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- I’m reminded of a scene in the now very old (1992) movie “My Cousin Vinny” when an aggravated Joe Pesci says to Marisa Tomei, “I swear to God, I do not need this right now, okay? I’ve got a judge that’s just aching to throw me in jail. An idiot who wants to fight me for two hundred dollars. Slaughtered pigs. Giant loud whistles. I ain’t slept in five days. I got no money, a dress code problem, AND a little murder case which, in the balance, holds the lives of two innocent kids. Not to mention your (taps his foot) BIOLOGICAL CLOCK...my career, your life, our marriage, and let me see, what else can we pile on? Is there any more shit we can pile on to the top of the outcome of this case? Is it possible?” As we head into the Monday Night Football tilt against the Philadelphia Eagles, I can’t help but feel just a little bit like this...how about we go over some of the things piling up on the outcome of this game tonight?
- The NFC East will shape up mightily after tonight’s game. Should the Redskins pull out a victory tonight, it would even us up with Dallas in the division. It would move us to 7-3 in the conference, which would be a better win percentage than Dallas’ 6-3. The Cowboys’ wins over the Saints and Falcons would likely keep them ahead of Washington though, as results from common games rank one level higher than conference record on the tiebreaker list. It’s hard to imagine a path to the division championship that doesn’t involve a win over the Eagles tonight.
- Even the wild card race tightens up in a disadvantageous way if the Skins are unable to take care of their rivals up the road. A loss would move us into a tie with the Eagles, which they would win at the moment on the strength of their head-to-head victory over us. A cursory glance shows that the Redskins would move down to 8th place in the NFC with a loss (God, I’m bad at this, so please check me in the comments section below.) We would essentially be tied with Carolina and a game ahead of Tampa Bay. Again, the win tonight would be one over a division opponent that’s also a conference opponent that’s also fighting with us for the wild card all of a sudden.
- It should never go without saying that the Redskins continue to battle demons on Monday Night Football...especially against an Eagles franchise that dropped the Monday Night Massacre on us. As if there weren’t already enough on the line, it is a simple matter of fact that until Washington proves on a regular basis that the bright lights don’t bring out their worst, people will expect it—both inside and outside of the beltway.
- While there is more than enough on the 2018 plate in tonight’s game (like, you know, probably the fate of the 2018 season), let’s not pretend that 2019 and beyond) isn’t on the menu. After seeing Mike McCarthy get fired yesterday, things just got really real on the coaching front. No, this is not a “Let’s go after Mike McCarthy” post. It’s a “If Jay Gruden isn’t careful, he could easily join McCarthy on the curb” post. The Redskins fate won’t be sealed at the end of the night, but we’ll be pretty close to licking the envelope. (Sidebar: who is out there still licking envelopes? I go sponge these days and even though it sometimes gets the envelope way too moist, I just can’t go back to licking glue.) I feel like Jay Gruden is pretty solidly in the good graces of the front office, but that kind of thing is measured day-to-day once you hit December. I have been very honest with people on this site that I like Gruden, but I am at the point now where it at least feels like a fresh start should be strongly considered if this team fails to make the playoffs. There will be a potentially new quarterback direction coming our way, the defense is still wicked young, Derrius Guice is coming back, the team may very well draft a top wide receiver prospect and the rest of the division is not getting worse. All of this points to a situation where standing pat on the sideline for the sake of standing pat makes zero sense.
- Soooooooo...yeah. There’s a lot going on in Week 13 when the Redskins play the Eagles tonight. It’s a game the Skins can win. It’s a game the Skins can lose. Anybody who tells you they are sure about either of those is full of crap. When we wake up tomorrow morning, I expect there to be one of two starkly different feelings in the air. If (and when) the Redskins win, we should be talking about a team that is absolutely capable of qualifying for the postseason. We should be celebrating the possibility of putting this young defense in the playoffs and seeing what they are made of against whatever first round team we are dealt (still pretty sure it will somehow be the Vikings). If the Eagles manage to pull off the win, it ain’t gonna be pretty around D.C. The coaching conversation is going to heat up bigtime, as will the finger-pointing and bitterness. I’ll give you two words to chew on ahead of kickoff tonight...two words that I think will determine both tonight’s outcome as well as the rest of the season and into the offseason: Colt McCoy. That is what we are all about right now (umm, that and signing players with questionable character). That is what we will be all about for the near term (assuming we don’t sign yet another guy accused of awfulness). It has to start for Colt and for us with a win in Philly tonight. It says here that is exactly what will happen.