Game 9: Redskins (4-4) vs. Eagles (5-3)

vs.

Out of the Box: The rematch, on Monday Night Football no less, as the new quarterback plays his old team in the stadium where he won ten times in eleven years, it's the Eagles in primetime at Redskins Stadium, 8:30pm on ESPN.

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Quick jump to
The Story So Far :: Curly R Aside :: Oppo Research :: Trainer's Table Gameplan :: My Take in 60 Words or Less :: Preview Generalia
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The Story So Far: Well here's some shit. Quarterback Donovan McNabb was benched with two minutes to go against Detroit and the game still winnable, after the game head coach Mike Shanahan said putting backup Rex Grossman in the game gave the Redskins the best chance to win the game, Rex was offensive coordinator Kyle Shanahan's backup last season in Houston so presumably Rex had greater familiarity with Kyle's two minute drill. Bullshit factor: HIGH, Rex never ran a two minute drill in Houston and was not known for his late game heroics in Chicago. Poor Rex went in there, got sacked on the first play, fumbled and gave up a touchdown to seal the game.

The next day the story was about coach Shanahan's concerns about Donovan's health and cardiovascular conditioning. The health part of the comment is a reference to Dono's sore hamstrings and quadriceps, a byproduct of playing professional football for more than a decade. The cardio comment was about Dono's basic conditioning, which we have learned the Shanahans think is not good enough to play their system. Bullshit factor: HIGH, like all veterans halfway into a football season, expecially those quarterbacks stuck behind bullshit offensive lines, Dono is sore. He is also a warrior, if he walks he goes. As far as conditioning, the dude trains all offseason at altitude in the Arizona heat, the guy is more than in shape to play this position, for christs sake Malcolm Kelly, ten years younger than Donovan, could not handle Donovan's training regimen, pulling a hamstring that ultimately ended his season.

As the week wore on we heard more whispers, about coaching unhappiness with Donovan's practice habits and coaches maybe not feeling Donovan is a great fit for the system. Bullshit factor: MEDIUM, it may in fact be the case that Donovan McNabb at age 33 or any age may not be the Shanahans' idea of a scientifically perfect quarterback, and to that I ask

WHAT ARE YOUR OTHER OPTIONS FOR WINNING IN 2010?

To paraphrase Donald Rumsfeld, you go onto the football field with the team you have, not the team you may want or wish to have at a later time.

In 2010 Donovan is that guy, a better option for a winning season than Rex Grossman or John Beck, so get the fuck off your coaching high horse and play the guy like the star athlete he is.

No one ever questioned the authority of the coaches, they can bench Donovan in favor of a ham sandwich and no one disputes that, it is the lies, the whispers and the unproductive rhetoric that pisses Redskins fans off, there may be players out there that get motivated by being shat on, if that was ever Donovan he is well past that now, he is in an elite class of self motivating professionals, just give him the damn ball and let him go to work.

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Curly R Aside:

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Oppo Research:

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Trainer's Table:

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Gameplan: Last time these two teams played Donovan had a bad game, Michael Vick was separated from his ribcage and the Eagles were gasping for breath at the end. On offense the Redskins need to go after the Eagles secondary, they are missing two starters, including safety Nate Allen who was selected with the 2010 pick the Redskins traded for Donovan. On defense, just keep it up, rattle Michael Vick, make him move out of the pocket and throw on the run, let DeAngelo Hall and LaRon Landry do their thing.

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My Take in 60 Words or Less: DAMN YOU GET ME A SWEEP BY MIDNIGHT I WANT TO BE 3-0 IN THE DIVISION

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This is a nationwide game, for you watching at home on ESPN or locally in Washington and Phildelphia, we will be treated to Mike Tirico, Jon Gruden and former Eagles quarterback Ron Jaworski.

Enjoy the game, I will be there, this will be the 23rd of the past 24 Eagles-Redskins games for me and game partner lifetime Eagles fan, season ticket holder and Curly R reader/lurker Wilbert Montgomery, this game marks my twelfth straight at Redskins Stadium and 21st in a row overall, our tradition of attending all Eagles-Redskins games together dates back to 1999.


This is a gameday open thread.



NFL helmet logos from here.

Ready to Go

Game on

Everything is in place, Monday cannot get here fast enough, got my tickets and my parking pass for tomorrow night's Eagles at Redskins game. Accompanying me this year will be two Swarthmore Drive neighbors, an college friend slash opportunist, political writer, radio host and former editor of Redskins Examiner Mark Newgent and lifetime Eagles fan, season ticket holder and Curly R reader/lurker Wilbert Montgomery.

For Wilbert Montgomery and me tomorrow's game will be our 23rd of the past 24 Eagles-Redskins games played at any venue, for me it will be my 21st in a row overall and my twelfth in a row at Redskins Stadium. Our streak goes back to 1999, Donovan McNabb's rookie year.

If you are in the Gray lot or nearby come on down and have a drink with us, send me an email and I will give details.


P.S. - Whereas I was hoping to see the Cowboys get slaughtered today, they did not and in fact handily beat the Giants, I will say what I said last month about the first Dallas-New York game, as much as you would have loved to see the Cowboys take a beating when they are already down, Dallas winning that game was much better for the Redskins... as long as Washington remains in playoff contention.



Photo by me.

Piling On

Brilliant

At some point this week I need to turn back to the Redskins, for now I am still wallowing in the midseason firing of Dallas head coach Wade Phillips and the Cowboys' smile inducing 1-7 record.

So imagine the pleasantness of my surprise when I open my weekly copy of The Onion on Metro this morning and see the Cowboys covered in Sports. Money quote:

According to a recent USA Today poll... Thirty-two percent [of the country] said that the season has been emotionally taxing for people who grew up worshipping Roger Staubach, Troy Aikman, and Emmitt Smith, and that those people should probably go fuck themselves anyway.

Enjoy your weekend, the Cowboys play at Giants Sunday in the late game, let us Redskins fans tune in and be the game's laugh track.



Team attending to an injured Tony Romo: Uncredited image from here.

Wade Phillips: Buh-Bye

Don't worry Wade, it wasn't you

Something that has never happened since Jerral W. Jones bought the Cowboys in 1989 happened yesterday, Jerry fired his head coach midseason, terminating Wade Phillips after an embarrassing 45-7 loss to the Packers on Sunday, dropping the Cowboys to an awesome 1-7 in the 2010 NFL season. Offensive coordinator and one time head coach in waiting Jason Garrett assumes the reins for the rest of the season.

I am sure all of Redskinsland joins me when I say in all sincerity

HAW HAW

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More than simply dropping the Cowboys with finality out of the playoff race, this move makes clear how far the Cowboys have fallen, at the start of the season America's Team (lol) had high expectations of being the first team to play on its home field in the Super Bowl, number 45 of which will be played at the Taj Mahal of the NFL, the new Cowboys Stadium in February. The Cowboys are a complete mess with discipline and execution problems all up and down the team. As a Redskins fan this warms my heart like a cup of hot chocolate on a snowy day.

It did not take an advanced degree to see this coming, and now begins the apocrypha that EVERYone saw this coming, I watched the horrific showing Dallas put up against Houston in an August preseason game then went over to Hogs Haven to write about it, later that week a coworker told me was willing to bet the Rams would end 2010 with a better record than the Cowboys, it was not exactly a bold call to look at that team and think there was an overconfidence problem.

I bear Wade Phillips no ill will, I think he is a good coach, he just has an expiration date, he is an aw shucks players coach who basically ignores the offense, in addition to being the head coach Wade was also the defensive coordinator. Wade is not a fire breather so he is not going to motivate his players with his you come on you guys are professionals post game speeches, one thing I have learned from watching so much football at all levels is that player need coaching all their careers, they need to be reminded constantly to keep focus, to forget the last play because the success you earn in the NFL always starts with the next play.

Jessica Simpson, Kardashians, reality shows, a stadium with cage dancers I mean WHAT THE FUCK GUYS.

They loved being Dallas Cowboys so much the past few years they got complacent and it is simply not Wade Phillips' gig to get a stray team back on point.

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I wrote extensively about the Cowboys coaching search and options following the departure of Bill Parcells in January 2007, the first thing Jerry Jones did was hire Jason Garrett, as either head coach or offensive coordinator with a big to be determined hanging out there while Jerry looked at other candidates. With the Jim Zorn hiring debacle still more than a year in the future, the notion that a team would hire a guy and then determine where he fit in the organization was ludicrous and damaging, well paid players with contracts can smell uncertainty in the wind and loyalty is as much about who is in charge as who is not. Hiring a guy and then telling the organization ok he may be the guy let's wait and see was a mistake from the beginning.

So with a possible head coach in the fold Jerry went out and surveyed the landscape, coming up with Mike Singletary who had been in coaching all of four seasons at the time of his interview and who is sure to be fired from the 49ers at the end of the season, pairing Mike up with Jason who had all of two seasons coaching experience was an idea so bad that even Jerry Jones did not bite.

Norval Turner was the only other real candidate and the 49ers gave him a raise to stay, so Jerry settled on Wade Phillips, while no team can ever publicly say a guy has a shelf life, at the time I looked at the plan as this: Wade coaches for a couple three seasons then moves on, either under contract expiration or honorable resignation, the idea that it could end with a firing is a bad PR move because it would call into question the competence of the coaching and management staffs, so if Jerry really wanted to marinate Jason Garrett and then promote him in the near to middle term, it was going to have to be a joyous transition, not in the midst of a storm.

For those of you into the palace intrigue, what kind of relationship do you think Jason Garrett had with Wade Phillips with this knowledge? Have Jason and the owner had a lot of um meetings over the years?

Fast forward to 13-3 and a playoff loss on a Tony Romo snap bobble in 2007, 9-7 and no playoffs in 2008 and you get to 2009. Dallas made the playoffs at 11-5 season, capping the regular season with a 24-0 shutout of the Eagles, then an emphatic 34-14 beating of the same Eagles team in the same stadium in the playoffs.

Even though Dallas lost the next game to the Vikings, the Cowboys had achieved a milestone: Their first playoff victory since 1996. A month earlier Jerry Jones had come right out and said it, if the Cowboys did not get into the playoffs, Wade would be fired, the strong implication was also that Dallas had to win a playoff game, again what would have been their first since 1996.

So when they did and then did, Jerry was stuck, he could fire Wade after a win any more than the Giants could fire Tom Coughlin after winning the Super Bowl.

And now we have this season, soft, undisciplined players arguing on the sidelines, the quarterback out for what will be the season because a fullback did not pick up a blocking assignment, culminating in a humiliating loss to the Packers and the inevitable decision to fire Wade.

So now Jason Garrett becomes head coach in a time when the quality of his offense is strongly in question, in the midst of a storm, the guy in waiting from 2007 now has become just a guy, the seasoning he was supposed to get may actually turn out to have been dry rot, the Curly R prediction is Jason Garrett is out at the end of the season, having never been considered a serious candidate for the full time job.

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For the record, lifetime Eagles fan, season ticket holder and Curly R reader/lurker Wilbert Montgomery discussed this at length on the way home from the Colts at Eagles game Sunday, while listening to the Sunday night debacle on Sirius NFL Radio, his call is for John Fox in Dallas next season, I think this makes sense, with John's contract expiring at the end of the year and the Panthers in need of a change, the Carolina job is wired to Bill Cowher whose home is in the Charlotte area, Jerry Jones will strike out with Cowher and settle on John Fox.



Wade Phillips coaching his last game with the Cowboys: AP Photo from here.

Handy Accessory

Let me get that for you

Quick Saturday bye week post to show off my latest piece of Redskins gear, a coworker was kind enough to gift me this Redskins keychain bottle opener and as it happens I have an immediate and relevant use for it, lifetime Eagles fan, season ticket holder and Curly R reader/lurker Wilbert Montgomery has invited me to join him tomorrow for the Colts at Eagles game in Philadelphia and I think we may want to open a beer or two in the process.

Now that I have a real communications device check me on twitter.com/curlyr throughout the day as I microchronicle the oh so pleasant experience of attending an Eagles game as a (plausibly) neutral fan, I will also photochronicle this game for your enjoyment.

Hope you are having a great and Redskins free bye weekend.



Photo by me.

You Tell Him I Will Straight Up Bench His Ass

Donovan's like so fat

Danny Rouhier is out with his week eight video on the Lions debacle, among his best work yet. For just a second this season I thought the Redskins were going to be good and we would not need Danny.

WRONG AGAIN BEN



YouTube from here.

We've really hit rock bottom here. The Redskins tried out JaMarcus Russell today, I will laugh if the Redskins wound up trading Jason Campbell for JaMarcus.