeks and peer into the crystal ball for what may be in 2007. With that in mind I give you 10 things I am looking forward to seeing the rest of this season:

1.) Progress of Jason Campbell. Finally the fan base is starting to see why we traded with Denver to get the ability to select this young man. Sure he will make his share of rookie mistakes, like the first interception against Philadelphia and the flip interception in Atlanta. However he has not only shown he can make every throw on the field, he has battled back from adversity each game. He has won the starting job for the foreseeable future and Gibbs is going to build the team around him. It may be a little late in coming but these last 7 games, a full off season and training camp as the #1 guy will be immeasurable in his future success.

2.) Randle El’s Role in the Offense. Finally we are starting to see Randle El emerge as a receiving threat. Up till now Randle El has been used as a gimmick by Saunders in reverses and punt returns. Not that I mind that, he excels at both, but he also excels at wide receiver. Hopefully JC and Randle El can develop a rhythm and get a healthy mix of looks between all the receivers and not just lock on Moss each play.

3.) Signs of Life from the Defense. Anything would be nice here really. This defense has not put together a consistent game all season long. They have the talent and they have relatively few injuries now. They need to produce. If not the future is bleak as we will get the same coach back next year in Gregg Williams and most of the starters will be back as well, just older. GW needs to find a way to get these guys to produce.

4.) Rocky getting some action on defense. And GW can start by putting Rocky in there for the remainder of the year. Maybe he can not beat out Holdman for a starting spot, but he should at least get 1 quarter of play each game on defense. To do anything less is either neglect by the coaching staff or an admission that Rocky may not have been a good draft choice. I am hoping against the latter, so I want him to play and show us what he can bring to a football team.

5.) Evaluate our depth on the Offensive Line & Defensive Line. On the defensive line Golston has already won a starting spot over big Joe, and that is great news. However Montgomery is inactive for most games despite earning a start a few weeks ago. Salave’a is playing his last few games as a Redskin in my opinion, his active spot needs to go to Montgomery and let the young guy get some work in on live action. Both Jon Jansen and Casey Rabach seem to be hobbled by injury. It would be the perfect scenario to sit Jon Jansen and let Jim Molinaro or Todd Wade play and see if they can earn their roster spot. Jansen needs to get healthy for next year. Rabach is a little touchy because he is a center, but perhaps Puccillo should get some opportunities there as well.

6.) Better decision making by the Coaching Staff. Clock management, play calling, and substitutions during a game have been a plague all year. This has to get better. The problems may be a direct result of too many foremen and not enough workers. This last game we got a penalty because an injury happened and two subs came in for him and took a timeout to decide to kick a routine field goal. I don’t have any solutions here because I can’t see what is going on in the coaching rooms and on the sidelines, but it amateur hour out there and this more then anything is hurting the reputation of our hall of fame coach.

7.) Is Suisham for real? Hard to tell so far. I was a Nick Novak fan but the Redskins made absolutely the right move here, if for kickoffs alone. The kid has leg and we win the field position battle each time he kicks off. He has not had many opportunities at FG kicking in pressure situations though. I would like to see what he would have done with the seconds counting down against Philadelphia but the defense could not get us the ball back. This is his 3 game audition for 2007. He should make the most of it.

8.) Find a role for Arch and use him. I am not on the blame Arch for everything bandwagon. Arch was suspect on coverage and I understand many of the fans frustrations with him. However he has not been used properly all year long and that is not his fault. He was the surest tackler in run defense when he was in there and actually led the team in tackles for the first part of the season. With this coaching staff, once you are in the doghouse, you just don’t play…ever. I don’t understand the logic of starting him one week and demoting him to 5th string or whatever the next. Arch was a good player in the league the last few years, and we gave him a huge contract with long term implications if we get out of it. A role should be found for him this season.

9.) Run Betts Run. For those of you who were stunned at the Duckett trade like I was the last few weeks has been vindication of sorts. Betts has proven he is a reliable backup to Portis and an ideal compliment for the offense. He has a realistic shot at breaking 1,000 yards this season, despite being a backup for almost half the season. It is one of the few good front office moves this season and will give us solid depth and potential 1-2 punch for years to come.

10.) Hope for the future. The last thing I want to see is this team quit at the end, like the team in 2003 did. Wins and losses don’t really matter if they are in the games and trying hard the rest of the way. The redskins still have a lot to play for, if for the opportunity to ruin the playoff chances of the Giants on the last game of the season. They could play for us, the fans. And show us why we should spend money and time following them next year. But most importantly they should play for themselves. Because no contract in the NFL is guaranteed and Snyder and Gibbs find more ways to eat dead cap space each year. I would hope players not playing hard will be let go in the off season.

Even if a few of the list above come true we can have hope for the holidays. If not next year could be just as bad.

Playoff Rooting Card: Cue The Fat Lady

Ok the only reason I am even writing this blog is because I promised it to myself. I said to myself before the season that if the Redskins were in playoff contention after Thanksgiving I would start a blog and keep it going until they were mathematically eliminated. Since the redskins are not mathematically eliminated I am obligated to do this or I would feel like I left the job incomplete.

Ironically that is exactly what the Redskins did last Sunday. Having Atlanta down 14-0 and virtually running at will in the first quarter the Redskins did what they do best, find a way to lose. The defense gave up over 250 yards rushing and major mistakes on offense resulted in a 24-14 loss. At 4-8 the Redskin future looks very bleak. Many fans would say forget about the playoffs, look towards next year.

And they would be right. This team has done nothing to deserve playoff contention or even our hopes that they can do so. The frustrating thing is besides the loss to Atlanta, everything that needed to break our way last week did. Because of that the Redskins are only 2 games out of the NFC playoff picture. Of course that is only because of the pitiful competition in the NFC.

The Division leaders have all but sown up their divisions. Dallas has a 2 game lead on Philly and NY Giants for the NFC East and most likely will win the division. Chicago is assured of winning the NFC North. New Orleans has a 2 game lead on Carolina and Atlanta for the South. And Seattle, despite missing Alexander and Hasslebeck for much of the season, has a 3 game lead in the West.

That leaves the two wildcard spots left for the remaining bunch of scrubs to fight for. Amazingly none of these contenders or should I say pretenders, have a winning record. There are 4 teams at 6-6, 3 teams at 5-7, and 2 at 4-8, none of whom have been mathematically eliminated. And if you examine each of the playoff teams individually have major flaws.

Lets take the for top teams at 6-6, NY Giants, Philadelphia, Atlanta, and Carolina. NY is a team who looks like they have given up. Their locker room was in disarray BEFORE the Dallas loss. Philadelphia may talk a great game, but Jeff Garcia is no Donovan McNabb and they will find it out soon. Atlanta had lost 4 straight before stealing one at Fed Ex, they could go in the tank at any time. Carolina looks to be the class of this tier but lost to Philadelphia and us in the last two games, enough said?

The 5-7 teams are no great shake either. The rob Johnson experiment in Minnesota looks worse as each game goes by. San Francisco could make a run but they seem to still get in their own way. St. Louis is a pure mess and is still trying to sort out their identity. At 4-8 are the pitiful Green Bay packers and maybe even more pitiful Washington Redskins.

The Redskins actually hold or could hold tiebreakers on most of these teams. They have head to head tiebreakers on Carolina, and could have a tie breaker on St. Louis. They have common game tiebreakers with Green Bay and San Francisco (if San Fran loses one more NFC game). Atlanta and Minnesota own head to head tiebreakers on Washington, and Philadelphia and NY Giants will have NFC tiebreakers on us even if we beat them.

Even with all those mediocre teams ahead of them the Redskins have major climb to get out of the hole they dug themselves. Even if we pretended that somehow the redskins could win the 4 remaining games on their schedule they face an improbable scenario for them to be the last playoff team. In fact 5 of the 6 following scenarios must happen for the Redskins to even pretend to have a shot:

San Fran must lose one more Game in the NFC (Green Bay, @Seattle, Arizona) a loss to Denver in the last game of the season will not help us.

NY Giants must lose 2 of its next 3 games (@ Carolina, Philadelphia, New Orleans,) and then of course lose to us on the closing week of the season

Philadelphia must lose 2 of it’s last 3 games (@ NY Giants, @ Dallas, Atlanta) after of course lose to us this Sunday

Minnesota must lose 2 of next 4 (@ Detroit, NY Jets, @ Green Bay, St. Louis) or lose 1 of next 4 and Green Bay wins ALL of next 4 (@ SF, Det, MN, @Chi).

Carolina must lose 2 of next 4 (NY Giants, Pittsburgh, @ Atlanta, @ New Orleans)

Atlanta must lose 3 of next 4 (@ Tampa Bay, Dallas, Carolina, @ Philadelphia)

(St. Louis is eliminated by us if we win out. Bolded games are the most likely losses for this scenario to play out.)

Even given all of that the most unlikely part of the scenario is for the Redskins to win 4 games straight. In fact the Redskins have not played 4 good games in a row, let alone win 4 straight games. The Schedule though looks a little Promising. This week we have Philadelphia. They man handled us in Philly, but a new Qb for us and no Donovan McNabb for them could give us an edge. New Orleans is undoubtedly the toughest game here. They will be playing at home with a chance to wrap up the NFC South. St. Louis is reeling and we won there last year when we needed to. NY Giants never play well in the last half of the season and if the last two year’s are any indication we own them when they come to Fed Ex.

So, possibly for the last time if the Redskins lose this week, here is your rooting card for the week 14 of the NFL Season:

Atlanta (6-6) at Tampa Bay (3-9) Probably the most important game besides ours. Tampa must beat Atlanta or the permutations get mind boggling. Go Bucs!!

Minnesota (5-7) at Detroit (2-10) A Lion win makes things easier for us. Go Lions!

NY Giants (6-6) At Carolina (6-6) We need NY to lose 3, Carolina to lose 2. Go Panthers!!

Philadelphia (6-6) at Washington (4-8) Even if nothing else works out we can hurt the Eagles Playoff hopes. Go Redskins!!

Green Bay (4-8) at San Francisco (5-7) Need help from Green Bay here. Go Packers!!

New Orleans (8-4) at Dallas (8-4) Push...will probably root for NO here because I hate the damn cowboys. Go Saints!!

Chicago (10-2) at St. Louis (5-7) If we win out we take care of St. Louis, but a loss here helps eliminate any weird tiebreaking scenarios. Go Bears!!

That’s it. And yes, I will be back next week if we are still mathematically alive. Why? I like punishment apparently.