We made it! When the final whistle blew on December 28th last year in San Francisco, the dreaded off-season was upon us, and with it the depressing reality of our team. After starting 6-2, the playoffs were assumed to be in our grasp. In fact, you would have been hard-pressed to find many people who would have predicted the 2-6 finish we hauled into the clubhouse. The early loss to St. Louis was hard to bear at the time, especially in light of the now infamous Pete Kendall fumble that led to a touchdown by the Rams with no time left in the first half. The second half of the season saw us fall to two more teams that had no business beating us, or so we thought. Cincinnati and San Francisco showed up to a couple games that our team might have taken a little for granted. On top of that, our offensive line was a patchwork quilt and our passing game became almost completely nonexistent. And so as usual, we were left with more questions than answers as we began our hibernation for the winter.

The off-season did have its positives though, as we brought in the best player on the free agent market in Albert Haynesworth, and we added an immensely talented defensive player in Brian Orakpo to help beef up our pass rush. Philip Daniels got healthy and came back, and DeAngelo Hall made D.C. his long-term home. No need to beat down the dead horse that was our off-season though.

As for Jim Zorn, the only way he could look more comfortable out there these days is if he was wearing a red velvet smoking jacket with two Playboy Playmates on each arm. His offense has had time to digest in the bellies of our offensive weapons and the young players last year who seemed lost and rudderless have shown signs of "getting it".

What I want to see tonight:

--minimal penalties from starters

--NO offensive pass interference on Devin Thomas

--one solid hit on a running back at the line of scrimmage by Orakpo

--no INT's from JC, and at least 1 touchdown in the red zone (gotta raise expectations)

The proof will come between the whistles of course.

And the first whistle is at 7:30 pm this evening. Is anyone else fired up out there? What is the one thing you want to see more than anything else?