Phils Win World Series, FOX Still Sucks

Congratulations to the Phillies for their World Series win. It's a good thing Donovan McNabb wasn't around to choke it away. I thought I'd root against Philly during the Series, but then I became so annoyed by the bandwagon Rays fans that I couldn't help but not pull for them. Plus, after all the Eagles-related disappointments he's gone through in the past decade, I didn't know whether my buddy Falkow would have been able to cope with another Philly team losing. Well done, my friend. This doesn't change the fact that the Eagles still haven't won a Super Bowl.
FOX is terrible, by the way. Showing the individual reactions of the Phillies' players to the win was cool, but not immediately after the final out while the team is still on the field celebrating. Show the celebration, dammit.

Wake Forest Picked 3rd in ACC

The ACC preseason poll is out and, ridiculously, the media tabs Wake Forest as the 3rd best team in the conference, behind North Carolina (a unanimous #1) and Duke (we'lll talk more in November about Duke and the ridiculous preseason expectations for a team that lost the best player off a not-very-good team.)
Anyway, I'm pretty excited about the upcoming season for the Deacs, but third? This speaks more to the weakness of the ACC than anything, I guess.
Not surprisingly, Tyler Hansbrough was the unanimous choice for ACC Preseason Player of the Year. Incoming Wake freshman Al-Farouq Aminu was named the Preseason ACC Rookie of the Year. I'm all for Wake players winning awards, but the Preseason ACC Rookie of the Year award is as frivolous as awards get. Well, besides the Grammys. How can college basketball writers possibly know who the best freshman is? Basically, the award is "Incoming Freshman That Was The Highest Ranked By Scout.com".
The All-ACC team features no surprises: Hansbrough, Tyrese Rice, Jack McClinton and Ty Lawson were the highest four vote-getters, while Duke's Gerald Henderson rounds out the field. Henderson wouldn't sit on the bench for the All-ACC team, let alone start, but ACC voters have a contractual obligation to put at least one Dukie on the preseason team, lest Coach K feel sad. Why Kyle Singler wasn't the token Blue Devil instead of Henderson, who knows.

Santana Leads 'Skins to Sixth Win in Last Seven

* This one had all the trappings of the other Redskins games versus inferior opponents. The 'Skins moved the ball with ease on the first drive, got points (albeit a disappointing field goal) and looked like they were going to control the game from the outset. But then something happened and it was the Lions with a surprising 10-3 late in the 2nd quarter.
In the end, Santana, Jason and Clinton put the team over the top for an ugly 23-15 victory over the winless Lions. As I said last week, a win is a win. But now that we're headed to the second half of the season, these narrow victories became a little more concerning each time. Playing down to the level of competition is a dangerous game, as evidenced by the loss to St. Louis. The Redskins dominated this contest for the third consecutive week. But, for the third consecutive week, they had to hold on during a final drive. Things need to gel together so this team can perform at its peak.

* 6-2. On the night of September 4, my buddies Horo, Russ, Klinny and Jaffe were depressedly hanging out on my porch. It was an early late-night (the game started at 7:00, remember) and we were drinking and grilling and wondering how bad the seasons was going to get. The Redskins had just lost to the Giants in an absymal effort that had us questioning whether they'd manage 5 wins all year. And that wasn't just being unnecessarily pessimistic. There was justification to think that this Redskins team was going to be terrible. So, without looking forward to the future at all, for the team to be 6-2 at the midway point is perfect.

* Except that it's not that perfect. They really should be 7-1. They had no business losing to the Rams. But, let's not get greedy. After the win in Philly, when everyone was talking about 7-1 headed into next week's Monday Nighter against Pittsburgh, I wrote that the team was going to lose one of the next three games winnable games against subpar opponents. It was practically guaranteed. When they ended up losing the first game at home against St. Louis, I got worried. They held off the Browns and Lions though and got to the record they needed to be at. 6-2. I'll take it. And so will all other Redskins fans.

* Santana! When Devin Thomas ran hard into the Redskins punt returner early in the 4th quarter my reaction was "why didn't Randle El go down right there?" Instead, the returner burst upfield, through some seams and scampered for what ended up being the game-winning touchdown. The reason Randle El didn't go down on the initial contact was because Randle El was Santana Moss, who was back to return just his second punt of the year. Awesome. He also had a stellar game receiving, sans for the out of bounds ball that he could have caught. As for his injury; nothing's going to bring me down off this high. I watched the sun rise at Liza's!

* There was a little mid-game tiff between CP and JZ that began when Portis came out of the game to fix his helmet on the last play of the 1st quarter. To start the 2nd, Portis wanted to get in the game, but was told by Zorn that Shaun Alexander was already in. Portis huffed off, as Zorn chased him and stood at the benches yelling at Portis that he needs to check with his position coach before coming back in (a noted difference from the freedom CP had under Gibbs). It seemed OK, Portis took responsiblity after the game and was a good sign that Zorn will discipline players when needed.

* The defense is -- well, I don't know what to think of the defense. Greg Blache says it's the worst 6-2 defense in the league. That sounds more harsh than it is; the only other 6-2 team is Carolina, so Blache is essentially saying the Redskins are #2 of 2. But anyway, I hear what he's saying. The 'Skins got NO pass rush on freakin' Dan Orlovsky today. The Giants were all over Ben Roethlisberger today, and with the Steelers coming into Washington next Monday night, the 'Skins d-line needs to step up from getting no pressure to at least getting a little.
However, they are still good. Carlos Rogers is having an All-Pro year (yes, All-Pro -- name a corner who's playing better in the league and Champ doesn't count, he's hurt) and London Fletcher made a game-ending, SeanTay-like tackle to stop the Lions on 4th down. (SeanTay like meaning the SeanTay hit he had on Patrick Crayton in the amazing 14-13 comeback in Dallas in 2005.) The secondary missed Chris Horton, but Mike Green (who, as Mr. Irrelevant points out, was Mr. Irrelevant 2000) was an adequate replacement and should help provide some depth when the team goes to three-safety sets.

* Clinton is the MVP of the league through the first-half of the season. It should really be unanimous.

* Jim Zorn had his worst non-Giants game as coach. The two-minute drill was once again non-existent (seriously, it's comical at this point. They huddle up with the clock running from 2:00 to 1:30. It's like watching somebody saunter across a speeding highway.) And some of the play-calls inside the red zone were abysmal. However, Jim Zorn's worst game is still better than some thought his best game would be, so let's keep this all relative. If I were a chick, I'd still be horny for Zorny. But since I'm a dude, I'd be forlon without Zorn.

* The special teams coverage was once again poor. (That includes the return for TD; Devin Thomas got blocked into Santana. He should be blocking, not getting blocked.) Laron Landry had a ridiculous block in the back on a ridiculous Antwaan Randle El return that pushed the 'Skins to the 4-yard line. And Rock Cartwright caught a kickoff six yards back in the endzone, hesitated and then decided to run it out. He was stopped on the ten. First rule of returning: If you hesitate in the endzone, it's already over. Take a knee.

* Eli Manning tried to call back-to-back timeouts in the Giants game today. That's the same thing Joe Gibbs did last year in the infamous Buffalo game. Gibbs was flagged with a 15-yard unsportsmanlike, Eli with a 5-yard delay of game. Wha? This makes no sense. And even if there's a rule I'm unaware of, that rule makes no sense.
Either calling timeouts back-to-back is a 5-yarder or a 15-yarder. It can't be both. The only explanation I can come up with is that in the Giants game the refs REFUSED to give the timeout (they didn't grant the timeout, waited as Eli frantically tried to call one and then flagged the resulting delay of game), while the Redskins ref accepted the timeout from Gibbs. We always said that it was the refs fault for telling Gibbs he could take one and because of that, Gibbs did. The side judge then signaled time out and the other refs on the field, realizing that the 'Skins couldn't take one, whistled the unsportsmanlike. It was, basically, that officials fault for letting Gibbs take it.
So, either that ref should have been blamed for that timeout or the refs in the Giants game today helped out the Giants on a key play (it was on the go-ahead touchdown drive) to keep the 4th down distance manageable by ignoring a timeout. What a bunch of BS.

Smashing Lions -- Chris Paul Week 8 'Skins Jam

Chris Paul is the man. No, not that Chris Paul (although he is too). The one on WPGC who writes and performs weekly Redskins songs for The Donnie Simpson show. His latest track, Smashing Lions, is below. I have no idea how Paul has been doing this every week for over a decade.

I'm Hated By The Chinese, Loved By The Right

Some Tuesday links on another busy day at Shutdown Corner.

* Thanks to Obaza for catching this on Fox News. (It starts about 50 seconds into the video.) It amuses me how they quote my blog entry and make it seem like I said that if Ditka had run, Obama wouldn't have won. I didn't really write that at all. I only mentioned that if Ditka had run and if Ditka had won, then Obama wouldn't be in a position to win the presidency. For the record, Ditka almost certainly would have lost. But, very cool, nonetheless.



* Two men were arrested on Sunday for running onto the field at the Redskins/Browns game. One was tackled by Santana Moss before the cops arrived on the scene. As always, Dan Steinberg has the story. And here's the aftermath in video form:

It turns out those "knuckleheads" (as Jim Zorn called the guys -- man, do I love Zorn. He calls people knuckleheads) went to the same high school as me, Winston Churchill in Potomac, MD. They graduated two years ago. This info courtesy of Ben, another Churchill grad and current college student who used to lifeguard at the pool I coach swimming at in the summer. Ben says that the two guys, who shall remain nameless, were held in PG County Jail overnight on Sunday and were arraigned yesterday in Prince George's County court.

* There's no link here, but I thought I'd mention it: My two-year old niece was watching the game on Sunday with my sister and was calling out the player's numbers whenever they'd touch the ball. Yesterday I went to visit and put on 'Hail to the Redskins', which she then made me play 15 times in a row. She still doesn't have the Randle El sky opening down pat yet, but it's only week 8.

* Great comment from Redskins Blogger Matt Terl today. In response to my criticism of Jim Zorn's lack of two minute drill, Terl wrote:

Zorn at least attempted to explicate the inexplicable in his press conference yesterday. In answer to a question from Dan Steinberg about his timeout usage in the final two minutes, here's what he says:
"I'm very aware of what's going on with the clock. I have a philosophy of never allowing the defense to have to come back on the field with a lot of time. I want to use it up so that when they put their offense on the field, they're taking a knee or running the ball.... You have to have positive yardage while you're doing it as well, so -- I know the risks and everything."
It may or may not be convincing, but at least it's confirmation that he's doing this on purpose and with a strategy in mind.

Matt's right. It isn't necessarily convincing, but at least you know that Zorn is thinking about it.

Mike Nolan Fired

From Chris's Sports Blog NFL Preview: Day 11 on September 7, 2005:

San Francisco 49ers (2-14)
In Mike Nolan’s four seasons as Giants defensive coordinator, the team went from the 4th ranked defense in his first season to 16th in his last.
In Mike Nolan’s three seasons as Redskins defensive coordinator the team went from the 16th ranked defense in his first season to 29th in his last.
In the three seasons before Mike Nolan became Ravens defensive coordinator, the team’s defense was ranked #2, #1 and #4. In 2002, Nolan’s first season at the helm, his defense plummeted to 22nd in the NFL.
No wonder Nolan was such a hot coaching commodity this off-season.
Mike Nolan, as he has done in every coaching stop during his career, will fail as 49ers head coach. Mark it down: By 2008 Nolan will be out of a job.

Of all the predictions I've made on this site (most of which are horribly wrong), I've never been more sure of anything than Nolan's inevitable failure in San Francisco. He was not a good coordinator in any of his three stops, so it stood to reason that he wouldn't be a good head coach for the 49ers. There are other factors, to be sure. The drafting of Alex Smith made it very difficult for Nolan to establish himself in San Francisco. But much of it was his own doing too. Nolan's defenses ranked 30, 26, 25, and 29th in his four seasons by the Bay.
I'm sure he'll get a coordinator position next season somewhere and I'm looking forward to charting that team's eventual defensive demise.

By the Skin of Their Teeth: Redskins 14 -- Browns 11

Busy day over at Shutdown Corner, so check that out, but here are a few thoughts about the Redskins narrow victory yesterday. And don't forget to join us at SC for tonight's Monday Night live blog of the Broncos/Patriots game.

* A win is a win is a win. It doesn't matter that the Browns almost came back or that they would have won if Derek Anderson had been simply bad instead of dreadful. The Redskins are 5-2 and that's all that matters. Plus, if you had told anyone that this team would be 5-2 after the week 1 debacle in New York, they'd have taken it in a second.

* You can't really call it a two-minute drill, because it's not. But, the Redskins offense in the final two minutes of the first half was almost as dreadful as Derek Anderson's play at QB. The offense ran three plays in 85 seconds, letting the play clock run down to 2 on one play with the game clock ticking. That's because the offense huddles for plays. It's inexplicable.

* Carlos Rogers and Rocky McIntosh have stepped up their games tremendously this season. Marcus Washington showed flashes of competence, London Fletcher is still great, but there are some dashes of erratic play in there too (like when he ran the wrong way on a run stop), Fred Smoot is a nickel corner and nothing more, Kendric Golston is playing big. And Jason Taylor really doesn't do much of anything. The 'Skins are incapable of getting a pass rush.

* Why Romeo Crennel is an idiot.

* Ryan Plackemeier had a decent day punting, much better than anything Durant Brooks had. While the portly punter wasn't too effective booming the ball, his placement was excellent. I can't remember the last time a Redskins punter pinned a team inside the 10-yard line in the corner as Plack did yesterday.

* If the NFL season ended today, Clinton Portis would be the MVP of the whole league.

* Here's my main problem with the Redskins play calling: plays seem to be called without regard for personnel. A draw play on second down is a Portis play, not a Shaun Alexander. A sweep on 1st and 10 shouldn't go to Rock Cartwright. Plays up the middle or off-tackle, straight ahead stuff, is what the backup RBs should be doing.

Beware The New York Times

Oh, you are a tease, NewYorkTimes.com. A tease. (3rd headline down.)

Oh, Hell No -- D.C. To Miss Start of Redskins Game?

From Pro Football Talk:

Sunday’s Ravens-Dolphins game kicks off at 1 p.m. Eastern. Sunday’s Redskins-Browns game kicks off at 4:15 p.m. Eastern. Both games are on the CBS affiliate in Washington, D.C. That could be a problem.

If the Ravens-Dolphins game is still going on at 4:15 and isn’t a blowout, the CBS affiliate, WUSA, will continue to show the game and won’t show the Redskins kickoff. And WUSA says it’s not happy about that.

You've gotta be kidding me. It's bad enough we here in D.C. are stuck watching crappy-ass Ravens games all year, but now they're going to bump the Redskins if the Ravens/Dolphins battle of attrition goes late?

D.C. isn't Baltimore. Just because the NFL wants to call the two metro areas the same doesn't make it so. WUSA is a Washington affiliate. It's not hard to flip a switch to change the Ravens game to the Redskins game for just D.C.. Baltimore and its surrounding areas, of course, should stay with the Ravens game until its conclusion. Viewers in Redskins areas should be switched to the 'Skins game. It's really not that difficult. But the NFL is making it that way. Says spokesman Greg McCarthy:

“We’re certainly going to be following it closely and if the outcome is not certain, we’ll remain with the Ravens,” McCarthy said. “We have an obligation to the fans who have watched for three hours and fifteen minutes. We hope that this is a competitive game that will get done about 4:14. We’re trying to do the best thing for all of our fans.”

We hope? WE HOPE? That's a great freakin' way to operate a billion-dollar entity; hoping things work out. What a jackass. You're not trying to do the best for all fans, you're setting up one fanbase to get screwed out of watching the start of their favorite team's game. If Ravens fans live in the WUSA zone, move to Baltimore or go watch the game in a bar.

Prediction: The NFL will back down within the next 24 hours. This is too easy and too stupid a situation not to rectifyt.

It's Plackemeier: Skins Sign New Punter

The Durant Brooks era is (likely) over in Washington, as the Redskins signed former Seahawks punter Ryan Placekemeier to replace the beleaguered rookie (as advocated here yesterday). I'd like to say I'm up on the punting scuttlebutt around the NFL (actually, no I wouldn't), but the only reason I know of Plackemeier is because he punted at Wake Forest, where he won the Ray Guy Award in his senior season. Of course, so did Durant Brooks.

Hallelujah, Again! Durant Brooks "Replaced" as 'Skins Punter

Vinny Cerrato has said that the Washington Redskins will have a new punter on Sunday with tryouts to come tomorrow. Obviously the Redskins couldn't sign a new punter today; since Vinny Cerrato is doing his radio show right now. (Yeah, but that doesn't conflict with actual work at all.)
It's time for Durant Brooks to go. As I wrote yesterday, his mental game appeared worse than his physical game. The only person in FedEx Field who wanted Brooks to be punting less than I did yesterday was Brooks himself.
I'm not sure what happens if the punters they bring in tomorrow all suck worse than Brooks, but I suppose now that the team has said the rookie won't be starting Sunday, they've sort of backed themselves into a corner. It's just another demonstration of the ham-handed manner in which Cerrato and Snyder run this team. Bring in the punters, make your decision and then either cut Brooks or say that he's still the punter. Now Brooks is a lameduck roster member until somebody else beats him, which may or may not happen. It just brings an unnecessary dramatic element to a decidedly undramatic affair.
Also, my vote for Brooks' replacement: Ryan Plackemeier. Although seeing as how I did so well advocating Derrick Frost's replacement, maybe I should just stop talking.

Unbelievable, Except That It Was Totally Believable: Rams 19 -- Redskins 17

* This was bound to happen. Despite unbridled (or stupid) optimism that the 'Skins would head into their Monday night matchup with Pittsburgh on November 3 with a 7-1 record, there was never any doubt that the team was going to drop a game they should win. But when I woke up this morning and texted my buddy Jaf "I'm really nervous about today", I was nervous that the Redskins were going to allow Steven Jackson to run wild or that Marc Bulger and Torry Holt would rediscover their connection. That didn't happen. The Rams did absolutely nothing to win this game. Instead, the Redskins handed them the W on a silver platter of ineptitude. Bad turnovers, bad decisions, dropped passes and one poor defensive play late. All that equals a loss. It was to be expected and, for real, it's not that bad. The 'Skins are still 4-2 with two winnable games coming up. But they can't afford any more slip-ups in winnable games. They need to take care of business against Cleveland and Detroit over the next two weeks. If they do that, today will be but a bad dream.

* Before I get to the ranting, you always see people wearing ridiculous jerseys at Redskins game. But this one being worn by a guy sitting a few rows ahead of me today takes the cake:


* The blame for the loss falls on Pete Kendall and the special teams. Kendall, a guard, made as ridiculously stupid a play as you'll ever see (shades of Leon Lett) when, late in the first half and the 'Skins in position to kick a FG or score a TD, he caught a deflected Jason Campbell pass and tried to run with it instead of letting the ball hit the ground to stop the clock and allow the Redskins to run more plays. Catching it was stupid enough, trying to run with it was even worse. What did Kendall expect? To slowly rumble 25 yards into the endzone? Of course, he fumbled and a Rams player whose name I'm too disgusted to look up scooped it up and ran 75 yards for the score. It was at least a 10 point swing, possibly 14. There were many other problems for the 'Skins today, but the Kendall play was why they lost, plain and simple.
In Kendall's defense, he took it like a man afterwards, standing in front of his locker for 15 minutes and answering every question asked of him. When he took full blame for the loss, a reporter said something like, "well, there were some other things" and Kendall interrupted him to say, "yeah, but look at the score." Boneheaded move of the year, but credit to Kendall for being a man about it.

* Apparently the Redskins locker room was a dejected place this afternoon, something that pleases me as a fan. When the Steve Spurrier teams used to lose, there was whooping and music in the locker rooms; no sense that the team had just lost. Today, I heard that the locker room seemed to understand what this loss meant. As relayed to me, the feeling in the locker room was that this was not a locker room saying "they got us today", it was a locker room saying, "we need to make changes if we want to be as good as we expect to be." That's one piece of good news on a terrible football day.

* It will be easy to say that the Redskins took the Rams lightly. And maybe they did. But I think the players knew the Rams were capable of beating them, the same way I knew the Rams were capable of beating them. So I don't think it's a situation where the Redskins didn't respect the Rams; rather, I think it's that it's nearly impossible to get up for a game like this after two huge road wins. It's just human nature. There was little buzz in the stadium today. As a fan, I wasn't on edge like I've been the past two weeks. Yes, I was worried, but I always kind of figured the 'Skins would pull it out. I don't think it's too much of a stretch to assume that the players did too. A loss doesn't mean the Redskins disrespected St. Louis or believed all the media hype. It could just mean that they weren't as amped to play this game as they had been the past few weeks and by the time they realized they were in for a dogfight, it was too late.

* As for the special teams, oh boy, where do you begin. Longtime readers of this site know that Danny Smith and his always-worthless special teams are the bane of my Redskins love. They are terrible. There's never anything redeeming about them. Every season, I predict at least two games will be lost by the special teams during the year. Chalk this up as game #1. Kendall blew it, but the special teams joined in the fun.
I decided to organize this rant, so let's call this Festivus and here's the Airing of Grievances. (Which is the name I wanted for this blog, but somebody already had it.)
Durant Brooks - He should have been cut last week. He needs be cut tomorrow. (Well, maybe not tomorrow. After all, Vinny Cerrato has a radio show to prepare for.) Brooks is worhtless. And I'm not saying this is in a hyperbolic manner... he's actually worthless. Every time he steps on the field, the other team benefits. Unlike Derrick Frost, who also sucked, Brooks never even demonstrates that he has a good leg. Frost would boom a 60-yard punt when he needed a 40-yard punt, which was bad, but at least you could see that something was there. Brooks has shown none of it. Even in warmups before the game and during halftime, the longest punt I saw him hit was 41-yards. He's an NFL punter! That's bad enough, but you can already tell Brooks is mentally done in Washington. He's getting (deservedly) booed and every time he comes off the field he's getting an earful from a teammate (Mike Sellers does a lot of it) or a coach. Brooks had a 26 yard punt from deep in the Redskins zone that went to their own 33. Without a return, the Rams got a punt on their opponent's 33. Cut. Him. The only "good" punts Brooks had all day were thanks to Dante Hall, who opted not to catch two punts on the 20 and let them bounce another few yards.
Antwaan Randle El - I love me some Randle El on offense, but he is a liability as a returner. He runs sideways and, when he does have room to run, seems to be magnetically attracted to the only guy he has to beat. It's time for 'Twan to focus on offense exclusively.
Punt coverage - It's not all Randle El's fault though. There is never any blocking on the punt returns. But because of Brooks, Randle El and the punt team, there was one field position switch today where the Rams gained 46 yards, based solely on the punt coverage. The Rams punted from their own 31, the 'Skins went three and out and punted, and the Rams began their next drive on the Redskins 33. Forty-six yards, entirely based on punts.
Shaun Suisham - Just when I praise Suisham for being solid on his field goal kicks (after missing a 30-yarder last year in the playoffs), he goes and kicks the ball out of bounds on a kickoff for the second time this season.
Danny Smith - Seriously, don't even get me started

* The offense and defense played alright. Not good, not bad, but alright. (There was one "bad" defensive play, more on that in a second.) Clinton Portis was great, Ladell Betts is soft and doesn't hit holes, Jason Campbell was looking off more receivers but still held onto the ball a bit too long, London Fletcher is still the man but had two big mistakes (dropping a sure INT and failing to tackle Steven Jackson on a 3rd and 17 screen), Carlos Rogers played a spectacular game, Jon Jansen was inconsistent in pass blocking schemes and Jason Taylor... who? The defense got little pressure on Marc Bulger today and Jason Taylor was a complete non-factor. Glad to have him back.

* The bad defensive play was the 3rd and 12 bomb that set up the Rams for the game-winning FG. For some reason, Leigh Torrence was left in single-coverage on the Rams second-best receiver and defended the play exactly like you'd expect Leigh Torrence to (looking like he was getting spun around before hitting a pinata). But the bigger problem was, what the hell was Torrence doing in single-coverage of anyone? It's not Leigh Torrence's fault he's Lee Torrence. It's Greg Blache's fault for calling hat scheme. Apparently he took responsibility for the blown playcall, and that's cool, but come on. That's all the Blache-bashing I'll do, because I really think he's done a great job with the defense thus far. But that was still a bad play.

* There is nothing endearing about FedEx Field. It's the worst stadium in which I've ever watched a game. But at least the fans used to be somewhat alright. Today, though, was the worst display I've ever seen. Fans were booing the Redskins offense (unacceptable with their surprising 4-1 record), doing "Let's go Redskins" cheers when that offense was on the field and was fairly quiet on 3rd down plays. The whole stadium sucks, there are too many bad drunks (drunks are fine, moron drunks are not) and unless you make a point of parking near an exit and hightailing it out of there after the game (as me and my friends have perfected), you'll be sitting in traffic for an hour in the parking lot.

Musical Perfection

Bob Dylan's newest entry in his bootleg series, Tell Tale Signs, was released today. It's as brilliant as had been rumoured. (And yeah, I went with the British spelling. It just felt right.) My favourite Dylan song of all-time, Mississippi, gets two versions on the double-disc set and another on the special deluxe album. (I love me some Dylan, but I'm not dropping $100 for another 12 songs.) I can't imagine I'll be listening to anything else on my iPod for the next two months. Well, other than this.
And just so this isn't completely non-sports related, new post up on Shutdown Corner, complete with the requisite Dylan reference. If you come to this site and aren't visiting me and MJD over at Y! Sports, for shame. For shame.

Hip Hip Hooray!

Screw the Bandwagon, it's time to start-up the 3H Club.

Back story: after last week's game, Jim Zorn led the Redskins in a "hip, hip hooray" cheer, which is so cheesy that it could be subversively brilliant if it came from anyone but JZ. This week, Antwaan Randle El took over the post-game cheer duties and, unable to think of anything on the spot (what, the sky opening didn't work -- I taught my niece that yesterday, by the way) he solicited Chris Cooley's redux of the previous week's chant.
And yes, I realize I'm getting way too excited here.

Info via DC Sports Bog, video courtesy Mr. Irrelevant via Redskins.com

You Know, They Did Make The Playoffs Last Year

I'll admit, after the opening night debacle in New Jersey, I was the last person who thought the Redskins would be 4-1 right now. That being said, why is everyone acting as if the team's early season success is some sort of miracle? ESPN actually had this subhead today: "After back-to-back wins, the Redskins are no longer cellar dwellers in the NFC."
Umm, cellar dwellers? The Redskins were a playoff team last year. (You know who wasn't; Philadelphia.) They weres a missed FG away from going to the divisional round. So who's this cellar dweller they're referring to?
And it's not like the 'Skins snuck into the playoffs with a mediocre team. They weren't great, of course, but they were in a position to win every game but one last year (vs. the Patriots) and put together a four-game winning streak over some of the NFC's top teams (Bears, Giants, Vikings, Cowboys) to earn a berth.
Sure, they turned over a lot of the coaching staff, but the personnel is largely the same as it was during last season's playoff run. The team's quick start is surprising, yes, but it's not as if it was as out of the blue as many commenters would have you believe.

* I try not to post too much Redskins stuff on Shutdown Corner, but when you see an outfit like this, it's hard not to.
As always, we'll be live blogging there tonight for the Monday Night game. Join me, MJD, Andy Behrens and Scott Pianowski for what could be the greatest Yahoo!-based live pro football blog of all-time.

Shocker: Redskins work over Eagles in 23-17 win

* It wasn't the best statistical day for Jason Campbell, but hopefully he'll realize that it's OK to put up 16-29 for 176 as long as it's in a win. Campbell looked off receivers again, looked more mobile in the pocket and made a clutch third-down run to move the chains. Campbell knew exactly where he was on the field while making that run, turned to protect the ball and then fell down to avoid taking a hit and/or opening up the possibility of a turnover. He still had some mistakes (the third down kneel, a mix-up with Clinton Portis on a later third down), but Campbell looks more and more like he's going to be the real deal Holyfield. Shoot, he already may be.

* The refs in this game were beyond atrocious. They were made miserableness look like a goal to be reached. The officials GAVE Philly a touchdown today -- just gave it to 'em -- picking up the flag on Desean Jackson's punt return TD, which made sense on exactly zero levels. The Philly player (#50) blocked the Redskins player (#50) directly in the back. The side judge saw this and threw a flag. After the TD, the refs then got together (never a good sign) and somehow determined that the actual block in the back occurred from a Redskins player, not the Eagles player as they had originally determined. The explanation was something like, "the block by #50 was done by the kicking team". The refs must have failed to realize that there can be, you know, two guys on the field with the number 50 and that white is not burgundy and burgundy is not white. Ridiculous. Handed them a touchdown. And they still couldn't do bunk without it. Egregiously bad officiating errors have been the hallmark of this season, something that can't make Roger Goodell happy.

* Speaking of bad calls, I don't know if Antwaan Randle-El was touched on that play in the fourth quarter. (Or where his hands went.) But it looked close and no whistle blew, so Twan ran down field to try and score a TD. The only thing was, a whistel was blown 5 seconds after the play had ended! What the f---?!!!! Let the play go. Call a TD. Then, confer (you know those refs were going to anyway) and decide on a ruling. Give that ruling. Then wait for the inevitable challenge. But come on, don't end the play prematurely just because you think he might have been tackled. There are safeguards in place to ensure that rulings like that can be made. It just takes competant officials who realize that not blowing a whistle is an allowable, effective tool.

* Shaun Suisham: Today, we are good. (We'll forget the inexplicable out of bounds kickoff that almost sailed into the sideline stands.)

* It's time for Durant Brooks to go. And on his way out, he can take Reed Doughty and Marcus Washington with them. They are officially worthless. Marcus isn't healthy, but at least he's providing to the team by having somebody else play in his stead. Reed Doughty gets beat more than the Eagles in big games. And Durant Brooks? Oh, where to begin. How about the net punting average of 17.5. The Eagles' net punting average? 42.8. There was one point during the game where the Redskins punted to the Eagles who then went three and out and punted back. So, in theory, it was the definition of a field position battle. No team advanced the ball at all, so with two good punters that ball shouldn't have moved too far. But when Durant Brooks is part of the equation, things change:
Skins punt from PHI 43
Eagles catch punt at PHI 20 (23 yard punt)
Three plays later... Eagles punt at PHI 22
Redskins catch punt at WAS 25 (53 yard punt)
Essentially, the Eagles won a field position battle of 32 yards SOLELY based on the crappiness of Durant Brooks. He's gotta go. Like, on the train back from Philly.

* It can be said every week, but London Fletcher is the most valuable player on the team's defense. There were two plays today in which Brian Westbrook looked like he was going to burst free for big gains, but London closed the gap and stopped Westbrook before the chain. The plays didn't get much hype, but they're the sorts of plays the Redskins never seem to make in those situations. Translation: I love London Fletcher.

* Chris Horton is still a monster. He has the natural instincts to be a star in this league, but is quite raw and undisciplined in this, his rookie year. The fact that the coaching staff isn't letting Horton get a big head (in a post-game interview Greg Blache was playfully doggin' on Horton by saying that "he needs a lot of work") is a great sign.

* Devin Thomas had a Devinian day today: nice first down catch, crippling penalty that brought back a first down.

* To do all that without Shawn Springs is fantastic. He's the best member of the secondary on the team so hopefully his uterus will be healed before next week's game.

* Another game highlight: Donovan McNabb audibling out of a pass play on a crucial 3rd and goal from the 1 and changing it to a rush that was stuffed two yards behind the line of scrimmage. Donovan's one who's not so good with the improv.

* Case in point: In his post-game press conference Donovan said:

"I was embarrassed these last two weeks. I mean [to lose] to two teams we shouldn't have lost to. There is no way that you can look at this game and say that, and not taking anything away from them, but there is no way that this team is better than us."

Donovan the Delusional. Donners, your team was hit in the mouth by a superior opponent today. That doesn't mean the Redskins will be better next time the teams play, but on this Sunday, the Washington Redskins were clearly better than the Philadelphia Eagles.
That's what I've always hated about McNabb. He's a phony. I don't think he believes his team was better today, I think he believes that he's expected to say that his team is better today. So he says it half-heartedly and then gets ripped by the local and national media for saying something so absurd.
The Eagles are 2-3 and aren't bad. They could end the season 11-5 or 7-9 and most of that rests on the shoulders of Donovan McNabb. But if he deludes himself into thinking that his team should be 15-1, he might lose support all over the Philadelphia area.

* The Giants are 4-0 on the strength of one good win (week 1 against a listless Washington team that couldn't move the ball). If you wanna crown 'em, go ahead and crown 'em, but I think 'Skins fans are quite happy with our team right now.

* Beating Phillly on the road, while awesome, means nothing if you don't come back home and TCB against St. Louis.

Yikes! Redskins 23 -- Eagles 17

I'm way too high on life to post anything at the moment, but wow. I thought the Redskins would go into Dallas and beat the Cowboys. And I fully expected them to lose to the Eagles today in Philly. But even after spotting the Eagles 14 points (seven of which were a gift from the officials for incorrectly picking up a flag), the Redskins came back and thoroughly dominated the home team for the final 50 minutes of the game. The Giants are 4-0, but have only one good win (home against Washington). The Redskins, on the other hand, are 4-1 and have won road games at Dallas and Philly. Now, an easy stretch: vs. St. Louis, vs. Cleveland and at Detroit before welcoming Pittsburgh on a Monday night before the bye. I'm not penciling the Redskins in for anything, but anyone who thought the team would be 4-1 at this point in the season (especially after the week 1 egg the team laid in New Jersey), could have been labeled certifiable.
Wow.

More to come: Monday afternoon