(You are not reading about this because I refuse to have anything to say on the subject. Readers are free to discuss whatever they'd like.)
Long odds those furry critters had against the evil Empire, which frames well this week's game against the Dallas Cowboys. Depending on who you ask, the Redskins are something like a 10-11 point dog ewok, which is the biggest margin of the gambling week. That's especially distressing in light of the fact that someone has to play Kansas City.
The importance of a sploding the death star cannot be overstated, and hinges largely on where one shoots. In this instance, Terrell Owens is a womp rat sized target:
[Last year at Texas Stadium] Shawn Springs was matched up in man coverage on Owens for most of that half, and though Owens beat him to the corner of the end zone for a four-yard TD, Owens didn't hurt the Skins otherwise in that half (four other receptions for 40 total yards. Washington had yet to give up the big play - QB Tony Romo's longest pass in the first two quarters was for 23 yards.
But the Skins went to much more of a zone look in the second half, the corners played deeper off the line, and they were burned repeatedly for it. Three of Owen's four catches in the second half were for long TDs, with linebacker London Fletcher, and safeties Pierson Prioleau and Reed Doughty among those who got caught making coverage mistakes. Sean Taylor was hurt for that game, with the season about to take a sickeningly horrible turn, and the secondary was in disarray in the second half, with communication between the safeties and corners problematic to say the least.
Yea so that sucked, etc. and raises questions why we make adjustments to the strategies that work. That might be Jacksonville's problem now, but I digress. I would happily sacrifice our old strategy of lining up #1 and #2 CB on their side regardless of who lines up opposite them (like Carlos Rogers yo) in favor of just painting Shawn Springs on T.O. every minute of the game. I'd send him over to the Cowboys sideline, if possible. They should carpool.
Crikeys I'm too honest to ever succeed at blogging. Over two years ago I made a ridiculous case that Santana Moss was a better receiver than Terrell Owens. I was wrong. My heart was in the right place, the actual results were not. But, for the first time since 2005, I'd wager, Santana Moss is owning Terrell Owens statistically by traditional and better metrics. On a long enough timeline, many even ridiculous claims have a good shot at validating eventually, so here's to hoping for a 2008 that looks like 2005, for Moss at least.
And for us, since that was both the last time I didn't attend the Cowboys-Redskins game at Texas Stadium and also the last time we won. My fault.
Why didn't the league schedule the final game at Texas Stadium betwixt the Redskins and Cowboys? You spend 50 years developing this intensely bitter rivalry only to squander perhaps the once every 50 year opportunity to actively encourage this bitter hatred, and you give it to the Ravens? On NFL Network? I'm about half as pissed off by that as any self-respecting Dallas Cowboys fan should be. As crazy as this sounds, instead of giving Texas Stadium a proper funeral at the hands of the Washington Redskins, a team the Cowboys have history with and have played more than any other team in the league, you give it to the Baltimore Ravens who the Cowboys are 0-2 against or, put differently, the team they've played fewer times than anyone else in the league? Cool beans, NFL. Looking over the list of their opponents, there quite literally isn't a single team the Cowboys could have played in the final game of Texas Stadium history that would be less interesting. The Texans are the only other team to have played the Cowboys as little as the Ravens, and at least that represents state pride fight night.
Anyways, I'll ask Dave of Blogging the Boys about it later this week. In the meantime, scope out their concerns for this weekend:
Jason Campbell is a young QB with a mountain of potential. He played really well against us last year, throwing for almost 350 yards and two scores in Dallas. It took some T.O. heroics for us to pull that game out.
No one's saying Campbell is near Romo. But he can hurt us. We need to get pressure on him and keep pressure off Romo. The Deadskins are hurting with injuries. Jason Taylor is sitting this game out.
I'll take it.
Suffice to say this goes double true for us, given that we're the damned underdogs in this fight and pressure without blitz is the great equalizer in the NFL. If Tony Romo can pass comfortably with all the time in the world, it won't matter what T.O.'s stat line looks like because whatever omissions exist in his TD column will be filled by production in Jason Witten's. Speaking to yesterday: No one is going to beat the Cowboys for us, and if we want to do so, on the road, it will take more than crossed fingers. Chris Wilson save us and nom nom nom Tony Romo.
(NO FEAR.)