[12thMan]

Now that we officially have eight games under our belts, I think it's okay to peek ahead to the rest of the schedule and begin, well, a little playoff chatter.

Couple of things worth mentioning: First of all, thank God the NFL 'aint a beauty peagant, because the Redskins would lose in the category of style points every week, which is probably the most frustrating thing about this team right now. We are no doubt the ugly duckling of the NFL. That being said, this team has no reason to hold its head down one bit. Fact is, they've been competitive in all but one game this year - one.

Next week sets up, until now, arguably the biggest game of the year for the Redskins which could have playoff implications. If we can somehow keep the ball out of McNabb's hands long enough, and give Portis the ball at least 25 times, this game could easily be a 14 point win over Philly. Somehow I think the words, "six and three" will do wonders for this team's psyche.

The NFC North is the wild card in all of this. One would think only one team makes the playoffs from this division. The Packers are in front now, but the Lions are breathing right down their necks, and Adrian Peter...I mean the Vikings are hovering. So you never know what could happen there. But since we've played both the Lions and the Packers, as a Skins fan I'm hoping the Packers take the division, with the head to head tie-breaker going to us over the Lions. Hopefully by the time we travel to Minnesota to face Peterson, someone will have figured out how to slow that young man down. Somehow I doubt it though.

Of course all this talk of playoff and tie breakers is a bit premature, but we have to start thinking playoffs for the rest of way. Let's just hope Portis can grind out a few more 100 yd performances until big Randy Thomas returns. Talk about confidence booster, if we're still in the hunt when Thomas returns, the Skins could all of a sudden be a dangerous team.

Signing off,
12M