Om Field: Redskins Reality Check

[-Om-]

Redskins Reality Check
Oct. 23, 2008

It’s one thing for “the media” to lose sight of reality—it’s what they do. They have bills to pay and sponsors to appease; it’s their job to create drama, ignore context and blindly compress the marathon NFL season into weekly hype segments.

It’s another thing when fans and followers of a given team—those who take it seriously enough to read, listen and talk it up on a daily basis—let ourselves fall into the trap.

As “serious” Redskins fans, we’re supposed to know better.

Listening to a large percentage of callers to local sports talk radio, however, reading the blogs and message boards and even just batting things around in line at the grocery story, I’ve discovered there are many among us focusing this week on all that could go wrong when the 5-2 Redskins travel to 0-6 Detroit to play the Lions on Sunday.

The mantra I’ve heard more than any other, and find most jarring, is the one I’d like to address today:

“They have to win this one big.”

I beg to differ. Before getting into my reasoning, a brief overview is in order ...

CLICK HERE to read more

[Soup's Uncle]

Nice read...I'd still like to flatten them though. I nice 35+ point outing would be sweet.

[EternalEnigma21]

Completely disagree. There's a reason we want bigger margins of victory. The rams game is a glaring reminder of that. Dominating a team statistically in a loss hurts more than just getting beat. The players themselves will tell you that... that's why they speak of games they "should have won".

You write a lot of great blogs that I usually enjoy and look forward to reading, but once again you can't help but try to call out and divide up a fanbase that, at the moment, seems pretty united. Lavar is gone, Gibbs is gone, we're winning... damn let's call out people who want to see the skins win big against an abysmal opponent. Shame on them??? Seriously???

[irish]

All they need to do is win. Whether its by 1 in OT or by 30 in regulation. This is the NFL not college. How much a team wins by isnt important.

[MTK]

I agree with the article. A blowout isn't necessary to prove this is a good team. Whether they win 35-0 or 17-10, a win is a win at the end of the day and nobody has to apologize for being 6-2.

[redsk1]

Good article. However, I disagree. We've seen thru the first 7 weeks of the season that we're pretty good. We boast a top defense and a very good run game. Not to mention some elivated QB play and passing game. A top D and a good O. Hmmmm..all of these things together makes us a tough team to beat. Why not take advantage of these things and make a run for it?

A win is good no matter what, but listen, a squeeker that we win 13-10 ain't doing it for me. I think we have more talent and are playing better than that. We've got a shot at this thing. This year. 2008. After seeing the first 7 weeks, we should beat the Lions by 10+.

[MTK]

And the end of the year is anyone going to look back and wonder why the Skins didn't blow out Detroit? You count up the wins and go from there into the playoffs.

[FRPLG]

I agree with the premise that we don't need a blowout. I don't agree that fans should know better. Our team has been the shits for almost 2 decades. There is an entire generation of young (read: blog-type) fans who barely remember this team being good for more than fleeting moments. It is a fan base jaded by years and years of disappointment. Until we win and win consistently the fan base is going to be rightfully skeptical and grasping for definitive proof that we are any good. I swear we could win every game from here on out and we'd all be just as trigger happy on the negatvity as we are right now once the playoffs start. We've got a need for confidence and the only cure is a SB.

[dmek25]

OK. ill say it again. a win, is a win, is a win. can anyone remember any of the scores of the 1991 championship season? no, but i bet alot of us remember the record that season. the margin of success in the nfl is so slim, that ill take them any way i can get them

[-Om-]

Originally Posted by EternalEnigma21

Completely disagree. There's a reason we want bigger margins of victory. The rams game is a glaring reminder of that. Dominating a team statistically in a loss hurts more than just getting beat. The players themselves will tell you that... that's why they speak of games they "should have won".

You write a lot of great blogs that I usually enjoy and look forward to reading, but once again you can't help but try to call out and divide up a fanbase that, at the moment, seems pretty united. Lavar is gone, Gibbs is gone, we're winning... damn let's call out people who want to see the skins win big against an abysmal opponent. Shame on them??? Seriously???

Hmm. Due respect, but did you actually read the piece? Because what it looks like is you picked a couple buzzwords out of any context they might have had in support of your contention that I'm about "calling out and dividing up" the fanbase.

If it's true you've read and enjoyed my stuff in the past, first, thank you, and second, I'd like to think a fair reading is that that ain't what I'm about at all.

Nor was this particular piece about people not "wanting" to win big against Detroit. Trust, me, nobody wants to see us turn the Lions into a smoking pile of goo more than I do. My point is that expecting that--or reading a possible failure to accomplish it an indictment of the Redskins for not meeting expectations--is premature by at least half a season.

I think a fair reading of the piece would have made that pretty clear.

[BringBackJoeT]

Originally Posted by irish

All they need to do is win. Whether its by 1 in OT or by 30 in regulation. This is the NFL not college. How much a team wins by isnt important.

Ditto. Yes, the Lions are a bad team, but even putting aside the any-given-Sunday cliche, the fact is that the league is tight this year. No doubt, the Titans are off to a great start, and the Giants look tough, but are either of them "dominant" teams right now? The Giants needed overtime to beat the 0-7 Bengals AT HOME and lost by three touchdowns to the Browns. With regard to the Titans, none of the six teams they've played currently has a winning record. The fact is that this is a season in which, league-wide, no victory will be taken for granted. After the Eagles game, I may have been a little tempted to look ahead to the game against the Lions as potential blowout, but after the Rams game, I know better and just want to walk out of Detroit with a win.

[BravesOnthePath]

good article... but the media is always trying to either build teams up or tear them down. we all know that. however that doesn't mean that this isn't the best team we've had in years. new or not, this team has done some amazing things so far, and most definately has the potential to really stir things up later in the season. Who knows, maybe we'll have a good run in the playoffs this year. i absolutely refuse to even say the "s" word until playoffs tho... no thoughts on that.

Im excited to see how we do this week. I would love a blow out, but a win is a win. Lets just take this one week at a time. GO SKINS!!

[FRPLG]

Originally Posted by -Om-

Hmm. Due respect, but did you actually read the piece? Because what it looks like is you picked a couple buzzwords out of any context they might have had in support of your contention that I'm about "calling out and dividing up" the fanbase.

If it's true you've read and enjoyed my stuff in the past, first, thank you, and second, I'd like to think a fair reading is that that ain't what I'm about at all.

Nor was this particular piece about people not "wanting" to win big against Detroit. Trust, me, nobody wants to see us turn the Lions into a smoking pile of goo more than I do. My point is that expecting that--or reading a possible failure to accomplish it an indictment of the Redskins for not meeting expectations--is premature by at least half a season.

I think a fair reading of the piece would have made that pretty clear.

You're probably right.

I think an interesting discussion could be had on why we as Skins fans, are so hyper-sensitive to negativity of our team but on the other hand we seem to wallow in it pretty consistently. Of course these are generalizations but it seems to me that our fan-base is somewhat hypocritical in this regard.

[SouperMeister]

Originally Posted by dmek25

OK. ill say it again. a win, is a win, is a win. can anyone remember any of the scores of the 1991 championship season? no, but i bet alot of us remember the record that season. the margin of success in the nfl is so slim, that ill take them any way i can get them

While we may not remember all the scores in '91, that team took care of business against lesser teams. They put opponents away early and buried them (the average margin of victory that year was 15 points). The only close calls that I remember that season (aside from the two losses) came against the Oilers and the Bengals.

As a fan, yes, a win is a win, but if this Skins team keeps living dangerously by letting lesser teams hang around, they will eventually lose their share of close games, as exhibited against the Rams two weeks ago. Detroit has POOR talent overall. There is no reason why the Skins shouldn't win this game by double digits unless they play down to the competition's level.

[Dblock804]

I could care less about laying the wood to the Lions. But when Romo comes to town.......

Let's just say nothing is better than seeing Wade Phillips in his skirt (with a star on it) and his Pom-Poms, wipe'in the tears out of Romo's eye's! Well maybe one thing; T.O. going to a nice D.C. Jail cell.