Redskins Fall to Bills as Clock Stops on Playoff Hopes
Well, so much for inspiration. The Washington Redskins pulled out all the stops to honor their teammate Sean Taylor yesterday. There were special patches, a moment of silence — the defense even took the field in a “missing man” formation (which history will remember as a 22-yard gain for the Bills). The inflamed passions failed to translate into quality gameplay, and Washington found themselves coming undone for many of the same reasons they’ve done so over the course of a disappointing season. Oh, and then, Washington somehow managed to find a way to lose that was more humiliating and inane than one could have possibly imagined.
With seven seconds to play in the game, Buffalo’s Rian Lindell took the field to take a game-winning 51-yard field goal try. Which, he made. But the play didn’t count because Joe Gibbs called one of those last-second timeouts that seem to be the obsession of head coaches this season (and which are, ENTIRELY, bush league – the league needs to put an end to this practice with all deliberate haste). Lindell looked money from 51 on his first attempt, but, heck — a sliver of slim hope remained that he’d miss his second attempt.
But that’s when Gibbs inexplicably called a second consecutive timeout, which is “illegal” where league rules are concerned, and which drew an immediate fifteen-yard penalty for unsportsmanlike conduct. And if Lindell was good from 51, he was golden from 36. Game over, cue the stunned silence.
Football is a team sport, and the team’s bad tendencies revealed themselves at the worst possible times. The offense continued their tradition of stretching the action downfield only to seize up in the red zone. They found yet another way not to convert a critical short-yardage down, this time on a false start penalty. And where playoff teams find a way to grind out the clock when they take possession with six minutes remaining — and half-decent teams find a way to do so with three minutes remaining — the Skins did neither. But fourth quarter three-and-outs for a team ostensibly built to power-run have become a mainstay this season.
Nevertheless, Gibbs’ second timeout was the mistake that will leave the most indelible mark on this game. Since returning to the league, Gibbs has written for himself a tidy history of clock-management errors. This is especially galling considering the fact that he’s got a well-paid offensive coordinator and a similarly compensated defensive coordinator backing him up. You’d think that he wouldn’t have that much else to do other than know what the league rules are and how much time is on the clock. But yesterday’s mental meltdown is a new low, especially since the result of the decisions served only to turn a loss into an embarrassing loss. Minutes after the game ended, I got an email asking, “So. Do you think Gibbs has jumped the shark?” I’ll say this: don’t be surprised if the next time you notice a “missing man,” the empty space will be on the sidelines.
Washington is nevertheless not yet mathematically eliminated from playoff contention. But they find themselves toward the hind end of an eight team scrum for the final wild card spot. Even if Washington manages to win out from here (and there’s absolutely no good reason to think they will: a short week of preparation for Thursday night’s game against the Bears has only been made shorter by Sean Taylor’s Miami funeral this morning), we can't be sure the rest of the field, battling each other, can post enough total losses to help the Redskins out. There is, perhaps, a needle the team can thread to make it to the postseason, but their story seems to have been written with yesterday’s loss. And having failed to carry heady symbolism to an important win, they’ll play out a string of games that will be, for all intents and purposes, largely symbolic.