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04Sep

redskins-buccaneers playlist

(photo by Brian Murphy)

1. “Big Girls Don’t Cry” by Fergie^

There’s never a dull moment when the Washington Redskins take on the Tampa Bay Buccaneers.

Off the top of my head, I can recall three memorable match-ups between these two franchises: the return of Hall of Fame head coach Joe Gibbs,* the Mike Alstott elbow game and the playoff win where safety Sean Taylor returned a fumble for a touchdown and then was later ejected for spitting in the face of running back Michael Pittman.

*You might recall running back Clinton Portis taking his first carry as a member of the Redskins 64 yards for a thrilling touchdown. That was this same game against Tampa.

That’s without even mentioning the previous playoff match-up between these two teams way back in 2000 that ended in heartbreaking fashion for the burgundy and gold. So yeah, even a meaningless preseason game takes on a bigger feeling when the ‘Skins and Bucs square off.

And you know what?

This game lived up to the heightened expectations as the Redskins backups rallied to defeat Tampa’s reserves 29-24, thanks to a 41-yard bomb from quarterback Kellen Clemens to receiver Donte Stallworth with just over a minute remaining to play in the game.

2. “Ain’t No Other Man” by Christina Aguilera^

For the second-consecutive season, head coach Mike Shanahan wisely opted to rest the bulk of his starters in the preseason finale.

While I’ve been critical of other decisions made by Shanahan (like dragging Donovan McNabb’s name through the mud just to prove a point or dragging his feet in naming a starting quarterback this season), I’ve got nothing against being overly cautious with your starters in the preseason.

After losing rookie defensive lineman Jarvis Jenkins for the year due to an injury against the Baltimore Ravens, Shanahan could have forfeited the final two preseason games as far as I was concerned. That’s how much promise Jenkins appeared to have and how much I hate seeing players lost for the year in meaningless exhibition games.

So while players such as running back Tim Hightower and receiver Santana Moss were given the night off, the Shanahan clan wanted to give quarterback John Beck one final opportunity to claim his place among the starters.

To ensure Beck made it out in one piece, Shanahan even kept his starting offensive line in the lineup as well. All Beck needed to do was pad his preseason stats against a bunch of guys only days away from bagging groceries in Tampa and the job was his.

There’s just one problem with the plan – Beck failed to deliver. The “chosen one” looked downright mediocre against the Buccaneers backups, completing 10 of 21 passes for 108 yards with an interception and a QB rating of 43.4.

Normally, it’s tough for a guy to stand out on a night he doesn’t even take the field. But thanks to the lackluster effort by Beck, Rex Grossman left FedEx Field smelling like roses Thursday night.

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29Aug

redskins-ravens playlist

(photo by Brian Murphy)

1. All of the Lights” by Kanye West

While many fans of the Washington Redskins were downright giddy after the team’s first two playoff* games, I tried to remain cautiously optimistic.

For more than a decade now, my favorite football team has done far more winning in the offseason than in the regular season.

*Fine, they were just preseason games. But they sure did feel like playoff games in D.C.

The Redskins have made the playoffs just twice since 2000, and yet, seemingly every year the desperate fanbase finds a way to talk itself into believing “this year is different.”

Sure, that’s probably because management has usually brought in a new head coach, coordinator or quarterback with the promise of future success, but I’ve been burned too many times to blindly take that leap of faith anymore.

When the Redskins won their preseason opener against the Pittsburgh Steelers 16-7, I chalked it up to catching a quality team on an off night. One week later, Washington won again, but it came at the expense of an Indianapolis Colts team who a.) didn’t have Peyton Manning and b.) couldn’t care less about the preseason.

Sure, that’s two wins over two perennial playoff teams, but I remained unconvinced. In order to believe this Redskins team will be any different than what I’ve been subjected to, I needed to see a similar performance against the Baltimore Ravens in the third preseason game.

Why? Because the Ravens really, really care about preseason games. So much so that they call timeouts with seconds remaining just so they can run up the score.

On top of that, Baltimore has a history of beating down the burgundy and gold during the preseason.

Last year, the Ravens dismantled the Redskins 23-3. The year before was even worse, with Baltimore blanking Washington 23-0. That’s two victories by a lopsided 46-3 margin.

2. “The Show Goes On” By Lupe Fiasco

As you know by now, the Redskins got off to a great start against the Ravens, with Baltimore quarterback Joe Flacco throwing an ill-advised pass that was picked off by Redskins cornerback DeAngelo Hall, who then returned it 52 yards for the touchdown.

“We started off a little slow, obviously,” said Flacco, who tried to make up for his poor passing attempt by trying to horse-collar tackle during the return.

The Redskins struck again later in the first period, when running back Tim Hightower took off for a 37-yard score to put Washington up 14-0.

That’s when I joked that the Redskins should no longer be considered the “offseason champs,” but that they should be officially referred to as the “preseason champs.” It was impossible to expect the team’s good fortunes to continue forever, but it was definitely an enjoyable nine quarters of football.

Even though head coach Mike Shanahan continued to rotate Rex Grossman and John Beck in at quarterback, the offense continued to move the ball up and down the field.

The defense, which used to be the strength of Washington’s football team back when Gregg Williams routinely had his unit ranked in the top 10, finally began to show signs of returning to prominence.

Special teams, easily the most erratic unit in Washington, continued to shine with kicker Graham Gano converting his field goal chances whenever the offense stalled.

Any way you spun it; there was a lot to like about the Redskins at that point.

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22Aug

redskins-colts playlist

(photo by Andy Lyons)

1. “Irresistible Force” by Jane’s Addiction

Led by quarterback John Beck, the Washington Redskins soundly defeated the Indianapolis Colts Friday, 16-3.

The victory marked the 29-year-old’s first action in nearly a year – with Beck last taking the field in Washington’s 20-10 loss to the Arizona Cardinals in the 2010 preseason finale.

And here’s something to consider: Beck didn’t even start the Cardinals game.

No-name quarterback Richard Bartel got the start that night, with head coach Mike Shanahan content to let Bartel and Beck alternate series while Donovan McNabb and Rex Grossman took the night off with the rest of the team’s starters.

One year later, Beck has suddenly risen to the status of “chosen one,” with Shanahan apparently handing the 30-year-old the starting team’s gig during the lockout.

With all eyes locked on him as he took the field in Indy, Beck played as well as even the most optimistic of Shanahans could have hoped for – completing 14 of 17 passes for 140 yards while leading the Redskins offense to four-straight scoring drives.

On his best play of the night, a 3rd-and-12 with just over five minutes left in the first half, Beck showed why his coaches have so much confidence in a guy who hasn’t started a regular season game since 2007.

With the pocket collapsing around him, Beck stepped up and fired a sidearm pass to receiver Donte Stallworth for a 23-yard gain that kept the drive alive. Any way you look at it that was a big-time play for a guy the Miami Dolphins and Baltimore Ravens gave up on.

2. “One” by Metallica

Now, before Redskins fans (and coaches, for that matter) get too carried away, I do have one point of contention with Beck’s otherwise stellar performance against the Colts.

In four trips to the red zone, Beck threw a grand total of one pass into the end zone.

Repeat after me: one.

And it was a pass with a high degree of difficulty to fullback/tight end Mike Sellers, who has trouble catching passes with no degree of difficulty.

The Redskins finished their first drive with a one-yard run by recently acquired tailback Tim Hightower, but the next three drives all stalled and Washington was forced to settle for field goal attempts.

If Beck wants to win over the burgundy and gold faithful, he’s going to have to do more than dink and dunk his way down the field. ‘Skins fans still haven’t completely forgiven Mark Brunell, who went from the gunslinger who connected with Santana Moss in Dallas to the guy who completed 22-consecutive passes against Houston for roughly 44 yards.*

*Okay, he actually threw for 267 yards that day, but seriously, two thirds of his passes were thrown to targets behind the line of scrimmage.

If Beck wants to be taken seriously by people not named Shanahan, he’s got to stop throwing passes to Sellers and start taking chances downfield. Other than that, there was a lot to like in his 2011 debut.

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15Aug

redskins-steelers playlist

(photo by Brian Murphy)

1. “Look At Me Now” by Chris Brown (feat. Lil Wayne and Busta Rhymes)

Plenty of people poked fun at Redskins quarterback Rex Grossman’s appearance once he re-signed with Washington, but regardless of whether or not he could stand to lose a few pounds, the nine-year pro turned in a respectable performance against the Pittsburgh Steelers in his preseason debut.

Against a talented Steelers defense coming off a Super Bowl appearance, Grossman was on target from the first time he took the field. The 30-year-old completed four of five passes for 53 yards on Washington’s opening drive of the game – including a 16-yarder to receiver Santana Moss on a drive that started on the 1-yard line.

“Anytime you start the season backed up on the 1-yard line and get it all the way down to the 10, that’s a good start,” said Grossman, who completed 19 of 26 passes for 207 yards and one touchdown. “We got into a rhythm and pretty much played consistent throughout the first half.”

John Beck’s name might have garnered more headlines throughout the offseason, but Grossman is now in his third season in offensive coordinator Kyle Shanahan’s system. The Redskins went on to defeat the Steelers 16-7 largely because Grossman and friends got the night started off on the right foot.

“I thought Rex did a very good job,” Mike Shanahan said. “He managed the game well. I thought he showed a lot of poise in the pocket. I was happy with the two-minute drive right at the end. He utilized the clock well, and made some good throws.”

Beck will have his chance during the preseason to stake his claim to the starting job, but games like this show why Grossman could ultimately be the team’s starter when the regular season kicks off Sept. 11.

2. “Made in America” by Toby Keith

The Redskins had two priorities this offseason – get rid of the off-the-field distractions that plagued this franchise a year ago and get younger across the board.

Granted, we’re only going off of one game – and it’s a meaningless preseason game to boot – but there were definitely more than a few reasons to be optimistic on this night.

The offensive line, which is still viewed by many to be a work-in-progress, was able to buy Grossman enough time to make those plays. Newly-acquired running back Tim Hightower showed why the front office targeted him – rushing for 44 yards on 10 carries.

Not bad for a guy who the Arizona Cardinals basically gave away for free.

On the other side of the ball, the new and improved front seven was able to get pressure in the Pittsburgh backfield thanks to guys like defensive lineman Stephen Bowen, who did a solid job of winning his one-on-one match-ups.

Earlier in the week, defensive lineman Barry Cofield was vocal about wanting to play, and he made his presence known as well. All in all, the Redskins outgained the Steelers 452-186 on the night and dominated time of possession 39:25 to 20:35.

“Quite frankly, we got outplayed in just about all areas: blocking, tackling, running, throwing, kicking,” said Steelers head coach Mike Tomlin. “That team was better prepared tonight than us.”

Trying to break down offensive and defensive schemes during the preseason can be a fruitless exercise because too often coaches are happy to stick to the basics when the games don’t count. But you can still get a look at individual players and see how they fare.

On that front, it’s so far, so good for the Redskins after Week 1.

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03Jan

giants playlist

(photo by Brian Murphy)

1. “Come As You Are” by Nirvana

Mercifully, the Washington Redskins’ 2010 season is over, thanks to a 17-14 loss to the New York Giants at FedEx Field Sunday.

The game, in many ways, represented the season as a whole – with the Redskins outplaying their opponent for much of the day, only to fall short because of self-inflicted issues. Sounds familiar, right?

Missed extra points. Failed two-minute drives. Blown 17-point leads. Untimely turnovers. Seriously, that’s how it’s been all season long – regardless of the opponent, the Redskins have done as much to lose games as they have to win them. So why not end the regular season on the same depressing note you’ve played the rest of the year?

And honestly, I could go on about the strong play of Santana Moss and Anthony Armstrong, the promise of Ryan Torain at running back or the potential we’ve saw at the end of the season from Kevin Barnes at safety and Anthony Bryant at nose tackle, but let’s not kid ourselves — the better team won yesterday and the Redskins have some work to do before they can compete with the big boys.

2. “Sick of You” by Cake

And while it hasn’t really mattered who the opponent has been this season, the fact is, the Redskins simply cannot beat the Giants.

Sunday’s game was New York’s ninth victory in their last 10 games against Washington – with the lone setback coming at the hands of quarterback Todd Collins in a game with 60-mile-per-hour winds back in 2007. Otherwise, the last five years worth of games have been nothing but frustrating for the burgundy and gold.

In fact, the Giants have outscored the Redskins 242-134 over the last 10 matchups, which quick math says comes out to an average score of 24-13.

When your average result over a five-year period is a double digit loss to your supposed rival, there’s something wrong. So when you’re dreaming up your wishlist for Santa next year, please remember to add “See the Redskins defeat the Giants again before I die” near the top of the list.

3. “Written On The Forehead” by P.J. Harvey

You don’t need fancy statistics to know that when your team turns the ball over four times, you’re not going to win many games.

Likewise, fancy charts and graph aren’t needed to illustrate that a kicker who can’t consistently make 30-yard attempts should not consider making long term plans in town. So there’s no real need to beat that dead horse.

But I will say this to anyone who believes that Rex Grossman should be given an opportunity to be the team’s starter in 2011 – the guy is a turnover machine. He’s always been turnover prone and yesterday showed his biggest weakness – he has no pocket presence. It’s as if he has no clue when a defender is closing in on him.

Some quarterbacks have an uncanny ability to feel when a pass rusher is closing in on them, which enables them to step up in the pocket to avoid the pressure. Not Grossman. He stands there blindly as if the thought of someone pursuing him from the blind side isn’t even a remote possibility in his world.

In related news, Grossman has 56 turnovers in 37 career games played. On a team that has very little margin for error, you simply cannot rest your hopes on a guy that careless with the football.

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20Dec

cowboys playlist

(photo by Brian Murphy)

1. “The One I Love” by R.E.M.

It should come as no surprise that the Washington Redskins lost 33-30 to the Dallas Cowboys at Cowboys Stadium. After all, the Redskins have lost six of their last seven games after starting the season 4-3.

But the story of this game is the fact that the Redskins officially ended the Donovan McNabb era and willingly turned the football over to backup quarterback Rex Grossman.

Forget pedigree. Forget resumes. Throw out accolades and accomplishments. In the end, head coach Mike Shanahan and offensive coordinator Kyle Shanahan decided they’d rather have the Redskins offense run by The Rex Cannon.

“I thought Rex did an excellent job today,” Shanahan said. “I wanted to give him an opportunity and I thought he took advantage of that opportunity. It’s always tough when you don’t play for a while, especially with the type of week we had in practice, the conditions were a little tough, but he did a good job. He came back in the second, demonstrated a lot of poise and played well.

It’s a crazy turn of events – considering all the talk of how Shanahan never won a Super Bowl in Denver without John Elway, and all of the comparisons between McNabb and Elway during the offseason. With that in mind, it’s nearly impossible to imagine that it took just 13 games to decide the Redskins are better off without McNabb.

But that’s where we are, and now it’s simply a matter of how the Shanahans choose to end the McNabb era. Do they handle the situation with class and show respect to the veteran on his way out the door or do they continue to attack McNabb’s character as they did earlier in the year when benching him against Detroit was justified by questioning Donovan’s intelligence and conditioning?

If I had to guess, I’d say the dynamic coaching duo doesn’t suddenly flip a switch and handle McNabb with grace and class. But hell, after this, nothing these two do would really surprise me at this point.

2. “Welcome to the Family” by Avenged Sevenfold

So how did Grossman do in his burgundy and gold debut? Well, he had a pretty outstanding showing – completing 25 of 43 passes for 322 yards with four touchdowns, two interceptions and a fumble and a quarterback rating of 93.4.

The offense was nowhere to be seen early, but Grossman didn’t panic. He calmly let his teammates know that they were only a play from turning things around and then, surprisingly, Grossman began to deliver.

“We didn’t get a lot of things going early,” Grossman said. “[We] couldn’t pick up a first down to try and get through our game plan, but once you make first downs and get able to run all the plays that are in the game plan that offensive coordinator Kyle Shanahan drew-up, then you can start attacking what they’re doing on defense.”

It’s no coincidence that Grossman gave a shoutout to the younger Shanahan in his post-game comments. The two aren’t exactly kindred spirits in the sense that former Redskins backup Todd Collins and former offensive coordinator Al Saunders were, but the two obviously have a comfort level and familiarity with each other.

No one can argue with a straight face that Grossman is a better quarterback than McNabb. But what the Shanahans have said definitely over the last few days is that in their opinion, Grossman is better suited to run their offense.

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13Dec

buccaneers playlist

(photo by Brian Murphy)

1. “New Low” by Middle Class Rut

It’s not that the Washington Redskins lost 17-16 to the Tampa Bay Buccaneers at FedEx Field Sunday. After all, they’ve lost plenty of games over the last decade or so. But it’s how they lost that makes this game stand out.

Just when you think you’ve seen it all, the Redskins go and find a new and creative way to frustrate their fanbase – botching an extra point in the deciding seconds to ensure that overtime wasn’t needed.

Seriously, we’re talking about an extra point. A gimme. A freebie. It’s supposed to be automatic, which is why college football makes teams go for a two-point conversion in overtime. The NCAA figures that a game could conceivably go on forever if teams were able to just kick extra points.

And yet, our beloved Redskins found a way to screw it up.

“We win as a team and we lose as a team,” said quarterback Donovan McNabb. “We don’t point fingers nor do we blame anyone. I think each and every person can take something out of that and say, ‘If I would have done this, it would have given us a better chance of winning it.’ You tip your hat off to a young team. Tampa just continued to be resilient and kept fighting and found themselves scoring a touchdown when they needed it and had our backs against the wall for a minute. Offensively we were able to get things going and got down to score a touchdown. We just weren’t able to finish.”

There are probably 10 other moments in this game that reasonable human beings like McNabb can point to as a missed opportunity for Washington, but this is the lasting image that folks will remember for the foreseeable future.

2. “Full Of Regret” By Danko Jones

The reason this loss is so disappointing is that the Redskins, thanks to the return of running back Ryan Torain, jumped out of the gate and looked as though they might cruise to a convincing victory over a battered and bruised Buccaneers team.

After just six carries, Torain had 101 yards rushing. By the time the first quarter was over, Torain had 121 yards on the ground and the 24-year-old had 158 rushing yards at the half. It was the best first-half performance by any running back in the NFL since 2005, and yet, the Redskins still couldn’t win the game.

“It was nice to see Ryan come back,” said head coach Mike Shanahan. “You are never really sure how a guy is going to come back after he has been out for a while. I thought Ryan came back and did everything he has to do. Unfortunately, with a couple of three-and-outs at the start of the second half, all of a sudden before you know it, it is in the fourth quarter and we are just kind of looking for a first down to get some momentum going.”

There are a lot of players in that Redskins locker room who should be doing some serious soul searching this morning. Torain, who was playing for the first time since Halloween, is not one of them. If he can ever find a way to stay healthy, there’s little doubt Torain could be the team’s feature back moving forward.

Unfortunately for everyone involved, history shows that’s far from a certainty.

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