Wednesday, October 29, 2008

Oh great, we're 6-2: Why Redskins fans should start panicking now

The Washington Redskins are 6-2. Ok, let me try saying that again; the Skins are 6-2. As in, six wins against two losses. Eight games into the 16-game regular season, that puts us on pace to finish 12-4 (highly unlikely, though still true). I, like most other Skins fans, was not very optimistic heading into this season with a new coach who had never even been a coordinator, in the toughest division in the NFL. So 6-2 wildly exceeds my pre-season expectations for where we would be at the midway point.

Then why do I feel so worried?

It's simple. Two words: Detroit Lions.

No, I'm not referring to our anything-but-convincing 25-17 victory over one of the league's worst teams this past Sunday. Wanna take a guess at the Lions' record last year through eight games? Yep, 6-2. They finished last season 7-9 and out of the playoffs.

Let's not get carried away here, Redskins fans.

One of the most painful memories of my childhood was the entire 1996 NFL season. That year actually saw the Skins go 7-1 through the first half. Inexplicably, we finished the year 9-7 and missed the playoffs. So I'm not exaggerating when I tell you that in my short lifetime as a Redskins fans, I'VE SEEN IT ALL. I'VE SEEN US FUCK UP THINGS THAT YOU'D THINK WERE IMPOSSIBLE TO FUCK UP.

I don't want to be the messenger of doom and gloom, I just want to impart that our remaining schedule features numerous pitfalls. Winning those two road games in the division at Dallas & Philly back-to-back was amazing, unexpected and helped us tremendously. However, the flipside of that is that we still have to face the Giants again, as well as C*wb*ys and Eagles teams that will be hungrier than ever to return the favor to us. None of these games are a gimmie, not even at home.

My high school soccer coach used to always tell us that anything you do in one half can be done to you. In that case, he was referring to the first half of a game but the same is true for the first half of this season. Sheeeit, I've seen it happen!

If anything were to happen to Jason Campbell, Clinton Portis or Santana Moss right now, we would be in serious... well, see above... and our second half would take on a whole different outlook. Don't get me wrong; I would ALWAYS choose to be in this position rather than to dig a hole to have to climb out of, as we've done the last few years we've made the playoffs. Improbable late season winning streaks (5 in a row in 2005 and 4 straight last year) to end the year are certainly fun, but it would be more fun to enter the playoffs comfortably and at a reasonable pace.

Next up, the Pittsburgh Steelers, who'll come into town bitter after laying an egg against the defending champs. Ladies and Gentlemen, we may be 6-2 but we still have our work cut out for us.

1 comment:

  1. Well any worries of CP's focus should be put to rest:

    Portis was being asked about the Steelers' 3-4 defense.

    "I've been working on my karate kick all week long," he said. "I mean, it's a tough team, it's a sound team."


    Nice use of italics in the title, by the way.

    ReplyDelete