There was never in the past where the players have said, No, we are going to come in and work; we are not going to take the day off,’” said tight end Chris Cooley. The Washington Redskins’ 28-14 season-opening victory over the New York Giants was all the team needed to enjoy what is known as ‘Victory Monday’. The Redskins almost all ways got the Monday after a win off under Gibbs and Zorn, last year Mike Shanahan routinely gave the players a day off after a win and had planned on doing so today. According to reports
MLB London Fletcher spoke up when Shanahan was asked about victory Monday and said ‘Nah, we need to work,’”. The Redskins defensive co-captain had spoken and on Monday the team got back to work.
As the Redskins study film today, they will try to find ways to improve their techniques and execution, and they’ll have more time to do so. Cooley says he sees the benefit of getting together as a group on a Monday instead of a Wednesday, “Getting together to watch the film and evaluate how we played and talk about what we can do better as a team, we don’t have to rush through it, we’re going to watch it anyway and if we came in Wednesday, it would become a little hectic.”
The Redskins will have a few things to work on, like:
1. The offensive line looked good during the pre-season but with Osi Umenyiora and Justin Tuck missing on Sunday the allowed four sacks and the QB was hit another six or seven times, one resulted in a Rex Grossman fumble.
2. The ground game totaled 74 yards on 26 carries or a 2.8-yard average. Running back Tim Hightower carried the ball 25 times and his longest run was 22 yards.
3. The Redskins didn’t give up many big plays, but the Eli Manning and the Giants connected on passes of 68 and 41 yards.
4. Graham Gano went 10 for 10 this pre-season and followed that up by missing his only attempt of the game a 39 yard field goal pushing the kick wide right.
5. Shanahan said he wasn’t planning on a “Victory Monday”. He said he was impressed with players wanting to report, but felt the same as London Fletcher that it was too early in the season for a day off.
Edit: This blog was archived in May of 2016 from our original articles database.It was originally posted by Bernie Marshall