The Hardest Thing About A Loss Like This....

[redskindave]

Im like that also, It takes me a couple days to get over a loss

[1fan4ramsey]

and now we get to wait 2 weeks with the bye

[elprez19]

I cried myself to sleep lastnight...no but I did dream that we got in for the td and ended up wining. I usually have dreams of a skins victory or what we should have done to win after a loss. Then I wake up wondering why im not calling the plays and it pisses me off...then reality sets in and I calm down

[Justice Hog]

Let me try to say something that may help you through this. Sure, this has been eating me, too; however, I have learned one valuable thing in my 44 years of existance.

We, at times in our lives, all encounter something that makes us "feel" horrible. Our "feelings", however, are something we have complete control over. We control our feelings. We should do everything we can to not let our feelings control us.

We can dwell on these "feelings" and let them eat us alive, or we can just acknowledge them...and set them aside and get on with our lives.

Yes, the Giants game has been eating at me...but I am trying to let that subside and move on with my life. I can't let this continue to eat at me and let it affect the way I want to live my life (except, of course, preventing me from wanting to watch ESPN and the NFL Channel for now).

So, for the rest of you, try not to dwell on the Giants loss. Try to control your "feelings" and not let your feelings control you.

I'm already focusing on the Lions game and how I hope the Skins learn from their mistakes in the Giants game.

[welch]

Anyone else like this?

Yes. Me, many of us...most of us here?

Luckily, the world has righted itself, and Washingtonians have a baseball season that overlaps the NFL...as it should.

Tonight, the Nats pounded the almighty Mets 13 - 4. Kearns hit a three-run HR; Belliard and Church each had a pair of doubles. I'm thinking about Connie Marrero, a Cuban pitcher for the early '50s Nats -- for background, the Nats were reluctant to sign black players (Josh Gibson was right there!), but Griff had a scout in Cuba named Joe Cambria, and the Old Senators signed a lot of Cuban ballplayers in the late '40s and '50s. Cambria, incidentally, tried out a Cuban college pitcher named Fidel Castro, but reported that Castro did not have a major-league fastball. He signed Pedro Ramos and Camilo Pascual instead, as well as Julio Becquer, Jose "Valdy" Vielso, Carlos Paula, and "Zorro" Versalles.

Marrerro, my Dad says, got permission from Clark Griffith to smoke cigars in the dugout. Filled with blue-gray cigar smoke when Marrero pitched.

Aside from shifting attention to the plucky Nats, I can remember so many gut-ripping Redskin losses and sky-high wins that, after a few days, it wears off. Although, like Counter-trey, it takes me a few days. A sample?

The late '50's and early '60s, when, one year, Street&Smith's football annual titled the Redskin chapter "They play...and pray...for an upset". I watched Ralph Guglielmi. I remember Norm Snead's rookie season, when their only offense was the short pass from Snead to Fred Dugan. I remember the city-wide campaign to persuade Georh=ge Preston Marshall to sign black players, and Shirley Povich's daily hammering: "Yesterday, the Brown's Bobby Mitchell integrated the Redskins endzone for four touchdowns..."

I remember Mitchell's first game against Cleveland, when, on the last play, the Browns dropped everybody back deep, so Snead threw about 15 yards over the middle to Mitchell, running left (on the TV screen), making everyone miss, then turning right and running clear across the field, leaving more Browns grabbing clumps of grass, then turned left again, zig-zag-zig, faking more Brown to the turf, and scored. When Lou Groza missed a long field goal, it was the first time I could remember the Skins beating the all-powerful Browns.

- Then there was '71, Allen's first season, when they went to the playoffs after Charley Taylor broke his leg. They out-played SF, but lost the first playoff game in my 23 years.

- In '72, they had the best team in the NFL, but lost SB 7 to the Dolphins. I still remember the long drives, Larry Brown leading the way, and Billy Kilmers interceptions in the endzone. Jake Scott.

- In '73, with the SB 7 team wearing down a bit, Richie Petibon gave way to Ken Houston at SS (note: Petibon invented the position while playing for Allen). And we watched Dallas complete a pass to Cowboy tough-guy Walt Garrison, rodeo steer-rider in his spare time, about six inches from the goal-line with no time left and Washington leading 14-7. Houston lifted Garrison off his feet, and, with Garrison's feet churning the air, carried him back two yards and dumped him. Howard Cosell was speechless

- Sonny, who is not just that old man on radio but also the finest passser in modern football, led the Redskins back on a length-of-the-field drive to beat the Dolphins in '74. Then the team, Kilmer at QB until the last few minutes, lost to the Rams in the playoffs. I could tell that this would be Sonny's last game. Heights and valleys.

- Then there were the mid-'70s battles with the Cards. The MNF game in the mud, when Eddie Brown ran back a kick while being hit by every member of the Cards ST. Brown just bounced, kept his feet, and ran farther. Again, Cosell was almost speechless. Then the late-season game, with the Skins needing a win to make the playoffs, when someone (Mel Gray?) went up for a pass on the goal-line, where Pat Fischer hit him and knocked the ball loose. Officials ruled that a receiver did not really need possession to score a TD...Allen nearly burst a vein.

- Oh, and the Clint Longley game...

- In '79, Pardee had his no-name team ready to go back to the playoffs...Riggins, who really had some speed, swept around the end...Joe T had found his game, even without good receivers...and the Cowboys came back in the last few minutes to win.

- And it was not all Fun Bunch celebrations in the '80s and early '90s.

- Few games felt worse than the result of SB 18. Compared to he season, considering the splendid team...argh!

So, that's enough. I could go on, but that's enough. The Redskins have been the bums of the NFL, and the Redskins have been the best of the best.

Still, I remind myself that football is a game. An artificial world bounded by rules, by rules that keep people from being killed. Meanwhile, ghastly things happen in our real world, and sometimes even in this artifical one. Go back to he picture of Jon Jansen's foot. Think of Iraq: a football game is not supposed to matter as much as a massacre.

[BadgerKing]

I try very hard to take the lift from a win rather than the fall from a loss. This week I was gutted particularly as I watched it and it seemed to be going so well. But we are Redskins supporters so our job is to support, that is a tough job some..well a lot of times and especially if you (like I do) live in the wrong country. We have to support them, we have to find lame excuses for the loss...hey maybe the bright yellow helmets created temporal distortion which..which...Damn it does hurt your week though, you don't feel so happy about visiting Hogs.net, you can't waste time yelling and ESPN or SI saying "We won despite you!"

All I can say after my normal wandering ramble is that we are all in it together, we are not alone. Peace brothers and sisters, could be worse you could be French and a Cowboys fan!!!!

[num1skinsfan]

Hey, tough loss, division loss to boot. But we are 2 and 1 we have 2 weeks to break in our new WR, work on the Right side of the O-line. We are a little dinged up, nothng serious so let's focus on the Lions. Good teams bounce back from tough losses, it will be a tester for us. One of Joe's old quotes is "anyone can be a leader when thing's are going good, I like to see my leaders when times are down (like after a tough loss)".

[Irn-Bru]

One of your finest posts, welch. . .and that's saying something. . .

[GSPODS]

I haven't been here long enough to claim this to be one of Welch's finest posts but I must say it was extraordinarily well thought and well written. And it reminds us that times have been much worse and much better, both in the football world and in the real world.

[Desmond Howard]

Sometimes I think it isnt healthy to be a Skins fan, because I really do have bad weeks when they lose... and fights with my girlfriend, but I just dont want to miss it when they return to glory.

[Redskin in Canada]

Still, I remind myself that football is a game. An artificial world bounded by rules, by rules that keep people from being killed. Meanwhile, ghastly things happen in our real world, and sometimes even in this artifical one. Go back to he picture of Jon Jansen's foot. Think of Iraq: a football game is not supposed to matter as much as a massacre.

No, it is not supposed to. It is -only- supposed to distract our hearts and minds from the grind and even tragedies encountered in our otherwise "normal" lives.

True the NFL can be an escape, just like this site. So, perspective is essential.

[GSPODS]

Perspective is indubitably essential. In all things. Excellent point.