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.