Well ain’t this a kick in the pants? The Washington Redskins, faced with having to take the same long cut to the playoffs that they did the last time they found themselves all but eliminated and facing a slew of teams suddenly willing to play dead, took their act on the road to Minnesota and won 32-1421, in a game that was only briefly tense and was basically decided by an alert eye on the sidelines and a well-timed challenge by Joe Gibbs.

Conventional wisdom says that when you face the Vikings, you have to go out and shut down Rookie of the Year mortal lock/human Wii controller Adrian Peterson and force Minnesota’s offense to put their trust in the hands of Tarvaris Jackson, a quarterback who, so far this season, is known for combining the recklessness of a Rex Grossman with the accuracy of a William S. Burroughs. Naturally, Adrian Peterson has proven to be a difficult running back to contain all year. Sunday night, however, the Redskins’ D made Minnesota’s Adrian Peterson look more like Chicago’s Adrian Peterson, which isn’t entirely fair because Chicago’s Adrian Peterson put up a very Minnesota’s Adrian Peterson-like 102 yards rushing against Green Bay, which actually HELPED the Redskins greatly because it ensured the Dallas Cowboys of home field advantage throughout the playoffs – which in turn means that we won’t face their starters when they come to D.C. next week. OK. Did you get all that? Whatever. The upside is, rooting against Dallas next week will not be an empty-calorie affair.