Now onto a team that I think has a bright future ahead of it. If you caught the Skins game on Sunday, you will have noticed the return to Gibbs football. And that meant handing the ball off a lot to Clinton Portis and Ladell Betts. The game was close, which isn't a great sign considering the Skins were playing the offensively-challenged Fins, but it was a win no less. With Gibbs football, you're going to have to accept some closer contests in exchange for a gradual wearing down of the opposing defense. Last Sunday that's exactly what happened with Miami. A team that was the fourth-rated defense in all the NFL got beat down over the course of the game, and once the fourth quarter and overtime hit, they had very little to nothing less.
Jason Campbell was definitely shaky...at best. Both INTs were completely his fault and he really looked tentative at times. But when it counted he made a great throw to Chris Cooley in OT on third down. Again, not a pretty performance from JC, but it was enough to get the victory.
The return to Gibbs football gave me one fo those smiles that Matt always has when he sits down to chow on the Matt Brown meal from Sbarro at the mall. Very few probably know what this entails, but just imagine one of those ear-to-ear grins on Tim Robbins face from Shawshank Redemption. You know the grin when he sees Morgan Freeman's character walking down the beach at the end.
I really liked what I saw out of the defense. They looked like the mean and nasty badasses from a couple seasons back. But before I go any further...ummm Fred Smoot...what the fuck was that? I don't think I've ever seen a cornerback get singled out to the degree that Smoot did and then watch as said cornerback does nothing but allow completions. Seriously, I bet if we look at Trent Green's stats from the game...about 3/4 of his pass completions went to receivers covered by the man once known for such eloquent lines as "75 percent of the world is covered by water, the rest is covered by Fred Smoot". Seriously, no wonder Minnesota let him go because he just looked awful out there. I almost got kicked out of the sports bar I was watching the game at because I threw a chair after Smoot dropped that pick six at the end of the fourth quarter.
The action figure version has better hands than the real one.
Luckily, though, the Skins get Philly next week and let's be real here: they have soem pitiful wide receivers. Reggie Brown as a number one? C'mon, you've got to be kidding me. It's too bad they still have Donovan McNabb because no matter how bad he played last week against the Packers, we all know he's a Redskins killer. And I think we all know my hate for everything Eagle-related. That's what made this opening win so much more special. First, the Packer kicker made the game winning field goal to give the Iggles the big loss and about 30 seconds later Suisham hit that no doubter kick right down the middle of the two uprights. (By the way, I don't want to blow him up to fast, but I've got a weird feeling the Skins may have a keeper in Suishm. He was spectacularly solid, something this team has been missing since the days of Chip Lohmiller.)
All in all, it was a win. Nothing to get extremely excited about, but then again every win counts in the NFL. I'm just getting myself prepared for a lot more games that come down to the wire because that's just the style these Skins need to play in order to be successful. The defense needs to be solid, the running game needs to grind down the opposing team, and Jason Campbell has to make enough plays to keep the defense honest. And if this is going to be a playoff campaign, I plan on losing a couple years off my life simply because of all the late game stress that I will obviously go through as all these games come down to the wire. Such is life of a team that has made the playoffs twice in 15 seasons.
Nothing would make me happier than beating the Eagles in their home opener to put them at 0-2. Literally nothing...not even sex. Yeah, I want this win badly.
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