Game 11: Redskins (5-5) vs. Vikings (3-7)

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My Take in 60 Words or Less: I have no idea how to call this game, I have no idea who is going to show up for either team, I really hope the Redskins do not roll over and give the Vikings their one game new coach bump win on the road.

GOD DAMMIT

Was it us?

Do you have any idea how fucking pissed off I am? Check that stat line in the image above, that is Brandon Lloyd, Broncos receiver, leading the league in receiving yards with 1046 yards in ten games, TEN GAMES THE DUDE HAS CAUGHT 54 PASSES FOR ALMOST A TWENTY YARD AVERAGE IN TEN FREAKING GAMES!


Brandon was traded to Washington from San Francisco in the 2006 offseason on the first day of free agency, the Redskins gave up two picks, a 2006 third round pick and a 2007 fourth rounder, to acquire Brandon, then turned around and gave him a seven year, 31 million dollar contract with ten million guaranteed. He was supposed to bolster a 2005 receiving corps that principally consisted of Santana Moss, Chris Cooley and Clinton Portis. Antwaan Randle El also arrived that offseason as a free agent, the Redskins had their bunch of sparkplug wideouts, no one over six feet tall.

I knew what Brandon could do, I had followed him in San Francisco and even seen him in person in the Redskins 52-17 circus in 2005, I was all about this signing, my recidivist take on Washington pushing TWO MORE Santana Moss clones in favor of pursuing a receiver free agent with size, height or physical credentials was simple: If Mark Brunell wants little guys that can get separation, who am I to disagree?

Pretty quickly though it got rough, the early returns on Brandon were indicative of how he would perform overall in his two troubled seasons in Washington. Through a miserable 2006 season that saw Mark Brunell give way to Jason Campbell at quarterback and the team win only five games, Brandon caught 23 passes for 365 yards in fifteen games, barely third receiver quality numbers, Brandon was supposed to be a solid number two that could push the number one.

In game seven that season against the Colts Brandon argued with Antwaan Randle El, the two had to be separated. Brandon did it again in game twelve against the Falcons, throwing his helmet on the field in the fourth quarter, earning the Redskins a fifteen yard unsportsmanlike conduct penalty. This second egregious loss of control earned Brandon a closed door sit down with head coach Joe Gibbs who you remember was supposed to be the guy ultimately behind the Redskins player acquisition decisions.

Brandon's reaction to being singled out on the team and in the media for detrimental behavior, and of being hauled behind closed doors for a verbal whipping by a Hall of Fame head coach? Not so much.

Still, coach Gibbs said he was satisfied with the outcome of the meeting and indicated Brandon would play in game thirteen against the Eagles, Brandon did not start and had one catch, off an option pass from Antwaan Randle El.

Three games later coach Gibbs had had enough, Brandon was inactive for the season finale against the Giants, the injury report indicated Brandon had bronchitis, no one believed it, Brandon's first season in a contract with ten million dollars guaranteed was a disaster.


Heading into 2007 it was not feasible to cut Brandon, Joe Gibbs and the team clearly was going to give Brandon another shot.

It did not start well. After bragging about how the 2007 offseason was the first time he had ever engaged in significant offseason workouts, Brandon gave himself shin splints and was unable to practice at full speed for the first three weeks THREE WEEKS of training camp. Still, he made the 2007 team.

And things did not get any better for Brandon. Two weeks into the season he did not have a catch. In the third week, Redskins fans were treated to one of the all time great displays of tone deafness, Brandon was featured in the Washington Post Business section as a compensated spokesman for Microsoft and their upcoming video game Halo III. In the article, Brandon named all the free gear and the advance look at the game experience the number one perk he had ever received as an NFL player, and then went on to talk about what a huge part of his life playing video games is. It would still be two more weeks, into October until Brandon got his first catch in 2007.

In November Brandon missed a team meeting and was barred from accompanying the team on the road to game eight against the Jets, and once again Joe Gibbs insisted Brandon was still important to the team and viable as a receiving option. Little did we know at that time that with seven games still left in the 2007 season that Brandon had already produced everything he would produce: two catches for fourteen yards.

One more game and no more catches later, on the last play of practice on Wednesday 14 November 2007, Brandon broke his collarbone, the team put him on injured reserve, ending a season that never really happened for Brandon. In all he missed nine games between healthy scratch, bronchitis and the clavicle injury, and produced 25 catches for 378 yards and no touchdowns. In February of 2008 the team cut Brandon, two years into thirty million dollar contract with ten million dollars guaranteed. Washington barely noticed.

Brandon played with Chicago in 2008, holding close to Washington form with 26 catches for 364 yards in eleven games. In 2009 he signed with Denver and produced only eight catches in two games.

Coming into 2010 no one expected Brandon Lloyd to do what he is doing now, Josh McDaniel has Brandon and quarterback Kyle Orton really working on the same page, Brandon has already set a career number for catches, with six games still remaining in the schedule, and is nearly four yards per catch ahead of his highest yards per catch season ever.

Something has happened, hell has frozen over, Brandon Lloyd has turned into a franchise receiver. I'm pretty pissed about it.



Image screencap detail of this page.

Thanksgiving Football Thread

Grilled

A Happy Thanksgiving to you and all your family and hangers on from us here at The Curly R, this year we are back in Dumfries at the home of the Folsom parental units, grilled turkey and football all day. And now on to the timeline:

0230 Realize neighbor and cable TV holdout Tony Almeida and I have been talking about his project to distribute media into all rooms of his house and drinking whiskey for way too long, depart, corn chips and a big water, asleep on the couch.

0600 Awakened by kids ready to watch TV, move to kids room, fall back asleep.

0900 Once again the wife offers the option to stay home and sleep or get up and go with the family to a Turkey Trot road race, once again she seems surprised when I choose to stay home and sleep, move up to my own bed, close eyes and quiver.

1045 Hear family coming back into house, get up and pretend oh yeah honey I'm up, why do you ask? Shower, pack kids for overnight at Grandma's.

1215 Depart Alexandria for Dumfries, realize too late the early game, Patriots at Lions, starts at 12:30pm, not 1pm, fail to get football picks in for this game.

1305 Arrive Dumfries, realize parents no longer have wireless router I left with them specifically so I can get wireless in their house, go to plan B, fire up wireless hotspot app on iPhone, what an awesome feature.

1400 Halftime of Patriots-Lions game, blink hard to be sure I see what I think I am seeing, Lions leading by seven points. Cringe in embarrassment for Kid Rock in the halftime performance, it is an obvious lipsync and even so he sounds terrible.

1430 Time to eat, grilled turkey, ham, sweet potatoes, ambrosia, stuffing and gravy, cranberries, deviled eggs, rolls. My mom can still bring it on Thanksgiving.

1620 So much for that Lions lead, they get killed, on to the Saints at Cowboys, FOX is really lathering on the we heart our troops bit, I think exploitative is too strong a word, and if it improves troop morale then maybe it is ok, I tend to think the job of our deployed troops is sufficiently serious that we should not be mixing it up too much with broadcast entertainment. It kind of smacks of permanentizing wartime. Oh by the way I hate the fucking Cowboys.

1715 So far this game is going the way I want, off from parents' house back to Alexandia, sans kids, the wife and I will be taking a food coma nap then going to see a show later at 9:30 Club, Donavon Frankenreiter who is the guy that does the I wish that I knew what I know now song.

1830 Returned home, wallowing in post meal fatness for an hour or so before drinks with friends before the show, we are kidless for the evening.

2100 Crash wife's friend's family Thanksgiving party, feel lucky I brought a flask, this is a beer and wine crowd. Now heading out to show.

2330 Show over, it was great, Donavon Frankenreiter put on a great show, we head to Nellie's sports bar in the neighborhood for a nightcap then head home.

0130 26 Nov 2010, the wife is in bed, I am cleaning up the scene, final water and chips and I head to bed, hope everyone had a good turkey day.


Other Curly R Thanksgiving threads: 2006 :: 2007 :: 2008 :: 2009




Photo by me of the turkey being grilled by the other Redskins fan named Ben Folsom.

Allistair Spotswoolingtonworth

This season McNabb has fallen over several times

Comedian slash Redskins fan slash radio host Danny Rouhier is out with his week eleven video, a sober introspection on how the fuck Donovan McNabb keeps tripping on his center's feet at the snap. If you thought it was Casey Rabach's size eleventeen sneakers that were getting in the way, the Titans game with all its injuries provides useful insight: DONOVAN TRIPPED OVER WILL MONTGOMERY'S FEET TOO. WHAT THE HELL IS UP WITH THIS?

Get on over to Danny's YouTube channel and give some loves.



YouTube from here.

The Folsom Point 11/23/2010: Dono Darko

Got a mean comment? HAHAHA I LOL'ED!

Wherein we discuss a breach in the Primary Football Universe.



Image by me with apologies to Advice Dog.

Game 10: Redskins (4-5) at Titans (5-4)

vs.


Because no one gives a fuck and the Redskins are going to get killed.



NFL helmets from here.

Twenty-five Years Ago

Their paths diverged from here

Thursday night was an important night for former Redskins quarterback Joe Theismann. It was his second game as color analyst for the NFL Network's Thursday games, Joe had been out of the game game since getting shitcanned by ESPN after the 2006 season in favor of Ron Jaworski on Monday Night Football. Up to that moment Joe Theismann had been a color commentator for NFL games dating back to 1988, an eighteen year streak that ESPN had to end because Tony Kornheiser is a whiny brat that does not get along with anybody and whom the network mistakenly thought was carrying the broadcast.

How ESPN later canned Tony for another football guy in Jon Gruden tells you all you need to know about how wrong the network was to stick with that loser for so long.

Frankly though Ron and Jon does not work for me either, it is one hardcore football mind in that booth too many and with Jon trying to keep his options open for another coaching gig someday the posturing by that guy in the booth is enough to make me sugar vomit.

But I digress, that is not really the point, nor is Joe Theismann getting back in the booth for live games really the occasion of importance in Joe's life.

Twenty-five years ago Thursday night, 18 November 1985, was the night Lawrence Taylor broke Joe Theismann's leg live on Monday Night Football in one of the most gruesome career ending injuries that has ever been witnessed in football.

Joe's football career was ended that night, Lawrence went on to make the Pro Bowl that season, and every year for the next five seasons, he would win two Super Bowls, be named to the NFL's 75th Anniversary Team and to the NFL 1980s All-Decade Team. A first ballot Hall of Famer, Lawrence's number is one of only eleven retired by the Giants, a team that has been in existence since 1925.

Three years after his injury, Joe Theismann resumed his football career in broadcasting, becoming ubiquitous in the sport for better or for worse. Lawrence Taylor turned to partying and drugs and a hard lifestyle, while a player he tested positive twice for cocaine, legend has it only the threat of a lifetime ban for a third positive forced him to quit.

After retiring he did lots of drugs and became the shady character that goes with the lifestyle, he was arrested twice for trying to buy from undercover officers and went through rehab at least twice in the 1990s. He lost lots of money in bad investments and became a caricature of himself in pop culture. Last year he was arrested for leaving the scene of an accident then this year it got worse, he was arrested for statutory rape of a sixteen year old admitted prostitute, he is facing trial on these charges. In a sign times are tough for Lawrence, he went to court, or rather technically did not go to court, to try and get child support payments for his twelve year old daughter by his first wife reduced.

Kind of seems like Joe Theismann got the better of that whole deal from 1985. Not judging, just saying.



The immediate aftermath of Lawrence Taylor's career ending hit on Joe Theismann: George Gojkovich / Getty Images from here.