Looks Like Someone Has a Sixpack of the Mondays

1. Good news: The Redskins losing streak is officially on hiatus for eight months. Bad news: In the meantime, you will be able to see the glow from this dumpster fire for hundreds of miles.

2. I disagree with most people who say that Cousins lost a ton of value yesterday. Though I do think he is a potential top-line starter in this league, he has played pretty much the way you would expect a backup to play the last few weeks. He rarely saw meaningful reps before they benched Griffin. He had to play behind a pretty terrible offensive line. He had to play with the raging chaos of the Shanapocalypse (I wish I would have thought of that word) behind him. My guess is that any team that felt he was someone they could invest in and turn into a quality starter still feels that way. If anything, the only thing Cousins could have done was improve his value--alas, he did not do that. I am not sold on the trading Cousins plan at this point. I would very much like to net at least one additional startable player, but I also value the presence of a backup on this team who has seen the field. Then again, with a new coach and potentially a new offense on the way in, maybe his value to our team in this offense is somewhat muted. If you want to really be freaked out, how about this: what if the new coach would rather build an offense around Cousins? Unlikely? Yes. Possible? Yes.

3. As the Redskins struggled yesterday to do...well, pretty much everything--there I was, thinking that all we needed was one break for the game to tilt back in our favor. I have watched that game countless times over the years. You know the ones I speak of...we have been treated to them time and time again. Bad weather...bad teams...nothing on the line. You would think we would become less engaged in these contests. You would be wrong. I did not even turn to the Red Zone channel until halftime, though to be fair, I wanted to turn it there plenty in the second quarter. It just goes to show the depths of our love for a team that has left its side of the bed cold. The truth is that I was as into that game against the Giants as I was into the game against the Cowboys exactly one year ago. Sick, I know.

4. Is there any debate that London Fletcher belongs on the Ring of Honor? If so, let's have it. The rules of the debate: both sides deserve to be represented and let's keep the holiday spirit present in the discussion. There is no need to argue about how much we should honor a truly great Redskins player. I am putting him in--his combination of leadership, character, durability and performance make him more than eligible in my humble opinion.

5. I know Dick Stockton is a legend of sorts in the broadcasting business, but he was almost as bad as the Redskins were yesterday. It was real icing on the cake, wasn't it? I recall throughout the late 90's and into this century how networks would assign their D teams to do our games. The Redskins have broken in more rookie broadcasters than Ron Burgundy in his heyday. What we got yesterday was an aging legend training a rookie broadcaster (Ronde Barber). I give Ronde credit--he was not half bad. Stockton repeatedly substituted random words into his sentences and then didn't correct himself. One example was when he suggested a player's longest carry was "32 years." Even when he made minor errors like calling 3rd and 19 "3rd and 9," he let a long silence pass by with no correction. There are guys whose job it is to talk in his ear and help him recover from little gaffes here and there but either they were not doing their jobs, or Stockton wasn't listening. He has a great voice, and his resume speaks for itself, but he did not do anything to make yesterday's game more enjoyable for me. If you want more evidence that he is terrible, I direct your attention to the fact that he was doing the Redskins game yesterday.

6. Ding Dong, the Shanny's Dead. I can honestly say I did not see it ending this way. We will get into it as the days and weeks go by, but here are a few quick reactions/thoughts:

*We are better off than we were four years ago. How much better is debatable, but I think we are definitely better.

*The roster, while lacking the quantity of top-tier players that seem to anchor the best teams in the league, does have a good core of solid players that will one day complement those elite players we will hopefully add.

*Before they changed the salary cap rules, low first-round picks and high second-round picks were GOLD. That might not be the case as much anymore, but the Redskins are in a great position to get players at the top of the second and third rounds who should be able to come in right away and start without breaking the bank. For my money, those picks should be a cornerback and a starting offensive lineman.