Redskins are ugly... ugly like a winner!

So what if we almost got beat by the one armed quarterback. Or:

Actually it was about the angriest I've been after a win. Minutes prior to Neil Rackers' missed field goal, a friend phoned me to inquire on whether or not I felt the Redskins had a shot. This was just prior to the failed 2-point conversion, and I insisted that we did not. Everything about the way we played at the end of the game indicated that defeat was being snatched from the jaws of victory before my very eyes.

Even after Landry stopped the ridiculous Cardinals play call for their 2-pointer, enabled by a blocked extra point, the importance of which cannot be overstated, I still felt uneasy. Sure enough, we can't stop an onside kick. I don't know what the odds are against onside kicks, but I'm pretty sure good teams don't allow them. Let's get special teams out of the way: Love the blocked extra point. Hate that Suisham is missing field goals. Love Rock Cartwright's 80 yard kickoff return. Hate the onside kick. Love that Neil missed the go-ahead score, but Danny Smith doesn't get credit for that.

Around the world in blog bites: Win was lucky; no argument. Anthony Brown invents headlines better than I -- By the Red Skin of their teeth -- pretty clever. If you must, win ugly. The Redskins didn't beat the Cardinals, but we did score more points! Escape with a win, we're 4-3 (but that counts next week's game as well), I am afraid, too, Redskins survive, chinned it, Rackers let us off the hook, so on and so forth. Lots of great print there that I can't possibly do justice. Put your reading glasses on.

Boneheaded things to say after the game award: It's a tie! First goes to Brandon Lloyd criticizing, of all things, the Redskins beat writers, also here:

There is a legitimate point to be made here and it needs pointing out. Regardless of whether it is Al Saunders or Joe Gibbs or neither or both or some convoluted combination thereof calling the offensive plays, we don't look nearly as sharp as myself and others felt we should have by this point. This offense sucks. I'm willing to go through the motions on excuses though only briefly: last year we had a transition from an old quarterback to a young one and an injured starting running back. Ok, you get a pass. This year we have an offensive line decimated by injury. Maybe you get a pass. But the time of constant forgiveness due to mean, cruel circumstance, which knows no other disposition by the way, will soon pass should this offense continue to underplay the talent on it. Al Saunders and Joe Gibbs have the offensive resumes to produce much more yards and touchdowns than we've thus far been able to manage.

But of all the people who have little to gain from this type of mud slinging, Brandon Lloyd is an especially risky participant. First, the obvious practical reasons, Brandon Lloyd hasn't earned many friends among Redskins fans for his failure to catch passes, and an ally or 15 among allegedly incompetent beat writers (I like our beat writers) would go a long way towards saving your disastrous stay in Washington. Much more importantly, suggesting on a radio show that the fans deserve to know more about your relationship to the coaching staff, a relationship you just admitted little knowledge of, isn't going to win you many kudos with either Al Saunders or Joe Gibbs. As much as those of us required to produce print on this great team may love it, I doubt our coaches, already behaving as if they've tired of you, much appreciate you telling the Washington beat writers to air more dirty laundry. If you are doing research for your forthcoming book, How To Get Cut, keep it up.

Brandon Lloyd has a bad attitude. Sorry.

More importantly, he should catch more than 50% of his passes at least once. That would answer a whole lot more questions for at least one fan than anything he has to say to a microphone; until you talk on the field you probably shouldn't be giving radio interviews. Why are we still listening to Brandon Lloyd talk... about anything? Todd Yoder has twice as many receptions and over twice as many yards; let's talk to that guy.

Elsewhere, and I'm not even going to get indignant about it because it's more funny than at all harmful, Fred Smoot could've gone with a better metaphor here:

The timing could've been better. Also, if you're going to premise the postgame metaphor on animal cruelty, at least use a Cardinal in this context. If you have to be topical, be topical about your opponents mascot, and not about your teammates recent-enough controversial comments about animal cruelty. There is no story here! (But Riggo's Rag carries on a funny post about it worth reading.)

There's enough material above in hyperlinks to keep you busy for weeks reading about little else besides the Redskins-Cardinals game, and I hope you will join the discussion in the comments section. With that in mind, I'm looking forward towards the Patriots game, where we're a 16 point dog. Democracy is the quintessential government of the underdog, with an emphasis (when done correctly) on inclusiveness and checks against tyrannical patriots who would intimidate the rest of us from having a voice; Oliver Willis understands this point.

If we take the word Patriotism to mean a support for the Patriots football team, I tend to agree with Samuel Johnson (about a great many things):

 Support the good guys. HTTR.