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.
It is now Week 6, and the Redskins have the truly incredible distinction of not having played a single team that came into the game with a win. The Kansas City Chiefs, having dropped a home heartbreaker in overtime against Dallas last week, look to break their duck in FedEx Field this afternoon. Can anyone besides Larry Michael and Vinny Cerrato imagine them not winning this game? As these already-bad teams improve and get accustomed to new coaches and systems and chemistry, the Redskins simply get older and worse. I see the Chiefs hitting the magical 20 point threshold, making it, of course, mathematically impossible for the Redskins to win. 23-13, KC.
How’s it going to go down? I suppose you could pick your poison. But if I had to venture a guess, I’d say losing our best offensive lineman (by some distance) for the season will mean the offense won’t be able to run the ball, and Jason Campbell will get roughed up by an admittedly poor Chiefs passing D. (They currently allow the fourth-most passing yards per game in the league. The defense will play well enough to keep it close, but allow a couple decent drives here and there and finally get worn down by the fourth quarter. The safest bet in the world is that coach Jim Zorn will either make the wrong call on fourth down and/or burn a timeout on a useless and desperate challenge. We can also safely assume Clinton Portis won’t clear the 100 yard threshold, and that “promising” receivers Devin Thomas and Malcolm Kelly will offer little to no production. We can count on a 60-minute effort from the linebacking corps. We can count on some appropriate booing, and probably at least one mystifying “gadget play.”
And if we do lose this game, I think we can safely assume we will have a new coach next week. Lather, rinse, repeat.
‘Skins Stats of the Week: The odds of Washington winning the Super Bowl are now at 125/1. … If you take away Portis’ longest run of the year (34 yards), he is averaging only 3.37 yards per carry this season. … The ‘Skins have scored more than 17 points just twice in the past 13 games.
