Recognition

by Skin Patrol on Apr 16, 2008 2:13 PM EDT in Analysis Comment 6 comments

Quickly, Mr. Irrelevant eloquently captures my own delayed reaction to the schedule:

Initial Reaction: Fucking A. All three of our divisional road games fall within the first five weeks of the season. Bullshit.

Secondary Reaction: No, seriously. How the fuck do they schedule the Skins at N.Y. in Week 1, then at Dallas and at Philly, back-to-back, in Weeks 4 and 5? Bullshit.

That same stretch was rough enough to get Head Coach Jim Zorn's attention and could very well get the attention of Redskins nation should the team find itself in an early season winning deficit. We always do best ~ 5-6, though, right? You can also find schedule reactions here, here, here, and here. Also, the NFL failed in scheduling the Cowboys last Texas Stadium regular season game against someone besides the Redskins. Epic, epic fail NFL. Someone should go make a diary about it. Be civil.

Besides the early grueling road schedule, the big word is our three prime time games:

The Redskins open the season for the entire league on Thursday, Sept. 4, in a 7 p.m. road game against the New York Giants...

The Redskins have one Monday night game, Nov. 3 against Pittsburgh, at FedEx Field, the Redskins' home stadium.

The Redskins have one prime-time Sunday night game, against Dallas on Nov. 16, also at FedEx Field.

There might be some possibility of flex scheduling to get us in prime time but I'm not entirely sure how that works. Anyways, how do we do in prime time? I tried looking it up. In 2007 we had three prime time matchups on a Monday, Sunday, and Thursday night. Results:

Redskins 20, Eagles 12
Bears 16, Redskins 24
Redskins 22, Giants 10

Ya, so far so good, 3-0. We had three in 2006 not counting any flexible scheduling games we might have received, though I'm assuming it couldn't have been many considering the way we played the rest of that miserable season. Results:

Vikings 19, Redskins 16
Redskins 10, Cowboys 27
Giants 34, Redskins 28

Doh.

Returning to this year, prime candidates for flex scheduling from week 11 on look to be...

Washington @ Seattle, November 23rd: Barring a total collapse by either or both teams, the story carries enough uncreated drama to garner national attention. Jim Zorn, presuming at least a decent season, returns to his professional football home where he spent damn near 15 years, 8 of them as a player.

Either NYG or Philly @ Washington, November 30th/December 21st: Probably a stretch regarding the Giants, as the nation will already have tired of watching us duke it out with them nationally. But the Eagles especially has a chance depending on how both teams are playing and the playoff implications of the game. Considering the NFC East is good for at least one, maybe two wild card teams per year, there's a good bet at least one of us will need that win.

Washington @ Baltimore, December 7th? Probably a stretch but this piece wouldn't have worked without at least three paragraphs. I mention this only to reiterate my frustration that the NFL scheduled the final regular season game to be played at Texas Stadium as between Dallas and the Ravens? Why? What non-existent rivalry is that supposed to perpetuate?

So come on, Cowboys-Redskins, Saturday, Dec. 20, 2008, for the final regular-season game at Texas Stadium, to be shown on NFL Network? I mean, the Redskins are just playing Philly the next day. No biggie. That could have been arranged.

Who knows, maybe Fox didn't want to give away both Cowboys-Redskins games, since the game at Washington is scheduled to be a Sunday night game (Nov. 16) on NBC and that final regular-season home game at Texas Stadium is on NFL Network, which I'm guessing will be a bone of contention for many of you and for discussion on another day.

Or maybe the NFL execs are simply counting on the Cowboys earning a home playoff game or two based on last season's track record, thus one of those becoming the actual final game at Texas Stadium.

I'm actually hoping it is this latter explanation, since NFL execs so clueless as to the draw of a Redskins-Cowboys close out that Texas Stadium finale game would similarly be clueless about the how the Cowboys season will shake out.

It was an opportunity to inject one more great historical anecdote into the greatest rivalry in the NFL and the league blew it.

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Flex additional

2007: We did flex into some games
Vikings I'm sure did...with another Win 4-0
And didn't Dallas game WK17 get flexed too?

2007 was with a veteran team, you know the same team for 2008 witha all 22 starters coming back. The schedule is full of potential problems, with minimial injuries the Redskins should be able to achieve at least 10 victories.
The Giants will implode and not make the playoffs in 2008, my big prediction for the 2008 year.

by dr WNC on Apr 16, 2008 2:55 PM EDT reply actions 0 recs

I'm not

big at dissecting upcoming NFL schedules due to the fact that you never know what could happen. The only thing I ever look at is games in a row at home or away & when our bye is. I really like dr WNC's point about having a vet team that could handle this type of pressure. The good thing is if we do well early on against our divisional opponents, is that we get them back at home.

Something else I really like is how the national media is ignoring us as a potential player in the NFC. We've quietly handled our business since the hiring of Zorn and seem to be very focused on the upcoming year. If the players can adapt to his offence and there isn't much chance w/ Blanch'e D then why shouldn't we be poised to make teams our bitch?

by CptChaosSidekick on Apr 16, 2008 3:22 PM EDT reply actions 0 recs

Amen!

Nuff said

by dr WNC on Apr 16, 2008 3:30 PM EDT up reply actions 0 recs

If we can escape early road games

with a decent record, even around .500, people will be talking.

Go Register. Or else.

by Skin Patrol on Apr 16, 2008 4:49 PM EDT up reply actions 0 recs

If?....When!

A .500 record after the first 6 games, would be very good and would place the Redskins in excellent position for the rest of the year run.

by dr WNC on Apr 17, 2008 7:11 AM EDT up reply actions 0 recs

I agree.

Typical Redskin season starts with an ok start followed by a slow drift towards .500 and then below. In '05 and '07 we managed to make late season playoff runs, but that was also largely due to having the most difficult part of our schedule behind us, or at least that was the case in 2005.

If we can get out of the first 6 games at .500, I'll be thrilled. Of course, this presumes that we weren't blown out in all our losses and snuck by with exclusively cheeky, close wins.

At the end of the day a 3-3 record in the NFC East ain't so bad. 4-2 would be simply phenomenal.

Go Register. Or else.

by Skin Patrol on Apr 17, 2008 8:57 AM EDT up reply actions 0 recs