I can say with relative certainty that last winter did serious damage to Washington's already-fragile wintertime mindset. It feels like everyone has resigned themselves to the fact that a massive blizzard -- like the kind we experienced twice last year -- is coming, and this entire city will find itself shut down for several days all over again. Far from a certainty, dear reader! more ›

Maybe we should have known that it was too good to be true, something that was never meant to last. Our own utopian vision of a perfect summer romance -- a riveting and competitive campaign by our Washington Nationals -- seemed less like a pipe dream after Baseball Prospectus' highly-anticipated PECOTA projections predicted that the Nationals would finish the season with a record of 82-80. PECOTA even suggested that the Nats would be but mere games behind in the National League playoff race. more ›

It's finally here. The dreadful 2009-2010 campaign of the Redskins, the one in which the team played poor football in spades and was exposed to more drama and controversy than any one should endure in a decade, is a mere 60 minutes of football away from ending. For many in the organization, this afternoon's matchup in San Diego could mean the end of their time in Washington; for some, that scenario is all-but-inevitable. more ›

There are few teams in the NFL more enigmatic than our Washington Redskins. Fresh off an impressive road victory in Oakland -- yeah, the Raiders are terrible, so what? -- the D.C. club put together an historically poor performance at home against the New York Giants. Two weeks after going toe-to-toe with the undefeated New Orleans Saints, the 'Skins had all sorts of trouble containing a depleted Giants pass rush, putting quarterback Jason Campbell in situations each more dangerous than the last. Three weeks after barely losing to Philadelphia in an entertaining shootout, the Sons of Washington got completely and totally blown out of the water in a game that featured what we and others considered the worst play call in league history. more ›

My, how the tables have turned. It was just under two years ago that Coach Gibbs was saying goodbye to the Redskins for the final time, and Daniel Snyder and his adopted son, Vinnie Cerrato, were in search of a new coach. The man everyone thought deserved a shot in the job, Gregg Williams, was told to pack his bags. As the team's defensive coordinator during the Second Gibbs Era, Williams had taken a defense with few big names and turned it into one of the league's best. He had transformed the late Sean Taylor from a raw big-hitter to a polished, cerebral safety -- one of the most talented players to ever suit up for the burgundy-and-gold. But when it came time to hire a coach, Snyder and Cerrato thought it was time for a new direction. These are the people they deemed better than Williams: Jim Fassel, now coaching in the UFL; Steve Mariucci, currently working as an analyst for NFL Network; and Jim Zorn, currently the clueless and luckless coach of your Washington Redskins. more ›

On offense, the Redskins have -- or had -- a small handful of players that other teams might be interested in, at least before this debacle of a season unfolded. They are -- or were -- as follows: Chris Samuels, Chris Cooley, Randy Thomas, Santana Moss, and perhaps Clinton Portis. Of those five, only Moss will play today, cementing an already depleted and inept d'oh!-ffense as a complete non-threat. And, oh yeah, the league's third-best scoring defense in the Denver Broncos comes to town today, feeling a little desperate as they try to break a two-game slide. Denver 26, Washington 10. more ›

This time last year, the Washington Redskins were fresh off an election-eve home beatdown by the Super Bowl champs–elect, the Pittsburgh Steelers, in a game noted for the stunning prevalence of Steelers fans at FedEx Field. A little past the halfway mark of the season, that game officially kicked off the team's late-season demise, where they'd go 2-6 and labor to put up points in virtually every game. The offensive line looked slow, tired, and hurting, and so did Clinton Portis -- whom we all hoped only looked like that because he was behind that slow, tired, and hurting o-line. The defense, for the most part, manfully willed the team into games before the offensive ineptitude just became too great a burden to bear. more ›

I don't know about you, but I enjoyed a Sunday devoid of heartbreak, frustration, incomprehension, incompetence, and the ungodly combination of the four. It was a restful day, one which got my week off to a nice start. Of course, that will all change tonight -- when the Redskins new play-calling system proves to be the glorious failure we all knew it would be in a 24-9 loss to the visiting Eagles -- but at least we're one day closer to the following weekend after it does. more ›

In a week when virtually every major writer in the area has taken their crack at the 'Skins (for me, the best was Tracee Hamilton's), the frustration and boos seemed to have reached a tipping point with the fans, too. A raft of, shall we say, revolutionary organizations are calling for a) a "blackout" at Sunday's game, b) true fans to not buy beer in the stadium, and, the biggie, c) owner Dan Snyder to relinquish complete control and to quit worrying about who his employees are and how they perform and go back to simply worrying about turning a profit. Call it the least Marxist revolution imaginable, but it would still constitute some kind of shocking upheaval for this team. At any rate, everyone's heard the gripes about management and coaching and Sherman Lewis' "fresh set of eyes", but there's still football to be played. Played badly, perhaps, but played nonetheless. more ›

No one knows what to make of this team. If I sound more confounded, week to week, it’s because I am, and I imagine I’m not alone. I think we all know that if they’re going to win, they’re going to win ugly. The Redskins will labor over every win they get this year, because the chance for potentially easy ones just passed with successive games against the Rams, Lions, and Bucs. The great stat of the year so far is that the Skins have yet to face a team with a win in 2009 (counting the Giants who came into Week 1 at 0-0, natch). The Carolina Panthers are similarly winless, but ultimately more talented than any of our last three opponents, and certainly more talented than our boys. I have to take Carolina over the ‘Skins, 24-13. more ›

We may have all warmed up Thursday night with an overtime win by Danny Boy's favorite cash cow, The Pittsburgh Steelers, but our local professional football club kicks off today against the hated New York Giants. Jim Zorn's bunch travels to the Meadowlands today -- not just a place, but a state of mind -- for the late 4:15 kickoff against the reigning division champs. more ›

After a multi-week hiatus, DCist Predicts has returned; only to make the bold call that the Redskins will lose to Baltimore on Sunday night and find themselves sitting at 7-6, fading behind the pack of playoff hopefuls. more ›

I could write a whole post about the possible political implications of tomorrow night's Monday Night Football game between our Washington Redskins and the battleground-state Pittsburgh Steelers. There's the history of a Redskins win in their final pre-election game signaling an impending incumbent party victory; there's the halftime interviews with both teams by Chris Berman (incisive and penetrating, to be sure); and there's the simple fact that I've had to cut salt out of my diet for the past few weeks in preparation for the hypertension-fest that will be Monday and Tuesday night. more ›

The Washington Redskins travel to Detroit's Ford Field on Sunday (1 p.m.) to take on the winless, hapless Lions. The Lions already officially tanked (what's left of) the 2008 season - not when they dealt stud wide receiver Roy Williams to Dallas for draft picks - but when they took the field this fall with Jon Kitna as their starting quarterback. more ›

Last week I said the Skins would struggle early, but ultimately assert their dominance and beat the then-winless St. Louis Rams in their return to FedEx Field. I was wrong. more ›

ESPN's stable of talking heads would probably call this a "trap" game. The 4-1 Washington Redskins, fresh off season-defining road wins against heavily favored division rivals, come back to the expanses of Landover, Maryland to take on the winless St. Louis Rams, a team many see as one of football's worst. more ›