Looks Like Someone Has a Sixpack of the Mondays

1. Chalk up another "We should have won, could have won, but really had no business being close to winning" day. I mean, there we were yet again...the ways this team takes losses are simply amazing. What lessons are we learning this year? Really...what are we gaining from the experience of almost winning this many times? I worry that the lesson being driven into this team is more how to lose than how to win. I suppose the hope is that another offseason of roster upheaval will further erode the foundation of our institutional culture of losing. We can only hope that young, promising players like Brian Orakpo and Trent Williams will escape the psychological anvil that has destroyed guys who have played here in the past. After all, there is a limit to how much bullshit a professional can withstand before he either decides to leave or decides to give up and go through the motions. The good news for us is that we are still in the beginning stages of yet another regime. There is at least some hope that a plan is in place--and progress is being made. The bad news for us is that we are in the beginning stages of yet another regime. There is at least some concern that a plan is in place--and progress is being defined differently by just about everyone.

2. Santana...you have to make that catch at the end of the game. Great game otherwise though. Rex looked for him plenty, especially around the end zone. Anyone care to handicap the chances Santana Moss is a Redskin next year?

3. Is there a rule about not getting Chris Cooley involved until the 4th quarter?

4. The interception by Rex in the 1st quarter was just bloody awful. I don't know the right answer, so help me out: how much responsibility does Mike Sellers have there? I know it looked like he was working the sidelines and they went back to that play again later in the game, but coming out of the backfield, should he be more helpful to a quarterback under pressure? It seemed Rex thought he was the outlet, or at least that Big Mike would come back for the ball. Then again, it was kind of an awful throw.

5. I know that it was suggested to Kevin (and then repeated here yesterday) that Mike Shanahan could be gone next year and McNabb could be back. I'll give you the likelihood of that scenario: 0%. Snyder and Shanahan go back a long way. He is not going to can the coach he coveted for years (if you believe what he told Kevin and I in our interview last August) for an elderly quarterback that just had a horrible season. Remember...Snyder and Pat Bowlen (owner of the Denver Broncos) developed a relationship very soon after Snyder took over the team. As unhappy as Snyder is right now--and by all accounts, he is very unhappy--I have to believe he is pretty much handcuffed to the Shanahan/Allen project for at least a little longer. 

6. Despite Rexy having a decent day in the box score, the chances we draft a quarterback high next season are rising by the second. With each loss, our first round pick edges closer and closer to the top of the board. I don't envy the guy whose job it is to try and talk Shanahan out of drafting a signal caller at the top of the draft next year. Damn...I'm that guy. Perhaps the sight of Kory Lichtensteiger in the backfield yesterday looking like he wanted to strike up a conversation with Rex instead of block for him might underline the urgency to upgrade our line.