Redskins at Eagles: Nothing Changes On New Year's Day

Washington Redskins (9-6) at Philadelphia Eagles (6-9)
4:15 p.m. Lincoln Financial Field
Let me make sure that everyone is aware of this. The Redskins are not in the playoffs. They have not clinched a spot yet. They have certainly not clinched the division. They may be playing their last game of the season on Sunday. While everyone is already looking forward to the postseason, the Redskins haven’t received their invitation from the NFL to the party.

With that said, the Redskins are in the perfect position to make sure they visit the playoffs for the first time since the 1999-2000 season (a season in which the last Sunday of the regular season was also New Year’s Day). That was the year the Redskins controlled the NFC East from the midway point, and clinched a playoff spot with a win at San Francisco on a Sunday night game. The following week, they were able to rest all of their starters against Miami at home, and they won anyway.

It is safe to say that the Redskins will not be resting their starters against Philadelphia this week. The Redskins are in with a win, but out with a loss (Yeah, I know they can clinch a spot even if they lose as long as Dallas loses too. But there is no way in the world the Cowboys lose to the Rams on Sunday night if the Redskins have already lost earlier in the day). But they control their own destiny, which is all a team can ask for at this time of year.

The local media is treating this game as an easy win. An easy win? There is no such thing in the NFL. Especially when you are playing a division opponent on the road. Especially when you haven’t beaten that opponent on the road since 2001. Especially when you haven’t swept that division opponent in 17 years. Especially when you have a long and tortured history like the Redskins do. Especially with your starting quarterback playing at less than 100 percent. Do I need to go on? The Redskins, and their fan base can hardly afford to look forward to next weekend, because it may never come (well, the weekend will come, but the Redskins might not be playing football during it).

In fact, I believe I even said after the San Diego game in one of my posts, that it would shock no one if the Redskins won four games in a row only to lose at Philadelphia. I expected it. I still expect it. That’s just how this team operates (Actually, that’s how they operate in recent seasons. Remember, this team has won three Super Bowls).

So the Skins will enter the Linc trying to clinch a playoff spot and trying to keep their enormous heads from bursting. Hopefully they come to play. If they do, they win. Because, if you haven’t noticed lately, the Eagles aren’t very good. And that is an understatement; almost like saying the New York Yankees spend a good deal of money.

Usually when a team tries to blame their lack of success on injuries, I get upset. Every team has injuries during the season. If one or two missing players cause you to have a crummy season, then you weren’t going to be good anyway. You don’t hear the Redskins blaming last season on Jon Jansen’s preseason injury (Except for Joe Bugel. But Good ‘Ol Buges is so senile, he doesn’t know where he is half the time. He still wonders why Joe Jacoby and Russ Grimm haven’t reported for practice yet.). But in the Eagles case, I’ll make an exception. On offense, the Eagles are only going to start four players on Sunday that were in their starting lineup on opening day. Tackle Jon Runyan, guard Shaun Andrews, tight end L.J. Smith and fullback Josh Perry are all that remain from this once proud franchise on offense. Defensively, the Eagles are better off…but not by much. They are missing four starters on that side of the ball as well and end Jevon Kearse may not play. He is listed as questionable.

Of course, the Eagles did inflict a lot of damage on themselves. First of all, they didn’t have to suspend Terrell Owens. Like the Eagles front office usually does, they overacted to Owens’ comments preceding the first game against Washington and suspended him for the season. At the time, all the ESPN talking heads blamed T.O. and said that the Eagles did the right thing. They all said that the Eagles could easily win without him. Oh really? Now that the Birds sit at 6-9, you would think that these analysts would correct themselves and realize T.O’s importance to the Eagles offense. Wrong. They blame the Eagles current struggles on…surprise, surprise: Terrell Owens. You can’t have it both ways fellas. How can T.O. currently be hurting the team? He isn’t allowed to play. He wants to play. The Eagles didn’t let him on the field. Was Owens wrong to say what he did about McNabb? Of course. Were the Eagles wrong to suspend him? I think the record speaks for itself.

I blame the Eagles current situation on upper management and head coach Andy Reid. Without T.O., McHernia became a sitting duck in the pocket. He had no one to throw to, and Brian Westbrook became a non-factor because every team came up to stop the run. McNabb was forced to throw a lot in the next two weeks against the Skins and Dallas, and took a season’s worth of shots over the course of those games. Because the Eagles decided to hastily suspend Owens, McNabb worsened his injuries and was knocked out for the season with six weeks left.

So the Eagles have gone from McNabb, Owens and Westbrook, to Mike McMahon, Reggie Brown and Ryan Moats. At least I think that’s who’s playing. No one knows for sure because these guys are nobodies. Heck, it could be Randall Cunningham, Ricky Waters and Keith Jackson out there and I don’t think anyone would notice. And here is how bad McMahon has been playing. He has thrown six touchdown passes since he has started. Three of those have been to his teammates; three of those have been to the opposing defense.

Look, I’m not going to bore you or myself by analyzing this game. The Redskins dominate this match up at basically every position on the field. I don’t think it matters if the quarterback is Brunell, Ramsey or Campbell. This should be a win. If the Giants lose on Saturday, and the division title is up for grabs, I think the Redskins cruise. I really do. But if the Giants win, and all that’s available is a wild card spot, I’m going to be very nervous. There have been a lot of distractions this week. The Redskins have had to deal with Brunell vs. Ramsey Part III, the Lavar mess, the Greg Williams coaching situation and Clinton Portis’ (or should I say “Angel Southeast Romey Rome”) posse dressing up on Thursday (On a side note, I think Portis has been hilarious all season long when he has dressed up during his press conferences. I think it’s even funnier that the media has tried to show his farce conferences as a serious sports news story. I mean, you have to be on acid to know what he is talking about. But now he has half the offense dressing up with him. I don’t know about this. Maybe they should start focusing on the game.). So with all this going on, how much time was actually spent preparing for a team that, because of injuries, there isn’t much film of?

The Eagles would like to prove the theory that misery does indeed love company and knock the Skins out of the playoff race. The Redskins cannot afford to overlook Philly. The Eagles still have healthy talent on the defensive side of the ball. If the Redskins come out with apathy, their season is going to end on Sunday. Never in this league and especially in this division, can you assume that you are going to get an easy road victory. All the Redskins have to do is show up like they have the past four weeks, and then we can start analyzing their chances to make the Super Bowl. It is time for Washington to shake out of their decade long stint with mediocrity, and announce to the NFL that they are back and they are to be reckoned with. This is the game to do it. The time is now.