Redskins Bandwagon

The Daily Bandwagon, Monday October 20.

• Cowboys lose: There’s nothing better than seeing the Cowboys lose, especially to the Rams. And it’s not even like it was a fluke loss like the Redskins loss last week, which included an offensive lineman fumbling and having it returned for 6. That’s right, an offensive lineman fumbled. Talk about a fluke. The Cowboys, on the other hand, were beat straight up by the St. Louis Rams. Seeing “America’s Team” imploding, after their being the self-proclaimed and presumptive heirs of this year’s Super Bowl, is making this season all the more enjoyable for Redskin Nation. There are two goals for every Redskin fan on Sundays: see the Redskins win and the Cowboys lose, perhaps not even in that order. These days, we’ve been seeing a lot of both.
• Portis for MVP: The man is on a mission. He has 818 yards (on pace for 1,800+), 120 yards 4 straight games, 5.0 average yard per rush and 7 TD. You heard that right. He’s on pace for 1,800 yards and 16 touchdowns. Those are not mere rushing title numbers. Those are league MVP numbers.
• Campbell’s no INT streak: He’s up to 202 passes without a pick. I think that commentators keep trying to jinx him. The CBS broadcasting crew must have mentioned the fact that he didn’t throw a pick at least 27 times yesterday. Those are not official numbers, of course, but Campbell came out pick free for another week.
• Turnovers, turnovers, turnovers: Life is simple in the NFL. If you turn the ball over, you will lose. If you don’t turn it over, you’ll win. And if you turn it over only once at a very critical point in the game like Portis did yesterday, you might still win, but it’s going to be more stressful than it had to be. The Redskins are learning a lesson this year. They have been able to maintain an excellent turnover ratio. But the quickest way to snatch defeat from the jaws of victory is to cough up the ball. They did that to the Rams, and almost again to the Browns. If they can reverse the trend and start causing more turnovers by their defense, we just might be playing in Tampa this February.
• Giants lost to this team last week: The Redskins did what the Giants couldn’t do by beating the Browns. This is how dominant the Redskins defense is. They held the Browns to 11 points. The Browns offense scored 28 last week, and their team scored 35. Without the turnover, the Browns might have only scored 3 versus our defense this week. Although I liked Gregg Williams, Blache is making it easy not to miss him. Captain Fletcher has his team rallying around him and playing superb.
• Where did the old Carlos Rogers go? Does anybody else miss the days when Carlos Rogers was bad and we could make fun of him and blame him for losses? He used to be one of the most overrated corners in the league. Now, I’m having trouble finding anything wrong with him as he shuts down receivers virtually every week. Braylon Edwards had 154 receiving yards and a touchdown last week versus the Giants. Against Rogers he was a non-factor. Even when he did catch the ball, it was only because of an amazing throw into perfect coverage. If Rogers continues this level of dominant, physical play, he might join Clinton Portis in Hawaii. Of course this is kind of disappointing. He was so much fun to make fun of.
• Playoff picture updated: I have updated the if the season ended today playoff picture. Not much changed. The Bears replaced the Packers in the picture. The Redskins still sit as the top Wild Card, as they have since the first edition. In short we have: 1) NY Football Giants (5-1) 2) Tampa Bay Buccaneers (5-2) 3) Arizona Cardinals (4-2) 4) Chicago Bears (4-3) 5) Washington Redskins (5-2) 6) Carolina Panthers (5-2). The Redskins have consistently held the top Wild Card spot. They missed a chance to take home field advantage and first place in the NFC East by losing to the Rams last week. It’s looking more and more like we’re going to have Wild Card teams with a better record than the division winners. The NFC South and East seem to have better 2nd place teams (Carolina, Washington) than the NFC North and West division winners (Chicago, Arizona).