Temet Nosce

For those of you too lazy to Google the meaning of this week’s title, or don’t know The Matrix by heart, it loosely means ‘Know Thyself’.  Right now, this Redskins team does not look at all like it knows which direction it is heading.  After an unexpectedly promising start, we all began counting the wins remaining in the season.  Now, several weeks later, we’re wondering where any win will come from.  Those on the positive side will say that we’re still 6-4, still in second place in the NFC East, and were the season to end today, we’d have the second wild card spot.  But that’s not the point.  The season doesn’t end today, and we’re on the wrong end of the momentum swing.

During the Pittsburgh game, it was apparent how tired this team was.  You could see it.  I had hoped that after a week off we’d see a renewed team face the Cowboys.  But we seemed to play scared, hesitant.  That’s why the pessimists are buzzing this week.  If you cant come out after a bye week and roll over a hated rival at home in a very important division game, then bad things will happen.  What’s worse is that the deficiencies that were identified by the pundits (offensive line, pressure from the defensive line, lack of experience of Jason Campbell) seems to now be materializing.

Right now, I’m trying to figure out which team the Redskins are.  Are they a good team that has just gotten in a rut, and will again begin to show some life as we enter a critical stretch of games?  Or are we simply a mediocre team that overachieved a few weeks early in the season, and will fall short of the playoffs?  While I’d like to believe the former, the latter is a very real possibility.  One thing is for sure – only the guys at Redskins Park know the truth.  The rest of us will have to wait to see what happens – which, by the way, is the worst part of being a football fan.

Destiny.  I had a bad feeling about this game as soon as I saw Barber’s fumble bounce off a lineman’s knee and directly back into Barber’s hands.  Are you kidding me?

Really?  For Real?  Newman is good, Al, but he’s one of the ‘top corners in the league’?  Really?

Lazy Man Award goes to…  I have never seen a running back helped up off the ground more than Clinton Portis.  He always seems to be looking for anyone – teammate, rival, anyone – to help him up.   Against the Cowboys, he even had the refs giving him a hand on more than one occasion.

Attack of the Zorns.  I love the 4th and one call early in the first quarter.  While I haven’t agreed with all of Zorn’s play calls this year, I do enjoy how much more aggressive he is than Joe Gibbs was.  He sends a message to the players that we’ll either win, or die trying.

Tacky Towels.  Okay, I know everyone is still stinging about the quantity of Steelers fans at the previous home game, but that’s no reason to go an do something silly, like wave white towels of your own.  Redskins fans are known for making noise – not with ‘thunder sticks’, not waving towels.  Let’s get back to basics.

Hi, I’m Wade.  Who are you again?  No matter what just happened, Wade Phillips always seems to have that ‘What just happened?’ look on his face.  Romo gets sacked – what just happened?  Barber runs it in for a TD – what just happened?

The concussion that never was.  Al and John criticized Romo for throwing behind TO on Hall’s interception, bu the guy may have saved TO’s life.  Landry was bearing down on him, and had the ball been on target, I’m not sure TO would be conscious now. 

Mmm da da deh.  No Queen/David Bowie duet here. For the second week in a row, there was virtually zero pressure from the defensive line.  And almost no blitzes.  I can’t remember the last time I saw a corner blitz from the Redskins.  I know we have a talented group of defensive backs, but at some point it seems that we should be trying to force some bad throws.  It’s getting frustrating.

Let’s build that dome!  While I am a fan of cold weather football, I am most certainly NOT a fan of cold weather cheerleading. 

Some cheese with that?  Let me preface this comment by saying that in no way did anyone but the Redskins lose this game for the Redskins, but I thought the officiating was horrible.  I believe that the call on the punt was right, but I counted at least five times when I saw the Cowboys offense holding on sweep plays.  And not holding inside the shoulders, but on the outside of shoulder pad.

From the John Madden Dictionary.  ‘Audiblizing’ – the act of calling an audible.  Also see ‘audiblization’, ‘audiblination’ and ‘audiblizification’.

This is why I married this woman.  At one point, Mrs. Donuts noted that Tony Romo ‘looks so delicate’. 

Two.  That’s the total number of downfieldthrows by this offense in the last two games.  Some of it has to do withthe lack of pass protection, but it also seems that some it has to do with Zorn’s unwillingness to let loose. 

Math whiz.  Al Michaels is the best commentator when it comes to adding time.  For example, if there’s 1:32 left in the half, most play-by-play guys would take the easy road and just say, ‘1:32 left in the half’.  But what does Al do?.  He whips out a ’92 seconds remain in the first stanza’ comment. 

Like a System of a Down song.  Aside from bits and pieces of drives here and there, the offense seems to have lost its rhythm.  A couple of years ago I blamed Mark Brunell for the offense’s woes, and here JC should shoulder most of the blame.  He has to do something to get this thing moving in the right direction.

Those *&%$ little things.  Since beating Philadelphia in week 5, it seems like it’s been the little things that have been tripping the Redskins up.  The mix-up on the downed punt, dropped passes on crucial third downs, missed communication on the offensive line.  While we might be able to squeak by a few teams and into the playoffs, it won’t be enough to get very far.

It’s all about your point of view.  At one point, Al  described our offensive line as ‘one of the most experienced in the league’, which is code speak for ‘old’.  While I appreciate Al’s kind description, the O-line certainly showed its age on several plays.

Simple – score more.  According to my research department, only one team has scored ten point or less in a game this year and won (the Steelers over the Browns in week 2, 10-6).  The obvious solution here is to score more points, at all costs.  The defense will take care of itself.

The Expletive of the Week Award goes to…  Jason Campbell, for uttering a vile and offensive ‘dangit’ after a missed throw in the Steelers game (you could read his lips on the slow mo replay).  Some words of advice to JC: watch that mouth, pal, or you’ll be going to heck.