Back to Back Losses

I'm sure some readers thought that I would again avoid writing about the Redskins after their second loss in two games as a means of ignoring the fact but that's not the case. Two weeks ago when they lost to the Pittsburgh Steelers here at home, I was disappointed but I didn't write on it considering the fact that we were in the verge of one of the most historic elections in recent history. Still, as a sidenote, you can say that out of the last 18 elections, the streak that the Redskins have held remains intact. What streak you ask? Well there's an urban legend that says that if the Redskins win their last game before the election, the incumbent party's candidate wins the election. If not the challenging party wins the election.

Some argue that this wasn't the case in 2000 when Gore should have won against George W. Bush and we know the results of that election but while the eventual winner seemed to throw a wrench in that theory's inner workings, the supporters of the theory quickly point out that Gore did win the popular vote so perhaps the streak continues. In this case since the Redskins lost to the Steelers it was a shoe-in that the Democrats would win the White House. I'm sure there was a lot more to it than Barack Obama hinging all hopes on the Redskins play but you know how superstitious people get when it comes to sports teams. But I digress. After that loss to Pittsburgh in which the two main weapons of the Redskins was shut down, namely the running game and the passing game, they were left with a bye-week to contemplate what went wrong.

After last night's loss to the Cowboys at a stadium packed with Skins fans (unlike the previous home game where the stands resembled Pittsburgh more than Washington) I think it remains that the answers have still not been found. And it's not that they lost for lack of trying. Despite being injured and questionable for most of the week, the Redskins ran Clinton Portis better than the previous game against Pittsburgh. Though he didn't have another 120 yard game, he still managed to churn out enough yards to make a difference. Whereas during the last game the Redskins only scored a pair of field goals, there was more hope this time given the number of defensive turnovers. I was quite hopeful that the team would make something of those plays but alas what they tried wasn't enough.

I think part of the problem appeared that though the ground game was making some headway, the usual pairing of a strong passing game was lacking and other than a few good passes from Jason Campbell, the team wasn't able to get into a rhythm that they have normally found themselves in. One could say that the time off was worse than if they had continued playing without a bye-week but we'll never know. Pressure is something that Campbell has had only a few times this season and though he wasn't sacked nearly as many times as he was in the game against the Steelers, Campbell was still pressured enough that he wasn't able to hit receivers when it counted. I think Chris Cooley had another great game as he usually does gaining first downs when they counted and Mike Sellers was outstanding as he led blocks for Clinton Portis and even scored a touchdown early in the game.

By the fourth quarter it was clear that the Redskins were fighting an uphill battle and the Cowboys ran a textbook ground game with Marion Barber as the key player in the entire drama. Running down the clock and keeping the Redskins offense off of the field was enough to help them secure the win. And as I said, it wasn't for lack of trying on the part of the Redskins. They had a decent time consuming drive going on in the third quarter that looked to be making headway towards the end zone when a costly turnover ended up robbing them of some momentum. It was unfortunate and is finally a sign that perhaps there are chinks in the armor of the team. Now standing at 6-4 in the NFC East they are still in contention (behind the Giants who steamrolled through Baltimore's vaunted defense) they are in second place tied with the Cowboys but this is the turning point of the season. Will they be like the teams of past season that have started off strong with promise and then end up fizzling out or will they persevere and make the playoffs? I think they have the tools, they just need to be honed a bit more. Oh well... maybe next week.