The Folsom Point: No Air

I do not know even where to begin.  There are so many bad things, I'll hit them after the jump, on this side let us talk about the game itself.  As I have been for every Redskins-Eagles game but one since 1999, I was there last night, with my game partner lifetime Eagles fan, season ticket holder and Curly R/Hogs Haven reader/lurker Wilbert Montgomery.  Italian sausages and whiskey at the tailgate and a healthy walk from the Gray lot to the stadium.

This was our twelfth straight rivalry game at FedEx Field, we have pretty much seen it all, the Cowboys fan who picked a fight and got a bottle broken over his head in 1999, Jeff George in 2000, the anthrax no wait pepper spray game in 2001, Steve Spurrier, Tim Hasselbeck, max protect, three Monday Night Football road trips in four seasons, insufferable Eagles fans in my stadium and all that Donovan McNabb, going into last night's game the Redskins were 3-8 at home versus the Eagles during our streak which happens to coincide with Donovan's time in Philadelphia.

Ten seconds into the game our house belonged to Eagles fans.  In the first place there are tons of them, at every game, they represent well in Washington.  By fourteen nothing they were whooping, by 21 nothing they were in charge, most Redskins fans shrugged and took it, it was truly soul crushing.

As the game marched through halftime and the rain got harder, Redskins fans started bailing en masse.  By the fourth quarter we had moved down to fifty yard line right near the rail behind the Eagles bench, it was Eaglestown, at one point the energy got so high they forgot some letters and chanted E-A-G-S EAGLES!!  They were serenading Michael Vick, clearly in earshot in an empty stadium, with MVP! MVP! and SIGN HIM! SIGN HIM!  When it was finally over most of the Eagles fans had crowded around the visitors tunnel and were going apeshit, the Eagles players took their time and gave their crew some love.

We were soaked, Wilbert Montgomery was wallowing.  The rain stopped immediately after the game.  It all pretty much sucked.

The Redskins are now 3-9 against the Eagles in home games I have attended.  I am still a little shellshocked from the game and have not yet done the pickup stix on where to begin so I am just going to list all the bad things and hope that they will go away by Wednesday morning.  If I missed anything, drop it in comments.

The contract:  What was a genuine surprise in the context of Mike Shanahan's announcement last month that nothing would happen during the season, it was announced at a time designed to heighten the gamesmanship between the Eagles and Redskins... totally backfired.  Now forever they will say after Andy Reid benches Donovan he comes back with a huge game, after Mike Shanahan does it Dono gets forty million dollars and the team gets embarrassed.  Within seconds of the story breaking I was deluged with emails and text messages, most of them of the the Redskins are suckers variety.  When it is all said and done I am happy Dono is locked up, we need to see at least two seasons out of him to make that contract work.

The pregame scuffle:  What the heck are you guys idiots?  If we read the reports right, LaRon Landry and DeAngelo Hall were taunting DeSean Jackson about getting a concussion in a play against the Falcons that led to a fine against the hitter, Dunta Robinson.  Players had to be separated, the Redskins went into the locker room thinking they had the Eagles number based on the last game, when Michael Vick was knocked out of the game with a separated body and DeSean Jackson was so gassed by the end that he could not even run a route.  Andy Reid knew the Redskins were overconfident and he came out and exploited it.

The defense:  Are you there god, it's me Jim Haslett.  Show me a sign it's not me.  Long, short, deep, spread, on the run, Michael Vick could do no wrong.  I know he is good, we have seen him play for years, he ain't that good.  Unless he is. Pass rush < zero.

The running game:  Keiland Williams finished with a good night, he does not look like an every down feature back in the NFL.  Set aside whether it was smart to cut a guy like Ladell Betts, with an affordable contract and tons of experience, it still looks like the team has botched it at the tailback position.

Albert Haynesworth:  What in the aitch e double hockey sticks is this?

The weather:  Not the worst I have been in for a football game, rain in November at night always sucks and when your team is not just getting killed but is irrelevant to the game it feels that much wetter.

The Eagles fans:  For the most part they were not rude, they were deriving sheer joy from such an ass whopping, man I just hate seeing them have so much at FedEx.  Even so I am happy we do not have a football culture that is as quick to confrontation as the Eagles'.

Still feels like things are heading downhill, before the offense can shake off the hangover of Donovan getting benched with the game still undecided, two weeks around the bye of nothing but unrest in the team, then a Division rival nearly drops 60 on the Redskins in a record setting national telecast.  Time to be professional and see how short that memory can be.

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Ben Folsom is rethinking domes and is the editor of The Curly R, a blog covering the Redskins and the NFL since 2006.  The Folsom Point appears Tuesdays at Hogs Haven.