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(photo by Brian Murphy)

The Washington Redskins have qualified for the postseason three times since I began covering the team and while each of those three seasons was different, they all unfortunately ended the same — with a loss to the Seattle Seahawks.

The 2005 Redskins were just happy to be there, after barely squeaking by the Tampa Bay Buccaneers in the opening round and the ’07 Redskins were emotionally spent after needing to play perfect football the final month of the season just to make it in on the last day of the regular season. This year’s squad though, was young and hungry and — best of all — playing at home in front of a sellout crowd.

Sadly, injuries to too many key players — including quarterback Robert Griffin III — proved to be too much to overcome and Washington’s magical run ended in bittersweet fashion. Sure, this was a 3-6 team that improbably came out of the bye week like a bat out of hell while winning seven-straight games, but the journey’s ending was all too familiar.

Before you close the book on the 2012 Redskins though, please take a moment to peruse my favorite photos I was able to capture from the sidelines this week.

(photo by Brian Murphy)

It’s no secret — the Washington Redskins and their first round opponent in the 2012 playoffs, the Seattle Seahawks, are very similar on offense.

Both teams are led by gifted rookie passers (Robert Griffin III and Russell Wilson) who managed to exceed expectations in the first year. Both teams love to put the ball in the hands of an elite running backs (Alfred Morris and Marshawn Lynch) who plays with a physical and punishing style. Both teams have little trouble moving up and down the field while putting a ton of points on the board.

But the one area the Redskins appear to have an advantage over the Seahawks is at wide out — where, thanks to Pierre Garcon, they have a true number-one receiver.

With apologies to Golden Tate and Sidney Rice, neither player brings as much to the table as Garcon, who head coach Mike Shanahan believes would have finished the season with between 1,300-1,400 yards had he remained healthy all year.

Of course, Seattle might have the top cornerback tandem in all of football this season in Richard Sherman and Brandon Browner, so Garcon and the rest of the Redskins receivers will still have their work cut out for them Sunday.

“They’re making plays,” Garcon said of Sherman and Browner. “They’re helping their defense win ball games and doing a good job of breaking up passes and making plays. That’s what makes them so good.”

Does Garcon relish the chance to go toe-to-toe with bigger, more physical cornerbacks, like Seattle boasts in their secondary?

“I always look forward to playing football,” he said. “Whenever I get the chance to play football, it’s an opportunity for me to prove what I can do. Hopefully it goes well on Sunday, but I always look forward to playing the game. They can take me however they want, but I’m going to play hard, be physical and play my game. Regardless of what they do, I’m going to be me. I can’t change because of who I’m playing against.

“It doesn’t matter who we play against — physical corners or non-physical — I’m going to be me and continue to play hard and do what I have to do to help my team,” he added.

Every defense has holes and ways they can be exploited. What do you see when you break down film of Seattle defense?

(photo by Brian Murphy)

[Editor's note: This season, the Washington Redskins have asked me to occasionally write feature stories for the team's official website, Redskins.com. This article is my latest contribution, so please check it out.]

Fans of the Washington Redskins got to see what rookie quarterback Kirk Cousins was all about when he was forced to fill in for an injured Robert Griffin III in the final two minutes of a December game against the Baltimore Ravens.

The 24-year-old was thrust into action with his team trailing by eight points and the game on the line after Griffin suffered a knee injury on a hit by Ravens defensive lineman Haloti Ngata, and he promptly led the Redskins to a thrilling come-from-behind overtime victory.

Cousins’ clutch performance enabled the Redskins to keep their playoff hopes alive and ultimately helped pave the way to Washington’s first NFC East title since 1999 – which is funny, because the Barrington, Illinois native hadn’t even started playing tackle football yet the last time the burgundy and gold reigned supreme in the division.

Cousins didn’t begin playing tackle football until the following year when, as a sixth grader, he finally convinced his parents to let him give it a shot.

“Out in the suburbs where we lived in Chicago, Walter Payton and Mike Singletary lived in that area and both had decided they wouldn’t let their kids play tackle football until they were older,” Cousins said. “They had both played football for so long, gotten beaten up so much and knew the pounding that you take as a football player and felt like you could still learn the rules of the game playing flag football or playing in the backyard. So when guys who played in the NFL and are Hall of Famers are encouraging my dad to not push it too early, my dad listened.”

While his playing days might have started a little bit later in life than other kids, it didn’t take Cousins long to catch up.

“I was never the best athlete,” he said. “I was always a good athlete, but I was never the fastest, the biggest or the strongest. But like my dad always told me, I just have a knack for throwing a football. There’s just something about the nature of throwing a football that came very natural to me. I never really had to work on it and no one has ever told me to change or fix my throwing motion. People just say the way I do it is a good way to do it.”

When he was 13, Cousins’ family moved to Michigan and immediately began searching for a high school with a top-notch football program. Well, things don’t always go as planned and Cousins ended up at Holland Christian School, which wasn’t exactly a dynasty in waiting.

“We were looking for a school system with a good football program because that’s what I knew I wanted to do,” Cousins said. “The school I ended up at though had just started football. As a result, it was still in the early stages and we weren’t very good, the coaching staff wasn’t very experienced and we had to kind of learn on the fly. I had a great experience, but I didn’t really have that powerhouse football experience that a lot of the guys in the NFL probably had.”

Making matters worse, Cousins suffered an injury in his very first game of varsity football during his junior year.

“You dream of playing varsity football,” he said. “With no guaranteed scholarships and in my first game on varsity, I get hit and break my ankle. I had to sit out the rest of the season and it really set me back and hurt me with recruiting.”

By the nature of the position, quarterbacks are going to get hit. They’re going to be knocked down. The good ones get back up and find a way to overcome adversity. Even at an early age, Cousins proved this was one of his biggest strengths.

Click here for the full article.

(photo by Brian Murphy)

Before the 2012 season, expectations were admittedly low for the Washington Redskins.

Sure, they had just landed the highly-touted Heisman Trophy winner Robert Griffin III to solidify the quarterback position, but that didn’t stop the so-called “experts” at ESPN The Magazine from predicting a 2-14 record for Washington this season.

Thankfully, the burgundy and gold were leaps and bounds better than that. Even after losing all of that salary cap space to commissioner Roger Goodell and the NFL mafia and with a paper-thin secondary and injuries to several key contributors, Washington was able to circle the wagons and win the NFC East for the first time since 1999.

How did the Redskins go from worst to first for the first time in franchise history? The answer might surprise you.

It all started when the team was forced to place long snapper Nick Sundberg on injured reserve after the third-year pro broke his left arm against the New Orleans Saints Week 1. You see, even though Sundberg suffered the injury at the end of the first half, he continued to play the rest of the game with a broken arm.

As you might imagine, this impressed the football gods.

Because the Redskins placed Sundberg on the injured reserve under the newly-established category of “designated to return,” it meant that rather than shutting down the 25-year-old after just one game, they were able to shelve him for eight games and then he was eligible to return to action.

What a decision that turned out to be, because, for my money, Sundberg was unquestionably the team’s most valuable player in 2012.

(photo by Brian Murphy)

Well, the 2012 NFL season has come to a conclusion and yet, the Washington Redskins still live to play another day.

Thanks to a remarkable seven-game winning streak, the Redskins claimed their first NFC East division title since ’99 and will now host just the second playoff game in FedEx Field’s miserable history this Sunday when the Seattle Seahawks come to town.

While most of the world is quick to praise the immensely-talented tandem of quarterback Robert Griffin III and running back Alfred Morris, it would be foolish to assume this magical run has come solely because of those two rookies. Which is why Grantland’s Bill Barnwell wrote a column this week suggesting Washington’s improved defense is the biggest reason the team made it to the postseason.

Washington’s improvement, meanwhile, owes more to its defense than you might expect. It’s a leap I wrote about earlier in this run, but the numbers bear out that the Redskins’ defense has had more to do with their big playoff run than has the offense. During their 3-6 start, the Washington offense averaged 25.1 points per game, a figure that improved to an even 30 during the 7-0 finish. That’s a 4.9-point difference. Meanwhile, the Washington defense went from allowing 27.6 points per game during the rough seas of September and October to an even 20.0 points per game after Election Day, a difference of 7.6 points. Plenty of those points came in garbage time against the Cowboys on Thanksgiving Day, too, so that figure even understates the genuine improvement this unit has made over the final seven weeks of the year.

How did they get better? Well, the obvious indicators don’t show any notable changes. Washington forced 16 turnovers through nine games, an average of 1.8 per contest and a figure that rose slightly to 2.1 turnovers per game over their final seven contests. That’s not it. They’ve been bad on third down on both sides of the divide, allowing opposing offenses to convert 43.8 percent of the time during the 3-6 run (which was seventh-worst in the league), a figure that’s up to 45.6 percent after their bye week. Their dismal first-down pass defense allowed 8.8 yards per pass attempt during the first nine weeks of the year, a figure only topped by the Saints and Chiefs. Their more recent run has seen them allow a more respectable 6.8 yards per throw. Their sack rate has also improved from 3.8 percent to 6.0 percent. The steps above that are positive all help a little bit, but not enough to single-handedly change the Redskins, who seem to be getting better out of sheer will.

With that in mind, I talked to nose tackle Barry Cofield to try and gain some perspective from the vocal leader on just what has changed on his side of the ball to allow defensive coordinator Jim Haslett and friends to save a once-sinking ship.

(photo by Brian Murphy)

The Washington Redskins did the unthinkable Sunday evening — they not only rose to the challenge of playing against their hated rival on a national stage with a playoff birth of the line, but they managed to exceed expectations in the way they handled the Dallas Cowboys.

Their 28-18 victory was a blast from the past, as the Redskins ran up and down the field en route to their first NFC East title in 13 years.

“It’s safe to say, I’m the happiest guy in the room,” said Redskins quarterback Robert Griffin III. “I was 9 years old in 1999. So I stand before you at 22, and the Redskins are the NFC East champions. To me, talking to Alfred after the game, it’s the first time the Redskins have been champs since ’99 and we came in and we did it in one year. The sky’s the limit for this team.”

Alfred, of course, is Redskins running back Alfred Morris, who rushed for 200 yards and three touchdowns in the biggest game of his young career. He too, was in elementary school the last time Washington was good enough to win a division title — which is seriously depressing when you stop and think about it.

But this isn’t a time to linger on the sad days. This is a time to celebrate the improbable journey this year’s Washington Redskins have taken us all on. Thanks to a magical seven-game winning streak, Washington will now host a home playoff game for just the second time in FedEx Field history.

So with that in mind, please feel free to peruse my favorite photos I was able to capture from the sidelines this week. After all, there’s something truly enjoyable about watching the Dallas Cowboys fall flat on their collective faces on a national stage.

(photo by Brian Murphy)

1. “Damn It Feels Good To Be A Gangsta” by Geto Boys

Coming into their final game of the regular season, the Washington Redskins had a chance to back their way into the playoffs. Had the Chicago Bears and Minnesota Vikings both lost, the burgundy and gold would have been a lock for the postseason regardless of the outcome of their rivalry game with the Dallas Cowboys.

So naturally, both the Bears and VIkings won their games, and the Redskins had just one option left if they wanted to continue their magical run — beat Dallas.

Faced with a “win and you’re in” situation, the Redskins looked every bit like a powerhouse — punishing the Cowboys 28-18 with a heavy dose of the NFL’s best ground game and leaving no doubt that they belong in the playoffs, thanks to a seven-game winning streak.

“I’m really proud of our football team,” said head coach Mike Shanahan. “For them to fight for seven weeks to put themselves in this position just says a lot about who they are and what level they’ve played at for about seven weeks. That we accomplished our first goal is really a tribute to the character of the guys in that locker room.”

Each of the last two seasons, the Redskins were in last place in the NFC East. That’s because head coach Mike Shanahan and company went just 11-21.

Now though, the Redskins are the division’s lone postseason representative. They beat their biggest rival on a national stage to improve to 5-1 against the NFC East and to go 10-6 on the year.

And best of all, because Washington was able to go from “worst to first” for the first time in franchise history, the Redskins will finally get another chance to play football in January while the Cowboys, Giants and Eagles are forced to buy a ticket if they want to get anywhere near the playoffs.