(photo by Brian Murphy)
11. No Hawaii for London – Despite London Fletcher’s impressive season – in which the middle linebacker racked up an NFL-best 166 tackles, 14 quarterback pressures, three forced fumbles, two interceptions and 1.5 sacks – the 36-year-old will not be participating in the Pro Bowl this year.
In fact, the only person associated with the Redskins who earned a trip to the NFL’s glorified all-star game is cheerleader Abby, as Washington will not be sending a single player to Hawaii for the Pro Bowl for the first time since 1993.*
*Unless, of course, someone backs out due to injury, which is always a possibility.
Fletcher is a first alternate, behind San Francisco’s Patrick Willis and Chicago’s Brian Urlacher – even though his stats far surpass Urlacher’s this season. But this is what happens when your team goes 5-11.
So while it sucks for Fletcher, who absolutely deserves to be recognized as one of the league’s elite, it’s not exactly out of the ordinary for bad teams with abysmal records to miss out on positive recognition.
10. Mister Rogers New Neighborhood – Cornerback Carlos Rogers might have been Washington’s least appreciated players over the last decade. During his six seasons in D.C., he was a solid cover corner, but his hands were made of stone. Therefore, local fans only cared about how many would-be interceptions the veteran failed to haul in over the years, rather than accepting him for who he was.
Once head coach Mike Shanahan took over the keys to the franchise, it was clear Rogers’ days in D.C. were numbered. The 30-year-old signed a one-year deal with San Francisco this past offseason and has thrived in his new environment – picking off six passes, which puts him one behind the NFL lead.
To put that in perspective, Rogers had as many interceptions in one season with the 49ers as he did in his last five seasons in Washington combined.
And let’s not forget defensive end Andre Carter, who finished the season with 10 sacks in 14 games for New England after being let go by the current regime because he didn’t fit into their current 3-4 scheme. For better or worse, those two former mainstays remained highly productive even after they were deemed expendable.
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(photo by Brian Murphy)
1. “Communication Breakdown” by Led Zeppelin
This game, and the 2011 season in general, can be summed up by one sequence of plays that ended the first half.
The Washington Redskins had the ball on the 4-yard line with 26 seconds remaining in the first half when quarterback Rex Grossman dropped back and threw a pass in the corner of the endzone to receiver Santana Moss.
As Moss made a play on the ball, a Philadelphia Eagles defender essentially mugged him, but no penalty was called. Clearly frustrated, Moss made a costly mistake by taking off his helmet while voicing his opinion of the non-call.
That earned him a 15-yard penalty for unsportsmanlike conduct for taking his helmet off on the field of play and pushed Washington back to the 19-yard line. Two plays later, Grossman connected with receiver Jabar Gaffney for an eight-yard gain. The only problem? He was tackled in the middle of the field on the 7-yard line and the Redskins had no timeouts remaining.
The call from the sidelines was to send the field goal unit out in hopes of picking up three points on a chip shot attempt before the clock expired. The only problem? When long snapper Nick Sundberg and friends ran onto the field, the offensive players were screaming out “Spike the ball!” and center Will Montgomery was lined up in the middle of the line with his hand of the football.
Because no one had any clue what anyone else involved was doing, the Redskins missed out on easy points and went into halftime trying to figure out what went wrong.
2. “Bad Habit” by The Offspring
Even when things went well for the Redskins, the team did its best to ruin the moment. Like, for example, when running back Roy Helu caught a pass underneath from Grossman and raced down the sideline for a 47-yard touchdown less than five minutes into the second half.
The touchdown was huge because it cut the Philadelphia lead to 10-7, but any momentum Washington would have gained from the eight-play, 80-yard drive was nullified by the unnecessary celebration by wide out Donte Stallworth. For reasons that remain unclear, Stallworth ran up to Helu in the endzone, dropped to a knee and began dusting off Helu’s shoes.*
*I was standing on the sidelines for both of these plays and they elicited two very different reactions. The non-call on Moss had the entire Redskins sideline fuming. Head coach Mike Shanahan stormed over to the nearest official and yelled “Are you watching the game?”
On the same play, punter Sav Rocca, who was standing next to me, yelled “Crikey!” which was amazingly awesome. But when Stallworth was whistled for his penalty, Shanahan was screaming into his headset “We know we can’t clean off his @#$%ing shoes!” while staring daggers into Stallworth a few feet away. Needless to say, he wasn’t pleased.
That resulted in a 15-yard penalty for unsportsmanlike conduct, which gave the Eagles better field position on their next drive. Philadelphia marched down the field on a 13-play, 72-yard drive that resulted in a field goal and never looked back — scoring touchdowns on three of their final four possessions in the 34-10 blowout.
And it all started to fall apart thanks to Moss, an 11-year pro, and Stallworth, who has nine years of NFL experience. That’s a combined 20 years between the two veterans, and yet, they both made mind-numbingly stupid decisions that cost their team.
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