So what if we almost got beat by the one armed quarterback. Or:
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:
"Bro, I have no idea," Lloyd said. "I think if you guys as fans don't know this, um, then it's obvious that the 'beat writers'--and I use that with every innuendo possible--the 'beat writers' are doing a disservice to the fans in the community by not asking these questions to the people who can answer them."
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.
Also this: Someone who is going to imply that beat writers are too scared to stand up and do their jobs probably shouldn't leave the locker room at 4:13 and 4:17 after consecutive home games, before the media is permitted inside the locker room, leaving him free of ever having to stand up and answer any questions.
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:
"Once you got the dog down you got to kill it," Smoot said.
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):